Flying lawyers for South Pacific nations

Press, 12 October 1982, Page 16

Flying lawyers for South Pacific nations

From

ASIF KHAN,

in Suva

A new legal service complete with "flying lawyers" is expected to be launched early next year for Commonwealth countries of the South Pacific.

Lawyers attached to the service will meet some, of the legal drafting needs of the smaller island governments and also fly to various islands from time to time from their base to carry out short-term specific assignments.

The creation of the service, to be called the Pacific Regional Legal Drafting Unit, is seen by senior law officers of the region as "a matter of the highest priority" and "a highly desirable development." The unit will help meet an urgent need for legal drafting, particularly in the smaller island states where often only one or two government lawyers have to carry out this responsibility besides their daay-to-day work, including court appearances and providing their governments with the full range of legal services.

The idea of the unit was mooted at a meeting of Pacific Islands law officers in Vanuatu last year — the first meeting

of its kind in the region. The officers met to discuss professional matters of mutual interest and concern. The meeting was attended by officers from the Cook Islands. Fiji. Kiribati. Tonga. Vanuatu, and Western Samoa, and by representatives of the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific and the Commonwealth Secretariat. It found that each country in the region was encountering extreme difficulty in providing adequate drafting facilities for their governments. The meeting concluded that the need for assistance in this field was a pressing one and that a regional approach was essential to tackle the problem. It envisaged a legal drafting service as being “highly mobile and available both to draft model legislation required by a number of countries as well as taking on ad hoc assignments from individual states.” The service should also provide training for local lawyers and personnel “in the exacting science of law drafting" in order to reduce dependence on expatriate legislative draftsmen.

The meeting led to the creation of the Pacific Islands Law Officers Forum whose members are expected to include the Cook Islands. Fiji, Kiribati. Nauru, Niue, PapuaNew Guinea, the Solomon Islands. Tokelau. Tonga, Tuvalu. Vanuatu, and Western Samoa.

Forum members will meet in Apia, Western Samoa, later this month when they will decide on the location for the unit.

Fiji and Western Samoa, which have two of the region's largest government legal services, have been at the forefront of efforts to set up the unit. A former Attorney-Gen-eral of Vanuatu, Mr Michael Gaiger of Britain, was also active in developing the proposal.

Mr Qoriniasi Bale, Fiji’s Solicitor-General, has kept in close touch with Western Samoa's Attorney-General, Mr Neroni Slade, on this and other matters of interest to the forum. Mr Bale and Mr Slade, who were both at the Vanuatu meeting, are keen for the unit to start as soon as possible.

“Were most anxious to see this unit established." said Mr Bale. "I'm very optimistic that it will be possible to bring it into existence within the first quarter of the next year. “It will meet an extremely urgent need of the region. It will be a very desirable development as far as law and law reform is concerned," he said.

The forthcoming forum meeting may welt favour Suva, the Fijian capital, as the base for the unit.

“Fiji will probably be just as good a place as any." said Mr Bale.

"It has two distinct advantages: first, we already have the Pacific Commission for Economic Co-operation here, and we could seek to take advantage of their presence and use some of their facilities.

“Second, Fiji has the biggest government legal service in the region. The unit may be able to receive some co-opera-tion in terms of access to our library and other facilities including printing.

“I have an establishment for three legal draftsmen here. These officers are very experienced and I am certain that it

should be possible for them to have consultations and discussions with lawyers of the unit whenever the need arises. That should help a lot." Mr Bale said legal drafting needs of the region were similar in most respects, and the unit could draft a fair amount of model legislation to be used with slight modifications to suit local needs in individual island states.

The unit is expected to work under the direction of the forum, which consists of permanent senior law officers of the governments of the region. “We felt the unit should work under the forum's direction to provide better co-ordi-nation and continuity. The forum is expected to set the unit's work programme and keep its progress under constant review." Mr Bale said. The unit will need at least two draftsmen to begin with. These are likely to be provided by the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Co-operation, the development arm of the Commonwealth Secretariat.

An important function of the unit is expected to be to train local lawyers, which will go a long way towards meeting the

forum’s long-term goal — helping member countries achieve self-sufficiency in this field. Mr Bale said: “We are anxious to maintain close liasion with the Secretariat and. through it. with other Commonwealth countries. Exchange of services and information between Commonwealth countries is always very useful."

He said he thought the forum would wish the Secretariat to attend its annual meetings as observers, along with the University of the South Pacific. Australia and New Zealand. The Secretariat's legal division. headed by Mr Jeremy Pope of New Zealand, has for some time been assisting Commonwealth developing countries meet their legal drafting needs by providing training facilities’for young lawyers.

The division, with the support of the technical co-opera-tion fund.. has held regular courses in legal drafting in India. Kenya and Nigeria. More than 200 draftsmen from 21 Commonwealth countries have been trained since the courses were started in 1974. Commonwealth Secretariat Feature.