Sri Lanka’s Guarantor Branch: Constitutional Resilience by Stealth?

Abstract

Early signs are that Sri Lanka’s Guarantor branch is an innovation that is developing resilience by stealth. It has been vulnerable and the subject of constitutional ping-pong due to dominant political parties, the ambivalence of the judiciary as well that of the Attorney-General. From the late 1980s, the proposal for a Constitutional Council and a Guarantor branch has gained ground, primarily due to demands by civil society and the support of minority political parties. This branch affirms an older tradition of independence of public institutions but is hybrid in its contemporary form due to its inclusion of the judiciary. I provide a constitutional perspective of these developments through a study of the 2000 Draft Constitution and the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, Nineteenth and Twentieth Amendments. Even though the Guarantor Branch has not been supported by strong governments or by the judiciary, it has been central to the state formation project as a means of advancing constitutionalism in Sri Lanka.

Keywords: Fourth Branch; Sri Lanka; Constitutional Resilience; Political Parties; Separation of Powers