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9 AsianJLS 1 (2022)

handle is hein.journals/ajulsoc9 and id is 1 raw text is: Asian Journal of Law and Society (2022), 9, 1-25 CAMBRIDGE doi:10.1017/als.2021.36 UN SITY m PRESS RESEARCH ARTICLE Resilience through Synergy? The Legal Complex in Sri Lanka's Constitutional Crisis Dinesha Samararatne,2 'Department of Public & International Law, Faculty of Law, University of Colombo, Colombo and 2Laureate Program in Comparative Constitutional Law, Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne, Melbourne E-mail: d.samararatne@unimelb.edu.au Abstract what types of institutional dynamics and conditions allow constitutional resilience in the face of attempts at undermining gains in a constitutional democracy? Using Sri Lanka as a case-study, I claim that the legal complex acting in synergy with independent public institutions (the Speaker of the Parliament) and civil society can produce constitutional resilience. Synergy between the legal complex and these institutions can transform constitutional vulnerability into constitutional resilience. I argue therefore that the legal complex theory must be extended to consider the ways in which it can work in synergy with other public institutions in being resilient against attempts at rolling back gains for constitutional democracy. I argue further that synergy between the legal complex and formal and informal institutions over the short term can only result in simple constitutional resilience. The development of reflexive constitutional resilience requires long-term synergy between the legal complex and other public institutions. Keywords: constitutional resilience; constitutional vulnerability; Sri Lanka; legal complex theory; constitutional crisis I. Introduction Legal complex theory has been effective in explaining the collective impact that the legal profession, a Bar association, the judiciary, and other legally trained actors can have on the dynamics of political liberalism in different jurisdictions. Legal complex theory suggests that these different institutions working in tandem, rather than on their own, better advance political liberalism. Once social change has been achieved through the legal complex, how are those gains to be preserved and strengthened? What conditions enable those gains to be resistant to pushback? What is the role of the legal complex in such contexts? In this article, I claim that it is the synergy between the legal complex and other sectors (both formal and informal) that determine the response to pushback. I focus specifically on the resilience or vulnerability of constitutional governance in making this argument. Academic debates about constitutional endurance and democratic decay are re-emerging globally today. In this article, I illustrate that the extension of legal complex theory to the study of constitutional resilience allows new insights about constitutional endurance and democratic decay. I claim that the analytical purchase of legal complex theory can be better realized if the synergy between the legal complex and other public institutions is taken into account. I illustrate my argument through developments in constitutional governance in Sri Lanka between the end of its internal armed conflict © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Asian Journal of Law and Society