Sri Lanka Law Reform

Presidential pardons in Sri Lanka: An Unchecked Executive Power?

by |21 July 202021 July 2020|Interviews & Articles

By Ahalya Lelwala On 26 March 2020, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa granted a presidential pardon to former Lance Corporal Sunil Ratnayake, a prisoner on death row for the murder of eight persons in Mirusuvil in 2000. Ratnayake was sentenced to death...

Preserving an ‘empty marriage’ through the archaic system of divorce

by |21 July 202021 July 2020|Interviews & Articles

By Sierra Amarasiri In 2018, the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka delivered a landmark judgement on divorce law in Guneshi Mallika Gomes [nee Gunawardena] v. Jammagalage Ravindra Ratnasiri Gomes.[1] It acknowledged that the grounds for divorce under section 19 of...