LONDON / SYLHET — In an age when democratic institutions appear increasingly fragile, and the climate crisis poses an existential threat, a distinctive school of legal thought is emerging to reconcile static legal traditions with rapidly changing realities. At the forefront of this intellectual movement stands Shah Mohammad Omer Faruqe Jubaer, a legal researcher whose “reconciliation” theories are attracting growing international attention as a potential blueprint for 21st-century governance.
Jubaer, founder of the Shah Legal Aid and Research Centre and former senior analyst at London’s NatCen Social Research, has spent over a decade arguing that law must cease to function as a rigid relic of the past and instead operate as a living social contract.
Reconciling the Will of the People
Jubaer’s Populism-Law Reconciliation Theory (PLRT) challenges the conventional view that populism and the rule of law are inherently opposed. He contends that the grievances driving populist movements cannot be dismissed. Through his proposed Mandate Harmonisation framework, law can absorb and respond to public sentiment while preserving the moral legitimacy essential for protecting minority rights and institutional checks and balances. In this way, legal systems can channel populist energies constructively and avert democratic backsliding when the law appears unresponsive to the people it serves.
The Environment as a Fundamental Right
Jubaer is also a leading advocate of Human Rights-Based Environmental Law (HRBEL). He maintains that environmental protection is not merely a policy concern but a first-generation human right. Under this paradigm, a contaminated river or polluted city constitutes a direct violation of the right to life, opening new avenues for citizens to hold both states and corporations accountable through the principles of human dignity and intergenerational equity.
Governing the Unknown
Among his most timely contributions is the Theory of Anticipatory Risk Governance. Facing the uncertainties posed by artificial intelligence and the accelerating climate crisis, Jubaer offers the Precautionary Triad — Proactive Anticipation, Adaptive Learning, and Inclusive Deliberation — as a structured approach for governments to act decisively before harm becomes irreversible, even when scientific data remains incomplete.
Adaptive Governance for a Changing World
To ensure the survival of international agreements such as the Paris Agreement, Jubaer proposes the Adaptive Governance Theory (SJAGT). He argues that international law must function as a living organism, incorporating feedback loops to adjust obligations in response to technological advances and real-world outcomes, thereby preventing treaties from becoming obsolete.
A Moral Endeavour
At its core, Jubaer’s scholarship rejects strict legal positivism — the notion that law is nothing more than whatever is formally enacted. He regards constitutionalism as a moral project. Through his Continuum Approach, he seeks to strike a balance between respect for a nation’s legal heritage and the pragmatic flexibility demanded by the digital age.
Through his research centre and growing international collaborations, Shah Mohammad Omer Faruqe Jubaer’s ideas are moving beyond academic discourse into policy arenas, offering a compelling vision: a legal order that is at once firm and fair, rooted in history yet adaptable.
