Dinesha Samararatne
Biographic Data
| ID | 1267737 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Dinesha Samararatne |
| GIVEN NAMES | Dinesha |
| FAMILY NAME | Samararatne |
| SIGNATURE | SAMARARATNE D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The University of Melbourne |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-8017-8009 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 10 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 2 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Asking the Woman Question of Constitutions
What do we learn when we ask 'the woman question' of constitutions of the Global South? Constitutions worldwide are increasingly the subject of gender analysis, which rests on 'asking the woman question' to uncover the gendered implications of seemingly neutral constitutional provisions. But can gender analysis account for all forms of gender inequality in all kinds of constitutions? In this article, we place three lines of inquiry in conversatio…
Sri Lanka in 2021
The Rajapaksa government consolidated its position with new laws, special task forces, and public-sector appointments. With the opposition wiped out, Sri Lanka now has a unipolar political landscape. Two successive waves of COVID-19 infections caused a rising death toll and necessitated severe lockdowns. The resulting economic problems exposed structural weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic constellation, with depleting foreign exchange and an…
Constitutional Resilience Beyond Courts
South Asia has had a tumultuous and varied experience with constitutional democracy that predates the recent rise in populism (and its study) in established democracies. And yet, this region has remained largely ignored by constitutional studies and democracy scholars. This book addresses this gap and presents a contribution to the South Asia-centric literature on the topic of the stability and resilience of constitutional democracies. Chapters d…
Resilience through Synergy? The Legal Complex in Sri Lanka's Constitutional Crisis
What types of institutional dynamics and conditions allow constitutional resilience in the face of attempts at undermining gains in a constitutional democracy? Using Sri Lanka as a case-study, I claim that the legal complex acting in synergy with independent public institutions (the Speaker of the Parliament) and civil society can produce constitutional resilience. Synergy between the legal complex and these institutions can transform constitutio…
Sri Lanka's First Election Commission
The undisputed success of Sri Lanka's first Election Commission (2015–2020) was the conduct of free and fair elections, that is to say, electoral management. I argue in this article that, by design and in practice, it was unable to or failed to advance electoral integrity that is urgently required for the health of Sri Lanka's constitutional democracy. At critical points when electoral integrity and constitutional democracy were threatened, it wa…
Redeeming the National in Constitutional Argument
In many countries beyond the traditional comparative constitutional law canon, the advocates of constitutionalism are increasingly appealing to a supra-national constitutional discourse frequently grounded in best practices for constitutionalism. This trend has helped to foster a nationalistic backlash which arguesin which constitutional advocates argue that constitutions should not reflect international constitutional norms but instead must refl…
Women with Disabilities as Agents of Peace, Change and Rights
From South Africa to Sri Lanka
What lessons can we learn from the way in which the South African experience of transformative constitutionalism was invoked in Sri Lanka's recent constitutional reform experience? What conditions allow experiences of transformative constitutionalism to travel? In this article, I respond to these two questions, using Frankenberg's idea of a ‘layered approach’ in comparative constitutional law. My analysis affirms that in the comparative enterpris…
Gendering the Legal Complex
Drawing upon feminist standpoint theory and interviews with pioneering women lawyers in Sri Lanka, I argue for a focus on women as a distinct category in ‘legal complex theory’. I consider the following questions in making this claim. What were the internal structures of the legal profession that the older generations of women lawyers encountered as they entered the profession and as they took up positions of leadership? In what ways, if at all, …
Proposals for a New Bill of Rights in Sri Lanka
This article makes two claims about the current proposals for reforming Sri Lankan’s fundamental rights chapter. One is that the complex challenges in seeking judicial enforcement of fundamental rights largely remain unmarked in the narrow and limited debates that have taken place on these proposals. Thus far, these proposals have attracted minimal debate and discussion except in relation to the judicial enforcement of economic and social rights.…
Peace, justice and disabled women’s advocacy
This article draws on grounded qualitative research with rural Tamil women who acquired a disability during the civil war in Sri Lanka and conceptualizes an intersectionality-peace framework. Three main themes were developed from the interviews: narratives of conflict, survival outcomes of social assistance and mobilization of cross-ethnic relationships. With the support of a local women's disability advocacy organization, Tamil women with disabi…
Inclusions and exclusions in law
Broad and inter-disciplinary inquiry into disability is at a nascent stage in Sri Lanka. This paper looks at the intersectionality of disability and gender in the specific contexts of ‘the rural’ and the armed conflict-affected areas of the country, particularly the interaction with the law. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among rural women with disabilities in the North Central and Eastern provinces, including wome…
Inclusions and exclusions in law
Broad and inter-disciplinary inquiry into disability is at a nascent stage in Sri Lanka. This paper looks at the intersectionality of disability and gender in the specific contexts of ‘the rural’ and the armed conflict-affected areas of the country, particularly the interaction with the law. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among rural women with disabilities in the North Central and Eastern provinces, including wome…
Sri Lanka in 2021
The Rajapaksa government consolidated its position with new laws, special task forces, and public-sector appointments. With the opposition wiped out, Sri Lanka now has a unipolar political landscape. Two successive waves of COVID-19 infections caused a rising death toll and necessitated severe lockdowns. The resulting economic problems exposed structural weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic constellation, with depleting foreign exchange and an…
