In this episode, Centre Co-Director Will Partlett talks with Professor Dinesha Samararatne about the role constitutions can play in rebuilding democracy.  In particular, she talks about her own experience in rebuilding Sri Lankan constitutional democracy both as an academic and member of the Constitutional Council. 

Dinesha Samararatne is a Professor at the Department of Public & International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka. Dinesha is a Senior Fellow at the Melbourne Law School and Editor of the University of Colombo Review. In 2023 she was appointed as an independent expert to the Constitutional Council of Sri Lanka. 

Recommended reading: 

• The Global South and Comparative Constitutional Law, Philipp Dann, Michael Riegner, Maxim Bönnemann 

• Home in the World: A Memoir, Amartya Sen 

• Upon a Sleepless Isle, Andrew Fidel Fernando 

Constitutional Cafe is a podcast of the Centre for Comparative Constitutional Studies at Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne. You can find out more about the work of the Centre here. 

We acknowledge the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation as the Traditional Owners of the land on which we record, learn, and live.