Popular justice in Sri Lanka: A sociocultural artifact

Abstract

Conceptualizing law broadly as ideology and practice relating to normative orders, prescriptive frameworks and markers of difference embedded in social, cultural, economic and political processes, this paper examines popular justice in Sri Lanka as a sociocultural artifact that is constructed or molded by the particular context in which it exists. As discussed in the paper, popular justice in contemporary Sri Lanka functions as state-sponsored, informal community-led forums of dispute resolution known formerly as Conciliation Boards and later as Mediation Boards. By analyzing the shifting and changing ideology, rhetoric and practice of popular justice within these forums, as represented in legislative debates and other documents, an attempt is made to theorize popular justice as a social construct that is reflective of the society in which it operates. From the initial establishment of Conciliation Boards as a law reform project to the subsequent re-enactment in the form of Mediation Boards and the many amendments to the law that governs them, the rhetoric and practice of popular justice evolved in tandem with the changing social, economic and political landscape. The assemblage of ideologies and practices surrounding these dispute settlement forums therefore suggests the need to understand popular justice as constitutive of particular social conditions of a sociocultural artifact, which can also be applied to similar laws and law-like processes as well.