Law students honour two illustrious law teachers

Two distinguished legal luminaries Prof. Lakshman Marasinghe and Justice Saleem Marsoof P.C. will be honoured at a ceremony on Tuesday March 29 at 3 p.m. at the Law College Auditorium.
It will be part of the inaugural meeting of the Law Students' Muslim Majlis, which will be followed by a Symposium on the topic 'Monogamy, Polygamy and Bigamy: Some Reflections on the Abeysundere Decision' at which Prof. Marasinghe and Justice Marsoof will be the main speakers. Both speakers have contributed to the development of law through their books, book chapters and articles, and have also written comments on the controversial decision of the Supreme Court in the Abeysundere case which sought to overrule the decision of the Privy Council in the famous Reid case.
The students will felicitate Prof. Lakshman Marasinghe who has been an Emeritus Professor of Law at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and a Director of the Secretariat for Coordinating the Peace Process, on his recent appointment as the Chairman of the Law Commission of Sri Lanka.
Having had his early education at Royal College, Colombo, Prof. Marasinghe commenced reading for a medical degree at the London Hospital Medical College, but suddenly switched to the study of law at the University College, London from where he obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree with First Class Honours in 1961, and his Master of Laws degree with Distinction in 1963.
He was thereafter awarded the Ph.D. degree by the University of London and the LL.D degree (Honoris Causa) by the University of Colombo. Since 1964 Prof. Marasinghe has been teaching law at several leading Universities abroad, but in 2002 when the Diploma in International Trade Law program was commenced at the Sri Lanka Law College, he was selected to head the local faculty. He also teaches in the University of Wales LL.M in International Trade Law program conducted at the Law College.
Justice Saleem Marsoof P.C., will also be felicitated on his recent appointment as a Judge of the Supreme Court.
He was admitted as an Attorney-at-Law in mid 1974 and joined the Attorney General's Department in September 1975 where he served for 29 years before being appointed as the President of the Court of Appeal.
In July 1998, he was made a President's Counsel in recognition of his eminence in the Bar. Justice Marsoof, who had his education at Zahira College, Colombo and Royal College, Colombo, is a Law Graduate of the University of Ceylon, Colombo where he excelled academically winning the Gate Mudaliyar Edmund Peiris prize and the Law Scholarship.
The felicitation ceremony will be chaired by the President of the Law Students' Muslim Majlis, Althaf Marsoof, who will make the welcome speech. Dr. Joe Silva, Principal of the Sri Lanka Law College, who is also the Patron of the Majlis, will deliver the inaugural address.
The felicitation speeches in honour of the two distinguished teachers of the Law College will be made by two students of the University of Wales LL.M program, State Counsel Rajiv Goonetilleke and Ranjan Sriskantha, Attorney-at-Law.

Khalid