GL Peiris was interviewed and featured in a documentary titled "NEELAN: UNSILENCED" released in July 2025 which discusses the constitutional reform proposals he co-authored during his time as Constitutional Affairs Minister under the Kumaratunga government.[8][9]
Joining the academic staff of theUniversity of Ceylon, he went on to become aProfessor ofLaw and the Dean of theFaculty of Law before taking office as the secondVice-Chancellor of theUniversity of Colombo following the assassination of Prof.Stanley Wijesundera during the height of the1987–89 JVP Insurrection. He served as Vice-Chancellor from 1988 to 1994, when he left to take up active politics. He had Fellowships from Universities of Oxford, Cambridge and London. He was a Rhodes Scholar of the University of Oxford (1968-1971) and All Souls College of the University of Oxford in 1980–1981. He was a visiting fellow of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies of the University of London in 1984, distinguished Visiting Fellow of Christ College, University of Cambridge and SMUTS Visiting Fellow in Commonwealth Studies at the Cambridge University (1985-1986). He was also Associate member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in 1980 and once became a Senior British Council Fellow in 1987.
Peiris was a close confidant of the former PresidentChandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga, who appointed him as a national list member of the parliament following the 1994 election. Thereafter, Mrs Kumaratunga, then Prime Minister, appointed him as Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs and Deputy Minister of Finance. He was also given the portfolio of External Trade at the start. In a subsequent Cabinet reshuffle, he was given two additional portfolios—Ethnic Affairs and National Integration—which were hitherto held by the President. During his tenure as Justice Minister, he brought in over 30 pieces of new legislation which were considered innovative and in accordance with the needs of modern times.[11]
In 2001, Peiris fell out with President Kumaratunga and defected to the opposition, effectively bringing down the government.
After leaving the PA, Peiris joined the opposition United National Party led United National Front (UNF), which captured power in the subsequent general election.[12]
When the UNF government headed by the then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe engaged in peace talks with theLiberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, Peiris was appointed as the chief negotiator.[13]
He was amongst the many who defected to the government alongsideKaru Jayasuriya in 2007 and gain ministerial portfolios.[14][15]On 9 January 2015, he shifted as opposition MP representing UPFA. In the 2015 election, he lost his seat in parliament as he was not selected from the UPFA national list.[16]
TheSLPP achieved a landslide victory in the 2020 general election and Peris was appointed to parliament from the national list and made the Minister of education. In the Cabinet reshuffle of August 2021 he was made minister of foreign affairs once again.
^"FOREIGN MINISTER".Ministry of Foreign Affairs -Sri Lanka. Government of Sri Lanka. Archived fromthe original on 19 April 2022. Retrieved19 April 2022.
