DECEMBER 9 — Federal Court Judge Datuk Mary Lim Thiam Suan’s remarks delivered at the Faculty of Law, University of Malaya on December 4 are most timely.
Her Ladyship said that we need to have an independent Law Reform Commission (LRC) to undertake reforms of our laws.
To be sure, and with the greatest of respect, the call has been made for over a decade now. In the last decade alone, the call for an independent LRC has been made by an academic (Associate Professor Dr Azmi Shahrom), a former Court of Appeal judge and now lawyer (Mohd Hishamudin Yunus) and a former deputy minister and former lawyer (Mohamed Hanipa Maidin) — that is, across the legal fraternity.
Like Datuk Mary Lim, all of them have called for revision of our laws. Not the type of revision under that “little-known Act called the Revision of Laws Act of 1968 or Act 1”, which in essence is an exercise, as explained by Datuk Mary Lim — herself a former Commissioner of Law Revision (CLR) — “of updating our laws and keeping in our treasury only those laws which are still in force with language in tandem with current legislation.”
There is more to an independent LRC. “R” is for reform and not mere revision. The former is the “systematic development and reform, including the elimination of anomalies, the repeal of obsolete and unnecessary [legislation], the reduction of the number of separate [legislation] and generally the simplification and modernisation of the law.” (see Section 3 of the UK Law Commission Act 1965)
Act 1 is archaic, as much as provisions on coercion [section 15 of the Contracts Act] are, as said by Datuk Mary Lim.
Many will agree wholeheartedly with the learned Federal Court Judge that the country needs an LRC.
It’s now over to the prime minister’s adviser on law and human rights, former deputy Dewan Rakyat Speaker Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said to advise the prime minister.
*This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
