Rehan Abeyratne is an Associate Professor of Law, Executive Director of the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law (CCTL), and Deputy Director of the JD Programme at The Chinese University of Hong Kong. He teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses on the Hong Kong Legal System, Constitutional Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, and the Laws & Legal System of the United States. He was awarded the Faculty of Law’s Teaching Excellence Award in 2019.

Professor Abeyratne’s primary research area is comparative constitutional law. He is a co-editor of three forthcoming books and serves on the editorial board of the Asian Journal of Comparative Law. His published works have appeared (or will soon appear) in the International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON), Yale Journal of International Law, Global Constitutionalism, Asian Journal of Comparative Law, Texas International Law Journal, Minnesota Journal of International Law, Nebraska Law Review, Brooklyn Journal of International Law, and George Washington International Law Review, as well as in edited volumes published by Hart, Cambridge University Press, and Oxford University Press. 

Prior to joining CUHK, Professor Abeyratne was a Scholar in Residence at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University (NYU) School of Law. He has also held visiting positions at Melbourne Law School and the National University of Singapore (NUS) Faculty of Law.

From 2011-16, Professor Abeyratne was an Associate Professor of Law at the Jindal Global Law School in Delhi, India. At Jindal, he also served as Assistant Dean (Research) and as Executive Director of the Centre for Public Interest Law.  He received the Jindal Teaching Excellence Award in 2014, and the Research Excellence Award three times (2012-14). 

 

EDUCATION

• J.D. (Harvard Law School)
• B.A. (Brown University)
• Admitted to New York State Bar

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• Comparative Constitutional Law
• South Asian Constitutionalism
• Judicial Independence
• Socioeconomic Rights

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Books

• ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK ON ASIAN PARLIAMENTS (Routledge, forthcoming 2022) (edited with Po Jen Yap).
• THE LAW AND POLITICS OF UNCONSTITUTIONAL CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS IN ASIA (Routledge, forthcoming 2021) (edited with Bui Ngoc Son).
• TOWERING JUDGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGES (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2021) (edited with Iddo Porat).

Journal Articles

• Global Constitutionalism Reconfigured Through a Regional Lens, Global Constitutionalism (forthcoming 2021).
• Judicial Self-Dealing and Unconstitutional Constitutional Amendments in South Asia, International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON) (forthcoming 2021) (with Po Jen Yap).
• Enforcing Socioeconomic Rights in Neoliberal India, 29 Minnesota Journal of International Law 1 (2020).
• Uncertain Sovereignty: Ceylon as a Dominion 1948-72, 17 International Journal of Constitutional Law (I-CON) 1258 (2019).
• Ordinary Wrongs as Constitutional Rights: The Public Law Model of Torts in South Asia, 54 Texas International Law Journal 1 (2018).
• Privileging the Powerful: Religion and Constitutional Law in India, 13 Asian Journal of Comparative Law 307 (2018).
• Separation of Powers and the Potential for Constitutional Dialogue in India, 5(2) Journal of International and Comparative Law 363 (2018) (with Didon Misri).
• Giving Structure to the Basic Structure Doctrine, 1(2) Indian Law Review 182 (2017).
• Upholding Judicial Supremacy in India: The NJAC Judgment in Comparative Perspective, 49 George Washington International Law Review 569 (2017).
• Al Maqaleh and the Diminishing Reach of Habeas Corpus, 95 Nebraska Law Review 146 (2016).
• Rethinking Judicial Independence in India and Sri Lanka, 10 Asian Journal of Comparative Law 99 (2015).
• Insular and Inconsistent: India’s Naz Foundation Judgment in Comparative Perspective, 39 Yale Journal of International Law Online 74 (2014) (with Nilesh Sinha).
• Socioeconomic Rights in the Indian Constitution: Toward a Broader Conception of Legitimacy, 39 Brooklyn Journal of International Law 1 (2014).
• Domestic Violence Legislation in India: The Pitfalls of a Human Rights Approach to Gender Equality, 21 American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law 333 (2013) (with Dipika Jain).
• Superior Responsibility and the Principle of Legality at the ECCC, 44 George Washington International Law Review 39 (2012).  

Book Chapters

• Introduction – Towering Judges: A Conceptual and Comparative Analysis, in TOWERING JUDGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGES (Rehan Abeyratne and Iddo Porat eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2021) (with Iddo Porat).
• PN Bhagwati and the Transformation of India’s Judiciary, in TOWERING JUDGES: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CONSTITUTIONAL JUDGES (Rehan Abeyratne and Iddo Porat eds., Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2021).
• More Structure, More Deference: Proportionality in Hong Kong, in PROPORTIONALITY IN ASIA (Po Jen Yap ed., Cambridge University Press, 2020).
• Judicial Appointments in Sri Lanka: A Politicized Trajectory, in THE MOST POWERFUL COURT IN THE WORLD: APPOINTMENT OF JUDGES TO THE SUPREME COURT OF INDIA (Arghya Sengupta and Ritwika Sharma eds., Oxford University Press, 2018).
• Socioeconomic Rights, Human Dignity, and Constitutional Legitimacy in India, in HUMAN DIGNITY IN CONTEXT (Dieter Grimm, Alexandra Kemmerer, and Christoph Mollers eds., Nomos/Hart, 2018).
• Judicial Independence and the Rise of the Supreme Court in India, in ASIA-PACIFIC JUDICIARIES: INDEPENDENCE, IMPARTIALITY AND INTEGRITY (H.P. Lee and Marilyn Pittard eds., Cambridge University Press, 2017).
• Asia as the Laboratory of the Superior Responsibility Doctrine, in TRIALS FOR INTERNATIONAL CRIMES IN ASIA (Kirsten Sellars ed., Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• Centralising Authority: Executive Power in India and Sri Lanka, in REFORMING SRI LANKAN PRESIDENTIALISM: PROVENANCE, PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS (Asanga Welikala ed., Centre for Policy Alternatives, 2015).