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The purpose of this paper is to understand the dual crisis in Sri Lanka during the pandemic. The health crisis was followed by democratic backsliding which directly impacted the fight for economic crime. The pre-pandemic political commitment to fight corruption is assessed with the pandemic environment and the policy decisions by the Government. Sri Lanka was a detailed case study of how politicians exploited the pandemic environment to suppress democracy and move their semi-autocratic agenda forward. However, Sri Lanka was not the only nation that faced such autocratic sentiments losing the democratic values. This paper discusses recommendations for improving the resources and investment to address economic crime in Sri Lanka.

Secondary data was used for the analysis introducing a theoretical framework referring to the work of Michel Foucault and Francis Fukuyama. The secondary data was used to develop an argument aligning political science with economic crime.

The Government disciplinary project launched during the pandemic directly impacted Sri Lankan democracy and structural changes made to the constitution. The heavy militarization was a sign of departure of long-cherished values of democracy in the country. Political clientelism backed by nepotism interfered with judicial independence and the fight against economic crime. Many accused, including those responsible for the largest corruption scandal, were not punished. The trust deficit has widened significantly between authorities and the public on fighting corruption in Sri Lanka.

There are more factors for democratic backsliding than what is presented in this paper. The economic crime environment in Sri Lanka has many dimensions and the paper only highlights a few areas limiting to the secondary data available.

The paper discusses a unique perspective on how a pandemic could be misused to strengthen the autocratic rule and make structural changes to a nation, including constitution amendments. The pandemic environment was used to commit economic crime and suppress public opinion projecting the health crisis in the lockdown environment.

This paper aims to examine the present Sri Lankan political-economic crisis and its connection to corruption. The paper will discuss the autocratic rule, elite domination of state extractive systems, which have been moulded and configured by Sri Lanka’s political environment over decades. Elite capture has become a significant factor. Sri Lanka’s authoritarian model exercised by Gotabaya Rajapaksa reduced competitive mode and shifted towards a monopolistic corruption structure, centralising on the first family and military rule where powerful elites supported the model. The paper attempts to find the connection between dysfunctional political model and economic crimes committed through several case studies.

The paper discusses five case studies using qualitative analysis using secondary data. The insider trading case study is discussed with quantitative data. Several political and social analyses were carried out with primary data captured from field research by the author.

Sri Lankan economic crisis was triggered because of high-level corruption. The autocratic model introduced by the political authority failed to fight corruption. Transnational mechanisms will fail if there is no credibility and commitment in their own respective nations such as in the USA. External factors such as China in Sri Lanka did have an impact for elite capture.

This study is limited only to five case studies. Transnational mechanism and recommendations require a lengthy study. Only one external factor was assessed because of its significance; there could be other external factors for elite capture.

This study has limited access to capture primary data because of sensitivity during a heavy autocratic regime. Because of state and self-censorship, secondary data had to be tested.

Economic crisis in Sri Lanka is an example to many developing nations fighting corruption. The autocratic family rule supported by external forces crippled the state anti-corruption processes. Economic crime is a key driver for poverty and economic crisis.

This is a unique paper that examines Sri Lanka’s present economic crisis and its political model and economic crime. The paper will discuss transnational mechanisms for anti-corruption and attempt to apply to the Sri Lankan crisis.

The purpose of this paper will attempt to depict the importance of meaningful co-operation in preventing and interdicting economically motivated crime and misconduct in Sri Lanka while exploring the challenges faced by the state, its bureaucracy, extremist threat, war on drugs and anti-money laundering/countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) mechanisms.

Qualitative and secondary data.

While mechanisms to introduce legislation and implement the national actions plan on combating bribery and corruption will add significant value to the entire system, Sri Lanka will need to improve co-operation among domestic and international agencies to overcome the challenges. For domestic co-operation educating the bureaucracy is essential in this regard who would take a central role in advising the policymakers.

Sri Lankan perspective has not been discussed on challenges faced by the state, its bureaucracy, extremist threat, war on drugs and AML/CFT mechanisms. Paper was presented at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime 2019.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss how agency conflicts between people and main government organs affect the combatting ability of white-collar money laundering in an emerging economy.

This paper uses a qualitative design under the philosophy of interpretivism. The case study research strategy is used inductively to investigate how structural limitations affect white-collar money laundering.

