Volume 44, Issue 3

Access to justice is one of the significant pre-requisites for sustainable human development and it has been made available in the form of both the formal and informal systems stretching from the very top of the judiciary to the local justice system in Bangladesh. The formal justice system, even though it plays the most pivotal role, has been facing huge pressure from case backlogs, which ultimately hampers the true spirit of justice. On the other hand, most people's perception towards informal justice system is also fairly poor with lack of trust due to partisan political interference, corruption, religious dogmas, and social elitism, which have made this system almost ineffective. Consequently, state-sponsored local justice system has come forward with a view to combining the both streams in a single channel in the form of restorative justice and a quorum of quasi-formal justice system aimed at ensuring and dispensing justice to the people in rural areas in an affordable and convenient manner. In line with this view, village courts have been established to redress petty civil and criminal issues. This article attempts to examine the feasibility of the present legal framework of village courts to deliver justice efficiently at the grassroots level.

The easy accessibility of sources via web links and the fluidity of online formats offer an opportunity to revisit the purpose of legal citation and to consider competing citation models from a fresh perspective. This bibliographic article identifies the leading citation guides in use in the United States along a historical continuum and documents selected works that extol, critique, or excoriate—but for the most part continue to recommend adherence to—these guides. Secondary sources are included for the purpose of outlining the scope of the debate concerning which of the many citation guides now in use is preferable, and to help predict the path that legal citation is likely to take in coming years, particularly given the realities of a hyperlinked world and easily accessible source documents. Using these materials as a framework, the article invites the reader to think creatively about the purpose and future of legal citation.

This article will introduce an approach to teaching legal research called Expansive Legal Research. The Expansive Legal Research perspective is based upon dissertation research on legal information behavior at a law school legal aid clinic. This approach is inspired by an educational perspective called Expansive Learning, which in turn has roots in the psychological theory called Activity Theory. The Expansive Legal Research perspective includes elements inspired by Expansive Learning and Activity Theory such as a focus on an activity-centered context of both the individual and social aspects of human behavior; the design-oriented nature of human problem-solving; the role of tacit knowledge and unwritten rules in daily activity and practice; and a cultural historical approach to learning and development, where both the user and their tools are undergoing a constant process of growth and change and transformation. An Expansive Legal Research approach, and the theory it is based upon, may provide new insights into legal research instruction, and may be a useful tool for legal research instructors.

In the Spring of 2015, the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies Library was contacted by Mark Engsberg, Director of Library Services at Emory Law, enquiring about old English legal documents. Mark knows several of us at the Institute through the IALL conferences. He was emailing on behalf of Professor Tina Stark, an Emory faculty member, who was planning a visit to London and hoped to see collections of indentures while she was there.

Before recollecting the contributions of Sir B.N. Rau in articulating of the Constitution of India, it is necessary to know about the evolution of concept of Constituent Assembly, formation of Indian Constituent Assembly and initiatives taken by its members to include the best features of some Constitutions of the World for the benefit of Indian people.