Martineau critical of Government — Acts out of print, or not for sale

SENIOR COUNSEL Russell Martineau has once again appealed to the Government to make every effort to have enough copies of all the laws printed and made available to the public. Speaking at the launch of the Tax Appeal Board’s first volume of cases at the Crowne Plaza on Monday night, Martineau said the State had fallen short in making laws available to the public. He pointed out that many Acts of Parliament were out of print or not on sale. “The Government printery does not have copies of them. This is an old problem and I cannot understand why it is not being addressed satisfactorily.” Martineau, President of the Law Association continued, “For decades, the copies of legislation that are printed by the Government printery have been too few.

“Despite representations from the Law Association, the tragic situation continues. I take this opportunity to make one more appeal to Government to ensure that enough copies of all laws are printed and made available to the public.” Martineau delivered the feature address at the launch of the Board’s first volume of laws covering the period 1967 to 1977. A wide-cross section of the legal fraternity attended including Justice Rolston Nelson, who was recently appointed to the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Martineau said the publication by the Tax Appeal Board was timely, given the recent establishment of the University of Trinidad and Tobago and the coming on stream of the CCJ.

He pointed out that the book contains material for people including judges, lawyers, law students, accountants, insurance companies, businessmen and public officers. Martineau said with the establishment of the CCJ in Trinidad, this country must take the lead and deve-lop a vibrant legal community where research and scholarship are the order of the day. He said the State has a responsibility to at least encourage, not disappoint the legal fraternity, judges, lawyers and other jurists in their efforts to promote literacy in legal matters. “As things stand now, many of our law libraries fall short of what is required of them. Many important publications are absent from their shelves and many of the reports that are present are not up to date. We must not lag behind. We are already too far behind.

Mine is a clarion call for the State and all lawyers to make a special effort to promote literacy in the law, to write about and report cases.” He continued, “Unless we do that, we shall perish intellectually or at least have an ossified legal system which will not serve the needs of our maturing society.” Martineau evoked some laughter when he told the guests that he had a fear that he would have been ejected from the room “given what had happened to the law association to date.” He was speaking about Mille Fleur Building at Queen’s Park West which had been given to the association three years ago, but which was repossessed by Government recently.