Constitution of Bangladesh

The Constitution of Bangladesh is the supreme law of Bangladesh. The constitution was adopted by the Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh on 4 November 1972, it came into effect on 16 December 1972. The constituent assembly was composed of officials elected in the national and provincial council elections of Pakistan held in 1970. The denial of this electoral body resulted in the Bangladesh Liberation War. The Constitution establishes Bangladesh as a unitary parliamentary republic. Directly borrowing from the four tenets of Mujibism, the political ideology of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the constitution states nationalism, socialism, democracy and secularism as its four fundamental principles.

While the Constitution nominally declares the protection of fundamental rights and an independent judiciary, it has been often labelled as "fascist" and criticized for fostering autocracy and failing to safeguard human rights. The Fundamental Principles of State Policy in Part II are often described as empty rhetoric due to their unjusticiability, while Fundamental Rights in Part III are constrained by extensive, imposable restrictions. Loopholes in the guise of poorly-defined 'restrictions' in rights provisions have enabled the continued enforcement of the repressive sections of British colonial laws such as the Penal Code of 1860 and the Code of Criminal Procedure of 1898, and facilitated the enactment of later repressive laws such as the Special Powers Act of 1974, and the Cyber Security Act of 2023.

Part IV vests the executive power of the government in the prime minister-led Cabinet, which is accountable to Parliament. This structure seems democratic but, in practice, results in a concentration of authority in the hands of the prime minister due to the dominant position within the Cabinet and the control over MPs through party discipline and party-loyalty enforcing provision Article 70. Part IV further solidifies the prime minister's control by granting them authority over Cabinet affairs, overshadowing other ministers and centralizing executive decisions.

The Constitution has undergone 17 amendments, reflecting its susceptibility to political pressures over its pledge to ensure justice, equality, and liberty. Considering the unlimited powers granted to the prime minister and the people's limited civil rights, Badruddin Umar has famously termed it "A Constitution for Perpetual Emergency."

The interim government of Bangladesh, led by Muhammad Yunus, has established the Constitutional Reform Commission in 2024 with the aim of reforming or drafting and adopting a new inclusive democratic constitution through an elected constituent assembly. The commission was formed in the aftermath of a constitutional crisis that arose following the ouster of Sheikh Hasina on 5 August 2024, during a massive mass uprising.