High Court judges attended a workshop on ‘A Rights-Based Approach to Judicial Decision-Making in Times of Crisis’ in Beruwela, Sri Lanka, from 22-24 August 2025.
Held in partnership with the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute, the workshop focused on the various jurisdictions of the High Courts, which range from serious criminal matters to writs within the province, civil appeals and commercial cases.
Throughout the workshop, experts and participants explored the relevance of a rights-based approach to the court’s jurisdictions and the possibility of applying such an approach in their work. Drawing from international human rights, common law rights and values, and statutory rights, such an approach strives to advance the litigants’ best interests and rights.
Sessions were led by local experts and Foundation Research Fellows. Justice Mahinda Samayawardhena, Judge of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka and Director of the Sri Lanka Judges’ Institute, convened a session on judicial sensitivity in times of crisis. Justice Arjuna Obeyesekere, Judge of the Supreme Court, led a discussion on the principle of human dignity and then discussed the important writ jurisdiction of the Provincial High Courts, exploring recent developments in this jurisprudence. Prof. Deepika Udagama, Chair Professor or Law, Department of Law, University of Peradeniya, examined the relevance of fundamental and statutory rights to the work of the High Court, with a particular focus on the Penal Code and statutes such as the ICCPR Act. Mr Rohan Edrisinha, visiting lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, explored a principled justification for using a rights-based approach in the trial courts, based on the text and values of the constitution, principles of constitutionalism, and the role of judges to advance rights through interpretation.
Foundation Research Fellows delivered sessions on the concept of crisis and judges’ roles and responsibilities in times of crisis and the techniques of applying a rights-based approach to judicial reasoning.
The concluding panel discussion saw lots of engagement between the participating judges and the panelists. The judges shared some of the challenges they faced during the recent crises in Sri Lanka, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the economic crisis, and how they adapted their court practice to protect the interests of litigants and other stakeholders. The exchange also paved the way for clarifications on certain questions of law, and the identification of certain issues in procedural law. The panel comprised the judges of the Supreme Court who acted as resource persons, and Prof. Deepika Udagama.
This was the second of three workshops for Judges in Sri Lanka under the German Federal Foreign Office-funded project ‘Consolidating the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka: Strengthening the Resilience of Democratic Institutions to Promote Stability in the Face of Crises.’