Professor Sharya Scharenguivel is currently Emeritus Professor of Law and former Dean, Professor of Law, Head of Department and Head Department of Private and Comparative Law at the Faculty of Law, University of Colombo. She was also the Director of the Human Rights Centre of the University of Colombo. She has won several scholarships, fellowships and awards including the Benian’s Fellowship at St John’s College Cambridge, the Inns of Court Fellowship and visiting fellowships at Balliol College Oxford and Clare Hall Cambridge. She has being a  Board member of several organizations, outside of the University of Colombo including the National Child Protection Authority; the  Law Commission. She was a Member of Sectoral Committee on Family Law; the Committee on Muslim Law Reforms, the National Action Plan for Children and currently serves on the National Group of Sri Lanka in the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the Family Law Advisory Committee, She also serves as a Board member of the Law and Society Trust and as a Senior Advisor to Verite Research. She has published two books entitled Marriage Breakdown and the Duty of Support (1984) and Parental and State Responsibility for Children: The Development of South African and Sri Lankan Law(2006) She has also co authored with Prof Lakshman Marasinghe a book entitled Compilation of Selected Aspects of the Special Laws of Sri Lanka (2015) and has also edited ‘Contract of Employment Cases and Commentaries’(.2010) More recently she was co editor of Perspectives of Constitutional Reform in Sri Lanka (2021) with Dr. Hiran Jayewardene. She also has over 30 publications in journals, 15 seminar papers and reports, and about 25 guest lectures and presentations to her credit. Prof. Sharya Scharenguivel, daughter of the owners of the De Soysa House, Cecil and Chloe de Soysa.