BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – A 13-volume compilation of the Laws of St. Christopher and Nevis, dubbed the New Revised Edition Laws of St. Christopher and Nevis, was officially launched on Tuesday (Mar. 23) at Government House, Springfield.
Held under the distinguished patronage of the Governor-General, Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, the set of books was unveiled before Prime Minister Dr. the Hon. Denzil L. Douglas, other ministers of government and civil servants, High Court judge His Lordship Francis Belle, Chief Magistrate Her Worship Josephine Mallelieu-Webbe and other legal luminaries.
The launch comes some eight years after the genesis of the Law Revision project which saw the revised and consolidated publication of the laws and their amendments of the Federation as at 2002. Commencing in that year during the tenure of His Excellency Delano Bart, former Attorney General (AG) to St. Christopher and Nevis, the life of the project stretched over the terms of three AGs, concluding under the Hon. Patrice Nisbett.
With the last such undertaking occurring some 50 years ago, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs Rylliss Vasquez said that the current exercise was undertaken of necessity.
“Since then, there has been countless amendments and a plethora of new legislation that have been placed onto our statue books. I believe it would be safe to say that even from a layman’s point of view it was imperative that this law revision exercise had to be undertaken. In these times of rapid changes in the global, economic and social climate, the government of this Federation has demonstrated that it fully understands the need to create an environment that is firmly rooted and protected by the rule of law. It is for this reason that no financial or human resources were spared in the accomplishment of what we have before us today.”
The New Revised Edition of the Laws of St. Christopher and Nevis, according to AG Nisbett, contains laws that are enforced as at the ending of 2002 and “shall be the authoritative source of all the laws of the Federation of St. Christopher and Nevis in respect of all written law contained in the edition”.
He however advised that the compilation would not operate as new law but as a declaratory of written law.
“I wish to draw to the attention of the legal profession that in accordance with the provisions of Section 18 and 19 of the Law Revision Act number nine of 1986, the revised (edition) of the laws of St. Christopher and Nevis, shall not be held to operate as new laws, but shall be construed and have effect as a consolidation and a declaratory of the written law that have been revised and published therein and shall not be construed as a legislative endorsement of any judicial interpretation of a pre-existing law.”
The government’s principal legal advisor indicated that the recent compilation is by no means the end of his ministry’s task as it relates to consolidated law. He informed that, to this end, his ministry is currently in the process of preparing a “single seven-year loose-leaf supplement which is intended to update our laws up to the 31st December 2009”, and is also preparing the “Ordinance of Nevis including Statutory Rules and Orders so that they could be included in the revised edition of the laws of St, Christopher and Nevis.”
“Our strategy is to update the edition such that by the end of next year our laws should be out of date by just one year. This will be a good achievement and a target which should be sustained in future when annual supplements are being prepared.”
The 13-piece set was unveiled by Prime Minister Douglas, AG Nisbett and Law Revision Commissioner Sewano Israel Mukasa.
