📘 Criminal Law in Sri Lanka
✒️ Author: Wing-Cheong Chan
📆 Edition: 1st (2020)
🌐 Language: English
🏢 Publisher: Lexis Nexis

📖 Description:

Criminal Law in Sri Lanka by Wing-Cheong Chan is a comprehensive and analytical exposition of Sri Lanka’s criminal law framework. Written with clarity and scholarly precision, this book explores the substantive principles, statutory foundations, and judicial interpretations that shape Sri Lankan criminal jurisprudence today.

Drawing upon case law, legislative history, and comparative perspectives, the author provides a systematic understanding of offences, defences, and punishments under Sri Lankan law. The book situates the legal doctrines within their colonial, constitutional, and socio-legal contexts, highlighting how the island nation’s legal system has evolved while retaining strong ties to English common law traditions.

🔍 Key Features:

• ⚖️ Comprehensive Coverage: Explains the general principles of criminal liability — including actus reus, mens rea, intention, negligence, causation, and strict liability — alongside major offences under the Penal Code.

• 📜 Detailed Case Analysis: Incorporates landmark judgments from Sri Lankan courts that have shaped the interpretation of criminal law doctrines.

• 🌍 Comparative Insights: Draws parallels between Sri Lankan, Indian, and English criminal law, making it valuable for regional scholars and comparative law researchers.

• 🧠 Focus on Defences: Discusses justifications and excuses such as insanity, intoxication, mistake, duress, provocation, and self-defence with doctrinal and practical clarity.

• 🏛️ Legislative Context: Examines the Penal Code of 1883, subsequent amendments, and other related legislation, placing them within their historical and constitutional framework.

• 🕊️ Human Rights Dimension: Analyses the influence of constitutional protections, international conventions, and human rights jurisprudence on Sri Lanka’s criminal justice system.

• 👩‍⚖️ Doctrinal and Policy Analysis: Evaluates how legal reforms and judicial innovation have shaped the evolving criminal justice policy of the country.

💡 Highlights:

• Offers a clear and structured understanding of criminal law principles as applied in Sri Lanka.

• Balances academic depth with practical relevance, serving both practitioners and students.

• Discusses emerging issues such as cybercrime, terrorism, corruption, and gender-based violence.

• Provides a critical review of penal policies, sentencing practices, and the reform needs of the Sri Lankan criminal justice system.

🎯 Recommended For:

• Law students and academicians studying South Asian or Commonwealth criminal law

• Legal practitioners and judges seeking a reliable reference on criminal jurisprudence in Sri Lanka

• Comparative law scholars examining cross-jurisdictional developments in criminal justice

• Policymakers and reform advocates engaged in law reform and justice administration

• Researchers in criminology and human rights law

⭐ Why This Book Stands Out:

Wing-Cheong Chan’s Criminal Law in Sri Lanka is the first modern and comprehensive academic treatment of the subject in decades. It bridges theory and practice, offering readers a deep understanding of how criminal law operates within the constitutional, historical, and cultural fabric of Sri Lanka.

📚 A definitive reference for understanding Sri Lanka’s criminal law — blending doctrinal analysis, comparative insight, and practical clarity for legal professionals and scholars alike.