LLB (HONS)

Individual Assignment

Name of the Assignment: - Finding solutions to Legal issues through Legal

Researches under three illustrations

Date of Submission: - 23rd of June 2023

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Discussing issues that can be resolved legally using legal research

Introduction

Legal research is the process of clarifying or analyzing the law that governs an activity. 1
Legal research is carried out to find legal information on a particular problem, generally,
these are carried out by Judges, Lawyers, and Legal Researchers. Legal research
involves a process. They are gathering information, analyzing facts, and communicating
investigation results. Legal information can be classified into two categories.2 They are
primary sources (focusing on case law, statutes, and legislation), persuasive primary
sources, and secondary sources. Secondary sources are materials that explain,
analyze, and discuss the law. Legal research helps to identify key facts, legal
arguments, and doctrines. There are benefits and importance of legal research. They
are analyzing the law, developing coherent legal standards, breaking down core issues,
and curating teaching materials for students, complete knowledge about issues,
Moreover, legal research allows us to find solutions to issues. Legal research provides
solutions to complex problems. This statement can be analyzed under three
illustrations.3

 Child Abuse in Sri Lanka

Child abuse can be physical emotional or sexual. This is a problem that has occurred
nation wise in Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is facing a major crisis of child abuse. Child abuse is
increasing rapidly in Sri Lanka. In the few months of 2020, the National Child Protection
Authority (NCPA) received more than 2500 cases of child abuse and by the end of the
same year, it had increased to 5242. Surveys conducted by NCPA have revealed that
80% of students have been at least physically affected. The majority of child abuse
cases in the country are not included in the statistics. There are some legislations and
reforms for child abuse.

1. National Child Protection Authority Act No. 50 of 1988 (NCPA)

2. The Prevention of Domestic Act

1
https://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/LawSchoolTutorials/20120619103358_large.pdf
2
https://www.findlaw.com/hirealawyer/choosing-the-right-lawyer/legal-research.html
3
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_research
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3. The Children and Young person’s Ordinance (OYPO)

4. National policy on child protection (composed under NCPA)

On the whole, it is difficult to be a legitimate response to this issue as there are

opposing responses to prevent this. Therefore, political and social as well as legal
responses are needed in this regard. These can be indicated under two aspects. They
are Political – Social Responses and Legal Responses. In terms of political and social
responsibility, the state Ministry of Women and child development is a leading agency
against child abuse. This situation can be prevented by providing sex education to suit
the age limits of the children. As a legal response, section 82 should be amended to
include injury in the third section, and liability should also be assigned in relation to
injury to a child. To prevent such crimes, all responsible authorities such as the police,
Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, the Judicial system, and all departments should
corporate as one. Therefore, Section 29 was amended for the Children and Young
Person Ordinance (CYPO), and also section 71 (6) was removed. The reason for
removing section 29 was to prevent corporal punishment. Section 71(6) can be invoked
to prevent corporal punishment of a child. Just like that, The Domestic Violence
Prevention Act was reformed.4

 SAITM issue impact on professional education in Sri Lanka

SAITM was established under the Companies Act No. 07 of 2007. This was enclosed
due to some legal issues which were conducted by state university colleagues. They
asked to stop this mafia to make professional educational medical students. In 2008,
SAITM was named the “South Asian Institute of Technology and Management”.
Courses in IT, Management and Finance, Engineering, Professional Studies, Nursing,
Languages, and Health Sciences were no mention of a medical degree course in the
original Board of Investment application. It was stated that approval should be obtained
from the Ministry of Health before imparting training in health sciences.5 In February
2011, its name was changed and it was called “The South Asian Institute of Technology
and Medicine. Sri Lanka Medical Council informed the Minister for Health by a letter
4
https://www.fpasrilanka.org/content/child-abuse-crisis-sri-lanka
5
https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-saitm-medical-degree-issue-should-be-resolved-without-
further-delay/
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dated on 25th of September 2015. The Medical Ordinance was brought forward to break
down this mafia of private universities. SAITM case points to a lack of vision by the
SLMC. The GMOA, the medical trade union, has prevented private medical students
from completing their internships at Government-owned hospitals. The guilds were
active in medieval items. The BOI, chambers and OPA, and others do not interfere in
the present case to bring peace between the SLMC and SAITM. Even though this was
recognized in 210 colleges of medicine this was brought down because this affected the
Sri Lanka economy and administration with a major crisis in which the education sector
fell into a huge change.6 The agitation was carried out by GMOA and students’ unions
for over a year. Therefore, the good governance government finally decided to abolish
the SAITM medical degree. For this reason, the international status of all medical
degrees in Sri Lanka could be put at risk. The SAITM issue has already been brought to
the attention of medical authorities in countries such as Britain and Australia. Therefore,
the government should take steps to find quick solutions to this problem. This mends a
new way of education with a bright effect that Enlighted the life of state university
medical students.

