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ISSN 0255 - 7118

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The CARIBBEAN JOURNAL Of

EGAL INFORMATIO BULLETIN OF THE CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIANS

VOLUME 4, NO.2

Editor: Leslie P. Fenty Librarian, Norman Manley Law School P.O. Box 231, Kingston 7, Jamaica, W.I.

NOVEMBER 1987

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KERR ON INJUNCTIONS Kerr, William W.

A Treatise in the Law and Practice of Injunctions, 6th edition, 1927. By John M. Paterson. Gaunt Reprint 1981. ISBN: ()"912004-16-9. LC 81-81500 $85.00

NORTON ON DEEDS Norton, Robert F.

A Treatise on Deeds. 2nd edition, 1928. By J.A. Morrison & Hugh J. Goolden. Gaunt Reprint, 1981 ISBN: 912004-17-7. LC 81-83533 $80.00

STREET ON ULTRA VIRES Street, Howard A.

A Treatise on the Doctrine of Ultra Vires. Being an Investigation of the Principles Which Umit the Powers and Liabilities of Corporations, Quasi-Corporate Bodies and Non-Sovereign Legislatures, 1930. Gaunt Reprint 1981. ISBN: 912004-18-5. LC 81-83532 $75.00

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ISSN 0255 - 7118

[ I

The CARIBBEAN JOURNAL Of

.,.....EGAL INFORMATIO A PUBLICATION OF THE CARIBBEAN ASSOCIATION OF LAW LIBRARIES

VOLUME 4, NO.2 NOVEMBER 1987

Contents

Page

Keynote Address to 3rd Annual Meeting of CAR ALL - Hon. Oswald Harding . ........ 3

Presidential Address at CARALL Opening Ceremony - Yvonne Lawrence . . . . . . 5

Rationalizing Legal Literature: Possible Approaches and Techniques - D.S. Greer ..... 7

The Dilemma of the Legal Writer/Researcher in the Commonwealth Caribbean - C. Dennis Morrison ...... 14

The Law Librarian as Catalyst in the Commonwealth Caribbean Legal System - Paula Jordon 18

Duplicates Disposal Scheme 24

Caribbean Legal Miscellanea 27

.. , , ,

The Caribbean Journal of Legal Information is published by the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries.

Editor Mr Leslie P. Fenty

Editorial Committee Mrs Yvonne Lawrence

Miss Carol Ford Mr C. Dennis Morrison

Miss Jean Slowe

Production UWI Publishers' Association

© Caribbean Association of Law Libraries 1987

Published twice per year in March and November. Subscription rates: US$15 per annum. Single issues: US$8. All correspondence concerning the publication should be addressed to:

The Editor Caribbean Journal of Legal Information clo Norman Manley Law School Mona Campus P.O. Box 231 Kingston 7 Jamaica, W.I.

North American readers should obtain subscriptions from the sole North American agent:

Wm. W. Gaunt & Sons, Inc. Law Book Dealers & Subscription Agents Gaunt Building 3011 Gulf Drive Holmes Beach, FL 34217-2199 U.S.A.

Keynote Address to 3rd Annual Meeting of CARALL

I would first of all like to thank the president of the Ca­ribbean Association of Law Libraries for inviting me here this morning to address and open this conference. I un­derstand that this is the first occasion your Association has met in Jamaica, and I am happy to be associated with the event.

On behalf of the government of Jamaica I extend a warm welcome to the overseas delegates and a special wel­come to those people who are visiting us for the first time. YO'lr visit coincides with the unique occasion of the twen­ty-fifth anniversary of our Independence. I hope your schedule will permit you to see some of the many cultural events taking place and that you will get a taste of our vibrant cultural heritage.

Speaking to an audience slIch as this, I do not have to stress the important role law libraries play in the legal sys­tem of a country. The information stored in these librar­ies would be inaccessible unless organized for use. As custodians of these records of law you make a quiet but powerful contribution to the proper administration of jus­tice. The fact that you have not only recognized the neces­sity of creating this capital Association but have organized its formation and development is testimony to your nation­al and regional commitment to the principles and practice of law. This is indeed praiseworthy, and may you, through this capital Association, face your common problems and challenges in a spirit of optimism.

I have looked at your constitution and noted the aims and objectives of your Association. Two are of interest to me this morning. The first is the fostering of a spirit of co­operation among members of the profession. I would like to extend this co-operation among libraries. Co-opera­tion in all areas has become increasingly important as we need to share our scarce resources. In Jamaica, the need to co-ordinate our information resources led to the estab­lishment of the National Council on Libraries, Archives and Documentation Services, or NACO LADS, in 1973.

Han. Oswald Harding Minister of Justice and Attamey General, Jamaica

The council subsequently produced a plan for a national information system, which currently operates through a number of networks. Each of these networks consists of a group of libraries which reflect areas of similar interest.

One of these networks is the Legal Information Net­work, which encompasses libraries and other information units which provide legal information necessary to the ad­ministration of justice in the country. LINET, which is the acronym for this network, is still in its early stages of dev­elopment, but already it has focused attention on the problems of providing legal information and, through its advisory policy-making body, has made pertinent changes. These include in-service training for network personnel, improved management of collections and services to users, and the preparation of abstracts and indexes and special bibliographies in the field. This network, through its committees, brings together librarians and other people responsible for legal collection and administrative personnel involved in policy and decision making. LINET is a practical demonstration of co-operation among librar­ies at a national level, and I hope it will grow in strength and increase in its effectiveness to the legal system of the country. Perhaps it may serve as an example or model at the regional level.

The second objective of your Association that I would like to mention is the promotion of better administration of law libraries. Improvements in the administration of these libraries cannot be done in isolation from improve­ments and upgrading of the legal system as a whole. An exciting phase in our legal system is about to begin as the U.S. Agency for International Development'S (USAID) Caribbean Justice Improvement Project comes on stream to strengthen the legal infrastructure of the region.

This conference is therefore taking place at an impor­tant time, when a concerted effort is being made on a regional basis to strengthen the legal system. The Jam­aican component of this project will cost some .1$6.8 mil-

Caribbean foumal of Legal Infonnation - 3

lion, with US$2.2 million coming from the US AID pro­gramme. This project, which is a joint venture between USArD and the government of Jamaica, aims at improv­ing conditions within the' judicial system by refurbishing the facilities of the Supreme Court and the Resident Mag­istrates' Courts island-wide. In the Jamaican component of the project, there is specific funding for the Supreme Court Library - recognition of the pivotal role it plays in the efficient administration of justice. How many of us have consi·dered that the entire legal system can be sub­verted if information is not readily available?

I would like to quote from the project document of the Caribbean Justice Improvement Project. The passage refers to Jamaica, but it is applicable to the other ter­ritories:

Since Jamaica's justice system is based on Eng­lish common law, access to current cases from Commonwealth countries is important as sources of persuasive precedent. Without such informa­tion readily available, the administration of jus­tice is slowed significantly as judges repeatedly are forced to 're-invent the wheel' rather than merely referring to relevant precedent. Of even greater concern is the possibility of justice not being administered consistently. Cases may well be resolved contrary to relevant precedent, un-

Message to Delegates at 3rd Annual Meeting ofCARALL

On behalf of the Carswell Company, we wish you great success in your forthcoming meeting in Kingston. I know the sharing of information from delegates is of great benefit and so important in bringing closer ties and understanding. Jim Lang and I did enjoy the opportunity of meeting many members of the association during business trips and the Commonwealth Law Conference.

It is our hope that you will contact us when you require information on Canadian and Common­wealth materiaL

We hope that your conference will be a time of rewarding exchange and social enjoyment.

