'Doing' legal history in refugee law: A snapshot of Bangladesh's engagement with non-refoulement.

This article advocates for integrating legal history into refugee law scholarship, emphasizing its value through archival research and oral history while acknowledging the impossibility of complete objectivity in historical work. It illustrates this approach by examining Bangladesh’s engagement with the principle of non-refoulement—prohibiting forced return of refugees—in the late 1970s during mass displacements of Rohingya from Myanmar and Indian Muslims from India. Despite Bangladesh not being a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, the article reveals a complex history where the state both coerced premature repatriations violating non-refoulement and showed evolving legal awareness, including judicial recognition of the principle. The study highlights how legal history can deepen understanding of refugee protection practices, especially in non-signatory states, by contextualizing legal norms within political, social, and historical realities.