This study reveals that serious agency conflicts exist between public and main government organs which are detrimental to the rights of people to enjoy a crime-free society. First agency conflict of people and legislature intensifies as a result of limited understanding of the legislature and failure to take precautionary actions to develop an anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) regime with evolving global standards. This delay has resulted in identifying Sri Lanka as a deficient AML/CFT regime twice. The second conflicts arise between people and the executive which is a serious conflict due to misuse of statutory power and failure to perform duties. The independence and integrity of administrative authorities who perform executive functions were inherent problems of implementing a sound AML/CFT regime. Lack of monitoring, nonavailability of an independent audit and inappropriate reporting channels were other encouraging factors of administrative organs to misuse statutory power. The third conflict between people and the judiciary was not intensified because the function was not so exposed to create agency conflicts. After all, an adequate number of cases had not proceeded to the judiciary due to inherent limitations as a result of intensified first two agency conflicts. The agency conflicts have intensified over the years and AML/CFT regime has been ineffective as a result of limited influence and understanding of the principal, people. Therefore, the principal has to influence the agents to make reforms in the AML/CFT regime to make the country a white-collar crime-free country.

This study uses a case study strategy to assess the context of Sri Lanka as an emerging economy. It is recommended to take into consideration the contextual facts when the findings are applied to other jurisdictions.

This paper is an original work of the authors which discusses how agency conflicts arise between people and three main government organs in implementing a sound AML/CFT regime in Sri Lanka as an emerging economy.

In Sri Lanka women make up the majority of the country's population. However, there is a concern that many women are subjected to any form of violence at home which is known as family violence, or in Sri Lanka which is identified as domestic violence. As such domestic violence is one of the topics that have gained attention in Sri Lanka under the major topic of gender-based violence (GBV). Sri Lanka also imposed prolonged lockdowns, travel/mobility restrictions, social distancing, and other health measures/restrictions to control the speedy spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a consequence, the life of women was unfavorably impacted. A increase in the number of domestic violence cases against women during public emergencies – here referred to COVID-19 – is one of such negative impacts. Therefore, this study intends to examine the adequacy of the existing laws of prevention of domestic violence in Sri Lanka and investigate the appropriateness of the available judicial mechanism including its preparedness in achieving the proper protection support for the women victims of domestic violence during public emergencies. To reach that goal this doctrinal research study heavily engages in a descriptive and detailed analysis of legal rules found in primary sources such as domestic statutes, international treaties, statistics, government circulars and regulations and case law, etc., in respect of the issue of domestic violence against women during public emergencies with specific reference to Sri Lanka. Secondary resources such as print and electronic text material are also utilized in the completion of this study.

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the salient legislative provisions aimed at curbing financial and economic crime.

The paper presents an analysis of financial and economic crime in Sri Lanka.

The paper underlines the practical limitations in enforcing the laws and regulations and highlights the need for political will, allocation of resources for law enforcement, capacity building within enforcement agencies and international cooperation as essential conditions for effective law enforcement.

Sri Lanka's experience suggests both what is possible as well as not possible to deal with terrorism using law as a tool.

The Rajapaksa regime over the 2005–2022 period promoted a national-popular project based on a militarised Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism promoting a market-driven rentier economy. It illustrated a form of patrimonial capitalism undermining public accountability and the efficacy of the state bureaucracy. This popular-national project was dependent on strengthening ties with China while distancing relations with India and the Global North (USA and the EU). The ways in which the external relations were coordinated reinforced discrimination against Tamil and Muslim communities, while disregarding their demands for justice and reparations. The increasing integration of the economy with financial markets, driven by the Central Bank, amplified the commercialisation of the state, restraining public revenues and state oversight. Meanwhile, the militarisation of the state involved the commercialisation of the military, opaque military budgets and violent repression of protests. The Rajapaksa regime, which enabled a minority-privileged (leisure) class to culturally flourish in regulated safe spaces, also instigated multiple protests from below demanding democracy as well as justice.

This chapter reviews a recent study that explores the perception of adult convicted prisoners and ex-prisoners in Sri Lanka regarding their use of prison libraries. How prison officials, particularly rehabilitation officers and counselors see the presence of a prison library in the rehabilitative process is also examined. This chapter focuses mainly on the perceptions, feelings and emotions associated with using the prison library by Sri Lankan prisoners and ex-prisoners during their incarceration.

Information poverty is often common among prisoners as most are illiterate and are deprived of freedom due to their imprisonment. The role of a prison library in the rehabilitative process is highly commendable. A review of related literature, semi-structured interviews, and life histories with inmates at four closed prisons in Sri Lanka and ex-prisoners and observation on Sri Lankan prison libraries found that prisoners and ex-prisoners see prison libraries as important in meeting their diverse information needs, assisting them to spend their time effectively during incarceration, and to overcome stress while enhancing their well-being by reading. This chapter also stresses the importance of a well-established prison library and the effective delivery of library services for desistance from crime. However, the majority of prison officials do not see the importance of a prison library in the rehabilitative process. Drawbacks and potential of prison libraries and several implications for practice are also elaborated in this chapter. Such implications will be of interest to prison administrators and library professionals.