BEFORE JUSTICE AWAKES

by Vijaya Chandrasoma

Ranjan Gooneratne, who Ranjan Gooneratne, who practices law in a legal environment in Sri Lanka unrecognizable to the one in which he received his training over six decades ago, has written a book deploring the depths to which this once majestic profession has fallen.

Gooneratne was born during colonial times to an elite Ceylonese legal family. His father was the late A. C. Gooneratne, Q.C., a former President of the Bar Council of Ceylon. The son was always drawn to the intellectual approach of the profession displayed by his father, who instilled in him the belief that discipline and hard work were the only paths to success in a noble profession.

Gooneratne received his secondary education at St Thomas’ College, Mt. Lavinia. As was the custom for the scions of the upper crust of Ceylonese society, he proceeded to England, the Motherland, to complete his university education. He achieved admittance to St Catherine’s College at the University of Oxford, where he graduated with an Honours Master’s Degree in Jurisprudence. He was called to the Bar at Grays Inn, London and admitted and enrolled in the Ceylonese Bar in 1964. He has been actively practicing law in since then, mainly at Hulftsdorp and the Panadura Courts, where his portrait was recently unveiled to honour 50 years of dedicated service.

Gooneratne is also a devotee and student of the Dhamma, and has written a series of erudite, sometimes controversial articles about the teachings of the Buddha. He also delivers regular discourses on the Dhamma at the YMBA in Colombo. His open-mindedness, his argumentative opinions – the essence of that noble philosophy – and impish sense of humour has often succeeded in annoying the hell out of those in Sri Lankan society who remain stuck inside the box of religious bigotry.

Gooneratne has indeed undertaken a courageous enterprise in the compilation of a history of the legal profession of Ceylon from the beginning of the 19th century, his fascination of a subject evident in his prolific writings. Readers, especially those who have similar interests, will be happy with the successful result of the risk he has taken, in the form of an eminently readable book. One of special interest to those of us with a proclivity for a whisper of prurient dirty linen, beautifully described in Mr. Kanag-Iswaran’s Foreword, as “stories galore of life at the Bar, as intimate as the rustle of silk bedsheets”.

Gooneratne was admitted to the Bar nearly sixty years ago, during an era when H.V. Perera dominated the Appellate Courts, and lawyers like C. Thiyagalingam and Guy Wikramanayake excelled as trial lawyers. “Great lawyers who moulded the law of the land and led the judges along the right path”. Their legacy was the unparalleled mastery of the law and relentless pursuit of justice. Gooneratne says that what impressed him most was “their facility and felicity of the English language – products of truly great minds”.

Ranjan Gooneratne

Gooneratne laments, “how was it possible for the (Ceylon) Judiciary and the Bar, which were the pride of the (British) colonies and thereafter the Commonwealth, descend to the depths they have today?”

He places the blame for this deterioration of the profession on the falling standards of both the methods of instruction and scholarship at the Law College. Students hardly read a text book on jurisprudence or case law, depending instead on the notes provided to them by a peon. In particular, little attention is paid by today’s law students, educated as they are in the vernacular, to the rich history of a noble profession.

According to Gooneratne, the deterioration in standards has not been caused solely by the change in the medium of instruction. He argues that the deterioration is mainly due to a complete lack of discipline and mediocrity of instruction, which is evident today even at the highest levels of jurisprudence in Sri Lanka.

Gooneratne has grappled with this deeply unsettling problem throughout his long career. He realizes now that he had entered the Bar during the twilight years of its golden age in Ceylon. He deplores the fact that within a few years, the majesty of that profession has been swept away, an edifice built with such loving care now at a state of near-collapse. In his book, he has highlighted some of the causes for the collapse, and hopes that the relevant authorities will address these concerns.

In conclusion, Gooneratne states, “There is a deep human wish that justice should prevail in the world, and that justice is done. Society is doomed when the ontology of justice fails.

“For the Bench and the Bar to be held in the highest esteem, it should be the perception of the general public their judges are men of integrity whose judgments should be given in settled legal principles”.

On a lighter note, Gooneratne lists as one of his major achievements the avoidance of the pitfalls of marriage, and the freedom it gives him to pursue his chosen pleasures of Bridge and Golf. In spite of this studied indifference, though, he has remained, over the past few decades, the chosen, if seemingly Platonic, “Plus One” of many attractive widows and divorcees of Colombo at a variety of social events. Which has led many of his more inquisitive and envious friends, myself included, to conjecture on which letter of the alphabetic spectrum Ranjan falls, on the L, G, B, T, Q rainbow of sexual orientation.