ATTORNEY-GENERAL and Minister of Legal Affairs Anil Nandlall has said that Guyana’s ongoing law revision exercise is nearing completion, and should be done by the end of this year.

Nandlall made this disclosure during his weekly show, ‘Issues in the News’, where he said that upon completion, Guyana’s law volumes will be increased from 14 to 28.

Giving a brief explanation, he stated that the revision of the Laws of Guyana entails inserting into the laws all the new laws that were passed, and inserting into the principal acts or legislation all amendments that are being passed in Parliament.

“At any given time, you have a bundle of laws that are being passed, but are not in the formal volumes of the laws, and that happens in any country. So, at periodic intervals, countries have to engage in what is called a law revision exercise, where they insert into their laws all the different pieces of legislation that would have been passed over a period of time, so that the laws become consolidated, and you can find all the laws into volumes.”

To this end, he revealed that there was a hiatus in Guyana in relation to law revision. As he explained, one such exercise was done in 1977, while another was done in 2012.

This law revision that is now underway will be for the period 2012 to 2022, which was budgetted for this year, and is now being concluded.

Covers for revised volumes are being acquired from a reputable company in the United States.

He said: “It is expected, and I have been promised that we will get the final set before the end of the year, and then of course we have to bring them to Guyana and replicate them. Currently, there are 14 volumes of the Laws of Guyana, but when this exercise is concluded, those 14 volumes will increase to 28 volumes, and we will be printing 200 sets of those 28 volumes.”

While these hard copies will be made, soft copies will also be made accessible as he noted that it is a critical achievement for a country’s laws to be updated and accessible.