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Conference looks at how Buddhism could enrich our legal system
View(s):Bhutan’s Chief Justice now in Colombo to attend a seminar on “Universaliing Buddhist Jurisprudence” said that the Buddha was a social reformer who saw the law as universal, irrespective of social status or economic conditions.
Chief Justice Mohan Peiris addressing the gathering. Pic by Amila Gamage
He was speaking at the inauguration of a two-day conference being held at the Lakshman Kadirgamar Institute for International Relations and Strategic Studies. The objective of the conference is to discover Buddhist principles relevant to principles of law.
The first of its kind in Sri Lanka, the conference discussed topics such as Constitutional Law and human rights, Criminal Law, Family law and Environment Law, International Law and Theology and Commercial Law.
Scholars, both legal and religious presented research papers under the five categories and drew attention to how the law in Sri Lanka could be improved to fit the criteria.“Lord Buddha saw the law as an eternal force. He declared law as a universal norm, as a true standard of views and values to form equality and justice with no regard to social status and economic conditions,” Bhutan’s Chief Justice Lyonopo Tobgye said.
He explained that through this conference one would be able to have a better understanding of law from a Buddhist point of view. “Lord Buddha started social reforms to liberate humanity and empower people to free themselves from their sins,” he said.
Also addressing the gathering Chief Justice Mohan Peiris said that religious teachings such as Buddhism, if studied deeply, show a high degree of legal content that has not been fully utilised.
He pointed out that international law, at present, was influenced by Roman and Dutch law.
“Therefore there is very little input of a Buddhist culture or Buddhist values or Buddhist ideals or probably not even Islamic. It is time perhaps that we rethink principles of Roman-Dutch law, the principles of the English law and all other kinds of law in our legal system. We can then fashion and structure a legal system suitable to our region,” he added.
The conference organised by President’s Counsel Prashantha Lal de Alwis and Manohara de Silva, PC followed on the lines of a seminar on Buddhist jurisprudence that Mr. de Alwis had attended in Bhutan in 2012.