FIDIC Contracts in Asia Pacific - A Practical Guide to Application
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CHAPTER 20
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Applying FIDIC contracts in Sri Lanka
20.1
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Outline of the legal environment in Sri Lanka
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20.1.1 The constitutional structure of Sri Lanka
In the political history of Sri Lanka, under the ‘dominium’ of the British Empire for centuries, various forms of ‘Constitutional Documents’ were formulated from time to time in an attempt to structure a ‘workable’ system of governance for Sri Lanka. Although Sri Lanka achieved independence on 4 February 1948, it was not until 1972 that Sri Lanka had a ‘Constitutional Document of its own’- the first autochthonous Constitution. Thereafter, in 1978 the second autochthonous Constitution (Second Republican Constitution of Sri Lanka 1978, the present
Constitution) was enacted which is currently in force together with 19 amendments to date.1