Gov’t to complete revision of laws, reports by year-end – AG
The government is preparing to complete the revision of laws and law reports by December as part of its function of ensuring that the laws of Guyana are adequately updated, consolidated, and easily accessible.
So far, the law revision process has made significant progress.
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, SC, said the law revision process is a massive undertaking, especially against the backdrop of the copious pieces of legislation passed over the years.
“The revision process entails inserting into the laws all the new laws we are passing and inserting into the principle acts or legislation all the amendments that are being passed in the parliament. At any given time, we have a bundle of laws that are being passed but are not in the formal volumes of the laws. So, at periodic intervals, countries have to engage in what is called a law revision exercise where they insert into their laws all the different pieces of legislation they would have passed,” the AG said during his recent weekly televised programme, Issues in the News.
He recalled that the last exercise of this nature was conducted in 2012, and prior to that in 1977.
“When the 2012 exercise was completed, there were certain errors, omissions, etc, simply because of the volume and the magnitude of the task at hand,” AG Nandlall pointed out.
He noted that it is crucial that the country’s laws are updated, comprehensive, and accurate to reflect the transforming legal landscape. This would ensure, he said, the realisation of the national vision of overhauling and modernising Guyana’s legislative infrastructure.
The exercise is being conducted through a collaborative effort of the Attorney General’s Chambers, the Ministry of Legal Affairs, and the Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project, and is being executed by the Regional Revision Centre Inc. in Anguilla.
“We are now completing another set of law revisions, from 2012 to 2022. The covers are being acquired from the United States of America, from a very reputable company producing covers for the laws of many states in the US. The exercise is being done at the law revision centre of the Caribbean, which is located in Anguilla. It is expected that we will get the final set before the end of the year, and then we have to bring them to Guyana and replicate them,” he added.
Meanwhile, currently, there are 14 volumes of the Laws of Guyana. After the law revision exercise is completed, the number of volumes will increase to 28.
“We will be printing 200 sets of those 28 volumes. It is a critical achievement for a country’s laws to be updated and accessible, and that is what we are doing. When we speak about modernising Guyana, that is part and parcel of modernising the country,” the AG noted.
Guyana’s law reports are also slated to be completed by year-end.
A country’s law reports contain important cases that have been decided by the courts. These cases are recorded and kept in volumes to serve as precedent for future similar cases. Compiling these cases in volumes ensures accessibility, and facilitates ease and consistency in the judicial process.
“The last time these reports were done was between 1977 to 2007. Now, the reports are being done from 2008 to 2021. This is very tedious and time-consuming work, and it is work that our government is committed to doing. These are initiatives and things that have never been done in Guyana on a regular basis,” the legal affairs minister pointed out.
In the 2023 budget, some $600 million was allocated to finance these and several other initiatives aimed at advancing the constitutional and law reform processes.