For Law Students'Lectures on Land Law'
A lucid read on the law of real property
The law the lawyers know about is property and land/But why the leaves are on the trees/And why the waves disturb the seas/… And hopes survive the worst disease/…They do not understand.
It is in this backdrop that Dr. Mohammad Tawhidul Islam, an Associate Professor of Law at Dhaka University, undertakes the challenge of accomplishing a book on land law. To this effect, he recently launchedhis book Lectures on Land Law which seems probably to be the first sincere attempt to make a departure from traditional law text on this subject. With the contents of nearly three hundred pages including a compilation of relevant statutes, this book represents one view of a type of learning resource that we feel particularly useful to students.
Dr. Towhid has been devoted in teaching land law at the University of Dhaka and different private universities of the country for more than a decade. His recently published book, Lectures on Land Law has indeed been the outcome of his extensive teaching and researching experience on this subject.As signified by itstitle, this book is presented in a simple and lucid style with the main topic of land law in a classroom presentation mode. The book covers almost all the important points related to or found in the syllabi of law schools in Bangladesh.
The quite illuminating aspect of this book is that it mainly emphasises on the depth of the understanding of all important concepts much more than their breadth. For this purpose, all the concepts have been broken up into 'bite size' sections and have been discussed with a logical progression and topic-oriented presentation. The extensive use of headings and numerous sub-headings in this bookhas further helped make the learning of each area of this subject more accessible by focusing on actual learning needs.
By taking 'land law' as suggestive of a single contextual category, the author of this book has successfullyassimilated the entirefabric of the major legal instruments touching the issues of land rights in Bangladesh. The domain of the book thus includes the discussion of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950, the Non-Agriculture Tenancy Act 1949, the Bangladesh Land Holding (Limitation) Order 1972, the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Ordinance 1982, the Abandoned Property (Control, Management and Disposal) Order 1972, the Land Reforms Ordinance 1984, the Restoration of Vested Property Act 2001 and the relevant Rules connected with the respective statutes. However, as the book is arranged in a topic-oriented style, it does not offer a detailed discussion of all the statutes. It just takes note of the normative network of different rules scattered in these statutesand brings them under a single caption, thereby furnishing a logical and coherent clarification of a particular concept.
The arrangement of each of the chapters includes some historical, theoretical, and practical issues, including the how-to information, and the perspective of a practitioner. This book opens in Chapter 1 with an introduction to land law. The next three chapters deal with development and historical significance of land law and land administration in Bangladesh. Chapter 5 and 6 deal with the law regulating acquisition by the State of rent-receiving and certain other interests in land and gives an overview of the tenancy rights created out of such acquisition.Chapter 7 provides for preparation and revision of records of rights,while Chapters 8 and 9 provide for transfer of land, consolidation, amalgamation, and sub-division of holdings.
The consecutive chapters describe some important areas affecting land rights such as the registration of transfer, mutation, the limitations imposed on the transfer rights by providing for pre-emption and sub-letting, the extinction of land rights by way of diluvion and alluvion, and acquisition and requisition of land. The law relating to abandoned and enemy property is described in Chapters 17 and 18 respectively.Chapters 19 and 20 deal with the issues of land taxes, and the certificate cases arising out of the non-payment of land taxes. Chapter 21 provides for the management and settlement of khas lands. In Chapter 22, the author finally provides an insightful outline for land reforms that can help the society ensuring economic and social justice by providing for easy and equal access to land and land administration.
Indeed, there is much to recommend in this project basically on the ground that this book offers a lot in the way of interactive tools to help a learner feel his or her way -- “a good sense of their power and to get them started using them on their own.”There is however no denying that the work is not devoid of any limitation or deficiency. As put by the author, “[i]t is limited to tools for thought that lend themselves to this format -- ideas that can be introduced effectively with a bunch of good examples, case-laws and their analysis in an extended version in near future.” These words of the author admitting the limitation of the work, coupled with his promise to elevate its extensiveness, signify the fact that the book does still remain an “unfinished enterprise.” It is thus a matter of hope that the contents of the book will be enriched with a variety of charts, diagrams and extensive references of case laws.
At this point, it is interesting to comment that the uniqueness of this book can be appreciated better by those who have completed their land law course than those who are going to get it at the beginning of their course. To the latter, this book will howeverhelp reduce the “land-law-phobia” by making them believe that its study does not always affordwhat Blackstone says “less amusement and pleasure in the pursuit”.
The reviewer is an LLM student at the University of Dhaka.
