SEEKING THE CIVILIZATIONAL GHOSTS: SOME REMARKS ON CHINESE AND RUSSIAN APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL LAW THROUGH CIVILIZATIONAL VALUES

Abstract This article seeks to examine the rigor of civilizational values in modern international law as a crucial factor and how historically different civilizational values have inculcated different approaches to international law. While critiquing the civilizational rhetoric built by European nations in creating Eurocentric international law, this article brings how international law has been perceived by China and Russia following their historical complexities. Results emerge from this paper will demonstrate the different diversity in international law

THE CONSTITUTION IN THE SHADOW OF A GUN: HISTORICAL AND LEGAL VIEWS ON MYANMAR’S COUP D’ÉTAT

The Tatmadaw’s military takeover in Myanmar on the 1st of February has marked a significant step back in the country’s path towards democracy. Several doubts are raised as to why the military has decided to dismiss the institutional changes that it agreed to grant the country after the Saffron Revolution of 2007 in the first place. This paper seeks to examine the current military takeover in Myanmar through the lenses of its complex post-colonial history, marked by the continuous evolution of various intra-state stakeholder’s interactions, such as the Sangha, the Tatmadaw and the students. Subsequent to the historical analysis, we provide a legal outlook combing through the salient constitutional provision on the division of powers, aiming to understand if the balance thereof has been seen as an existential threat undermining the military’s hegemonic position over time. Finally, we aim to offer an account on why western expectations regarding Aung San Suu Kyi as a representative of Western liberal democracy could not be factually met. We conclude that the 2007 constitution institutionalized a political system that allowed wiggle room for non-military stakeholders to obtain further democratic concessions, that could result in a significant threat to the Tatmadaw’s rule. Such approach sheds outlook on the causes of the coup d’état and allows projections for the near future

The winds of change in Sri Lanka? Rajapaksa's charisma and foreign factors in Sri Lankan politics

Whilst the external support received by the government in Sri Lanka from India and the West may play a pivotal role in the coming months in terms of securing the grip of power in the parliament, the outcome of the local elections in Sri Lanka has created a political storm in the island, write Eshan Jayawardena and Punsara Amarasinghe

PORTUGUESE IMPERIAL BUILDING IN THE KOTTE KINGDOM OF SRI LANKA AS A REFLECTION OF 16TH CENTURY INTERNATIONAL LAW

The colonial nature of international law has been a moot point in legal academia, which univocally suggests international law as an imperial instrument. Given these exergies, the question that this paper seeks to examine is how Portuguese encounters in the 16th century Sri Lanka reflects the seeds of international legal system dominated by European interests. The policy espoused by the Portuguese in Sri Lanka during their encounters with the Kotte kingdom raise the initial examples of unequal treaties, exclusion of sovereignty and the adoption of “puppet rulers”. This paper makes a critical inquiry in examining these elements parallel to the development of 16th century international law

TRACING THE CIVILIZATIONAL INFLUENCES IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CHINESE AND RUSSIAN APPROACHES TO INTERNATIONAL LAW

This article seeks to examine the rigor of civilizational values in modern international law as a crucial factor and how historically different civilizational values have inculcated different approaches to international law. While critiquing the civilizational rhetoric built by European nations in creating Eurocentric international law, this article illuminates how international law has been perceived by China and Russia following their historical complexities as unique states. The results emerging from this paper will demonstrate the diversity in international law in across different countries

Agamben’s Two Missing Factors: Understanding State of Emergency through Colonialism and Racial Doctrine

: The ideas of state of exception and sovereignty presented by Italian political philosopher Giorgio Agamben in the aftermath of post September 11 context generated a new discourse in the realms of public law and political philosophy on how law and its protection becomes invalid under state of exception. Agamben showed how suspension of constitutional liberties within so called state of exception legally erases any status of an individual regardless of international legal or constitutional norms. However, this article seeks to examine how Agamben had excluded the nature of state of emergency doctrine in colonial societies under European colonialism, where emergency regulations were frequently adopted by colonial masters in subordinating the colonized; at the same time, this article will focus on the racial element appearing behind enacting state of emergency in both colonial era and modern states. The objective of this article lies in underpinning the much important, yet neglected two factors in the whole state of emergency scenario. The results emerging from this article will demonstrate how Eurocentric academic thinking has abandoned some real pertinent issues in constructing the notion on state of emergency