Friday Nov 15, 2024
Friday Nov 15, 2024
Tuesday, 17 December 2019 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
The Junior National Law Conference (JNLC), which is the most sought-after annual event of the calendar of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka, was held for the 19th consecutive year from 29 November to 1 December at the Blue Water Hotel, Wadduwa under the theme of ‘e-JNLC 1.0: Towards a digital era in the legal profession’.
The conference consisted of a delegation of 320 delegates representing the entire country. The inauguration ceremony of the conference was held on 29 November evening with the distinguished participation of Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya President’s Counsel as the Chief Guest and with the participation of many distinguished guests including the participation of the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal Judges, High Court Judges, the members of the Executive Committee of the Bar Association of Sri Lanka and many legal professionals.
The conference was the first-ever Bar Association event where all the inauguration was streamed live for the entire legal fraternity encompassing over 18,000 lawyers. The process of registration was effected online, moreover the session material and the session recordings were also to be made available online through the Bar Association website which has been linked with the Junior Bar website at www.juniorbarbasl.lk. which any member of the general public can access.
At the inauguration ceremony, Bar Association of Sri Lanka Junior Bar Committee Convener Nishan Premathiratne, Attorney-at-Law, in his welcome address stressed the importance of Junior Attorneys taking a collective effort to introduce aspects of digitalisation in to the legal profession and into their daily lives.
He also impressed the fact that digitalisation is important through which the legal process could be made expeditious and effective in order muster the confidence of the general public, especially in the backdrop where enforcement of a contract in Sri Lanka in terms of the World Bank Doing Business Index takes 1,300 days where Sri Lanka is ranked quite low at number 164 in the said index.
He added that this year’s conference theme was selected to emphasise especially to the junior lawyers the need in moving towards a digital era in line with the changes in the international level.
Bar Association of Sri Lanka Junior Bar Committee Chairman Kuvera de Zoysa President’s Counsel addressing the gathering, emphasised the importance of changing the dynamics of the legal professionals, the necessity of moving towards a digital era in the legal sphere and about the achievement of the Junior Bar Committee with respect to last year’s conference theme. He stressed that the start-stop attitude should be done away with and a continuation of certain steps are paramount to achieve long term goals.
Chief Guest Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya President’s Counsel, in his address, highlighted the role of junior lawyers in light of the conference theme while congratulating the junior lawyers on taking the initiative with such a timely theme.
Bar Association of Sri Lanka President Kalinga Indatissa President’s Counsel also addressed the gathering and stressed the importance of digitalisation and that it should be carried forward by the juniors of the professions.
The inauguration ceremony was followed by a panel discussion on the challenges faced by the legal professionals today including the much debated issues on rules governing professional ethics of lawyers.
The panel was presided by Court of Appeal President Justice Yasantha Kodagoda President’s Counsel and the panel consisted of Kalinga Indatissa President’s Counsel, Secretary Kaushalya Nawarathne Attorney-at-Law and Kuvera de Soyza President’s Counsel, and the session was moderated by Junior Bar Committee Convener Nishan Premathiratne Attorney-at-Law.
The Junior Bar Law Journal Volume X was launched at the conference inauguration ceremony and the first copy of the Journal was presented to Chief Justice Jayantha Jayasuriya. The Journal consists of numerous articles catering to the modern-day lawyers’ knowledge, interests and requirements comprising of recent developments in law and recent case judgements.
The conference encompassed a series of academic sessions in the areas of Civil Law, Criminal Law and Commercial Law discussing important developing areas of law with the participation of eminent resource personnel as panellists, including Court of Appeal Judge Justice Kumudini Wickramasinghe, High Court of Colombo Judge Justice Manjula Thilakarathne, Chief Magistrate of Colombo Lanka Jayaratne, Deputy Solicitor General Dileepa Peiris, Dr. K. Kanag-Isvaran President’s Counsel, Dr. Harsha Cabral President’s Counsel, Kalinga Indatissa President’s Counsel, Dinal Philips President’s Counsel, Sarath Jayamanne President’s Counsel, Shavindra Fernando President’s Counsel, M.U.M. Ali Sabry President’s Counsel, Anuja Premaratna President’s Counsel, Saliya Peiris President’s Counsel, Chandaka Jayasundera President’s Counsel, Nalinda Indatissa President’s Counsel, Avindra Rodrigo President’s Counsel, Jagath Wickramanayake President’s Counsel, Senaka de Saram, Niranjan de Silva, Rajeev Amarasuriya, Harsha Fernando, Asela Rekawa and Anthony Shanil Fernando.
The conference ended with a Forum on ICT and digitalisation of the legal profession which was held on the third day of the conference. The Forum was headed by Sri Lanka CERT Chairman and ICTA Director Jayantha Fernando and the panel consisted of PayHere and Helakuru CEO and Founder Dhanika Perera, Facebook Country Representative Senura Abeywardena and Legistant CEO and Founder Akhila Wijetunga.
The forum focused on data protection laws, cyber-security, digital payments, privacy laws, fake news, community standards relating to fake profiles and the legal framework relating to electronic transactions.
The Junior Bar Committee intends to continue its work in promulgating digitalisation in the legal profession and to enable effective dispute resolution and as a way forward, the Junior Bar Committee plans to organise a workshop on the legal framework relating to data protection, privacy and digital payments partnering with Sri Lanka CERT.
The conference modelled focusing on digitalisation and contemplating on the possibility of a looking ahead towards combining technological advancements in expediting and enabling effective dispute resolution, was an immense success. The conference had many perspectives of digitalisation including e-tickets, live streaming of the conference enabled through the Junior Bar website, session material and recorded sessions were uploaded online with access to everyone and an e-journal was launched.
The team behind the success of the Junior National Law Conference 2019 was the organising committee consisting of 25 junior lawyers led by Kuvera de Zoysa President’s Counsel, Nishan Premathiratne, Kaneel Maddumage, Thushangi Atapattu, Oshani Wijewardena, Sachintha Kahandage, Harin Saddhasena, Chalaka Vidanage, Niranjala Gunatilake and Dilsha Fernando Attorneys-at-Law.
