Lawyers encouraged to consider publishing materials

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By SAMUEL BARIASI
PAPUA New Guinea has seen a decline in its lawyers’ ability to research and articulate ideas in writing, says Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Davis Steven.
“One of the easiest ways of reviving this culture is to give our young lawyers the ability to consider publishing materials,” he said.
Steven made these remarks at the launch of the Attorney–General’s Law Journal (Vol 1) on Wednesday in Port Moresby.
“The standard of lawyering is quite low at the moment, judgment writing is either very slow or just not there,” he said.
“My vision is for Government lawyers to have pride in themselves and restore professionalism because our people look down on them.
“The Government’s continuous struggle to improve law and order comes down to many different interventions, getting our lawyers to be committed to the rule of law, by upholding and practising is one way to address that.”
Steven said the journal was part of an initiative to increase the quality of lawyering and change the profession’s perceptions.
Department of Justice and Attorney–General (DJAG) secretary Dr Eric Kwa said the journal consisted of three parts: legal discussions, case notes and book reviews.
“The first part consists of legal discussions for lawyers who want to discuss legal issues,” Kwa said.
“The second part consists of case notes, these are short papers on very significant cases that made breakthroughs in our legal system. The third part includes book reviews of books published by Papua New Guinean scholars.”