Dinesha Samararatne

Biography

Her recent research work has been in relation to public participation in constitution-making, judicial enforcement of economic and social rights, judicial interpretation of fundamental rights, the influence of Indian public law in the development of public law in Sri Lanka and access to justice. During her Postdoctoral Fellowship Dinesha will focus on constitution-making in post-war contexts. For the period of the Fellowship, Dinesha is on sabbatical leave from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka where she has been serving as a Senior Lecturer at the Department of Public & International Law at the Faculty of Law.  At the University of Colombo, Dinesha has been teaching Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and Human Rights Law. Dinesha is a LLB graduate from the University of Colombo and an Attorney-at-Law. She read for her Master’s degree as a Fulbright Scholar at Harvard Law School, MA, USA and she completed her doctoral studies at the University of Colombo. Dinesha has previously been affiliated with the Centre on Comparative Constitutional Law as a Kathleen Fitzpatrick Visiting Fellow (April – May 2018). 

Academic biography

Research topics

1. How can principles of constitutionalism (broadly understood) be applied in a) post-war contexts in which constitutional reform is intrinsically connected with peace-building and b) in the context of nationalist backlash to constitutionalism? In examining these questions, I am also reflecting developing critical perspectives on comparative constitutional law as a field of inquiry, and seeking to foreground problems more common in the ‘global south’ jurisdictions and beyond ‘the canon’ of scholarship centred in the ‘global north.’
    
2. In what ways can the legal profession and the judiciary be made more responsive to the advancement of women’s right to equality? I examine this question by asking ‘the woman question,’ the orientation to understanding of a given issue from a ‘woman’s point of view,’ in the context of the legal profession and of the judiciary in Sri Lanka.

Contributions to GlobalFacultyInitiative.net