January 24, 2013, Guyana compiles updated law volumes, by Latoya Giles,

January 24, 2013, Guyana compiles updated law volumes, by Latoya Giles,

The Ministry of Legal Affairs through its Project Secretariat for the Modernization of the Justice Administration System (MJAS) project yesterday launched the highly anticipated Law Reports of Guyana.

The event which was held at the Sleep-In International Hotel was graced by President Donald Ramotar, who gave the feature address. In attendance also were the Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall and Justice Claudette Singh who heads the Justice Improvement Programme.


The newly released law reports.

Minister Nandlall said that the Law Reports in any society is very instrumental to the development of Jurisprudence to the development of the law and to the advancement of law. He said that is the undisputed fact in any country.

According to Nandlall every country has ensured that its law reports are kept in a permanent form. He said that Guyana’s legal system embraces the rule within which courts must act. It is important that we have a report of what is decided to in our country, he added.

He said that this helps people within the country to know that the system doesn’t work erratically. According to Nandlall this helps with predictably in society.

The Courts have now filled in the lapse of over 30 years, since the law books span from 1977 to 2007. He said that this would be a continued practice. There is also an online version of the law books. He added that overseas-based Guyanese can get a chance to read the books.

Country Representative for the Inter American Development Bank, Ms Sophie Makonnen, said that the bank would continue to support ventures like this. She explained that the bank continues to support countries with projects such as this, to help strengthen justice.

According to Ms Makonnen, the IDB has been doing this for several years now. She said that the programme started in 2007 and was expected to have been completed in 2001. The representative said that the bank continues to be committed to strengthening country.

President Donald Ramotar said that the Law Reports will serve as an important research tool. He said that over the years Government has been making significant strides in improving the judiciary. He noted that the government has replaced a number of judicial buildings as a means of improving the system.

According to the President there is a direct link between the Scio economic system and the judiciary. The President yesterday also sought to encourage Judges to write their decisions in a timely manner.

He said that people deserve to have the decisions in good time and have it known. The President said that the government is also working on increasing the complement of judges. He said that it is sometimes painstaking to have people waiting on a decision for too long.

The Law Reports was compiled and edited for the years 1977 to 2007 as one aspect of the Modernisation of the Justice Administration System project. The MJAS Project is funded by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) by way of a Loan to the Government of Guyana (GoG) and is implemented by the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

The MJAS programme was designed as a hybrid facility comprising a policy based component supported by a policy based loan of US$15M. A further investment and technical support component supported by an investment loan of US$10M was given. The investment component was intended to help implement the policy reform programme and also support initial capacity building activities in the justice sector institutions.