Kamal Hossain is the founder of the law firm Dr Kamal Hossain and Associates. He has extensive experience as an international consultant on petroleum law, policy and contracts.
Dr Kamal Hossain is admitted to practise in England (Lincoln's Inn, 1959) and before the High Courts in Pakistan (1959) and Bangladesh (1971), and is a Senior Advocate, of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. He holds degrees from the University of Notre Dame (AB, 1955); and the University of Oxford (BA, Hons, 1957; BCL, 1958; D Phil, International Law, 1964). He is the author of Law and Policy in Petroleum Development, Frances Pinter, London, 1979.
He was Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, Constituent Assembly of Bangladesh (1972-72); Member of Parliament (1972-75); Minister of Law, Government of Bangladesh (1972-75); Minister of Foreign Affairs (1972-75); Visiting Fellow, All Souls College, Oxford (1975) and Visiting Professor, Free University of Amsterdam (1997).
He has been a United Nations (UN) consultant in oil and gas matters in PRC, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago and Uzbekistan. Chairman, (Panel D-2) and Member, United Nations Compensation Commission, Geneva (1999-2005). He was Chairperson, Commonwealth Human Rights Advisory Commission (1993-1998); Chairman, Advisory Council (till 2005) and Member, Advisory Council, Transparency International. Dr Hossain was ad hoc Judge for Malaysia, in the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Hamburg (2003); a member of the Arbitral Tribunal under Annex VII of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), in the Land Reclamation case involving Malaysia and Singapore, (2004-2005); and in the Maritime Delimitation case involving Guyana and Surinam (2005-2007).
He is a member of the ICSID panel of arbitrators; International Law Association (Vice Chairman till 2016); International Bar Associations (former member, gas law committee; former member, executive committee of the energy section of LAWASIA; United Nations Compensation Commission (until 2005); Supreme Court Bar Association, Bangladesh (president, 1990 to 1991); Bangladesh Bar Council (vice chairman, 1989 to 1995). He has been an honorary fellow of the Institute of Mineral and Petroleum Law at the University of Dundee since 1955. He speaks English and Bangla.