Sunday Times 2
Professor Thamilmaran: His legal expertise and academic journey
View(s):Having been his student (of MHR & PhD) over nine years (2006-2015), I consider it a great honour and privilege to pen this article to felicitate Professor V.T. Thamilmaran, an eminent scholar and well-known legal expert, who has contributed to inspire and mentor many young and upcoming academics and professionals. He has been promoted to the post of professor by the University of Colombo.
Prof. Thamilmaran
V.T. Thamilmaran was born in Pungudutivu in 1955 and had his primary education at Velanai Central College and secondary education at Vaideshwara College, Jaffna. He entered the Law Faculty of the University of Colombo in April 1976 and completed his undergraduate career in 1979 by topping the batch with exceptional merit, a rare feat at that time. In 1980, he started his academic career as an Assistant Lecturer and obtained his LLM and MPhil in Human Rights Law from the University of Colombo. He has been a Fellow of the State University of New York at Buffalo, USA and the University of Alberta, Canada. He is the second Tamil to obtain a professorship at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo after Professor T. Nadaraja, the Founder Dean of the Faculty.
Prof. Thamilmaran has shown great interest in International Law. Since 1980, his main research focus was on International Law and Human Rights Law. His research work is aimed at critiquing the understanding of these laws from a Third World perspective. This approach has not only been keenly studied by western scholars but also invoked interesting academic debate. His research has been cited by many western scholars to show the difference in approach with which they either are in agreement or otherwise.
In addition, his research interests have been in a number of other areas in Sri Lanka such as Peaceful Coexistence, Rights of Minorities and Sub-Minority Communities, Ethnic Harmony and Domestic Constitutional Law which are of high legal value either on a national scale or in the international arena. Prof. Thamilmaran’s contribution to the advancement and dissemination of legal knowledge in Sri Lanka is equally praiseworthy as he teaches in both English and Tamil with equal eloquence and competence. He has shared his immense knowledge in International Law and Human Rights Law with a generation of students who now occupy the higher echelons in many fields.
Further, he has served in many expert committees locally and abroad. After Prof. G.L. Peiris, Prof. Thamilmaran is the only person from the academic field who has been invited to serve in the Council of Legal Education of Sri Lanka. Prof. Thamilmaran was a pioneer in teaching law in Tamil and helped to coin many glossary terms in Tamil and enrich it with legal terms. During my studentship, I have observed him as a true professional with loaded knowledge and experience. He keeps on emphasising that there should not be any gap between preaching and practising. The way that he treated his students in the class is a classic example of his firm belief in human rights and value based education.
There is no doubt that Prof. Thamilmaran is an erudite scholar and an academic of the highest calibre. He is the author of more than 30 research papers published in peer reviewed journals locally and abroad and ten books in English and Tamil. He has also made more than 50 presentations in international forums.
Prof. Thamilmaran’s high calibre of research is also evident from the research collaborations he had with eminent legal experts worldwide. He managed to secure financial assistance for research through international competitive research grants. Prof. Thamilmaran has been a supervisor/co-supervisor for a good number of postgraduate students from both local and foreign universities, besides supervising my own MHR and PhD theses. He is also the in-country advisor for students visiting Sri Lanka on exchange programmes between the University of Colombo and foreign universities.
Above all, being the most sought after law teacher, he is regularly invited by several National Law Schools in India. His expert knowledge in International Law, Human Rights Law, Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence has taken him to many law schools across the globe. His philosophical approach to legal issues and the method of demystifying theories by relating them to current issues are excellent and I don’t think any law teacher of our times has such exceptional talent and knowledge.
Prof. Thamilmaran has served as the Head of Department, Dean of the Law Faculty and carries 38 years of exemplary career record.
Great teachers groom their students to become leaders, and inspire them to seek their own path. They encourage the students to discover their own talents. This is what Prof. Thamilmaran has instilled in us. It is interesting to note that many of his students are in the process of becoming professors in the days ahead. He surely possesses the characteristics of a law professor with such clarity of thought, expertise in the field of law, marvellous teaching ability and crosscutting interdisciplinary knowledge.
I ever remain grateful to Prof. Thamilmaran for his guidance and encouragement to carry out my research activities leading to my doctoral studies and their successful completion. None of his students would deny that it is a golden opportunity for anyone to sit in his class as a student of law, peace studies, international relations or political theory. The simplicity of this great mind should enlighten the academic path of thousands more in the future as well.
Dr. Yousuf K. Marikkar,
Ex-Acting Chairman, Export Development Board