|
CJ
urges drafters to come out with clear laws
Accra, July 9, GNA - The Chief Justice, Mrs. Justice
Georgina Theodora
Wood, on Monday called on legislative drafters to come out
with laws which
are explicit, clear and easily understood so that they could
be obeyed by
the public.
Mrs. Justice Wood noted that if many people understood and
obeyed laws, there would be less infraction, thereby
reducing the numerous cases before
the courts.
Addressing 25 participants at this year's Commonwealth
Legislative Drafting Course for African Jurisdiction in
Accra, Mrs. Wood appealed to them to assist their respective
countries to draft concise, precise, clear, unambiguous,
direct and simple laws that could be easily understood and
interpreted to uphold the rule of law.
The training programme is in response to the request made by
Commonwealth countries to redress the perennial shortage of
legislative drafters.
Mrs. Wood noted that legislative drafting was a very
important subject because it affected all arms of
government.
"Indeed, the product of the work of legislative draftsmen
and women is
even more important to the general public as it is
transformed from bills to statutes through Parliament."
According to her, the public, corporate bodies and
institutions organized their business and conduct in
accordance with law, that is, statute law.
In this regard, the Chief Justice said modern approach to
simplify language used in legislative drafting was highly
commendable.
Mrs. Justice Wood said judges were also interested in the
work of draftsmen and women as well as legislators because
statutes formed an important tool in their judicial
profession, as they were to uphold, apply and interpret
laws.
She told the participants that their involvement would
impact on the society.
"The domino effect of the rule of law is clearly noticeable
and democratic governance leads to political stability."
"For developing economies, that in turn paves the way for
increased foreign direct investments, economic growth and
development and consequently poverty reduction."
Mr Kwame Osei-Prempeh, Deputy Attorney-General and Minister
of Justice, said one of the problems of jurisdictions was
the inability to draft laws and urged participants to take
advantage of the training programme to sharpen their skills
and become experts in drafting of laws.
Mr Osei-Prempeh said law was a source of light for every
nation hence the need to train more drafters to facilitate
good governance.
Mrs Betty Mould-Iddrisu, Director, Legal and Constitutional
Affairs of the Commonwealth Secretariat, said the shortage
of drafters did not only affect commonwealth countries but
the Caribbean and the Pacific states as well.
She said the Commonwealth Secretariat was therefore holding
programmes of drafting at the request of Law Ministers.
Mrs. Mould-Iddrisu appealed to the Ministry of Justice to
upgrade the
Ghana School of Law Library with materials for research as
well as computers with Internet facilities.
GNA
|