Your sincerely,

Ken M. Bamett, International Sales Manager fames D. Lang, Marketing Manager

4 - Caribbean foumal of Legal Illfonnatioll

beknown to the judge. Indeed, an attorney with a private updated

library inadvertently may advise the judge of some, but not all, of the relevant case law, selec­tively choosing only those cases which help his client's position.

In order to prevent tbis happening, funds will be pro­vided under the project to update the collection of the Supreme Court Library to make it as comprehensive as possible. Efforts will also be made to speed up the prep­aration of indexes to judgements and gazettes. It is a very time-consuming undertaking, but essential if legal infor­mation is to be readily accessible to users.

The library will also receive equipment to enable it to be better equipped to carry out its function. It is hoped that this will include a word processor/computer to keep track of judgements and legislation on an ongoing basis. Through a network development programme being ad­ministered by NACO LADS, the International Develop­ment Research Centre of Canada (IDRC) has provided the Supreme Court Library with a microfiche reader/printer, which was installed last month. Modern technology will therefore be used to ensure that informa­tion essential to the legal system will be readily available when needed.

A new day is dawning for librarians and other mem-bers of staff in law libraries. I wish to pay tribute to all those who have worked hard over the years - with inadequate budgets, in poor physical con­ditions, and with little assistance - to keep their information units functioning. The legal profes­sion is greatly indebted to you, and we are grate­ful for all you have done.

The upgrading project is long overdue and we are acknowledging our indebtedness to USAID's far-sighted realization that the strengthening of the administration of justice in the region is es­sential to the survival of the democratic system as we know it. On this depends our way of life anlj

the growth and prosperity of our countries. Everything will not be accomplished by the

project, and there is more that can be done that should he done. It is important that a beginning be made. I am certain that your Association will be a catalyst in determining needs and identifying areas for assistance. This is your challenge, and I am confident that you will meet it with cheerful optimism. May your discussions and delibera­tions be constructive and successful.

I have great pleasure in declaring the con­ference open.

Presidential j\ddress at Cft.RALL Opening Ceremony

I would like to extend to you all a hearty welcome, espe­cially to our overseas visitors, namely from Antigua, Bar­bados, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, the United Kingdom, and the United States. It is my pleasure to ad­dress you and to inform you about the function and busi­ness of the Caribbean Association of Law Libraries, also known as CARALL.

Our presence here today signifies an interest OIl our part in the progressive de.elopment of the Caribbean legal system through provision of its literature, and it also signifies on your part a recognition that CAR ALL does have a role to play in terms of its contribution to the Ca­ribbean legal system.

The rationale for this Association is founded upon the recognition of the need for greater co-operation amongst law librarians in this process oflegal development. Hence at a sub-committee meeting of the Council of Legal Edu­cation in Jamaica in 1982, the proposal was formulated that various ways and means be looked at ill order to facilitate this working together.

Our Association was launched in 1984 after an initial meeting of a number of Caribbean law librarians and after having the benefit of the studied comments of a working party of seven persons who were mandated to draft a con­stitution for the proposed Association. Since then we h;J\'e met on a rcgular basis; our previous Annwl1 General lvleetings wen: held in Trinidad and Tobago and St Vin, cent.

Generally, the objectives of our Association can be seen as: (1) developing and increasing the use of law lib, raries and (2) promoting the profession of law librar­ianship.

Since our inauguration we have made some significant steps towards meeting these objectives. We have launched a scheme for the distribution of judgements among Caribbean territories. This scheme operates through clearing houses established in each territory for

Mrs. Yvonne Lawrence President, CARALL

the purposes of acquisition and distribution of this mat, erial.

Another project launched was the duplicates disposal scheme whereby surplus or duplicated materials could be circulated and distributed to territories that have a need for them. Last, but by no means least, was the publication of Tlle Cmibbean Law Librmiall, the bulletin of the As­sociation, the first issue of which was published in 1984. There are at the moment several other specific activities with which we are involved, namely a compilation of a directory of Caribbean law libraries and the drafting of standards for these libraries which will, among other things, focus upon a desirable standard of minimum hold­ings for such libraries. We are also involved with law lib­rary development for the region, which falls under the USAID project, the purpose of which is 'to strengthen legal systems in the region by providing services necessary for fostering maintenance and performance of national justice systems'. The territories we expect to benefit from this scheme are: Antigua, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Ja, maica, St Kitts, St Lucia and St Vincent.

In actual terms our achievements have been modest, since we have still not managed to actively involve all of the territories we would have liked; but in view of the fact that we are a new organization and our present member­ship comprises all full-time librarians, this limitation can perhaps be viewed with some tolerance, until such time as we can move the respective authorities to fully support us, financially and otherwise, so that a wider representation from the territories can be made possible. This, in fact, would be in keeping with the mandate given the Associa­tion by the executive committee of the Council of Legal Education from which the concept of the Association originally emanated.

Our theme for this meeting is Towards a Rationaliza­tion of tile Commonwealth Caribbean Legal Literature. In choosing this theme, we hope to pay particular attention to the relationship between the lawyer and the librarian,

Caribbean ]ollmal of Legal Infol771atioll - 5

and the contribution each may be able to make in terms of organizing and producing a legal literature. During these two days our discllssi.ons will centre arollnd the fol­lowing subjects:

'I> Rationalizing the legal literature of the Common­wealth Caribbean legal system: approaches and tech­niques;

• The librarian as a catalyst in the Commonwealth Car-

In!o:miJ(ioli

ibbean legal system; and • The dilemma of the legal writer/researcher in the

Commonwealth Caribbean.

We hope you will find these discussions informative and constructive and that we can depend not only upon the participation of law librarians but also that of lawyers, for in the context of the Caribbean, each is dependent upon the other .

Rationalizing Legal Literature: Possible Approaches and Techniques

I. The Localization of Legal Literature

Keen to establish some authority for writing on this sub­ject, I was pleased to discover that Irish cases are frequent-1y (well, at least once a year) referred to in the West Indian Law Reports. Indeed a recent reference was to O'Kel~v v HOlvey (1883) 14 LR Ir 105 (see Ramson v Barker [1986] 33 WIR 183, 191) - a case dealing with police powers to disperse a public meeting likely to cause a breach of the peace or, more technically, the scope of the defence of lawful authority in a tort action for trespass to the person. Now it so happens that there was not long ago published the first modern textbook on the Irish Law of Torts, in which O'Kelly v Harvey is discussed (p. 147), but it is ac­companied by the following footnote:

Cf: R (Orr), v Londondeny JJ (1891) 28 LR Ir 400, favouring an approach that is difficult to reconcile with O'Kelly's case.

I do not wish to suggest that reference to On' would have led to a different decision in the West Indian case, but the availability of this footnote is a convenient example of the value of a secondary legal literature, the need for which is the underlying theme of this meeting.

But it is no longer necessary to adduce concrete evi­dence to establish such a need; rather it is a case of res ipsa loquitur. For it is very noticeable that during the past ten to fifteen years the case for the provision of addition­al information about the law, particularly in smaller juris­dictions, has come to be widely accepted throughout the common-law world. Developments in my own country bear this out. Ten years ago there was little in the way of current publications about either of the two Irish jurisdic­tions; now there is quite an extensive range, and it is mul­tiplying rapidly. In the case of Northern Ireland the catalyst has been a programme called 'Servicing the Legal

Professor D. S. Greer Queen's University, Belfast

System' (SLS), inaugurated in 1980 in the Faculty of Law, with widespread official support and financial assistance.

