These lectures aim to introduce law students to rights-based approaches to lawyering.
Following the interest of law students to attend the lecture ‘Just Judges’ by Lady Brenda Hale in Colombo last year, the Foundation initiated a lecture series to introduce novel approaches to thinking about the law and legal practice, particularly from a rights-based approach, to law students.
The first lecture was held on 12 October 2026 with second-year law students. It introduced international human rights law to students who had not started their formal classes on this subject. It provided an in-depth overview of the foundations and principles of human rights law and demonstrated how international human rights law is incorporated in Sri Lanka. To show the applicability and limits of the current human rights regime, the lecture highlighted two emerging fields in this domain: business and human rights, and artificial intelligence and human rights. Throughout the lecture, practical examples were shared to encourage students to think about the issues they encounter on a routine basis from a rights-based approach.
The theme of the second lecture was strategic litigation. It was held on 13 October and attended by final-year and penultimate-year law students. Delivered for future legal professionals, the lecture demonstrated how strategic litigation champions the public good and detailed the ways it can be effectively put into practice. A Q&A following the lecture illustrated the desire of law students to use their legal skills for the public good, particularly in areas such as environmental rights, climate change, and justice and accountability following the civil war.
This two-part series successfully advanced the Foundation’s lecture series for law students and introduced the initiative outside Colombo to the University of Peradeniya in Kandy.
This activity forms a part of the German Federal Foreign Office-funded project, ‘Supporting Institution-Building to Stabilise Democracy and Strengthen the Rule of Law in Sri Lanka’.