Visit by Professor Graeme Laurie

The Department of Private and Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, was honoured to welcome Professor Graeme Laurie, Professorial Fellow in the School of Law at the University of Edinburgh, on the invitation of Dr. Danushika Abayarathna. Professor Laurie is the Founding Director of the JK Mason Institute for Medicine, Life Sciences and the Law, and served as Chair of Medical Jurisprudence from 2005 to 2019. He currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Bioethics Review.

The visit brought together faculty members for a discussion on the planned introduction of a Medical Law course for undergraduates under the new LLB (Honours) curriculum as well as a Diploma in Medical Law and Ethics. Professor Laurie shared insights from his extensive academic and research experience in medical law and bioethics. The meeting was attended by the Dean of the Faculty of Law, the Head of the Department, and members of the Departmental academic staff. Professor Sanath Wijesinghe, Head of the Department of Legal Studies at the Open University of Sri Lanka, also participated in the discussion as an invited guest, contributing his expertise in health law.

The Department looks forward to building on these discussions to enhance teaching and research in medical law, in line with its commitment to expanding interdisciplinary legal education.