Although this SLS programme is designed almost en­tirely for the local needs of Northern Ireland, it has at­tracted interest from as far away as Australia and Hong Kong. We have had the pleasure of being visited by Mr. Aubrey Fraser and Mr. Austin Davis and we are very gratified that Mrs. Newton has drawn attention to SLS in her excellent case study, Commonwealth Caribbean Legal Systems, published in 1985 (p. 459). Together with her earlier report, Infomzation Needs and Research Practices of the Commonwealth Caribbean Legal Professions (1981), and Professor Patchett's Report to the Commonwealth Secretmjat all Legal Resource Needs in Small States (1980), this case study draws attention to many specific problems arising here in the Caribbean. I am not competent to com­ment on these and instead will make some general obser­vations based on our own experience which I hope will be of interest to you.

On inquiry it will be found that many common-law (and indeed also civil-law) jurisdictions have established some such initiative in recent years; as one random ex­ample, the Commonwealth Law Bulletin last year gave details of the setting up of the Legal Resources Founda­tion of Zimbabwe as 'an autonomous ... trust established ... in July 1984 to meet an expressed need to improve the accessibility of legal and information services to all sec­tions of the population'. It is comparatively easy to chart these developments; it is more difficult to explain the general phenomenon. In broad terms, it seems simply to be an idea whose time has come. Legal notions can go un­heeded for many years and then suddenly come alive. This has, for example, happened with ombudsmen, law reform commissions, criminal injuries compensation, no-fault au­tomobile accident compensation schemes, and so on. For many years these were regarded simply as good ideas; then, within a comparatively short period, all self-respect­ing jurisdictions adopted some form of positive scheme.

C('r:biJcc!Il Jormu-:l of Legnlillforrllo{io!l --- 7

,

But what has made this particular time ripe for develop­ing legal literature? There is obviously a connection with political independence; a ,new country will obviously be keen to develop its own legal, as well as political, econo­mic and social, character. But the political dimension doc:- !lot appear to be particularly strong - at least in our own experience, where the Republic of Ireland only be­came active in this field some 50 years after independence, and SLS has emerged in Northern Ireland within the con­text of the United Kingdom. The explanation seems to me to lie more in the changing nature of the law and of the legal profession.

The past ten to fifteen years have seen in most juris­dictions a dramatic increase in the size of the legal profes­sion - in many instances numbers have trebled since 1972. This increased size has resulted in a profession which is younger, less experienced, more competitive, and less familiar with and tolerant of traditional legal methods. In the old days, the profession had established informal methods of acquiring and disseminating information about law; these practices and habits are no longer ac­ceptable or workable, so something new has to take their place. In addition, the law itself has changed. Not only is there a lot more of it (which there undoubtedly is), but much of it is nowto be found outside the traditional statute book and law report - in unreported judgements, prac­tice directions, government department circulars, quango directives, executive orders and so on. By way of corol­lary, interest in the law and the provision of legal services has become less of a monopoly of the legal profession as competition from other professions has increased and commercial and other activities become more subject to legal regulation. If we add to this a higher public interest arising out of improved education and greater expecta­tions, then we can I believe understand why there has been growing pressure for greater access to the law. It is no longer acceptable that the law should be the preserve of the few; all are entitled to derive what benefits they can from making use of its provisions.

This analysis is put forward with somc diffidence. But whether or not it is possible to generalize in this way, it is nonetheless important to underline the need for an inquiry of this sort. For the pressures or developments which have given rise to or facilitated the 'legal literature' movement must play an important part in determining the nature of the response thereto.

II. The Changing Nature of Legal Literature

I t follows from what has already been said that careful thought needs to be given to the concept of the 'literature' about law which ought to be provided. In broad terms we

l . can suggest two broad models:

[j - Can'hbcruz .Tollt,'wl 0,1' Lef:;a! JI1/o!771!'lion

(a) The 'Orthodox' Model sees the primary function of legal literature as providing detailed and technical infor­mation about the current law for professional users (i.e., judges, lawyers and law students). Under this model, new 'legal literature' would comprehend statutes (and statu­tory instruments), law reports, indices to and uigests of statute and case law, expository texts, and law journals. All of this literature would be geared to the perceived needs of specialized users.

(b) The 'Popular' Model, on the other hand, views the primary function of iegalliterature as providing access to the law and legal syst em for the ordinary person, to whom the services of the traditional legal profession are not nor­mally or easily available. On this approach, legal litera­ture would consist primarily of explanatory texts in simplified language - handbooks or guides to the law -and possibly more polemical material calling for changes in the law to make it more just or fair.

These two models do not represent exclusive alterna­tives, though they may raise questions of priority. Nor do they represent the full range of possible approaches, for there are many other groups of potential users of legal literature - businessmen, trade unionists, civil servants etc. - all with some need to know more about some aspects of the law but not necessarily in the same way or to the same extent as 'professionals' or members of the public. The legal literature debate has tended to focus on the orthodox model, and it has perhaps been given its ful­lest expression in Professor Twining's 'Aspirational Mod­el for a National Legal Literature'. But I have deliberately introduced the 'popular' model to try to emphasize that other interests are alw involved.

In short, legal literature may be required for many dif­ferent users with many different needs. In theory, detailed market research should be undertaken with a view to determining the precise needs of potential users. And in­deed some attempts have been made to determine the reading habits and material requirements of legal prac­titioners, as did Mrs. Ne\\'ton, through a very detailed questionnaire (see, generally, Commonwealth Caribbean Legal Systems [1985], Chapter 11). These attempts have not produced results conducive to the development of legal literature, but tend instead to show that: (i) many legal practitioners seldom refer to legal publications, and (ii) what many legal practitioners want are not books about law but assistance with non-legal aspects of practice - office management, financial planning, personal ef­ficiency, etc.

These findings tend to be played down: they are not what legal practitioners should do or want. But more reasonably, the feeling is that the issue is much more com­plicated and is inevitably tied up with the general nature and function of the profession. There is a similar feeling about the needs of the general pUblic: the ordinary per­son should want to know about the law, but it may have to

be accepted that he does not want to do so. In any case, there is a difficult problem about how information can best be conveyed to the man in the street. If the recent British election is anything to go by, then the theme of this con­ference should not be legal literature, but legal TV. And indeed it j;, a serious aspect of the challging nature oflegal 'literature' that enquiry should be made as to what extent the printed page has been superseded by other methods of communication. When we started SLS I was sure that there was an existing body of scientific information about effective communication methods; I am still convinced that there is - but I haven't been able to find it!

Detailed analysis of the precise needs of potential users is a counsel of perfection. I have to say that, because we went ahead without one! But it does seem reasonable enough to assume certain general needs and to attempt to meet them. With this in mind SLS [rom the outset ad­opted a flexible approach to the nature of its publications and deliberately did not restrict itself to the more tradi­tional forms. We have, therefore, published:

(a) Traditional legal textbooks and practitioners' manuals,

(b) Short analyses of recent legal developments, (c) Annotated statutes, (d) A regular (10 times per year) 'current awareness'

service of the 'Current Law' type - the Bulletin of Norlhem Irelalld Law,

(e) 'Law in Action' publications for the lay person, and (f) A Digest of N0/1hem Ireland Law for use by lay ad­

visers in citizens' Advice Bureaux, etc.

Reaction to these publications has been somewhat mixed, and it is my strong feeling that now is the time to sit back and take a much more detailed look at what we are doing and why. But the advantage of doing so after the programme has been established is that it can continue to operate as and while our research sharpens our under­standing of t he Ileed to be met - and t he best way of meet­ing it.

