Judiciary Workshop

This is the first project that was done in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute (SLJI). In that context, the first session of the first day (18th November) was dedicated to an inauguration which was graced by the Vice Chancelor of the University of Colombo, Snr. Prof. H. D. Karunaratne, Dean of the Faculty of Law, Prof. Sampath Punchihewa, Hon. Justice A. W. Abdul Salam, Retired President of the Court of Appeal and Consultant – SLJI, Hon. Lakmal Wickramasooriya, Judge of the High Court and Deputy Director of the Judges’ Institute, Ms. Maheshi Herat, Technical Specialist – Civil and Criminal, UNDP Sri Lanka, and Prof. Kokila Konasinghe, Founding Director of the Centre for Environmental Law and Policy. The inauguration was followed by a lecture by Prof. Sumudu Atapattu of the University of Wisconsin on the topic of ‘International environmental law concepts and principles including SDGs’. This was a virtual session. Later on, Hon. Justice S. Thurairaja, P.C., Judge of the Supreme Court, made a presentation on ‘Statutory and Criminal law framework on environmental protection’. Followed by lunch, Prof. S. Sivakumar joined virtually from India to speak on the topic of ‘comparative analysis on Judicial Activism in Environmental Protection’. Prof. Sivakumar is a Senior Professor at Indian Law Institute and former member of the Law Commission of India. He is currently the President of the Commonwealth Legal Education Association. The above session was followed by tea, after which, Prof. Kokila Konasinghe conducted an interactive session on ‘Emerging trends in environmental law and future prospectus for the development of environmental jurisprudence in SL’. Prof. Konasinghe, speaking about this project and other projects conducted with the support of JURE and UNDP, emphasised on the importance and the need to conduct advocacy and research campaigns on environmental and policy issues.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1UcOw0k7LEKb0_epMhPNCr61L8_b0Cw1y?usp=sharing