The mooting team of the Department of Law emerged the champions at the Henry Dunant Memorial Moot Court National Competition 2016 organized by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, held at the premises of the University of Colombo on the 6th and 7th October 2016. The team not only became the champions of the competition, but also won the award for the best memorial and Ms. Agana Gunawardene won the award for the best advocate. The team; Ms. Agana Gunawardene, Ms. KithminiAviruppola and Ms. Pamoda Jayasundera, would be representing Sri Lanka at the South Asian Regional rounds which would be held in India.
Ms. Piumi Denagamage, Ms. Ruvini Katugaha and Ms. Thivanka Ratnayake, from the Department of Law have been selected to the Jean-Pictet Competition 2016 pursuant to an extremely competitive selection process by the Jean-Pictet committee. The competition, which is to be held from 19-26 March 2016 in Évian-les-Bains, France, is a prestigious international Humanitarian Law (IHL) competition, which affords the opportunity for participants to engage in the practical application of IHL, the theoretical aspects of which they learn within an academic environment.
The first batch of graduates of the Department of Law was recently enrolled as Attorneys-at-Law of the Supreme Court of Sri Lanka. It is hoped that these newly enrolled attorneys-at-Law will begin to make a difference to the traditional practice of the law by taking forward the social justice vision of the new inter-disciplinary curriculum of the Peradeniya Department of Law.
Dr. Deepika Udagama, former Head of the Department of Law was recently appointed the new Chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL). Previously, Dr. Udagama served as a member of the HRCSL and also of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka. She has also served on UN human rights bodies including as the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the UN Voluntary Fund for Technical Cooperation in the Field of Human Rights and the UN Human Rights Sub-Commission`s Co-Special Rapporteur on Globalisation and its impact on Human Rights. Dr Udagama was also the Founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo.