Almost anyone in Sri Lanka will have a story about their run-ins with our system of justice – about land cases that have dragged on for decades, victims waiting for years for justice, custody battles that outlast a kid’s childhood, about impoverished people languishing in jail unable to settle their paltry fines, etc.
The New Minister of Justice assumed office with the promise of major reform, specifically addressing judicial delays. For years, our system of justice has faltered from inadequate numbers of judges and courts, complex and outdated laws, and politicisation and corruption. Today, despite a strong push to reach settlement in outstanding cases, hundreds of thousands cases remain pending, weighing down the entire judicial system.
The human cost of these delays is often ignored; it’s easier to turn a blind eye than to dwell in the plight of those awaiting justice. Families suffering while their breadwinner languishes in jail, unable to pay a fine; gentle men and women spend their twilight years embroiled in property disputes; children who have the joys of childhood robbed by custody battles. Each delay means a piling of legal fees and other expenses – a drain on resources for years as cases drag on unnecessarily. Where serious crimes are concerned, the lengthy delays mean that multiple judges preside over a case and the final verdict is delivered by a judge who has played no part in the related hearings.
A closer look at our severely overcrowded prisons alone would tell a tragic part of this story; nearly half of all prisoners are in there because of the non-payment of fines or their inability to post bail while awaiting trial. That many of them only received a fine means their crimes were never considered serious enough for imprisonment. Yet, the judicial system’s inability to address these critical shortcomings means our prisons remain overcrowded.
And then there is the urgent need to update and strengthen laws surrounding pressing issues of the day: Child abuse, sexual abuse, economic crime, narcotics, medical negligence, IT fraud, and privacy, to name a few. Justice must not only be delivered with efficiency and timeliness, it must also be delivered in the context of the times we live in.
The strong interdependence between the judicial systems and the economy means that the weaknesses of justice have a direct impact on or economic performance. These drawbacks are reflected in Sri Lanka’s low ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index. A slow, inefficient and often archaic system does little to inspire business confidence and can be a turn-off for even the most earnest of foreign investors. Sri Lanka needs to urgently up its game on arbitration and contract enforcement if it is to fulfil its inward investment ambitions.
No one denies that our judicial system needs fixing. Leave aside the inherent issues of politicisation and corruption, the sheer inefficiency must be addressed forthwith. Clearing the backlog and the bottlenecks throughout the system certainly requires the addition of more judges and more courthouses. But that alone won’t put things right. Sri Lanka needs a simplification and modernisation of the entire framework that allows speedier passage of justice. Ultimately, it must be done in acknowledgment of efficient and timely justice as a human right.
The New Minister of Justice assumed office with the promise of major reform, specifically addressing judicial delays. For years, our system of justice has faltered from inadequate numbers of judges and courts, complex and outdated laws, and politicisation and corruption. Today, despite a strong push to reach settlement in outstanding cases, hundreds of thousands cases remain pending, weighing down the entire judicial system.
The human cost of these delays is often ignored; it’s easier to turn a blind eye than to dwell in the plight of those awaiting justice. Families suffering while their breadwinner languishes in jail, unable to pay a fine; gentle men and women spend their twilight years embroiled in property disputes; children who have the joys of childhood robbed by custody battles. Each delay means a piling of legal fees and other expenses – a drain on resources for years as cases drag on unnecessarily. Where serious crimes are concerned, the lengthy delays mean that multiple judges preside over a case and the final verdict is delivered by a judge who has played no part in the related hearings.
A closer look at our severely overcrowded prisons alone would tell a tragic part of this story; nearly half of all prisoners are in there because of the non-payment of fines or their inability to post bail while awaiting trial. That many of them only received a fine means their crimes were never considered serious enough for imprisonment. Yet, the judicial system’s inability to address these critical shortcomings means our prisons remain overcrowded.
And then there is the urgent need to update and strengthen laws surrounding pressing issues of the day: Child abuse, sexual abuse, economic crime, narcotics, medical negligence, IT fraud, and privacy, to name a few. Justice must not only be delivered with efficiency and timeliness, it must also be delivered in the context of the times we live in.
The strong interdependence between the judicial systems and the economy means that the weaknesses of justice have a direct impact on or economic performance. These drawbacks are reflected in Sri Lanka’s low ranking in the Ease of Doing Business Index. A slow, inefficient and often archaic system does little to inspire business confidence and can be a turn-off for even the most earnest of foreign investors. Sri Lanka needs to urgently up its game on arbitration and contract enforcement if it is to fulfil its inward investment ambitions.
No one denies that our judicial system needs fixing. Leave aside the inherent issues of politicisation and corruption, the sheer inefficiency must be addressed forthwith. Clearing the backlog and the bottlenecks throughout the system certainly requires the addition of more judges and more courthouses. But that alone won’t put things right. Sri Lanka needs a simplification and modernisation of the entire framework that allows speedier passage of justice. Ultimately, it must be done in acknowledgment of efficient and timely justice as a human right.