Sources Of Law In Sri Lanka Flashcards
Sources of Classical RDL
Statutes
Treatises(Grotius and Voet)
Opinions of jurists(secondary)
Decisions of courts and custom
Sources of Common Law(English)
Statutes Judicial decisions (Doctrine of the single binding precedent was judicially incorporated into Sri Lanka and the courts have gradually evolved rules of "stare decisis" equity, religion, customs)
Sources of Customary Laws
A greater part is contained in codifications undertaken by the legislature
Binding?
Interpretation given by a court on the Roman-Dutch sources and Kandyan law became binding within the limits of the doctrine of precedent.
What are the three main sources of law in Sri Lanka?
Law reports
Digests
Text books
Law reports in the 19th century
Law reporting in Ceylon was in its infancy, by private individuals, unreliable, did not contain any digest.
Systematic law reporting commenced in about 1877
(Earlier reports cover some years after 1833)
“In some respects the series of reports now being published fall far short of what law reports should be”
- The Judicial Commission Report 1936
Law reports in the 20th century
Until 1970 the New Law Reports (NLR) were published officially through the publication bureau.
There was a lapse in the 1970 decade.
There had been some private initiatives such as the “Balachandran Reports-Supreme Court Circular”
Sri Lanka Reports(SLR or Sri. LR)commenced from 1980 decade.
The private initiatives were “Sri Skandarajah Reports”
Law Digests
No comprehensive digest of reported cases
“Rajaratnam’s Digest” with unsatisfactory reproduction of only headnotes of decisions covers the years 1820-1914 and 1914-1936
Text Books on Law
A non-profitable venture due to limited reading public.
Books dealing with a particular subjects were not common until recently.
In consequence judgements are sometimes delivered in ignorance. With multiple legal systems in operation, many branches of the law of Sri Lanka were obscure to practitioners, judges, and academics.