We have taken a similarly pragmatic view to the dev­elopment of a 'programme' of publications. Rationally and ideally, again, one should conduct extensive research to determine the range and subject matter of the publica­tions most urgently required. Priorities would be deter­mined, authors identified and a planned programme put under way. Our experience is that such an approach is quite unrealistic. Detailed market research is, as I have already suggested, difficult, slow and expensive; priorities are difficult to determine and agree; authors are not readily at hand or, even if they are, cannot be expected to write to order. SLS therefore started from the other end: what had authors to offer or what could they be persuaded to do? In our view it was much more important that SLS should be seen to be up and running, to be producing

something promptly, than that it should carefully and deliberately (and at considerable cost in time and resour­ces) build up a package which it then might not be able to deliver. That is not to say that we published anything that came along. Our one cardinal rule was that anything ac­cepted for publicat ion must reach acceptable standards: it had to be good. It did not really matter what area of law it dealt with, or the users for whom it was intended. But it did have to impress all concerned with the initiative that the product was going to be of high quality. For this reason some manuscripts have been rejected or positive steps taken to improve the quality of work being prepared for publication.

Looking back on the early years of SLS we can now detect a certain Irish logic in this pragmatic approach. Once under way, SLS tended to develop something of a momentum of its own. The success of the programme in producing publications on some (even apparently ran­dom) aspects of law has tended to encourage other auth­ors to come forward, with the result that we are now in a position to say that our coverage of Northern Ireland law in terms of professional requirements at least is becoming fairly comprehensive. We may not have reached this posi­tion in any systematic or scientific way, but we feel that the range of publications, actual or in the pipeline, is quite ex­tensive. But this initial success should not blind us to the need now to sit back and plan future developments with greater care.

There has been another practical consequence of some importance. At the outset we faced a number of skeptics who either said that there was no need for the SLS programme or were pessimistic about the viability of such a programme: 'We've managed without books for years and don't need to change now!' Most of these skeptics have now been silenced. A much more frequent response these days is, 'However did we manage without SLS?' or, 'What did we do before we had the Bulletin of N0I1hem Ireland Law?'

Now 1 do not wish to claim that SLS has been an un­mitigated success. What J do want to suggest is a prefer­ence for pragmatism. Theoretical constructs are all very well and no doubt intellectually attractive. But where resources are limited it seems to me at any rate that it is much better to work with what you have got and to build up bit by bit towards a general plan.

III. The Institutional Framework

I have earlier suggested that various developments in the last ten to fifteen years have created a climate favourable to the growth of legal literature. As a result, even if noth­ing is done institutionally, literature is likely to expand. In some respects this is what has happened in the Republic

Cmibbeall loumal of Legal Infonnation - 9

< ,

of Ireland. There, little has been done to co-ordinate or encourage the production of legal publications, but these have nonetheless proliferated. An institutional frame­work is therefore not essential for some developments. But our own experience is that a vacuum of this kind is un­desirable. It tends to be wasteful of scarce resources; there is the d<l'lgrf of duplication of effort; jt may be dif­ficult to maintain standards; and so on. I am therefore convinced of the need for some institutional device to in­stigate and oversee developments. There are many dif­ferent precedents, and what will work in one jurisdiction may well be unsuitable for another. But what seems an es­sential minimum is that some framework is devised which will enable all interested parties to work together as close­ly as possible.

We have done this in the following way. From the start, all aspects of the SLS programme have been subject to ap­proval by an advisory committee, chaired by the vice chan­cellor of the university and consisting of leading members of the judiciary, the Bar and the Law Society, the Lord Chancellor's Department, and the University itself. Apart from giving us the benefit of their experience, the advisory committee has fulfilled three important func­tions:

(1) It established from the outset the status of the pro­gramme as supported by the legal hierarchy. Such an im­primatur carries innumerable, if intangible, benefits when it comes, for example, to raising financial assistance, per­suading authors to contribute, obtaining access to legal material, etc.

(2) It has tied the professional bodies quite closely into the programme; their direct involvement has facil­itated the development of the programme, which in turn has helped to generate enthusiasm for it.

(3) It has established the programme in the eyes of the university and of the faculty as a desirable development entitled to their support.

While all these factors have played an important part in the success of SLS, the last is possibly of the greatest importance, It is, I think, generally accepted that a Facul­ty of Law in a small jurisdiction must have an important role to play in any legal literature programme; the profes­sion expects it to take the lead and in many respects it is right to do so. But there are a number of problems: con­flicting demands on members of the faculty, particularly at a time of reduced funding, which may lead to under­standing or underpaid staff; conflicting priorities for re­search, particularly in promoting the wider role of the faculty in scholarship and (at a more mundane level) im­proving opportunities for establishing an individual repu­tation or prospects for promotion, etc. For these perfectly proper reasons, members of a Faculty of Law may be reluctant to participate in a 'local literature' programme which could be seen as parochial and lacking intellectual challenge. I have to say that a number of my colleagues

10 - Can'bbean Journal of Legal Informotioll

were not enthusiastic about SLS for reasons such as these; indeed, some still feel this way. But on the whole the pro­gramme has become an accepted part of the work of the facuIty. To explain and justify this adequately would re­quire a lengthy examination of the changing nature of academiclaw, the aims and objectives of higher-education funJing in [he United Kingdom, and many other factors. Let me avoid all that by saying simply that in 1986 all law faculties in United Kingdom universities underwent a somewhat cursory assessment of their research work by the University Grants Committee, each faculty receiving a 'research rating'. As it turned out we received a good rating and it was clear that our achievements through the SLS programme had played a substantial part in this as­sessment. This effectively put an end to much of the ar­gument over the 'academic' acceptability of the programme. However, I would like to make four general observations, derived from our experience over the past seven years, about the value of such a programme to mem­bers of a law faculty:

(a) Academics have to start writing something some­where, and SLS provides a most useful starting point and a method of training for bigger and better things. Indeed, the existence of SLS provides a positive encouragement to write, as well as making available a selection of concrete topics, general advice and editorial assistance.

(b) Most academics accept the need for a certain amount of law-in-context, and a programme designed or intended to produce publications for the real world en­courages an interest in the actual working of the law.

( c) At some stage expertise in local law can be used as a basis for developing a contribution to a wider scholarly community.

(d) I t really is quite challenging and salutary to explain how law works in a practical way, or to explain the in­tricacies of the law to non-lawyers.

All these are positive advantages provided the facuIty maintains its other activities. In other words a 'local lit­erature' programme can form an appropriate part of the work of a faculty, hut only if it continues to represent only one dimension of that work.

From the SLS point of view, the programme has gained enormous advantages from being located within a univer­sity faculty. In part these advantages are financial - the university provides accommodation and services at sub­stantially reduced rates. But equally important is the ac­cess to a range of expertise, particularly, in this age of information technology, to computer expertise. It has been particularly important for SLS to reduce costs by making use of the new technology, and the fact that we have been able to do so has been in large part due to the availability within the faculty and the university of expert technical advice and assistance.

There is, in our experience, one other precondition to the location of an SLS-type programme within a faculty.

Any such programme inevitably generates a great deal of peripheral publishing work - editorial, secretarial, ad­ministrative, and so on. It would be inappropriate, and in­effective, for much of the time of academics to be taken up in such activities. Apart from anything else, they may not he vny good at it. In addition, the running of f:,uch it I

programme by itself generates a certain amount of ad­ministrative and routine work, and needs a degree of con­tinuity to build up and maintain momentum. In our experience it has been essential, for reasons such as these, to have a small nucleus of full-time persons dedicated to the work of SLS, albeit und'?r the general supervision of an academic director. This SLS staff consists of a Blilletill editor, a publications editor responsible for production, and two secretaries. Until this year we have also had a part-time marketing manager and the full-time services of a senior lecturer seconded from the Faculty. Such a staff is expensive: in 1985-86, staff costs represented 40 per cent of total expenditure (i.e., £62,000 out of a total expen­diture of £150,000). This is now regarded as too high, and an immediate problem, following the resignation of the senior lecturer, is to reorganize the SLS permanent staff at a more affordable cost. This inevitably brings us to the core of the legal literature problem - the question of money.