Resilience through Synergy? The Legal Complex in Sri Lanka's Constitutional Crisis
What types of institutional dynamics and conditions allow constitutional resilience in the face of attempts at undermining gains in a constitutional democracy? Using Sri Lanka as a case-study, I claim that the legal complex acting in synergy with independent public institutions (the Speaker of the Parliament) and civil society can produce constitutional resilience. Synergy between the legal complex and these institutions can transform constitutio…
Gendering the Legal Complex
Drawing upon feminist standpoint theory and interviews with pioneering women lawyers in Sri Lanka, I argue for a focus on women as a distinct category in ‘legal complex theory’. I consider the following questions in making this claim. What were the internal structures of the legal profession that the older generations of women lawyers encountered as they entered the profession and as they took up positions of leadership? In what ways, if at all, …
Inclusions and exclusions in law
Broad and inter-disciplinary inquiry into disability is at a nascent stage in Sri Lanka. This paper looks at the intersectionality of disability and gender in the specific contexts of ‘the rural’ and the armed conflict-affected areas of the country, particularly the interaction with the law. In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted among rural women with disabilities in the North Central and Eastern provinces, including wome…
Peace, justice and disabled women’s advocacy
This article draws on grounded qualitative research with rural Tamil women who acquired a disability during the civil war in Sri Lanka and conceptualizes an intersectionality-peace framework. Three main themes were developed from the interviews: narratives of conflict, survival outcomes of social assistance and mobilization of cross-ethnic relationships. With the support of a local women's disability advocacy organization, Tamil women with disabi…
Proposals for a New Bill of Rights in Sri Lanka
This article makes two claims about the current proposals for reforming Sri Lankan’s fundamental rights chapter. One is that the complex challenges in seeking judicial enforcement of fundamental rights largely remain unmarked in the narrow and limited debates that have taken place on these proposals. Thus far, these proposals have attracted minimal debate and discussion except in relation to the judicial enforcement of economic and social rights.…
Women with Disabilities as Agents of Peace, Change and Rights
From South Africa to Sri Lanka
What lessons can we learn from the way in which the South African experience of transformative constitutionalism was invoked in Sri Lanka's recent constitutional reform experience? What conditions allow experiences of transformative constitutionalism to travel? In this article, I respond to these two questions, using Frankenberg's idea of a ‘layered approach’ in comparative constitutional law. My analysis affirms that in the comparative enterpris…
Gendering the Legal Complex
Drawing upon feminist standpoint theory and interviews with pioneering women lawyers in Sri Lanka, I argue for a focus on women as a distinct category in ‘legal complex theory’. I consider the following questions in making this claim. What were the internal structures of the legal profession that the older generations of women lawyers encountered as they entered the profession and as they took up positions of leadership? In what ways, if at all, …
Sri Lanka's First Election Commission
The undisputed success of Sri Lanka's first Election Commission (2015–2020) was the conduct of free and fair elections, that is to say, electoral management. I argue in this article that, by design and in practice, it was unable to or failed to advance electoral integrity that is urgently required for the health of Sri Lanka's constitutional democracy. At critical points when electoral integrity and constitutional democracy were threatened, it wa…
Redeeming the National in Constitutional Argument
In many countries beyond the traditional comparative constitutional law canon, the advocates of constitutionalism are increasingly appealing to a supra-national constitutional discourse frequently grounded in best practices for constitutionalism. This trend has helped to foster a nationalistic backlash which arguesin which constitutional advocates argue that constitutions should not reflect international constitutional norms but instead must refl…
Sri Lanka in 2021
The Rajapaksa government consolidated its position with new laws, special task forces, and public-sector appointments. With the opposition wiped out, Sri Lanka now has a unipolar political landscape. Two successive waves of COVID-19 infections caused a rising death toll and necessitated severe lockdowns. The resulting economic problems exposed structural weaknesses in Sri Lanka’s macroeconomic constellation, with depleting foreign exchange and an…
Constitutional Resilience Beyond Courts
South Asia has had a tumultuous and varied experience with constitutional democracy that predates the recent rise in populism (and its study) in established democracies. And yet, this region has remained largely ignored by constitutional studies and democracy scholars. This book addresses this gap and presents a contribution to the South Asia-centric literature on the topic of the stability and resilience of constitutional democracies. Chapters d…
Resilience through Synergy? The Legal Complex in Sri Lanka's Constitutional Crisis
What types of institutional dynamics and conditions allow constitutional resilience in the face of attempts at undermining gains in a constitutional democracy? Using Sri Lanka as a case-study, I claim that the legal complex acting in synergy with independent public institutions (the Speaker of the Parliament) and civil society can produce constitutional resilience. Synergy between the legal complex and these institutions can transform constitutio…
Asking the Woman Question of Constitutions
What do we learn when we ask 'the woman question' of constitutions of the Global South? Constitutions worldwide are increasingly the subject of gender analysis, which rests on 'asking the woman question' to uncover the gendered implications of seemingly neutral constitutional provisions. But can gender analysis account for all forms of gender inequality in all kinds of constitutions? In this article, we place three lines of inquiry in conversatio…
Political science (12 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Law (7 works) · Politics (6 works) · Sri lanka (6 works) · Democracy (5 works) · Political economy (5 works) · Development economics (4 works) · Economics (4 works)