A day before the 2021 Budget was introduced, the National Assembly passed legislation to amend the Law Reform Commission Act, the main purpose of which is to keep Guyana’s laws under review for the purpose of simplification, modernization, systematic development and reform. Despite having been a Republic for fifty years, Guyana’s jurisprudence is not only heavily influenced by English common law but at least in the case of intellectual property, the country’s repealed UK law since then, remains Guyana law. .
The case for continuous law reform is so obvious that it hardly needs to be identified. Yet a review of the legislative output over the past two decades shows that our legislators have been more preoccupied with importing sometimes impractical legislation from the developed countries with their own distinct legal and cultural landscape than going address the social challenges the country faces. . The LGBT community easily comes to mind as the poster child of antiquated legislation that violates basic human rights.
The number of relatively recent secondary and secondary legislation imported with little modification is confirmed by the timescales that accompany the Budget Focus. These include: Tobacco Control Act 2017; National Payment System Act 2018; Deposit Insurance Act 2018; Cybercrime Act 2018; Witness Protection Act 2018; and the Interception of Communications Act 2019. If we needed a more dramatic example, we only realized that the legal instrument required to deal with COVID – 19 Pandemic, the Government had to resort to the Public Health Ordinance of 1934 !
To add insult to injury, most are simply “amending Acts” by the number of legislations passed annually, often serving to catch and perpetuate outdated and outdated legislation.
Contrast these with the many critical legislations that, through neglect or ignorance, have largely gone dormant and ironically we use the English word desuetude! The country’s only large-scale social security scheme has seen little improvement since its inception in 1969. The same can be said for the Co-operative Societies Act and the Friendly Societies Act, the bedrock of rural communities for decades before our enlightenment. The law must reflect society and must therefore be subject to reforms, substitutions, creativity and change. It is silly to assume that drafters of legislation rooted in a different time and place have the divine foresight to legislate for centuries and decades into the future.
It is expected that the Law Reform Commission will, through its ongoing work, redress this aspect and for this reason we are holding back our views on its proposed constitution. However, we make the following recommendations as much change and creativity for Guyana’s future as:
1. Intellectual Property: Currently such legislation does not exist at all. We are only too aware of stealing the work of our calymps and the name Demerara Sugar. As our economy is modernizing and protecting our artists, sportsmen, producers, designers, writers and manufacturers the country needs such legislation.
2. Immigration: Guyana has ancient laws that are not conducive to a modern, open society. We remember, for example, the issues with the Haitians, dual citizenship, and the like. Robust provisions to encourage expatriates, foreign investors, refugees and asylum seekers to relocate freely while at the same time having pathways to contribute to Guyana’s economy.
3. Social Security: Performance of the actual intent of the drafters of the National Insurance and Social Security Act to secure and not deny Guyana’s working population to receive financial benefits in old age, and prohibit the Plan Board from denying claims for the least. cuts by contributors.
4. Family Law: Eliminate divorce on the grounds of impairment, and enforce more on child maintenance and support for handcuffs to secure and protect the family.
5. Co-operative Societies Act: Ram & McRae believe co-operatives have a role to play especially in rural and close-knit communities. They are largely misused and are often associated with poor governance and abuse.
6. NGOs: When the Companies Act was under review, it was intended to have separate legislation for non-governmental and non-profit organizations. More than twenty years later and despite a draft Insolvency Act produced for CARICOM countries, there has been no progress.
7. Company Law: Update provisions on directorates, unanimous shareholder agreements, insolvency, winding up, outside companies and measures to improve governance and management of corporate entities.
Given the backlog of work to be done, the task is truly tremendous and will require significant professional and technical resources. Central to its success is the availability of people with the knowledge, experience and expertise to form the Commission including a full-time Chair. In addition, there are the ongoing issues of petroleum, environment and labor, the latter of which is dealt with in another essay in this section.
Unfortunately, the Budget makes inadequate provision for the type and quality of work that needs to be done and as always, we turn to the international community and multilateral financial institutions for help.