IV. The Production of Material

But first I should like to say something about the genera­tion of material for publication. Our experience is that this is not a particular problem. I have already explained why in my view it has become acceptable for most of my academic colleagues to write for SLS. This has been facilitated by the wide variety of publications, given that short finite tasks often seem preferable to long indefinite projects. But we have also managed to obtain some very valuable contributions from practitioncrs. Various stud­ies have shown that publications by practitioners were fairly common in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but it is generally considered - at least as far as small jurisdictions are concerned - that the pressures of modern practice prevent such activities in modern times. We have indeed found it to be the case that not many practitioners are able to find the necessary time. Some who may be able are not willing to do so - there are still those who believe that specialist knowledge is valuable and ought to be protected, not shared with others. But we have nonetheless found a certain willing­ness by practicing lawyers to assist indirectly if not direct­ly in SLS pUblications:

(a) As joint authors with an academic co-author, (b) By providing access to files and 'practical' material,

(c) By reading and suggesting additions to draft manu­script material,

(d) By preparing papers for or participating in short courses or conferences - incidentally a quite fruit­ful method of recruiting authors an d generating material for maIlY kinds of publications.

The problem of producing 'practical' texts is, there­fore, not insurmountable. We found it enormously help­ful that one particular leading member of the profession was able to find the time to produce a number of 'practical' texts, and I believe that this has helped to pave the way -and instill confidence in other practitioners to follow suit.

In any case, the tide may now be turning for other reasons. The great increase in the number of practitioners already referred to has left some with time on their hands; the increased number of law teachers has redU(.:d the op­portunity for 'international' legal scholarship; the devel­opment of postgraduate professional training institutes has created a demand for 'practical' teaching materials which can be converted into publications; there is an in­creased demand for continuing legal education; etc. For these reasons I do not see the production of material for the orthodox model oflegalliterature as a particular prob­lem.

It is when one seeks to go beyond these traditional forms of legal literature that greater problems may arise. As I have already indicated, there is a great deal to be learned about the most effective form and method of com­munication. In addition, problems both intellectual and presentational exist for authors who more naturally and confidently produce 'orthodox' material. The market is also much more uncertain and more expensive to reach. Conscious of these difficulties, and of the considerable ef­fort in time and resources necessary to overcome them, the SLS programme has not yet attempted to fulfill such a wider role in any systematic way. Attempts have, I know, been made by a similar programme in some Australian jurisdictions, but I am not aware of how successful these have been.

V. The Problem of Money

Let me start this section by reminding you that the dearth of secondary legal literature in small jurisdictions is normally explained on the basis of the non-viability of commercial law publishing. The services provided in larger jurisdictions by commercial organizations are just not profitable where there is a restricted market for those services. In such jurisdictions, government responsibility has typically extended only to the publication of primary sources - statutes and law reports - and even then the financial assistance may not be particularly gen erous. Ten

C7ri!J/JI'{l11 /0111'1101 oj Legal Illjonnation -- 11

< •

or fifteen years ago it might have been possible to obtain additional governmental finance for publishing secondary materials, but in the mid-'1980s - at least from a United Kingdom perspective - this now seems most unlikely. The answer must be found elsewhere.

But first let me try to assess the significance of the money problem. For this purpose I refer to an estimate by a 'commercial' law publisher in England that the cost of a publication - assuming a retail price of lOOp - is roughly as follows:

Royalty to author: Discount to bookseller: Printing and binding: Warehousing, distribution: Publisher's operating costs: Residue for profit, etc.:

lap 30p 20p l5p 15p lOp

These figures are now somewhat out of date, but I im­agine they are still broadly correct. What they suggest -and this tends to be borne out by the SLS experience - is that the cost of production - printing and binding - is by itself not an insuperable barrier to publication. If we assume for the moment that the other costs can be elimi­nated or minimized either directly or indirectly, then a publication, if priced· realistically, can normally 'wash its face' on a relatively small number of sales. This becomes more so as new technology makes available less expensive methods of production.

Thus, the hroad equation adopted by SLS - and found in practice to be workable - is that if the collateral costs can be avoided or otherwise provided for, income from sales should cover direct production costs.

As for the indirect costs, we have tried to deal with them in four ways:

1. In so far as overhead costs are concerned (office ac­commodation, storage, other operating costs), the university was willing quite substantially to subsidize the SLS programme. Such a subsidy could be jus­tified at least in part on the basis that SLS was an in­tegral part of the faculty and thus a proper charge on the university. However, as university finances have steadily become more difficult, this argument becomes less acceptable and the university subsidy is now being reduced. Nonetheless, location of the programme within an existing institution must reduce running expenses to some extent.

2. Direct costs are avoided wherever possible - the most obvious instance being to sell directly to pur­chasers as much as possible, thus avoiding the sub­stantial discount payable to booksellers.

3. Unavoidable costs have, fortunately, been covered by annual grants from the Bar, the Law Society, the Lord Chancellor's Department, and other agencies

(including a most generous 'pump-priming' grant from the Nuffield Foundation). Obtaining these grants took a considerable amount of persuasion and patience, but we were I think fortunate that at the relevant time there was a: major overhaul of the Northern Ireland legal system which provided an op­portune moment for a new venture.

4. A final source of income comes from the organization of short courses and conferences. We have found that there is a steady demand for these and that they can be quite profitable - both financially and as a way of generating material for publication or recruit­ing additional authors. If a good topic can be found - we constantly pray for another development of the nature of Williams & Glyn's Bank Ltd v Boland (1979) 2 All ER 408, a House of Lords decision of intense practical concern to almost all solicitors - a well-organized conference can generate enough in­come to subsidize a number of less profitable ac­tivities.

At the other end of the spectrum, we have found that a major drain on our resources is the production of the Bulletin of Northern Ireland Law, our version of Sweet and Maxwell's CUTTent Law. It is very labour intensive, requir­ing as it does all the time of our one full-time research as­sistant (and even she has to be assisted by numerous assistant editors) to prepare it, and much of the time of one of our two secretaries to prepare camera-ready copy on the office word-processor. At present it is causing us a further problem in that it makes an ideal basis for the development of a Northern Ireland legal data base: ap­proaches have been made by commercial companies an­xious to extend their 'libraries' to include Northern Ireland law. Naturally we are delighted in principle - we are all in favour of a Northern Ireland legal data base -but the price being offered is in our view unrealistic: were the idea to catch on, subscriptions to the Bulletin might drop significantly and we would be left in a position where our increased loss was some commercial computer com­pany's increased gain. The new technology clearly has many advantages for a small organization such as SLS, but it can also pose some difficult problems.

A second problem is the question of advertising and marketing our products. Here the orthodox model has an obvious in-built advantage; it is comparatively easy to reach the local professional market. But there are con­siderable difficulties in the way of advertising our wares outside the jurisdiction, or in attempting to reach the non­legal market within it. It is when we have attempted either of these tasks that we have become more fully aware of the nature of the 'operating costs' incurred by commercial publishers. To be effective, marketing and advertising re­quires considerable time and expense, which may not be proportionately reflected in increased sales income. I

leave this as a problem to which there is apparently no simple solution.

