Opportunities for Regional Cooperation in Law Reform Professor David Weisbrot AM President,...
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Opportunities for Regional Cooperation in Law Reform Professor David Weisbrot AM President, Australian Law Reform Commission ALRAC 2008, Port Vila, 11 Sept 2008
Transcript of Opportunities for Regional Cooperation in Law Reform Professor David Weisbrot AM President,...
Opportunities for Regional Cooperation
in Law ReformProfessor David Weisbrot AM
President, Australian Law Reform CommissionALRAC 2008, Port Vila, 11 Sept 2008
ALRAC 2008
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LRAs Across the Commonwealth …• England and Wales (1965),
Scotland, Northern Ireland, Ireland
• Canada (federally + most provinces)
• Caribbean: Jamaica, T&T
• Asia: India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong
• South Africa, Namibia, Malawi, Lesotho, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania (Botswana planning for 2009)
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ALRAC / Oceania
• Australia: Cth, NSW, Vic, WA and Qld LRCs; NT LRC’ee, Tas LRI
• NZ LC
• PNG LRC CLRC (entrenched in Const)
• Solomon Islands LRC
• Nauru CRC
• AG’s/SG’s offices: Tonga, Vanuatu, Kiribati
• Role for Unis (USP, UPNG, NUS)?
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Institutional law reform charters• Systematically develop and reform law, by:
- Adapting the law to current conditions, needs- Removing defects, and obsolete or unnecessary laws- Simplifying the law- Adopting new or more effective methods of
administering the law and dispensing justice- Improving access to justice- Consolidating, harmonising laws
• While having regard to:- Personal rights and liberties, the ICCPR, Australia’s
international obligations - The costs of gaining access to, and dispensing, justice
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Now more of a ‘think tank’• ALRC the Australian Government’s ‘think tank’
for major legal and policy issues:– black letter (marine insurance, legal professional
privilege)
– socio-legal (Aboriginal custom, multiculturalism, women and the law, ageing population, privacy)
– harmonisation (evidence, privacy)
– ‘over the horizon’ issues (genetic privacy and discrimination, gene patenting)
• PNG and others also have constitutional review and reform dimension
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The Promise of Law Reform
• Federation Press, 2005
• ALRC 30th anniversary project
• 30 chapters on all aspects of law reform (Australia and internationally)
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Sawer’s four attributes (1970)
The ‘new principle of law reform’ involves a body with four attributes:
permanent
full-time
independent, and
authoritative
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Attributes of a 21stC LR agency
To survive and thrive, a modern Law Reform Agency also must be:
generalist;
interdisciplinary;
consultative; and
implementation-minded.
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Generalist• Should be prepared to work in any area of
law or procedure – including (especially?) outside of the comfort
zone, and pull in specialist expertise.
• Particularly well placed to:– monitor dispersed reform activity; – provide some coherence to the general
project of law reform;– promote harmonisation, complementarity;– transcend specialist categories.
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Authoritative• Reform must proceed from a platform of
outstanding, meticulous scholarship• A Report should have independent and enduring
value as an authoritative text, beyond the specific recommendations– eg ALRC reports on Evidence, Admiralty, Genetics,
Sentencing, Privacy
• ALRC website figures highlight demand: older reports still heavily requested– eg Recognition of Aboriginal Customary Laws (1986)
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Interdisciplinary
• International and comparative approaches
• Work on complex issues at the intersection of law and social policy
• Manage sophisticated empirical and multidisciplinary research
– something courts (eg) cannot do
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Tailored consultation
• Deep commitment to public consultation = the essential and distinguishing feature
• Challenge in designing effective consultation
• Properly done, confers benefits:– for those consulted; – for the process of law reform; and – enhanced effectiveness and acceptability of the
law once reformed.
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Tailoring outcomes• not all issues and disputes are ‘legal’
• appreciation of the complexity of social institutions and problems, and of competing interests
• power much more diffused, and not entirely invested in the government
• seeking practical, low cost solutions
• meeting increased desire for direct participation in civil society and in public policy-making.
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ALRC Cooperation Efforts
• Hosting attachments, on-site training (usually 1-4 weeks) – Singapore Law Review and Reform Division– Malawi LRC– Lesotho LRC– Kenya LRC– PNG CLRC– Solomon Islands LRC
• On-site training programs– for PNG CLRC (Moresby), – for Brazil INQJ (Sao Paolo, Rio and Brasilia)
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Program at PNG CLRC 2/07
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Training session at PNG CLRC
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Training session at PNG CLRC …/ 2
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Training session at PNG CLRC … /3
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SILRC @ the ALRC - Dec 2007
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SILRC in Sydney - Dec 2007 … 2/
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SILRC in Sydney - Dec 2007 … 3/
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ALRC Cooperation Efforts … 2/
• Meetings (2005-)– Bangladesh, Indonesia, Japan, China, Vietnam,
Philippines, Macau, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Kazakhstan, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, NZ, Sweden, Fiji, Solomon Islands, PNG
• Provision of materials– consultation papers, reports– Research design, empirical methodology
(Brazil, HK re civil justice)
• Support for CALRAs (website etc)
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CALRAS.org
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For further information• ALRC website – all papers,
reports available online (free):
www.alrc.gov.au• Email: [email protected]
• GPO Box 3708, Sydney 2001
