Standing in front of the sacred Shahid Minar resembling the sacrifice of the martyrs of the glorious Language Movement of 1952. The Faculty of Law is one of the three founding faculties of the University of Dhaka which started its journey with one Department (of Law) in 1921. From the Language Movement onwards, the students of this Faculty takes active part in all the great movements that shaped the history of the nation. Notably, five students of the Faculty sacrificed their lives in the 1971 Liberation War of Bangladesh. Being the pioneer in legal studies in the then East Bengal, the Faculty of Law is the oldest of all law faculties in Bangladesh. At its inception, Dr. Naresh Chandra Sen Gupta, DL (Calcutta), Professor of the University Law College, Calcutta and a very prominent lawyer and academic of the undivided Bengal, was appointed as Professor and Head of the Department of Law. Mentionable that the Faculty started its journey with 15 teaching staffs.
Up to 1973 all Deans were selected by the University authority; but after the adoption of the Dhaka University Order 1973 the post of the Dean (who is the official Head of the Faculty) is decided through election in which full time faculty members vote. Professor Lutful Kabir was the first elected Dean of the Faculty of Law. Initially the Department of Law under the Faculty used to offer LLB degrees, which in 1973 became 3 years LLB (Honours) degree and in 1977 LLB (Honours) was made a 4 years program. Now the Department also offers LLM in different fields, MPhil and PhD degrees alongside the basic undergrad LLB (Honours) degree. In its march of educating and disseminating legal knowledge among the peoples of Bangladesh, the faculty has been playing a cardinal role for almost a century. Its contribution in devising, strengthening and sensitizing the broader legal architecture of Bangladesh (both in terms of knowledge and expertise) is unparalleled.
Over the years, the Faculty of law became the centre for excellence for legal education in Bangladesh. The Faculty gave birth to some of the finest legal minds and jurists of the country who contribute in enriching the legal, social and political arenas in various ways. It requires a special mention that the Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was a student of this Faculty. Further, this is the pride of Faculty of Law that its alumni are performing duties in different important positions including the Speaker of the Parliament, Chief Justices of Bangladesh, Judges of both the High Court Division and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh, famous lawyers, eminent human rights and NGO activists, journalists, intellectuals and internationally acclaimed academics. Each year a good number of graduates of the Faculty qualifies in the Bangladesh Civil Service and the Bangladesh Judicial Service examinations. Thus the Faculty of Law of the University of Dhaka has been playing the role of guardian of legal education in Bangladesh through its enlightening trajectory dedicated to people of the land.