What I think all this amounts to is an assertion that the money problem is a real one, and that some financial as­sistance is essential to setting up a viable organization. But a comparatively small grant can, with ~ome ingenuity and sufficient enthusiasm, be made to go quite a long way.

I hope these general reflections arising out of our ex­perience with the SLS programme have struck some

chords in relation to your own problems here in the Ca­ribbean. We certainly feel that we have benefited from the experiences of other jurisdictions, but we still have much to learn. May I therefore conclude on a familiar note: as a result of developments similar to SLS there must now be a cOllsidcrabk storc of experience and expertise in the production of legal literature in small jurisdictions. Can­not some effective way now be found to enable each of us to work more closely together and collectively, rather than individually, to tackle the problems of rationalizing our legal literature ?

C~ribbea71 JO!lnlrl of LCf,:l[ JIl!oi71wtio/; - 13

< ,

The Dilenlma of the Legal Writer/Researcher in the Commonwealth Caribbean

T he title of this presentation was chosen for me, not by me. Hence two generous assumptions, which lead me to approach the task with a degree of diffidence. To deal with the second assumption first, the topic chosen for me implies that 1 may know something - perhaps even some­thing more than others - about legal writing and research in the Caribbean. While I cannot deny that I have on oc­casion tried, I do not claim expertise, and I must thank my hosts for the confident hope that the invitation to address you implies. The second assumption is no less fundamen­tal: that is, that I know what a dilemma is. In search of a point of departure, I went anxiously to one of my greatest sources of comfort in times of doubt: my Chambers' Twen­tieth Century Dictionmy. I was reassured to discover that I was not far off, but I was also happy for the greater precision that the consultation invited. A dilemma, Chambers says, is 'a form of argument in which the main­tainer of a certain proposition is committed to accept one of two propositions each of which contradicts his original contention; a position where each of two alternative cour­ses (or of all the feasible courses) is eminently undes­irable'. The phrase 'the horns of a dilemma' therefore describes the position of a victim of a dilemma, who can be compared to a man certain to be impaled on one or other of the horns of an enraged bull: damned if he does and damned if he doesn't.

With that definition in mind, what I want to look at today are some of the contradictory choices that confront the - or the would-be - legal researcher and writer in the Caribbean. My emphasis is on the researcher for primarily academic purposes, as opposed to the re­searcher for professional purposes, and it is to this extent that I hope to be able to offer some complementary in­sights to those contained in Dr. Claude Denbow's excel­lent address to the first Annual General Meeting of CARALL in Port of Spain in July 1985.1 A large part of the background to the problem is the availability - or lack of it - of West Indian legal materials. It is not, as is the

14 -- (:rllihbeal1 .lO!I.rnol of Legal InformatioJl ,

C. Dennis Morrison Attorney-at-Law, Jamaica

case with many problems we like to claim as peculiarly our own, a uniquely West Indian problem. Professor Twining's and Ms Uglow's work on the problems of legal literature in the small jurisdictions of the British Isles con­firms this, and their own introduction to that discussion is equally apt in our context:

The problems of developing bodies of literature deallng with the local legal system are shared by nearly all jurisdictions in the English-speaking world. They are particularly acute in newly inde­pendent countries, in multi-lingual societies and in jurisdictions in which the market is too small to support the commercial publication of a cor­pus of material adequate to the needs of a variety of kinds of users - private practitioners, lawyers in the public service and industry, law students, academics, other specialists, and members of the pUblic.2

But we also suffer special problems of underdevelop­ment and fragmentation wllich make our sit uation per­haps more acute in degree, if not fundamentally different in kind. They are well documented -- in Dr. Denbow's address, by Sir Fred Phillips3 and in the seminal and on­going contribution to the subject by one of your own founding members, the distinguished Mrs. Velma New­ton.4 I am therefore happily able to avoid boring you with a rehearsal of them and it is sufficient for my present pur­poses to summarize:

1. The difficulty of accessing primary legal materials, such as statutes, subsidiary legislation and govern­ment papers in several of the territories, com­pounded by their unreliability, either because of incompleteness or inaccuracy;

2. The absence of a satisfactorily comprehensive system of law reporting in the region, caused in part by

over- (sometimes under-) selectivity and serious time lags in publications;

3. With very few exceptions, the complete absence of works of reference, textbooks and case books with a specifically Caribbean orientation;

4. The absence of sufficient outlets of (l periodiealua­ture for the dissemination of the results of ongoing legal research in the region. 77le West Indian Law fOlil7lal has been a notable exception, but is even now threatening to fall into the tradition of discon­tinuity of legal (and other) periodical publications in the region;

5. The resistance to modern technology in the region, in which the methods and tools of legal research remain closer to those of the nineteenth than those of the twenty-first century, and the wonderful revolu­tion of the computer is viewed - as revolutions usually are -- with suspicion and nervous distrust;

6. The inaccessibility of resources for publication to re­searchers and writers in the region and the related problems of a market where demand is in relative terms small and costs high.

This list is hardly exhaustive, and indeed by its gen­erality may conceal much of the complexity of the prob­lem. But I hope it will suffice by way of introduction to my main areas of concern, to which I now turn. I start with the problem of completeness. No research is ever com­plete: many a researcher in various fields has been chag­rined .- and sometimes embarrassed - by the revelation, after he has committed himself to presenting his results in a form purporting to be definitive, of very pertinent mat­erial which might have materially altered his conclusions. Given human infirmity and the invariable complexity of the subjects of research, this is hardly surprising. For the researcher for professional purposes, whose primary con­cern (indeed, obligation) is to seck and discover for his client a solace from the body of the law, the problem of in­cumplete research is regarded by many as an occupation­al hazard in a potentially dangerous game of Russian roulette. By others it is even seen as having some dubious virtue, as the following extract from Professor Twining's and Ms Uglow's work illustrates:

Finally, it emerged that looking up the law was a task which generally occupied a very little amount of a solicitor's time, sometimes because he had no need to look it up and sometimes be­cause he had no time to look it up (in which case he might delegate the task). A variety of com­ments were expressed in interviews on this prob­lem of finding time to look up the law. These ranged from those of the solicitor undertaking criminal work who said that, with the pressures of his work, looking up the law had to be 'a quick

. I

ten minutes' glance and hope that you're right', to the reflections of an elderly country solicitor who commented, 'I spend a lesser proportion of my time on looking up the law. People say to me "I'm sure the law can be utterly absorbing at tin:c~", and I an~\Yel, 'Tn~ sure it must be; I wish I had the time to take it up!" ,5

Closer to home, Velma Newton's survey reveals sim­ilar attitudes, and she summarized her responses by ob­serving that '[the practitioner] found little time to do thorough research, and if all the materials which he felt he should consult were not near at hand, would try to get by with the minimum,.6

But for the researcher for academic purposes, seeking as he does to advance the theory and practice of his dis­cipline, there can be no question of hoping that he has got it right or of getting by with the minimum. His aim, before he ventures conclusions, must be to have researched his area of enquiry as completely as possible. How to do this, though, in the Commonwealth Caribbean, with sixteen jurisdictions spanning more than a thousand miles and a woefully inadequate body of legal literature? To strive for absolute comprehensiveness might take years (which may be an explanation for the extended gestation period of the judgements of some regional judges) and an enonnous amount of money. On the other hand, to try to get by with what is available may result in irresponsible and mislead­ing scholarship and, in the case of those who earn their living a, academics, may have lasting career implications.

