Commonwealth Legal Information Institute; Free access to Commonwealth and Common Law

I found this website when digging into some old acts of Sri Lanka. The site appears containing lot of valuable information.

Commonwealth Legal Information Institute website declares that it has 981 databases from 59 Commonwealth and common law jurisdictions via 8 Legal Information Institutes.

 This is the direct link to the Sri Lanka page.

It seems so easy to handle and look at this page from where you can access, I believe, all numbered parliamentary acts from 1956 to 2006.

Here is the Constitution of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka.

It has lot of links to websites of Sri Lankan origin but some I tested did not download.

JVP coming to consciousness after the horse bolted from the stable

(March 10, Colombo - Lanka Polity) At the right end of the history of People's Liberation Front's (JVP's) golden era of parliamentary politics, the leftist nationalist party has eventually decided to vote against the draconian emergency regulations.

Since 2004, and even since long before that, the JVP parliamentarians did not vote against the emergency regulations. Until recent times, they just abstained voting lacking guts to vote against. The draconian emergency regulations grant sweeping powers to the police and security forces of Sri Lanka to arrest and detain people that rise against the system. The victims were Tamils first but now the JVP is also paying heavily. This year, the government sealed a newspaper office of the JVP and detained an editor. After all the JVP is a movement against the present system although they have their own limitations what they call as their uniqueness.

Until the demise of the Tamil rebel Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam (LTTE), JVP's political strategy was tuned to be against the Tigers on an ethnic chauvinist basis that was forwarded to masses in the guise of pseudo-Leninism. Ever since the military annihilation of the Tiger movement by the government, the JVP has lost balance or imbalance rather. 

However, the party is shifting towards a policy change and that should be commended. JVP was always swaying like a pendulum between left and right. After been in ultra right for many years, it is the turn to be in left after April 08 elections. 

Comrades, welcome to reality!

Sri Lanka government in need of some kind of tension to maintain draconian laws

(March 03, Colombo - Lanka Polity)  Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has reconvened the parliament. Last month he dissolved the parliament and called for elections. The general election is scheduled to be held on April 08.

The President has used his executive powers to extend the state of emergency for a period of one month subjected to the approval of the parliament within 10 days. The aim of reconvening the parliament is approving the extension of emergency.

Sri Lanka is under state of emergency since decades due to the war with the Tamil Tiger rebels. The emergency regulations provide sweeping authorities to police and security forces to interfere in the rights of the citizens.

The government has decided to maintain the emergency regulations further covering to the argument that the Tamil Tiger rebels that were defeated militarily last year might attempt a comeback if the security grip was loosened.

The Prime Minister Rathnasiri Wickramanayaka recently said that several suicide cadres of the Tamil Tiger organization are in Colombo. Police arrested a Tiger financial affairs activist this week.

Peace that prevails after May 18, the day the Tamil Tiger leader Velupillai Prabakaran was killed, seems uncomfortable to the government. The government needs some kind of tension to rationalize the maintaining of draconian laws such as emergency regulations and Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Government needs these draconian laws to suppress unrest. Thousands of Tamil youth are still in custody without urgent legal action thanks to these laws.

New tactics of Sri Lankan legislators to undermine freedom of expression for the MPs

(September 26, Colombo - Lanka Polity) In Sri Lanka's deformed democracy, the honorable Members of Parliament are now suspected of deliberately boycotting parliament to disrupt each others freedom of expression.

On last Tuesday, the opposition United National Party (UNP) MP Ravi Karunanayaka showed at the adjournment debate that the house has no quorum. As a result, the Deputy Minister of Highways W.B. Ekanayaka lost the opportunity to deliver the government answer of the debate on a major road development project the opposition accused of having massive mismanagement and misappropriation.

Later the Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardhana said the opposition move was a breach of an agreement not to raise the quorum issues at the adjournment. Chief Opposition Whip Joseph Michael Perera apologized.

However, on Friday, the government Minister of Transport Services Lasantha Alagiyawanna blocked UNP MP Ravi Karunanayaka proposing the adjournment debate by showing there was no quorum in the house. The Deputy Speaker Piyankara Jayaratna failed to summon the quorum and the meeting was adjourned prematurely. Only 17 members had responded to the quorum bell while Alagiyawanna, who initially pointed out the absence of the required number of members, too, left the Chamber. Deputy Foreign Minister Hussain Bhaila, the only government representative present in Parliament said that they were still four short of the stipulated number.

There are 225 MPs in the parliament. The minimum number needed to maintain the quorum is 20. Most of the MPs do not attend the parliamentary meetings regularly although they enjoy lavish perks with public money. On the days the parliamentary meetings are held, the roads in Colombo city are closed time to time to provide safe passage to the MPs to come and go. A massive sum of public money is spent for each parliamentary meeting.