The Sri Lanka Bar Association has sought legal opinion from foreign constitutional expert Prof. Suri Ratnapala - an Australian academic - over the applicability of 18th amendment and on the legitimacy of President Rajapaksa's third term presidency.
The debate about President third term presidency has gained ground in the political claims with some sectioning, including the JVP, questioning the legitimacy of the matter. Former Chief Justice Sarath N Silva too asserted that President Rajapaksa had no constitutional right to contest for the third term.
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The BASL sources stated that the report compiled by Prof. Ratnapala over the applicability of 18th amendment on the incumbent President is to be launched at the BASL auditorium on October 18.
Suri Ratnapala is Professor of Public Law at The University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. He holds the degrees of LLB (Colombo); LLM (Macquarie) and PhD (Qld), and teaches constitutional law and jurisprudence, fields in which he has published widely.
Professor Ratnapala's work has received international acclaim, with his book Welfare State or ConstitutionalState? being awarded a Sir Anthony Fisher International Memorial Prize by a jury chaired by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan. He is the author ofAustralian Constitutional Law: Foundations and Theory 2nd ed, 2007 and the co-author of Australian Constitutional Law: Commentary and Cases 2007, published by the Oxford University Press. Professor Ratnapala's latest book Jurisprudence was published by the Cambridge University Press in June 2009.
Professor Ratnapala has been a consultant with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and AusAid in institutional capacity building projects in Asia. Prior to entering the academy he was Senior State Counsel in Sri Lanka. Professor Ratnapala's main academic interests are in constitutional law and theory, legal philosophy, and constitutional political economy.
Suri Ratnapala is Professor of Public Law at The University of Queensland and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Law. He holds the degrees of LLB (Colombo); LLM (Macquarie) and PhD (Qld), and teaches constitutional law and jurisprudence, fields in which he has published widely.
Professor Ratnapala's work has received international acclaim, with his book Welfare State or ConstitutionalState? being awarded a Sir Anthony Fisher International Memorial Prize by a jury chaired by Nobel Laureate James Buchanan. He is the author ofAustralian Constitutional Law: Foundations and Theory 2nd ed, 2007 and the co-author of Australian Constitutional Law: Commentary and Cases 2007, published by the Oxford University Press. Professor Ratnapala's latest book Jurisprudence was published by the Cambridge University Press in June 2009.
Professor Ratnapala has been a consultant with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank and AusAid in institutional capacity building projects in Asia. Prior to entering the academy he was Senior State Counsel in Sri Lanka. Professor Ratnapala's main academic interests are in constitutional law and theory, legal philosophy, and constitutional political economy.
