Avanti Perera
St. Anne’s College
Contact details
Qualifications
LLM (International Law) University of Cambridge
BA (English), University of Colombo
Attorney-at-Law, Sri Lanka Law College
Bibliography
Avanti Perera joined the Centre in 2007 and is, at present, studying towards a D.Phil degree in law with an empirical focus on medical negligence in Sri Lanka. She is particularly researching how a dispute analysis can inform healthcare services, by investigating the parties, needs, grievance management strategies, goals, dispute processing and dispute outcomes within the dispute area of medical negligence claims in the chosen socio-legal context.
Avanti has previously worked in the area of health law which included preparation of a draft Mental Health Act for the Ministry of Health, Sri Lanka in 2001 and being part of the Health Development and Research Programme of the University of Colombo in 2003/2004. She was invited as an advisor to the WHO International Training Forum on Mental Health, Human Right and Legislation held in November 2003, Geneva.
While at Oxford, Avanti has been research assistant to Dr. Michelle Cowley and has co-taught in units of the Legal Research and Mooting Skills Programme for undergraduate students at the Law Faculty in 2009 and 2010. Avanti has also taught drama, discourses in migrant writing and post-colonial literature as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Colombo from 2005-2007. Due to her combined research experience in law and literature/language, she was invited as a resource-person to the Seminar on Federalism and Challenges of Translation conducted by the Centre for Policy Alternatives and held in June 2007, Sri Lanka. Appointed as a State Counsel at the Attorney General’s Department in Sri Lanka since 2004, Avanti is currently on study leave and hopes to return to her job in the civil service upon completion of her degree at Oxford.
Research interests
- Health law
- Dispute theory
- Sociology of law
- Tort law
Selected publications
- (2005) Critique to the WHO Resource Book on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation, Geneva: WHO.
http://www.who.int/mental_health/policy/who_rb_mnh_hr_leg_FINAL_11_07_05.pdf
- (2003) “Breaking the ‘Love Laws’: Exploring Three Novels from Contemporary South Asian Writing”, Department of English Lecture Series, University of Colombo, 28th January 2003.
- (2001) “The Role of Commonwealth Law Schools and Law Students in Facing the Challenges of the New Millennium”, CLEA Newsletter October 2001, London: Commonwealth Legal Education Association. (Joint winner of the Commonwealth Law Students’ Essay Competition 2000.)
Selected presentations
- (2009) “Doctoring the Law: Resolving Medical Negligence Disputes in Sri Lanka”, 20th Anniversary Joint Meeting of the Onati International Institute for the Sociology of Law, July, Spain.
- (2010) Poster presentation on “Medical Negligence Claims in Sri Lanka”, Fourth International Graduate Legal Research Conference 2010, King`s College London, 16th April 2010
- Presentations within discussion groups at the CSLS in 2008, 2009 and 2010
Supervisors
Dr. Marina Kurkchiyan and Dr. David Erdos
