Book review

Reader-friendly guide to legal literacy

Title : Sri Lankawe Neethi
Author : Dr. Jayatissa de Costa

One of the attributes of our country that Western colonists found remarkable, during the course of their state sponsored entrepreneurially organised banditry called colonialism was our high degree of literacy, which in occidental eyes was a cornerstone of ‘civilisation’. In today’s context ‘knowledge is power’ and knowledge of the law which is termed as legal literacy is a tool that empowers the people.

Sri Lankawe Neethi (Laws of Sri Lanka) by eminent legal practitioner and academic Dr. Jayatissa de Costa PC is a Sinhala book which provides insightful knowledge in the form of layman reading on the subject of law and its origins in Sri Lanka. The author who is the present Chairman of the Public Utilities Commission, is a President’s Counsel with over four decades of experience in the legal profession with a host of academic credentials that speak much of his diverse legal intellectuality formed through studies at both Sri Lankan and foreign institutions of learning.

Justice administration

The erudite author whose doctoral thesis had been on Election Laws in our country has served as a lecturer in our university circuit as well as in foreign universities and has authored several publications which expound facets of laws and the legal system and justice administration.

Sri Lankawe neethi is untrammelled by heavy legal jargon and apt for layman reading to better ones’ knowledge about the laws in our country and its diversity which is attributable to many historical factors. Charting the development of our laws and legal system of present from the arrival of the Roman Dutch Laws to the coastal areas the author provides insights about the ethos behind these written laws which the Hollanders were very proud of. The book’s segmental explications can be seen on the one hand as lessons on jurisprudence not only from the western founts but also as to what eastern teachings on religion and morality have contributed to the development of systems of government.

Chapter 16 of the book titled ‘Saadaranathvaya’ which may be translated as ‘fairness’ or ‘equity’ is explained by the author for its variances as per Roman Dutch laws and English laws which is saying much on how the ‘concept of equity’, which is a foundation on which a justice system is founded, may not be universal in respect of an exactness in character. The cultural foundations of a people and their implications to a system of law and justice are thereby indicated by the author, which is no doubt an enlightening aspect of the book to anyone who may presume that equity is inherent to all humankind without variations regardless of differences in geography or culture.

While separate chapters are devoted to personal laws in Sri Lanka which are Kandyan law, Thesawalamai, and Muslim law, the erosion of the Mukuwwar laws which were practices of a certain group of Dravidian origin in the North and East of Sri Lanka is also interesting from a point of legal history in our country.

- Dilshan Boange