Punsara Amarasinghe

Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies | SSSUP · Institute of Law, Politics and Development DIRPOLIS

The celebrated idea of Prussian war strategist Carl von Clausewitz regarding conventional warfare played a dominant role up to the First World War in the West. In his seminal work “On War”, Clausewitz posits: “If you want to overcome your enemy, you must match your efforts against the power of resistance!” In a way, his idea was akin to annihilatin...

The celebrated idea of Prussian war strategist Carl von Clausewitz regarding conventional warfare played a dominant role up to the First World War in the West. In his seminal work “On War”, Clausewitz posits: “If you want to overcome your enemy, you must match your efforts against the power of resistance!” In a way, his idea was akin to annihilatin...

Nadeera Rupesinghe, Law Making in Dutch Sri Lanka: Navigating Pluralities in a Colonial Society (Leiden: Leiden University Press, 2023), 301 pp.

This chapter critically examines the challenges faced by Sri Lanka’s indigenous community, Vedda’s in the post-colonial setting of the island nation and it further unfolds the long-term impacts created by neoliberal agendas on the well-being of the Vedda people. This chapter astutely looks into the land and socio-economic rights of Sri Lanka’s indi...

The colonial nature of international law has been a moot point in legal academia, which univocally suggests international law as an imperial instrument. Given these exergies, the question that this paper seeks to examine is how Portuguese encounters in the 16th century Sri Lanka reflects the seeds of international legal system dominated by European...

The rise of Buddhist nationalism in Sri Lanka and Myanmar after independence certainly caused major troubles in the post-colonial state-building processes in both countries. While the constitutional process became malleable to the influence of the growing Buddhist nationalism, this also continued to be a crucial factor in deciding the political lea...

The colonial nature of international law has been a moot point in legal academia, which univocally suggests international law as an imperial instrument. Given these exergies, the question that this paper seeks to examine is how Portuguese encounters in the 16 th century Sri Lanka reflects the seeds of international legal system dominated by Europea...

Evert van der Zweerde's Russian Political Philosophy: Anarchy, Authority, Autocracy is a compelling work of scholarship. It is not an exaggeration to place Zweerde's work alongside Isaiah Berlin's much celebrated 1975 work Russian Thinkers. The primary interest of Zweerde's work lies in its emphasis on the development of political philosophy in Rus...

This article is an interdisciplinary inquiry into the usage of historical silk routes by the Chinese as a popular narrative for the modern BRI. While looking at the archaeological trace, the historiography and other dimensions, this article would unfold how the nostalgia on the ‘Silk Routes’ have been rejuvenated for an ambitious geopolitical proje...

This article is an investigative attempt in analyzing the history of RAW activities in Sri Lanka from the very beginning. Based on the geopolitical needs of India, RAW formulated its policy towards Sri Lanka, which consisted of sabotaging and destabilizing island’s polity. This article emphasizes Sri Lanka’s failure in ignoring the geopolitical amb...

The early years of the twentieth century saw a massive emergence of legal realism in the Western jurisprudence, which made a significant contribution by reducing the scope of idealism that had pervaded the philosophy of law. The notion of legal realism became mainly popular in the West due to the intellectual discourse built by American–Scandinavia...

The Tatmadaw’s military takeover in Myanmar on the 1st of February has marked a significant step back in the country’s path towards democracy. Several doubts are raised as to why the military has decided to dismiss the institutional changes that it agreed to grant the country after the Saffron Revolution of 2007 in the first place. This paper seeks...

This article seeks to examine Russia’s recent interest in uplifting the status of Orthodox church as a pivotal factor in the state. Most importantly, the position of Orthodox Church has grown rapidly during Putin’s administration as a solacing factor to fill the gap emerging from the fall of the Soviet Union. The sixteenth-century doctrine propound...

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and Zhihua Shen's edited volume is a timely and apt contribution to Soviet studies. Written exclusively from a Chinese perspective, Shen's work distinguishes itself by introducing readers to how Chinese scholars view their historical relations with the Soviet Union. The con...

Sri Lanka’s foreign secretary’s statement indicating that Colombo would adopt “ India First” foreign policy appears to be a much-consoling phrase for the Indian diplomats. It is a fact beyond any dispute that New Delhi felt anxious about Sri Lanka’s extensive hobnobbing with China for years that has finally seen massive Chinese presence in the isla...

The ethnic discontents in the post-colonial Sri Lanka resulted in a civil war between Sinhalese majority and the Tamil ethnic minority, which lasted for 30 years. Even after defeating Tamil separatist movement militarily, Sri Lankan government still grapples with ethnic dilemmas in the country without providing a feasible solution for the ethnic co...

This Article seeks to examine the Russia’s recent interest in uplifting the status of Orthodox church as a pivotal factor in the state and beyond that. Most importantly the position of the Orthodox church has grown rapidly during Putin’s administration as a solacing factor to fill the gap that emerged from the fall of Soviet Union. The 16 th centur...

The modern international law is considered an offshoot of European intellectual contributions as its basic foundation is deeply imbued with the political and social upheavals took place in European history. As an example, the Westphalian order emerged in the culmination of thirty years war in 1648 was regarded as the most pivotal mile stone in mode...

The power politics has always been a great obstacle in reaching the just consensus in international law. In particular, the political realist approaches stemming from the powerful states often undermine the equality and justice in international legal sphere. Yet the judicial wisdom of some of the outstanding judges in the International Court of Jus...

Jean A. Berlie (Ed.), China’s Globalization and the Belt and Road Initiative. (London, Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), pp. 342, €88.39, ISBN: 978-3-030-22289-5

International Relations (IR) and political theory scholarship today is mainly constructed by the narratives of western civilization. From the Greeks to the biopolitics of Foucault, the theories we reverently study are confined to the discourse coming from one civilizational root, which curtails the ability of scholars to appreciate the founding pri...

