Minister challenges law-makers to respond to society’s expectations

THE management and staff of the Constitutional and Law Reform Commission have been challenged to respond to the expectations of society.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice Davis Steven visited the CLRC office on Monday.
“After 42 years, the challenge for us in law-making is to respond to what society expects of us,” he said.
“This office is an important part of that process. It does the research, it reacts to public responses to intended legislation and then frames the laws for us to debate.
“I’m going to review all existing instructions and come up with a fresh list of legislation with Dr Eric Kwa and the new chairman.”
Steven said the focus was to review all archives and old legislations depending on priorities and relevance.
He also wants the sector to start “forward-looking, futuristic legislation”.
“While it’s important to modernise our laws, the nation sits on laws and it will only move forward with the quality of laws that we pass,” he said.
He said it was also encouraging to note the spirit of public discussion and debate on important constitution laws that the Government intended to bring to parliament.
“That’s aside from the fact that the constitutions require broader community consultation before the legislation is actually processed.”