Barbados Today

Independent Senator Sir Trevor Carmichael today laid a strong case for Government to establish a Law Revision Commission, as the Upper House debated the Magistrates’ Courts (Amendment) Bill 2016.

Lamenting that much of the island’s legislation had not kept pace with social developments, he suggested there was no better gift as Barbados celebrates 50 years of Independence.

“We can improve the situation if we give serious consideration to a Law Revision Commission.

“It is a commission which looks, based on specialized advice, at how laws can be revised and it is an ongoing process; so it is feeding Government on a regular basis with a revision of laws.”

Stressing that Government should request a paper on a commission, Sir Trevor said the idea originated in the 17th century, and similar bodies were still being used by developed countries and in the Caribbean.

“Within our neighbourhood, The Bahamas and Bermuda have set up functioning law review commissions. They have functioned so well in these other places that we could give them a try,” Sir Trevor told fellow senators, adding that these committees were goods model of success.

Stressing that the commission was not a body of lawyers, he expressed confidence that Barbados was not only well positioned to established its own, given the an abundance of well-suited professionals, but that it would easily attract funding.

“We are again blessed in Barbados with a cadre of skilled, enlightened, gifted and talented men and women who are capable of serving on the review commission.

“And I go further to suggest that if we set up a Law Review Commission we would have no difficulty in getting it funded because these are the type of projects that the regional bodies like to fund,” he said.