Legal and Administrative Challenges of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a Peaceful Means of Resolving the Land Dispute in the Rural Areas of Bangladesh

Abstract

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is an innovative movement in the civil justice system of Bangladesh including land conflict. Traditional judicial process of Bangladesh especially land litigation is time consuming, expensive and very much complex. People involved in the land conflict, are fear to go to the court to settle their dispute due to unreasonable delay, expenses and unbearable sufferings and most of them prefer ADR as a way of resolving their dispute. Bangladesh has emphasized Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) as a means to resolve civil conflict as it saves time, money and energy of conflicting parties, reduces backlog of cases and work volume of court officials and also saves valuable time of the court. Recently ADR has become a popular means of settlement of land conflict among the people of Bangladesh as it is confidential, informal and relieves the parties from sufferings. The main objective of this study is to identify the legal and administrative challenges of ADR as a means of settlement of land conflict in Bangladesh and also to suggest an avenue for the complete success of ADR as an effective means to resolve land conflict in the rural areas of Bangladesh. This study is qualitative in nature which is conducted on the basis of secondary data. Data are collected from various journals, books, reports, newspaper writing and decision of apex court of Bangladesh. The core implication of this research is that it will open a new avenue for the policy maker of the country and the conflicting parties would be able to resolve their land dispute through a peaceful means.