Courts, Constitutions and Karma: Buddhism, Law and the Practices of Legal Pluralism in Sri Lanka

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Courts, Constitutions and Karma: Buddhism, Law and the Practices of Legal Pluralism in Sri Lanka

By Benjamin Schonthal
Cambridge University Press February 2026

Specifications

ISBN-13
9781009706919
Publisher
Cambridge University Press
Publication
February 2026
Format
Hardback
Jurisdiction
U.K. ? Countri(es) for reference only

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Details

Although rarely acknowledged, Buddhist monastics are among the most important and active legal actors in Asia, operating sophisticated networks of courts and constitutions while also navigating and influencing the laws of their country. This book provides the first in-depth account of Buddhist monastic law and its intertwining with state law in Sri Lanka, from 1800 to the present. Rather than a top-down account of colliding 'systems,' Schonthal draws on years of archival, ethnographic and empirical research to offer grounded insights into how Buddhist monks, colonial officials and contemporary lawmakers balance Buddhist ideals and state-legal structures using practices of legal pluralism.

Comparative in outlook and accessible in style, this book not only offers a portrait of Buddhist monastic law in action, it also provides new insights into how societies deal with multi-legality and why legal pluralism may lead to conflict in one setting and compromise in another.

Table of Contents

1. Monastic law, state law and the plurality of legal pluralism in Sri Lanka
Part I:
2. The unity and diversity of Buddhist monastic law
3. Jurisdictionalising Buddhism in colonial Ceylon
4. Practising legal pluralism in the monastery
Part II:
5. Like and unlike 'Law': making a monastic judiciary
6. Law's Karmas: Nirvana, rebirth and the cosmological consequences of monastic law
Part III:
7. Legalising' monastic law: the politics of legal recognition in post-colonial Sri Lanka
8. Constitutionalising Vinaya

Conclusion: pluralising legal pluralism
Glossary
References
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