 Terrorism in Sri Lanka

Terrorism has become a major threat in Sri Lanka and maintaining peace has become
difficult. These terrorist activities have made Sri Lanka difficult to manage. Terrorism is
a threat for political, social, or ideological purposes. Under the Prevention of Terrorism
Act enacted in 1979, extensive powers were exercised to arrest and detain suspects.
Terrorism is considered a security threat to the Sri Lanka military and communities. PTA
was enacted to prevent, respond and investigate extremist movements after the Easter
Sunday Attack. It came into operation temporarily in 1979 and then became permanent
in 1982. In 2012, 136 suspects were detained under the PTA Act (says the Ministry of
External Affairs) and the social organization stated that there were more than 300
detainees. Here the authorities are allowed to arrest without a warrant. The court has
allowed the suspects to be detained for 18 months. The guilty get confessions under
torture. The steps taken to prevent terrorism for public welfare can be stated as follows.

6
https://www.ft.lk/article/601683/Reading-the-real-problem-of-SAITM
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Terrorism in Sri Lanka can be classified. That is, ethnic-national terrorism, left–wing
terrorism, state terrorism. Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and Janatha
Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) were targeted for destruction.7 During the Administration of
President Sirisena, the law was repealed, and Human Rights Violations were
investigated. At the same time, in 2015, steps were taken to protect the rights of Sri
Lanka in the Human Right Council of the united nations. According to the Easter
Sunday Attack, the supreme court stated that 4 high-ranking officials including former
President Mithripala Sirisena failed to prevent the attacks on Easter Sunday in 2019 and
ordered them to pay huge compensation. Nearly 270 people were killed in this attack.
The FBI continued to cooperate with Sri Lanka police in their investigations into the
2019 Easter Sunday Attack. There are several additional arrests are made by the police
in a year under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. At the end of the year, about 100
suspects were arrested at the end of the year. Steps have been taken to issue charge
sheets.8

Conclusion

Legal research provides legal solutions to complex problems. It can be explained under
the three illustrations mentioned above. The above-mentioned child abuse and SAITM
problem, terrorism has been successfully resolved by legal departments. But there is a
terrorism issue regarding terrorism in Sri Lanka. It has become quite difficult to find
solutions for it, and it is still being discussed. There are types of legal research. They
are socio and doctrine legal research. Socio-legal research is a social legal theory that
exists to study the interaction between law and society. Doctrine legal research means
research carried out on legal propositions or propositions by analyzing the existing
statutory.

REFERENCES

Websites and blogs

7
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka
8
https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2020/sri-lanka/
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 https://www.lexisnexis.com/documents/LawSchoolTutorials/20120619103358_large.pdf
 https://www.findlaw.com/hirealawyer/choosing-the-right-lawyer/legal-research.html
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_research
 https://www.fpasrilanka.org/content/child-abuse-crisis-sri-lanka
 https://www.colombotelegraph.com/index.php/the-saitm-medical-degree-issue-should-be-
resolved without-further-delay/
 https://www.ft.lk/article/601683/Reading-the-real-problem-of-SAITM
 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrorism_in_Sri_Lanka
 https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2020/sri-lanka/

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

This research encompasses significant devotion and ready assistance from many
individuals who supported me for plenty of time to complete such a study within a
limited period. First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude toward my
research supervisor, Prof. Shanthi Segarajasingham, who guided and shaped me
through the processes leading to producing this as my dissertation and all the other
academics of the Department of legal studies would like to wish to convey my humble
gratefulness to members of my family for their wonderful encouragement to make this
dissertation possible.
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