…. H. D. C. Pepler in The Devil's Devices
To know about the law of property and land is central to the study of legal enterprise.Compared to the other fields of legal learning, the trajectory of land law is however found less fascinating the world over. The reason of less fascination is not always that the “lawyers' law” is nothing beyond the law of property and land, or is completely devoid of any mystical dimensions as projected in the above words of Pepler. The major cause is rather that the hurdle of studying the property related law is naturally numerous: its study includes approaching a complex wave of rules scattered in different statutes, grasping the philosophical underpinning of different legal concepts (such as ownership and possession) as well as the procedural parameters of resolving the land related dispute coming with a multitude of layers. In the context of Bangladesh, thestudy of land law however stimulates some more problems than what it naturally assumes. Roughly put, the teaching and practice of this vital field in Bangladesh has been out-dated and ill-adapted in many respects. The law students of Bangladesh are very often required to study the course of land law by taking it in isolation with the other laws relating to real property(such as the Transfer of Property Act or the Limitation Act , which contains the rules of transfer of property or the law relating to adverse possession respectively).As a result, the students in many cases become usually failedin the way of grasping a coherent and comprehensive knowledge about the subject. In addition, the lack of standard legal literaturesor reading materials covering the various intricate issues of land law has made this problem more acute.It is in this backdrop that Dr. Mohammad Tawhidul Islam, an Associate Professor of Law at Dhaka University, undertakes the challenge of accomplishing a book on land law. To this effect, he recently launchedhis book Lectures on Land Law which seems probably to be the first sincere attempt to make a departure from traditional law text on this subject. With the contents of nearly three hundred pages including a compilation of relevant statutes, this book represents one view of a type of learning resource that we feel particularly useful to students.
Dr. Towhid has been devoted in teaching land law at the University of Dhaka and different private universities of the country for more than a decade. His recently published book, Lectures on Land Law has indeed been the outcome of his extensive teaching and researching experience on this subject.As signified by itstitle, this book is presented in a simple and lucid style with the main topic of land law in a classroom presentation mode. The book covers almost all the important points related to or found in the syllabi of law schools in Bangladesh.
The quite illuminating aspect of this book is that it mainly emphasises on the depth of the understanding of all important concepts much more than their breadth. For this purpose, all the concepts have been broken up into 'bite size' sections and have been discussed with a logical progression and topic-oriented presentation. The extensive use of headings and numerous sub-headings in this bookhas further helped make the learning of each area of this subject more accessible by focusing on actual learning needs.
By taking 'land law' as suggestive of a single contextual category, the author of this book has successfullyassimilated the entirefabric of the major legal instruments touching the issues of land rights in Bangladesh. The domain of the book thus includes the discussion of the State Acquisition and Tenancy Act 1950, the Non-Agriculture Tenancy Act 1949, the Bangladesh Land Holding (Limitation) Order 1972, the Acquisition and Requisition of Immovable Property Ordinance 1982, the Abandoned Property (Control, Management and Disposal) Order 1972, the Land Reforms Ordinance 1984, the Restoration of Vested Property Act 2001 and the relevant Rules connected with the respective statutes. However, as the book is arranged in a topic-oriented style, it does not offer a detailed discussion of all the statutes. It just takes note of the normative network of different rules scattered in these statutesand brings them under a single caption, thereby furnishing a logical and coherent clarification of a particular concept.
The arrangement of each of the chapters includes some historical, theoretical, and practical issues, including the how-to information, and the perspective of a practitioner. This book opens in Chapter 1 with an introduction to land law. The next three chapters deal with development and historical significance of land law and land administration in Bangladesh. Chapter 5 and 6 deal with the law regulating acquisition by the State of rent-receiving and certain other interests in land and gives an overview of the tenancy rights created out of such acquisition.Chapter 7 provides for preparation and revision of records of rights,while Chapters 8 and 9 provide for transfer of land, consolidation, amalgamation, and sub-division of holdings.
The consecutive chapters describe some important areas affecting land rights such as the registration of transfer, mutation, the limitations imposed on the transfer rights by providing for pre-emption and sub-letting, the extinction of land rights by way of diluvion and alluvion, and acquisition and requisition of land. The law relating to abandoned and enemy property is described in Chapters 17 and 18 respectively.Chapters 19 and 20 deal with the issues of land taxes, and the certificate cases arising out of the non-payment of land taxes. Chapter 21 provides for the management and settlement of khas lands. In Chapter 22, the author finally provides an insightful outline for land reforms that can help the society ensuring economic and social justice by providing for easy and equal access to land and land administration.
Indeed, there is much to recommend in this project basically on the ground that this book offers a lot in the way of interactive tools to help a learner feel his or her way -- “a good sense of their power and to get them started using them on their own.”There is however no denying that the work is not devoid of any limitation or deficiency. As put by the author, “[i]t is limited to tools for thought that lend themselves to this format -- ideas that can be introduced effectively with a bunch of good examples, case-laws and their analysis in an extended version in near future.” These words of the author admitting the limitation of the work, coupled with his promise to elevate its extensiveness, signify the fact that the book does still remain an “unfinished enterprise.” It is thus a matter of hope that the contents of the book will be enriched with a variety of charts, diagrams and extensive references of case laws.
At this point, it is interesting to comment that the uniqueness of this book can be appreciated better by those who have completed their land law course than those who are going to get it at the beginning of their course. To the latter, this book will howeverhelp reduce the “land-law-phobia” by making them believe that its study does not always affordwhat Blackstone says “less amusement and pleasure in the pursuit”.
The reviewer is an LLM student at the University of Dhaka.
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