One answer may of course be that the Caribbean legal researcher ought to temper his ambition to accord with the resources of time, money and material available to him; to strive, not for a statement that will have a durable regional validity, but to concentrate on his own territory in the hope that, with similar efforts taking place in each territory, there will be in time a body of work which, taken together, covers an acceptably broad spectrum of Carib­bean IegaJ problems. Indeed, a casual survey of 17Ie West Indian Law fOlll7lal over the last ten years will turn up sev­eral examples of this approach. One problem with this, however, is that it probably encourages greater fragmen­tation in approaches to legal problems, from which may well emerge a purely descriptive rather than conceptual West Indian jurisprudence. Another problem is that there is just not an adequate number of lawyers in every territory who by training, experience and inclination are equipped to undertake serious legal research and writing. Hence the difficulty of those who are, whether they be in the university, the law schools, in public or private prac­tice: to make a choice from several options, none of which may be entirely - or at all - satisfactory: not to publish, out of too great a caution (and, at any rate in the univer­sity, to perish); to perish by publishing results of inac­curate or incomplete research; or to publish with some

Cmibbeoll fouma! of Le!'(l[ In/onllation .. - 15

<' ,

degree of accuracy and to be accused - the unkindest cut

- of insularity. A not unrelated consideration for the West Indian

legal researcher/writer - and it is not unique to the dis­

cipline of law - is whether one should seck entirely

regional (in the sense here oflocal) avenues of publication

or international exposure. This is of particular concern

for the strictly academic lawyer. Publication within the

region implies a concentration on strictly regional con­

cerns; strictly regional concerns may not have the level of

interest or urgency outside the region to command over­

seas publication. Yet international stature and recogni­

tion are among the criteria for advancement and

promotion in academic institutions, ours no less than

others. Some of our academic writers have found a mid­

dle way by publishing articles on aspects of Common­

wealth Caribbean law in overseas journals such as TIle

Anglo-American Law Review, Lawyer of the Americas,

Public Law. TIle International and Comparative Law

Quarlerly, and TIle Criminal Law Review. No doubt there

are more to come and the authors are to be commended,

but one can only express the hope that in resolving this

particular dilemma our academic writers do not lose sight

of their critical role in developing our own vehicles of legal

expression. For the ultimate resolution lies, it seems to

me, in the establishment of a body of legal literature at

home that can stand the most rigorous comparison with

that to be found anywhere else in the common-law world.

Then and only then will the legitimate concern for career

advancement find a truly indigenous expression.

But the academic lawyer has further problems. I set

out below a few of the criticisms of work published in the

Tlte West Indian Law Journal which emerged from Mrs.

Newton's survey:

(a) the articles published are not as wide­

ranging as they should be if the aim of the Jour­

nal is to serve all groups of the legal profession.

Several respondents pointed out that at present,

constitutional law, human rights and criminal law

articles predominate. They state that more ar­

ticles are needed in the fields of legislative draft­

ing, family, general real property law, landlord

and tenant and on practice and procedure;

(b) most of the articles are written by aca­

demics, and are too lengthy, too theoretical, and

of no practical value to practitioners;

( c) more articles from practitioners ought to

be solicited; (d) too many references are given - often

totalling hundreds for each article.

Private practitioners were especially critical

of the academics at the University of the West In­

dies and the Law Schools who, in the opinion of

many, had failed the region as interpreters, com-

mentators and guides to the law, because their re­

search was unco-ordinated and often irrelevant

to the research needs of the legal profession as a

whole, and to private practitioners in particular.7

These comments more than anything else, it seems to

me, illustrate the rocky road that the academic legal writer

must travel in the Caribbean. The criticism of overly

theoretical work is not new, and again it is not uniqUely

West Indian. But I think it fails entirely to recognize the

multiple role of the academic legal writer as teacher,

theoretician, explicator and historian. He operates, after

all, in a university, and it is for me particularly galling that

practitioners happily schooled and nurtured in the persist­

ent obscurity of some English periodical writing should

make such short shrift of our own efforts to create a ma­

ture tradition of legal scholarship virtually overnight.

Speaking for myself, as a practitioner, I find the criticism

that there are too many references given in articles pub­

lished in TIle West Indian Law Journal especially inane: an

article gives one man's view, sometimes no more than an

overview, on a particular topic; for the researcher, aca­

demic or professional, it is only by looking at the author's

source material that we can test the accuracy of his con­

clusions by our own lights and seek signposts to other

dimensions. The academic/practical debate will doubt­

less continue, and it may well be that, as far as TIle West

Indian Law Joumal is concerned, the middle way will have

to be forged out of editorial policy. But, though not in­

variably so, articles with a practical orientation will have

to come from those with practical experience. To this ex­

tent I would urge practitioners in the region to accept the

challenge implicit in their own strictures.

The practitioners also criticized the predominance of

articles on constitutional law, human rights and criminal

law in Tlte West Indian Law Journal. Mrs. Newton's re­

search to some extent confirmed this predominance. I do

not myself find it surprising that this should have been so

in these (still) early years, but I share the view that a move­

ment to a more 'micro' (if I may borrow and use loosely a

word from another discipline) approach might be useful,

given the legal-information needs of the region in the

foreseeable future. If that comes to pass, as I hope it will,

there will remain in even clearer relief, though, the ques­

tion of the accessibility of legal information to members

of the public in a manner that is in form and content intel­

ligible to them. This is one for the practitioners: is it in

the public interest for basic legal information to be col­

lated and disseminated as widely as possible, in the form

of pamphlets, seminars, public lectures, basic texts for

schools, and so on? Or do we have an overriding profes­

sional interest in ensuring that the present system, in which

the most basic legal procedures (correction of a spelling

error on a birth certificate, for instance) are routinely in­

itiated through a lawyer, for a fee? I think that the wide-

spread inability to pay even modest fees must lend some support to the proposition that the legal writer/researcher should not so defihe his area as to exclude a popular press for the law.

I have not so far mentioned legal education, from the student's srandpoint specifically, though much that I have said obviously has an impact on it. I would like to look briefly at the availability and relevance of legal textbooks in the university and the law schools in the context of our present discussion. The problems are well known: Smith and Hogan, for instance, is the leading English students' text on criminal law. It is also a required text in our own Faculty of Law. But an entire 130 pages dealing with theft and related offences have been of no relevance to any ter­ritory in the region since the passing of the Theft Act in the United Kingdom in 1968. When I was a student at Cave Hill in 1971, the entire chapter on larceny from the last pre-1968 edition was photocopied and distributed to the class. I do not know if this is still done, but it was -and would be far more so now - a most expensive exer­cise. The position with English texts on family law, real property law, labour law, and increasingly with evidence, is similar. Indeed, some areas, such as real property and conveyancing, are probably urgently in need of local texts written from scratch. In this situation, a student without diligent guidance is likely to find himself in a minefield. It therefore seems to me that textbook writing, either by way of abridgement and editing of existing established texts or by way of work initiated and developed originally, is an ur­gent need. In the latter category, there is already the pioneering work ofMr. Justice A.V. Crane and Mr. Ash­ton Chase on workmen's compensation, trade unionism and compulsory motor vehicle insurance, Dr. Fenton Ramsahoye's work on the development of land law in British Guiana and, more recently, Dr. Lloyd Barnett's Constitutional Law of Jamaica (1977), Dr. Francis Alexis's Changing Caribbean Constitutions (1983), and Dr. Den­bow'sLife Insurance Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean (1984). More general works include Sir Fred Phillips's three challenging studies (written, as he points out himself without immodesty, in an astonishing eight years8

). Much of this work is brilliantly conceived and superbly lealized and has been produced in difficult circumstances. But if we are to improve on this record, if we are to make our achievement more specific to the needs of students in the university and the law schools, we cannot avoid the ques­tion of economics. To Messrs. Butterworth & Co., an Australian or Canadian edition of Cross on Evidence is a viable proposition, given population levels generally and the size of the legal profession. In the Commonwealth Ca-

ribbean, if the experience of the West Indian Reports is anything to go by, viability may have to yield to commit­ment as the criterion of publication. Increasingly, it is going to be impossible to fmd such commitment outside the region, and I think the time has come for all of us who have an interest in the legal profession, whether as prac­titioners, academics or librarians, to begin to insist that the governments and the private legal sectors in the region recognize and embrace that commitment. To a significant extent, the governments have led the way with their sup­port for the system of legal education. The record of the private sector - and I am thinking specifically of the various practitioners' groupings - has been less happy, and I would certainly urge them, and pledge my part, to become more involved in the financial aspect of publish­ing, given the perception of their members of the short­comings of existing legal information systems and the efforts of those in the region actively involved in research and writing.

