Traditional law documented

THE Constitutional and Law Reform Committee (CLRC) has engaged 30 law students at the University of PNG to document traditional laws and practices.
Secretary Dr Eric Kwa said the arrangement is for a period of three years for the students to conduct research and collect data of customary laws and practices during their holidays.
“As we are growing as a nation, we must strengthen and promote our traditional values and customs,” Dr Kwa said.
“Under the Constitution of Papua New Guinea, the CLRC is required to monitor the development of the underlying law.”
The Underlying Law Act (2000) defines customary law as “the customs and usages of the indigenous inhabitants of the country existing in relation to the matter in question at the time when and the place in relation to which the matter arises, regardless of whether or not the custom or usage has existed from time immemorial.
“According to the Underlying Law Act 2000, all the provinces are required to declare their customary laws.
“Since 2000, we did not have any provincial government declaring a customary law of the province or a language group.” Dr Kwa said that with this arrangement, the students would go back to their homes during the holidays and conduct research, collect data and record the different customary laws and practices that the country has.
“By working with the students, to see if we can roll out the programme to implement this constitutional mandate by first of all starting to record the customary laws.
“We hope that when we record the customary laws, we can work with the provincial government to declare a customary law for a particular local level government or a particular language group.
“Then compiling them together in forming a provincial law for either bride price, landownership, burial or on how to relate to each other when there is a dispute.”