The Law Revision exercise being undertaken by the Guyana Government to update the country’s law books is slated to be completed by the end of this year.
During the recent edition of his programme – Issues in the News, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, said that monies were budgeted this year for the revision of the Laws of Guyana to bring them up to date.
That exercise, he explained, is now being concluded.
“The exercise is being done at the Law Revision Centre of the Caribbean located in Anguilla. It is expected that, and I’m being promised that we will get the final set before the end of the year. And then, of course, we have to bring them to Guyana and replicate them,” Nandlall disclosed.
According to the Legal Affairs Minister, due to the massive number of new legislations and amendments to existing ones, the Laws of Guyana volumes have now doubled to 28.
“Currently, there are 14 volumes of the Laws of Guyana but when this exercise is concluded, those 14 volumes will increase to 28 volumes. And we will be printing 200 sets of those 28 volumes. So, you see how many laws we are passing, we’ve moved from 14 volumes of the laws to 28 volumes of the laws,” the Attorney General noted.
In addition, to the hard copies, the soft copy of the revised Laws of Guyana will also be available.
Nandlall further revealed that the covers for these revised volumes are being procured from a reputable United States-based company that has produced similar covers for the law books in many states in that country.
“So, it’s a quality company. The covers are a little expensive but you have to pay for quality,” the Minister stated.
Meanwhile, AG Nandlall went on to outline the importance of undertaking such an exercise, which was last done over 10 years ago when he was in office under a previous PPP/C Administration.
“At any given time, you have a bundle of laws that being passed that 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 that would have been passed over a period of time… so that the laws become consolidated and you can find all the laws in the volumes.”
“There was a great hiatus in Guyana… One Law Revision exercise was done in 1977 and another one was not done until 2012. So, that purple book which is the Laws of Guyana was done in 2012… So, you see a massive gap there. When the 2012 exercise was completed, there were certain errors, there were certain omissions etc simply because of the volume and magnitude of the task at hand. We waited too long [to get it done],” the Attorney General stated.
This consolidation and revision initiative is a collaborative effort between the Law Revision Commission – a Unit within the Attorney General’s Chambers and Ministry of Legal Affairs – and the Improved Access to Justice in the Caribbean (IMPACT Justice) Project, a regional justice sector reform project funded by the Government of Canada to improve access to justice in the Caribbean.
The exercise is being executed by the Regional Law Revision Centre Inc (RLRC), an Anguillan company that specialises in consolidation and revision, among other things. The law revision initiative commenced in February 2022.
When the current consolidation and revision exercise is completed, the Regional Law Revision Centre will provide Guyana with completed electronic (MS Word and PDF versions) files of the Laws of Guyana as of December 31, 2022.
