Amid objections from the opposition PPP/C, the government used its majority in the National Assembly on Thursday, to pass the Law Reform Commission Bill 2015 which seeks to establish a permanent Law Reform Commission to reform and modernise Guyana’s laws.
“The laws of Guyana are long overdue for review as the majority were inherited from our colonial masters and have not been subject to reform since their inheritance,” Attorney-General Basil Williams said as he piloted the bill through its stages. “Many are archaic and irrelevant to our society,” he asserted, while emphasising that a permanent Law Reform Commission will work continuously to ensure that Guyana’s laws are fair, relevant and effective in serving and protecting the interest of the people.
The bill, along with several amendments tabled by Williams, was passed despite pleas from opposition speakers for it to be referred to a Parliamentary Special Select Committee for review.
Williams said in the past, approaches to law review in Guyana has mostly been reactive and the legislation will remedy what was an inefficient, piecemeal approach to law reform. He said the Commission will comprise no less than three and no more than seven commissioners with a chairman to be elected by and from the members of the Commission.
The bill, he said, provides for commissioners to be appointed by the President acting after consultation with the Minister of Legal Affairs.
It was this provision that caused the most contention in the House.
“Incestuous,” was how it was labelled by former AG Anil Nandlall. “What kind of consultation is that…you are talking to yourself…performing a soliloquy,” he declared. He charged that the structure of the bill centralised power in the Executive.
“The whole appointment process is done by the Executive. The commissioner who are to sit on the commissioner are selected at the discretion of the Executive with no input from extrinsic agencies and we find that objectionable,” Nandlall said.
He also claimed that like the Coroner’s Bill, the Law Reform Commission Bill mirrors the Trinidad legislation, which was passed in 1969. He was critical of the copying of legislation that is not the best suited to Guyana’s political system and legislative needs.
“The President in Trinidad is a titular president, he is non-executive. He is not a member of the Executive, so it is not the Executive who is appointing but here we have an Executive president making appointments, consulting with another member of the Executive, so it is incestuous,” Nandlall said.
“A Law Reform Commission is always an independent body and most of the Law Reform Commission legislation that exist in the world declares them to be independent. We want that to be inserted into the bill. The independence must be reflected in the constitution of the commission as well as the method by which persons are appointed to the commission,” he declared.
Former Minister of Education Priya Manickchand raised concerns that the commission once constituted may lack diversity. Citing the absence of a provision calling for diversified representation, the PPP/C parliamentarian said, “We don’t have to look very far to see what the predominant gender will be. I am worried that we will have five old men, senior citizens who will sit on a Law Reform Commission that will make laws for women and orphans…I would like to see a wider representation on this Law Reform Commission, we must see representation from different groups.”
Nandlall later clarified that the PPP/C wishes to see nominations for the Commission coming from the Chancellor of the Judiciary, and associations such as the Guyana Bar Association, the University of Guyana, the Private Sector Commission, the human rights groups and the political opposition.
Manickchand congratulated Williams on bringing to the House a bill which will construct “the mother of all commissions.”
She, however, bemoaned what she described as the failure of an administration that campaigned on promises of “transparency, accountability and democracy” to include the entirety of the legislature in the crafting of legislation. She cited several reports which recommended that “all pieces of important legislation must, as a matter of good practice and democracy, must go to the special select committee where representatives can come and have their voices heard.”
Manickchand pleaded with the government to send the bill to a select committee and said its work will not be delayed. “This is a short but important bill which (we) know is faulty and 65 heads will always be better than 33. Don’t lock us out,” she said.
The bill, according to its explanatory memorandum, seeks to establish a Law Reform Commission to undertake the reform and development of all the law applicable to Guyana by way of modification of the branches of the law, the elimination of anomalies, the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary enactments, the reduction of the number of separate enactments and generally the simplification and modernisation of the law.
