‘Dhamma’ – The Grundnorm of Sri Lanka’s ‘Living Law’

Abstract

This extracted book chapter contributes to the literature by inter alia demonstrating king Aśoka’s recourse to the Cakkavatti ‘conquest’ toward bringing about Sri Lanka’s accession, by way of ‘legal revolution,’ to the beneficent policies of confederate self-rule under the Grundnorm of ‘Dhamma,’ which to date remains efficacious within the hearts and minds of its native peoples.

Keywords: jurisprudence, customary law, customary constitution, overlapping consensus, Rawls, John Rawls, dhamma, Kelsen, Hans Kelsen, comparative religious ethics, religious ethics, Buddhist ethics, Cakkavatti, universal monarch, Ashokan dhamma, Asokan dhamma, culavamsa, mahavamsa, overlapping consensus, overlapping morality, grundnorm, living law, Buddhism and law, law and Buddhism