(First paragraph) The vast literature available on the historical evolution of international law of the sea has mainly derived from the viewpoints of European jurists of the age of enlightenment in the 17th century and those ideas are strongly rooted in the core concepts developed in European intellectual order that legitimized the national interes...

This article seeks to examine the rigor of civilizational values in modern international law as a crucial factor and how historically different civilizational values have inculcated different approaches to international law. While critiquing the civilizational rhetoric built by European nations in creating Eurocentric international law, this articl...

This paper seeks to examine the contribution made by Sri Lankan judge C.G Weeramantry in International Court of Justice during his tenure as a judge from a perspective of Global South. Contrary to the political realism which appeared to be a predominant factor in ICJ, Judge Weeramantry made a great contribution in making a voice for third world cou...

The idea of state of exception and sovereignty presented by Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben in the aftermath of post September 11 context generated a new discourse in the realms of public law and political philosophy on how law and its protection becomes invalid under state of exception as Agamben showed how suspension of constitution...

This article seeks to examine the rigor of civilizational values in modern international law as a crucial factor and how historically different civilizational values have inculcated different approaches to international law. While critiquing the civilizational rhetoric built by Europe-an nations in creating Eurocentric international law, this artic...

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Iran's prevarications about its responsibility for the shooting down of Ukrainian International Airlines Flight 752 during the recent escalation of tensions with the US magnify its culpability and could lay it open to reparations claims by Canada, Ukraine, Sweden, and the UK, all of which lost citizens in the disaster.

In the legal academic discourse, the modern history of international law has been mainly written through European narratives and the culmination of Thirty Years War by WestphaliaTreaty is regarded as a jubilant moment for the scholars who have written on the history of internationallaw as a European coined story to civilize the nations. The names o...

A vollume edited by Prof. Elena Vivaldi and Emanuale Rossi on the concept of basic income and its impacts upon poverty reduction.

This article seeks to examine how the concepts of state and international law have been ascertained and assimilated into practice in the Soviet Union despite having a fervent ideological opposition to the said concepts. Furthermore the objective of this article lies in examining the contribution made by major Soviet jurists to the realm of internat...

Journal of EU and Interdisciplinary Studies

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: European politics is showing a distinct trend towards populism, as evidenced inter alia by the electoral results in Italy, Sweden, and Austria. The main reason for this shift is widespread insecurity over the outcomes of the migrant crisis. The rise of populism is likely to be a major factor in the 2019 EU parliamentary elections...

This Article seeks to explain Kelson's pure theory of law and his whole contribution to legal positivism was influenced and bolstered by his early stay in Vienna, even though the foundational stone laid by Kelsen on legal positivism is clearly distinguished from logical positivism propounded by the pioneers of Vienna circle, in this article I argue...

St. Thomas Aquinas stands as an ivory tower in the world of western jurisprudence. Ecclesiastical works he compiled inspired later generations of jurists to reinterpret the form of natural law. During the dark period between the decline of classical civilization and the birth of medieval order the church fathers like Augustine and Ambrose preserved...

n this paper I expect the main issues relating to the laws planted by British in the legal system and how those legal systems have hindered the ordinary people in process of achieving justice. In addition to that I deal with some colonial laws imposed upon the subjects by British which had no affinity with the natives at all and such laws still con...

The 19th and early 20th Century Imperial rivalry between Great Britain and Tsarist Russia was coined by panegerryic English poet Rudyard Kipling as “Great Game” which continued till the end of First World War. This paper intends to trace how this outdated term has turned into be a reality again in 21st Century. Especially the geographical diversity...

This paper surveys some of the antecedents of the modern concept of rights. It illustrates and evaluates how Greek Roman thoughts shaped up the idea of rights philosophically in classical period. Apart from above evaluation, writer traces some major historic documents relating to Rights of Man which have assimilated ideological foundation from Gree...

Socio Economic Rights have been ensured by the UN conventions in international legal sphere with much reverence as well as they are given due prominence in respective constitutions in the global south, but despite having given such an important status to socio economic rights as something essential to entire human development why does it become a p...

We show that the structure of microcrustacean zooplankton communities in five Asian tropical water bodies (Sri Lanka: three reservoirs; Thailand: one reservoir, Philippines: one crater lake) differed among these water bodies and that these differences were correlated with environmental variables, but that there was no clear seasonality. The structu...

Primary production was measured every 2 weeks during 16 months (N = 33) in Tissawewa, a tropical shallow reservoir in the lowlands of south-east Sri Lanka. Results are interpreted in relation to selected environmental conditions such as oxygen concentrations, water temperature, Secchi-disc depth, wind force, conductivity, and morphoedaphic index an...

We show that the structure of microcrustacean zooplankton communities in five Asian tropical water bodies (Sri Lanka: three reservoirs; Thailand: one reservoir, Philippines: one crater lake) differed among these water bodies and that these differences were correlated with environmental variables, but that there was no clear seasonality. The structu...

Length growth, instar durations, fecundity and mortality rates of fivespecies of microcrustacean zooplankton from a tropical reservoir weremeasured in relation to food quantity and temperature in laboratorycultures. Three cladocerans (Ceriodaphnia cornuta, Moina micrura,Diaphanosoma excisum), one calanoid copepod (Heliodiaptomus viduus), and onecyc...

Production, biomass and productivity of the microcrustacean zooplanktonpopulations of three low-land reservoirs, Tissawewa (eutrophic), Ridiyagama(moderately eutrophic), and Muruthawela (mesotrophic) in South-east SriLanka were studied. The temporal variation of zooplankton production wasstudied in Tissawewa on basis of fortnightly sampling on five...