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In 2016 Sri Lanka saw political stability and some initiatives toward ethnic reconciliation. The economy continued to grow steadily. Some progress was made toward a better institutional infrastructure to protect human rights. However, hostility between President Sirisena and loyalists to former President Rajapaksa presages political turmoil in 2017 that could imperil constitutional reform and ethnic reconciliation.

The year 2015 in Sri Lanka was characterized by a democratic transfer of power from the United People’s Freedom Alliance, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, to a coalition led by the United National Party. Constitutional changes restricting presidential power, and the growth of a new approach to human rights and ethnic reconciliation, accompanied this shift. Sri Lanka’s emphasis in its economic policy shifted from major infrastructural projects to a further strengthening of human capacities.

The education of Buddhist monks had traditionally been a matter of studying under renowned scholar-monks. However, during colonial times there was a gradual replacement of monasteries as centers of training of monks by new piriven educational institutions. These institutions gradually became widespread in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries as the colonial state worked with Buddhist leaders to establish a centrally designed curriculum and formal examinations. At the same time, the growth of the nationalist movement among Sinhalese Buddhists gave new legitimacy to the understanding of Lanka’s history as a journey from Sinhala- Buddhist origins. This article traces the many efforts to reform the piriven and their curricula. Through an analysis of the history textbooks used at the first level of piriven education in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, this article concludes that the education given to novice Buddhist monks downplays the contribution of ethnic and religious minorities to Sri Lanka's history. It is argued that the development of a more inclusive history curriculum for the education of monks, together with other factors such as better teacher training, would enable Buddhist monks to play a more effective role in the diverse country that Sri Lanka has come to be today.

An analysis of data on first-time degree-seeking students entering Old Dominion University between fall 2000 and fall 2004, controlled for High School GPA, First Year GPA, Gender, and Ethnicity indicates that while four-year graduation data did not show greater success for those participating in semester-long study abroad programs, study abroad for a semester was a statistically significant predictor for higher five- and six-year graduation rates. The authors contend that the impact on four-year graduation rates is negligible because many students participate in study abroad programs after their sophomore year, suggesting that encouraging more students to participate in semester-long study abroad programs in their sophomore year could have a major impact on retention and graduation. The authors suggest further studies to measure specific learning outcomes of study abroad and related experiences as well as the possible differential impact of study abroad on underrepresented minorities and females.

Open warfare between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam broke out in mid-year. The two sides met twice in Geneva but failed to resolve their differences. Disagreements within the ruling coalition on how to resolve this conflict resulted in a realignment of political forces. The economy continued to grow, although troubling indicators emerged toward the end of 2006.

The tsunami of December 26, 2004, the biggest natural disaster to strike Sri Lanka in centuries, dominated the scene in the first half of 2005. Disputes within the government on arrangements to distribute international aid in cooperation with the major militant Tamil rebel group resulted in political turmoil. While the economy continued to grow in the absence of open war, both the government and the Tamil Tigers tried to gain military and political advantage. In the second half of the year, a presidential election presented voters with some striking policy alternatives.

(2003). Peace in Sri Lanka: Problems and Prospects. Asia Pacific Law Review: Vol. 11, No. 1, pp. 1-22.

Writing on impartiality in 1966, Jeffrey M. Sharman emphasized that "Judges are expected to be impartial arbiters so those legal disputes are decided according to the law free from the influence of bias or prejudice, or political pressure". This chapter focuses on the selection of judges in thirty one of the fifty states in the US which use partisan or non-partisan elections to select some or all of their judges. Concerns relating to the politicization of such elections and their impact on the impartiality of judges have increased after two landmark US Supreme Court decisions in the past decade. There is no doubt that special restrictions on judicial candidates deny them opportunity to speak about some of the questions that may be most significant to their candidacies. One approach to restoring public confidence is strengthening the norms for disqualification and recusal. Keywords: judicial elections; judicial impartiality; non-partisan elections; US Supreme Court

The presence of a high proportion of lawyers trained in British jurisprudence in the legislature in the 1950's and the 1960's helped in fostering respect for judicial independence. One of the conditions of the support of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) was amending the Constitution to establish a Constitutional Council that would recommend appointments to bodies such as the Judicial Services Commission. The constitutional council (CC) was set up in March 2002. However, it soon became clear that the CC, however desirable it was in terms of democratic practices, was not embraced by the Executive. The refusal of the Sri Lankan executiv. Keywords: constitutional council (CC); Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP); judicial independence; Sri Lankan judicature

This chapter makes three fairly simple and related propositions: a) that in developing countries there is a greater dissonance between formal legal systems and society than in developed countries, b) that paradoxically, greater burdens are placed on the generally weaker legal systems in these developing countries, and finally c) that legal systems play a larger formative role in developing countries than in developed countries. It then considers some implications of these propositions. The ensuing analysis of the role of law in developing countries requires that special care be given to maintaining the principle and culture of judicial independence in these countries. The chapter concludes, that in developing countries (in contrast to the situation in developed countries) there is a greater dissonance between the formal legal system and society, greater burdens are placed on legal systems and that legal systems have played a larger formative role. Keywords: developing countries; legal systems; role of law

In exploring the categories of conflict, identity and difference in the context of peace negotiations in Sri Lanka and against the background of the enhanced concern for global security in the wake of the incidents of 11 September 2001, we need to keep three fairly obvious considerations in mind. First, problems of violence and peace are, in some senses, perennial problems. Second, as postmodernists have correctly emphasized, the analyses we offer are not only context specific but emerge from, and are embedded in, our own respective social and cultural heritages. Finally, the solutions or palliatives we offer must be recognized as ephemeral because the social structures, identities and cleavages on which they are based are themselves constantly changing. As John Gray pointed out in relation to politics:No settlement is final, and only the provisional is permanent; so the legal framework in which any particular political settlement finds embodiment will be subject to recurrent revision, and eventual breakdown.

Recent writers on the subject of the state and religion in contemporary Sri Lanka have taken one of two ends in a continuum. Some of them have argued that Sri Lanka is essentially a sectarian state. Others have taken the position that active state support for all religions in Sri Lanka marks a unique experiment in an effort to create a multi-religious society. This paper seeks to examine these two arguments in the light of concrete measures taken by the state to support the four major religions in Sri Lanka. It will, therefore, analyse the specific ways in which this state support is operationalised. It will also argue that these concrete policies mask a contestation within the state apparatus itself regarding the very nature of the relationship between the state and religion.

(1998). The Career and Legend of Vasco da Gama. History: Reviews of New Books: Vol. 26, No. 2, pp. 99-99.