Plotters of legal conspiracy stuck in mud
How a state metes out justice is said to show how civilised it is. The contents of the impeachment motion against the Chief Justice, and the way power is being used to abort that impeachment, show how uncivilised the affairs of this country have become.
Judging the independence of the Judiciary
An independent judiciary is a precondition for the survival of a democracy. Sovereign power lies with the people, and it is the courts’ responsibility not to permit laws that reduce it. The test applied here is how the bench was constituted to examine the Seventeenth Amendment.
The all important Chief Justice
Power has been understood since Aristotle as divisible into three — legislative, executive, judicial. Sri Lanka’s recent judicial history holds tragic instances of judges bending to the narrow political interests of government leaders, and famous instances of judges standing up to them. This column is about which way the office of Chief Justice now points.