Over the past decade or more, Public Interest Litigation (PIL) has seized the imagination of judges, lawyers and human rights activists throughout South Asia. It has opened new avenues for access to justice, to legal remedies and catalysed innovative responses for protection of basic human rights, including economic and social rights. In this book, eminent jurists and lawyers from South Asia review movements for legal aid and the protection of human rights, legal developments relating to and national experiences of public interest litigation in Bangladesh, Nepal, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. The use of PIL in relation to environmental issues, preventive detention and women's rights is considered in particular detail, as are strategies for ensuring that PIL moves beyond ad hoc initiatives and becomes sustainable, and an essential part of the armoury of human rights activists throughout the region.