THE need for modernising and constantly updating justice systems is inevitable, because of the dynamics of societal development whereby conditions constantly change. Therefore all countries, whether developed or developing ones seek to continuously upgrade their justice systems in accordance with changes in their respective societies. Unfortunately in the latter case, many of those countries still have archaic justice systems or lag seriously behind in bringing their justice systems in line with modern trends. This of course is not because of neglect (in most cases) but rather a lack of human and financial resources. As a result, in most developing countries, the justice system is far from what is desirable or acceptable.

But even in many developed countries, where resources are not a constraint, the justice systems are a far cry from what they should be.
US Attorney General Eric Holder earlier this year in an article: ‘Broken’ Justice System Needs ‘Sweeping’ Changes, Reforms To Mandatory Minimum made some interesting observations called for “sweeping, systemic changes” to the American judicial system on Monday, urging “a frank and constructive dialogue about the need to reform a broken system.”
He said that as part of that effort, the Justice Department will no longer list drug quantities in indictments of certain low-level drug offenders, allowing defendants who lack ties to gangs, violence and large-scale drug-trafficking organisations to avoid harsh mandatory minimums, Holder announced during the Monday speech before the American Bar Association.
“We must ensure that our most severe mandatory minimum penalties are reserved for serious, high-level, or violent drug traffickers,” Holder wrote in a three-page memo outlining the changes for federal prosecutors. “In some cases, mandatory minimum and recidivist enhancement statutes have resulted in unduly harsh sentences and perceived or actual disparities that do not reflect our Principles of Federal prosecution. Long sentences for low-level, non-violent drug offences do not promote public safety, deterrence, and rehabilitation.
Here in Guyana, because of many decades of neglect and where during the era of dictatorship under the doctrine of paramountcy of the party our judicial system continuously went on a downslide to a point where the flag of the then ruling party flew over the Court of Appeal building. And there was blatant political interference as regards the outcome of court rulings as well as rampant corruption.
But physical infrastructure also deteriorated terribly and the building of the Supreme Court-an historic building-was reduced to a sad state as well as most other court buildings and related facilities.
The current government ever since it came into office, in recognition of the sad state of the judicial system, has been making constant efforts at improving it and significant strides have been made so far, although there is much more to be done.
In this regard, the Government of Guyana, in collaboration with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), recently conducted an exit workshop for the US$25M Modernisation of the Justice Administration System (MJAS).
The project, which was lauded by speakers at the forum for its many achievements, is the first comprehensive approach to reform the justice system in Guyana and yielded results such as the updating of law reports from 1977 to 2007; digitisation of the paper records from the years 1930 to 1976 and the revision of the laws of Guyana from 1977 to 2010.
Additionally, the initiative facilitated the installation of management information and file-management systems for files at the High Court; strengthened institutional capacity through training;advanced infrastructural development and the provision of modern equipment for various institutions within the justice process.
Attorney General(AG) and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Anil Nandlall, said the undertaking has laid the foundation for justice reform in Guyana and they all can be proud of its achievements.
“This project was the first attempt at a comprehensive approach to reform the justice sector of our country, with the aim of injecting a collective approach to cross-cutting sector challenges,” he explained.
Certainly this is a major step in the direction of bringing our judicial system in accordance with international standards; and one would hope that as the AG noted, the foundation has been laid to now accelerate and institutionalise modern systems and practices in the justice sector.