Separation of Powers: A Fairytale of Utopia

Abstract

The ancient philosophers, who perceived the necessity to establish the stability of the society and to have a form of government where checks and balances exist, created the heavenly concept of separation of powers in order to grant separate authority to the Executive, Legislature and the Judiciary. Jurisdiction of the courts, the powers of parliament, the authority of the executive are, as generally understood, dependent on the separation of powers. However, this separation and the checks and balances that rest on it, have been set off balance by the encroachment of judicial territory by the Executive and the Legislature. This is a reality that holds true all over the world.

This research paper, which has been extensively carried out through literature reviews, analyses the way in which the deterioration of the concept of separation of powers has resulted in the other arms of the government in encroaching to the territory that is ideally bestowed upon the judiciary. Separation of powers, as it subsists in Sri Lanka and other countries, is analysed with contemporary examples to establish that the jurisdiction of courts has been greatly imbalanced due to the encroachments and that true separation of power no longer exists.

Keywords: separation of powers, judicial independence