Lawmaking in Dutch Sri Lanka : Navigating Pluralities in a Colonial Society / Nadeera Rupesinghe.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rupesinghe, Nadeera, author.

Series:

Colonial and global history through Dutch sources ; Volume 6.

Colonial and Global History Through Dutch Sources Series ; Volume 6

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Law--Sri Lanka--History--17th century.

Law.

Sociological jurisprudence--Sri Lanka--History--17th century.

Sociological jurisprudence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (303 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] : Leuven University Press, [2023]

Summary:

Navigating Pluralities marks a break in understanding the history of Roman-Dutch law in Sri Lanka. Methodologically, it challenges socio-legal studies that concentrate on major jurisdictional conflicts alone, emphasizing the lived experience of everyday practices of judicial forums. It uncovers the navigation of plural practices in the Landraad, a judicial forum set up by the Dutch East India Company in seventeenth-century Sri Lanka. A choice of laws came into play in that forum, that choice being significant at varying degrees for different areas of the law such as evidence, inheritance, land, and marriage law. While there was inevitable conflict, the local normative order was as much a social fact for the early colonial rulers as Roman-Dutch law. This is contrary to the received wisdom of the ages that Roman-Dutch law was imposed on the Sinhalese of the maritime provinces under Dutch control. When translated into everyday lives, such adoption of plural practices could rebound on coloniser and colonised in unexpected ways, revealing the complexities of colonial law in practice.

Contents:

Cover

Contents

List of Maps, Figures and Tables

Acknowledgements

Notes on Usage

Glossary

Maps

Introduction: Conjecture and Deliberation

Chapter 1: Building the Landraad

Chapter 2: Divided Authority

Chapter 3: Facing the Law

Chapter 4: Marshalling Unseen Forces

Chapter 5: Defining Land Rights

Chapter 6: On Inheriting Land

Conclusion: Revisiting Colonial Legal Practice

Appendix 1: European Members at the Galle Landraad 1759-96

Appendix 2: Rulers of Kandy and Dutch Governors

Appendix 3: List of Accommodessan Grants

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9789087283759

908728375X

OCLC:

1370216624