Lawyers told to modernise

Press, 26 April 1984, Page 2

Lawyers told to modernise

PA Rotorua Lawyers should not cling out of habit to concepts and systems which had served well in the past but were now inadequate, says the Commonwealth SecretaryGeneral Sir Shridath Ramphal. Addressing the Law Society’s 1984 triennial conference in Rotorua, Sir Shridath said that the times called for creativity from lawyers. He doubted if lawyers of the Commonwealth were responding adequately to new challenges. Science and technology was a modern challenge to the field of law, he said.

While other professions had sensed the dangers of technological innovation, lawyers, hampered by outdated concepts and methods, had been slow to do so.

Sir Shridath said lawyers should become more responsible members of society once they had qualified for their profession. The wider social order must be a part of every caring lawyer’s jurisdiction and its challenges for the future a part of his or her concern. He pleaded with lawyers to reject a view of the legal order only within narrow domestic walls and the complacency such a view too readily encouraged.

New Zealand had contributed precariously, but to great effect to the development of many aspects of the legal system throughout the common law world, said Sir Shridath. “Your endeavours here are closely watched and your innovation quickly borrowed.”

Sir Shridath, himself a lawyer, said there was interest abroad in the workings of New Zealand’s accident compensation scheme. He said that he understood that a hallmark of the scheme was compassion and concern for the victim, even at the expense of lucrative aspects of legal practice.