Many of the essays in this book have appeared previously. `Disappearances of persons and the disappearance of a system’ was first published in Sri Lanka: Disappearances and the Collapse of the Police System (Asian Human Rights Commission, Hong Kong, 1999). `1997: Transition and the place of Hong Kong in the Asian debate on the rule of law’ was released on the Asian Human Rights Commission website in July 1996 (www.ahrchk.net). `Demonstration of an aspiration’ has appeared in July People Power (Civil Human Rights Front, Hong Kong, 2004). `Trying to understand the police crisis in Sri Lanka’ was published in the special report by the Asian Legal Resource Centre entitled `Torture committed by the police in Sri Lanka’ (article 2, vol. 1, no. 4, August 2002). `”Good roads or a law-abiding society?” Investing in the rule of law’ is a later version of an article published as `Taking the high road’ in the Sri Lankan Daily Mirror on 31 January 2004. `An Asian framework for governance’ was written for the Regional Workshop on the Challenge of Governance for Our Region: Governance, Capacity-Building and Cultures of Sovereignty, co-hosted by the Asia-Australia Institute, the University of New South Wales, and the Cambodian Institute for Cooperation and Peace, held in Phnom Penh on 18-20 October 2001. `Forensic science, mortuaries and the rights of victims of crime’ was released as a statement by the Asian Human Rights Commission (AS-01-2004, 6 January 2004), although the chapter contained in this volume is the original version. `National Police Commission a welcome move’ appeared first in the Sri Lankan Sunday Observer (16 March 2003). `Democracy and the law of contempt’ is an expanded version of an article that was published in the Daily Mirror on 7 February 2004, originally sent as a letter to the Select
Committee of the Parliament on the Codification of the Law Relating to Contempt of Court (18 June 2003). `”Is the judiciary a holy cow?” The Indian debate’ appeared in the first edition of Krodhi Praja Nyayadhisha (2 February 2004), an e-newsletter on the rule of law in India initiated by the Asian Human Rights Commission (www.ahrchk.net/kpn).
The cover illustration, by Nick Cheesman, originally appeared in a book of poems by Basil Fernando, Kalyana Mittata: Beautiful Friendship (Future Asia Link, Hong Kong, 2001). The illustrations accompanying `Dealing with torture in Asia’ and `Trying to understand the police crisis in Sri Lanka’ were originally released as posters by the Religious Groups for Human Rights programme of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The photograph accompanying `Demonstration of an aspiration’ originally appeared in a calendar released by the Civil Human Rights Front (Hong Kong). The illustration accompanying `Disappearances of persons and the disappearance of a system’ was originally released as a poster by the Campaign on Disappearances of the Asian Human Rights Commission. The depictions of feudal life in the illustrations accompanying `An Asian framework for governance’ and `Plan to codify contempt of court procedure a necessary step’ are reproduced from Robert Knox’s An historical relation of Celyon (1681).
Help in preparing this book was given by John Sloan, Meryam Dabhoiwala and Nick Cheesman. Thank you to these persons for their assistance.
