LAC launches powerful legal tool
In an effort to make justice more accessible to everyday Namibians, the Legal Assistance Centre has launched an index of local laws.
The Legal Assistance Centre's launch of the ninth edition of an index of Namibian laws (Namlex 2017) was hailed as a historic moment by Chief Justice Peter Shivute Wednesday.
“As a means of providing useful and accurate information to the public at large, undoubtedly, this project provides a powerful tool for the promotion and advancement of human rights and the rule of law in the country.
“This is precisely one of the key pillars of a well-functioning democracy,” the chief justice said at the launch. Shivute congratulated the LAC's Namlex team, headed by Dianne Hubbard, for completing “this important project aimed at improving public access to accurate, up-to-date and uniform information about the laws of Namibia”.
Namlex is a compilation of the laws applicable to Namibia, organised by topic with additional information to each law that is freely available on the LAC website.
The index also provides brief additional accounts of each law, the nature and extent of its applications and provides further information such as references to rules and regulations, appointment, court cases and commentary on each law.
Shivute described the project as a “noble” one, and highlighted the fact that it originated from an initial idea by the late Advocate Anton Lubowski, a founding member of LAC.
Hubbard, who has worked on the Namlex projects for decades, praised Lubowski's foresight.
“He was far-sighted enough to realise even before Independence that Namibia was going to need a guide to the statutes in force.”
She explained that Namibia's complicated political and legal history sometimes makes it difficult to “know what law is in force” and many cases have been marred with the introduction of laws not applicable to Namibia, or similar issues.
The three databases launched yesterday, including Namlex, Namlex Appendix and Annotated Laws Update, are aimed at guiding the public through the “legal thicket” and to make Namibia's statute law and international law publicly accessible and freely available.
Attorney-General Sacky Shanghala emphasised that Namlex was key to assuring access to justice and upholding the rule of law.
“If you don't have access to the law, you don't have access to justice.”
LAC director Toni Hancox said a key ingredient of the rule of law is that it must be possible for everyone to know what the law says.
“But this is not so easy. By our last count, there were 500 different statutes which were applicable to Namibia.” Those are only the primary statutes that don't include the amendment Acts, “which would swell the number considerably if we added them to the tally”.
Also, laws change continuously, like the Income Tax Act, which has been amended 30 times since 1981, or the Merchant Shipping Act, which has been amended 34 times since 1951.
“These statutes would be very hard to fathom without tools and guidance,” Hancox said.
Hubbard described Namlex 2017 as a “Wikipedia of Namibian statutes. More than just statutes, it also lists regulations, rules, notices, cases and commentary.” The physical document of the 2017 Namlex update has reached 650 pages since Namlex was first introduced, and will continue to grow as new government gazettes are published.
The update was made possible by the US embassy with assistance of the office of the attorney-general.
The Namlex Appendix, a new addition, is an index of all the international laws which are binding on Namibia, which was completed without funding and dependent on volunteers to chip in.
As of 15 November, the list of multilateral agreements included 202 which are in force in Namibia, plus three more which will be binding on Namibia as soon as they come into force internationally. Another 22 multilateral treaties have been signed but not yet ratified by Namibia.
The annotated laws database contains updated annotated statutes and regulations. Until recently, anyone who wanted to read the actual text of a law as it stands today would either have to read the original law in the Government Gazette and then read each amending Act “trying to make sense of how they fit together.”
Alternatively, one could subscribe to often expensive commercial databases which were often incomplete and inaccurate.
The updated amended laws index is available free of charge on the LAC website.
Hubbard pointed out that the task was enormous, as there are 500 different primary statutes in force, some accompanied by more than 30 separate amending Acts. There are also 383 different sets of post-independent regulations in force.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of pages of laws in total,” she explained.
JANA-MARI SMITH
“As a means of providing useful and accurate information to the public at large, undoubtedly, this project provides a powerful tool for the promotion and advancement of human rights and the rule of law in the country.
“This is precisely one of the key pillars of a well-functioning democracy,” the chief justice said at the launch. Shivute congratulated the LAC's Namlex team, headed by Dianne Hubbard, for completing “this important project aimed at improving public access to accurate, up-to-date and uniform information about the laws of Namibia”.
Namlex is a compilation of the laws applicable to Namibia, organised by topic with additional information to each law that is freely available on the LAC website.
The index also provides brief additional accounts of each law, the nature and extent of its applications and provides further information such as references to rules and regulations, appointment, court cases and commentary on each law.
Shivute described the project as a “noble” one, and highlighted the fact that it originated from an initial idea by the late Advocate Anton Lubowski, a founding member of LAC.
Hubbard, who has worked on the Namlex projects for decades, praised Lubowski's foresight.
“He was far-sighted enough to realise even before Independence that Namibia was going to need a guide to the statutes in force.”
She explained that Namibia's complicated political and legal history sometimes makes it difficult to “know what law is in force” and many cases have been marred with the introduction of laws not applicable to Namibia, or similar issues.
The three databases launched yesterday, including Namlex, Namlex Appendix and Annotated Laws Update, are aimed at guiding the public through the “legal thicket” and to make Namibia's statute law and international law publicly accessible and freely available.
Attorney-General Sacky Shanghala emphasised that Namlex was key to assuring access to justice and upholding the rule of law.
“If you don't have access to the law, you don't have access to justice.”
LAC director Toni Hancox said a key ingredient of the rule of law is that it must be possible for everyone to know what the law says.
“But this is not so easy. By our last count, there were 500 different statutes which were applicable to Namibia.” Those are only the primary statutes that don't include the amendment Acts, “which would swell the number considerably if we added them to the tally”.
Also, laws change continuously, like the Income Tax Act, which has been amended 30 times since 1981, or the Merchant Shipping Act, which has been amended 34 times since 1951.
“These statutes would be very hard to fathom without tools and guidance,” Hancox said.
Hubbard described Namlex 2017 as a “Wikipedia of Namibian statutes. More than just statutes, it also lists regulations, rules, notices, cases and commentary.” The physical document of the 2017 Namlex update has reached 650 pages since Namlex was first introduced, and will continue to grow as new government gazettes are published.
The update was made possible by the US embassy with assistance of the office of the attorney-general.
The Namlex Appendix, a new addition, is an index of all the international laws which are binding on Namibia, which was completed without funding and dependent on volunteers to chip in.
As of 15 November, the list of multilateral agreements included 202 which are in force in Namibia, plus three more which will be binding on Namibia as soon as they come into force internationally. Another 22 multilateral treaties have been signed but not yet ratified by Namibia.
The annotated laws database contains updated annotated statutes and regulations. Until recently, anyone who wanted to read the actual text of a law as it stands today would either have to read the original law in the Government Gazette and then read each amending Act “trying to make sense of how they fit together.”
Alternatively, one could subscribe to often expensive commercial databases which were often incomplete and inaccurate.
The updated amended laws index is available free of charge on the LAC website.
Hubbard pointed out that the task was enormous, as there are 500 different primary statutes in force, some accompanied by more than 30 separate amending Acts. There are also 383 different sets of post-independent regulations in force.
“We are talking about tens of thousands of pages of laws in total,” she explained.
JANA-MARI SMITH
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