Sri Lanka Legal Profile

In common with many democracies, the Sri Lankan government has three branches the Executive, the Legislative and the Judicial.

The President of Sri Lanka is the head of state and the Prime Minister, leads the ruling party in parliament and shares many executive responsibilities, mainly in domestic affairs.

Sri Lanka’s judiciary consists of

• Supreme Court– the highest and final superior court of record
• Court of Appeal, High Courts and a number of subordinate courts.

The judiciary is a highly complex legal system which reflects the diverse cultural influences in Sri Lanka. The criminal law is based almost entirely on British law and civil law derives from Roman law and Dutch law.

Corruption is criminalized under the Penal Code, the Prevention of Money Laundering Act but there are deficiencies in the legislation.

The Bribery Act criminalizes active and passive bribery, embezzlement, abuse of function, and illicit enrichment. The definition of bribery is the “offering, undertaking, and promising”. According to Sections 2(1) and (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, it is an offense for any person to corruptly give any loan, fee or reward to a public body and for any public body to corruptly take a gift, loan, fee or reward.

The bribery of foreign officials is not covered by the Act, nor is bribery in the private sector. The Declaration of Assets and Liabilities Law specifies that public officials must annually declare their assets, but in practice, there is very little enforcement. The protection of whistle-blowers is also not addressed by any law.

There is a high risk of corruption in Sri Lanka’s judiciary. Businesses do not have confidence in the judiciary to settle disputes or to challenge government regulations. Payments and bribes are common in return for favourable judicial decisions. Corruption and manipulation is big in the judiciary due to political appointments at every level and the intimidation and transfer of judges.

References

Sri Lanka Corruption Report, https://www.ganintegrity.com/portal/country-profiles/sri-lanka/

Ease of doing business 2019, World Bank, https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/data/exploreeconomies/sri-lanka

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/lka/

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/lka/

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/lka/

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/lka/

https://oec.world/en/profile/country/lka/

Sri Lanka Corruption Report, https://www.ganintegrity.com/portal/country-profiles/sri-lanka/

World Population Review, http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/sri-lanka-population/

Sri Lanka Population, worldometers, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/sri-lanka-population/

Sri Lanka Population, worldometers, https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/sri-lanka-population/

World Population Review, http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/sri-lanka-population/

World Population Review, http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/sri-lanka-population/

Sri Lanka country profile, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611

Sri Lanka country profile, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611

Sri Lanka country profile, BBC, https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-11999611

Freedom in the World 2019, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/sri-lanka

Freedom in the World 2019, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/sri-lanka

Corruption perceptions index 2018, Transparency International, https://www.transparency.org/cpi2018

Fragile State Index 2019, https://fragilestatesindex.org/country-data/

Freedom in the World 2019, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/sri-lanka

Freedom in the World 2019, https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2019/sri-lanka