And, finally, to the twenty-first century: the age of the computer is upon us, and even if in the Caribbean our re­search methods are still woefully outdated we cannot ig­nore the challenge of change. For me, there is no dilemma in that: as we attempt to survive and compete in a world growing smaller each day, change and modernization are less likely to enrage a perceptive bull than apathy and self­satisfaction. It is in faster and more accurate information retrieval that lawyers and librarians share a common ground. I look forward to confronting that challenge with you in the exciting times ahead.

NOTES l. Denbow, Claude. West Indian Legal Material - Availability -

Problems of the Legal Researcher. Caribbean Law Librarian 3 (2 and 3), July/November 1986,33-36.

2. Twining, W., and Uglow, J., eds. Law Publishing and Legal Informa­tion: Small Jurisdictions of the British Isles (London: Sweet and Maxwell, 1981), 181 pp.

3. Phillips, Sir Fred. Legal Writing and Publishing in the Common­wealth Caribbean. Caribbean Law Librarian 3 (2 and 3), July/November 1986, 43-49.

4. Newton, Velma. Commonwealth Caribbean Legal Systems: A Case Study of Small Jurisdictions (Council of Legal Education, W.I., 1985).

5. Twining, W., and Uglow, J., eds. Op. cit. 34-35. 6. Newton, Velma. Op. cit., 305. 7. Ibid., 419 and 437. 8. Phillips, Sir Fred. Op. cit., 48 ..

I gratefully acknowledge a debt of gratitude to Mrs. Yvonne Williams, who, at criminally short notice, typed this paper expertly.

~ ---... ---

The Law Librarian as Catalyst in the

Commonwealth Caribbean Legal System

What I intend to do in this paper is look at the role of

the law librarian in the Carihbean legal context. In doing

50, I shall elaborate upon what I mean by the Caribbean

legal context and attempt to show in the process the ex­

tent to which our circumstances, even as they are, have yet

to be exploited to the full advantage of, first, our develop­

ing legal system and, second, the law librarian in terms of

his/her function and professional development within the

defined context.

As a basis for what follows, We can first define the

operative words in my subject: Caribbean legal system,

catalyst, and law librarian. I wish first to define the word

'system', for throughout this paper it is important to bear

in mind that the subject of law embodies both a discipline

and a system, and in the latter sense there is in part an

order that is intrinsic to it, as distinct from one that is whol­

ly externally imposed.

A system is 'a co-ordinated body of principles, facts,

theories, doctrines, etc.; a logical grouping, a method or

plan of classification; a co-ordinated arrangement or or­

ganized combination of things or parts for working to­

gether, performing a particular function, etc.; any

complex and co-ordinated whole; etc.' We know, there­

fore, that when we speak of a legal system we are assum­

ing it to have certain identifiable components and

characteristics which can be either intrinsic or extrinsic.

We can also reasonably assume that to affect the opera­

tions of anyone component or characteristic is to have

some impact upon the system as a whole. By Caribbean

legal system, therefore, I mean the collective experiences,

in a historical and actual sense, of the English-speaking

Caribbean in terms of those elements (tangible and intan­

gible) that can be taken to initiate, support, instruct, make

up its laws and its jurisprudence.

The term catalyst is derived from the word catalysis,

which is 'the acceleration or retardation of a chemical

reaction by a substance which itself undergoes 110 per­

manent ch~micnl change, or which may be recovered

Paula Jordon

University of Guyana

when the reaction is completed'. A catalyst, then, is a sub­

stance which catalyzes a chemical reaction.

By law librarian, r shall mean any person given the task

of organizing and/or supervising a collection of legal mat­

erials in the Caribbean, with a view to development of that

collection in order that it may perform an information­

giving function in the context of the Caribbean legal sys­

tem. As I set down these definitions, I realized that in order

to give clarity to the following discussion I would need to

isolate those elements and those relationships upon which

I intend specifically to concentrate. So, as a starting point,

we have the Caribbean legal system, and from within that

legal system J have isolated certain components and char­

acteristics that have a bearing on my overall theme. These

I have identified as part of a subsystem comprising:

Component

1. 771e law libra/ian

2. 771e law libra/Y (i) as legal archive

(ii) as supplier of

immediate/sholt­

needs

3. 77le law librmy user

Characteristic

(a) Jaw and library qualifications

(b) library qualifications

( c) no formal qualifications

absence of appropriate or

relevant system by which to

measure this function

function can be measured in

terms of user satisfaction

low academic output - i.e.,

underdeveloped potential as

evidenced by the quantity and

quality of research output

As I go along, I hope to show the several points of inter­

connection within this sub-system with the law librarian as

the central motivating force. As law librarians, we are well aware that managing and

developing a law library in the Caribbean environment are

not C:isy tasks. '0/e operate under constraints that are

daunting, to say the least, and which require from us a su­

perabundance of patience, time, and energy. In general,

we can identify the most bothersome of these as:

1. The absence of a local legal-publishing industry and

the fact that we constitute too small a market to at­

tract the publishing houses of the larger, more well­

developed common law jurisdictions.

2. The lack of a proven interest on the part of our gov­

ernments in promoting awareness, skills, and finan­

ccs for the proper development of a local legal

literature. This is evident in the low priority given to

the production of up-to-date laws in the individual

jurisdictions. 3. The difficulty of collecting legal literature from other

Caribbean territories.

4. The inadequacy of our library budgets to do all the

things we would like them to do.

The situation makes our responsibilities particularly

onerous .. Our activities on a regular basis attest to this

fact. We are constantly seeking out registrars, clerks of

court, clerks of Parliament, government printers, and a

whole host of other elusive persons, mostly in the employ

of the government, who seem bent on thwarting our pur­

pose of acquiring all of the primary legal materials pub­

lished. In relation to the secondary materials produced,

though the number is small, many do not pass through the

conventional publishing processes and thus create sever­

al difficulties in relation to their acquisition.

The level of our activities, in so far as the local legal

literature is concerned, is one of identifying what is being

produced and where; acquiring it; collating, compiling,

indexing, updating, preparing systematic bibliographies,

etc. In short, the law librarian creates a store of legal in­

formation materials and, in bringing certain skills to bear

upon their organization, facilitates a measure of acces­

sibility, thereby easing the burden of the researcher.

These activities would surely be seen, in the orthodox

sense, to constitute the most important tasks of the law lib­

rarian in this environment. We can attempt to define the

responsibilities they carry with them in relation to a spec­

ific working environment and accordingly attempt to ful­

fill these by doing a thorough and competent job of

meeting the expressed needs of a particular clientele.

This is what many of us perceive to be the ideal. In this

sense, the law librarian does function as a catalyst, in that

through his activities the literature is transformed from a

mere collection of recorded data into a living component

in the continuing growth of the law. The legal profession

and law academics are in turn informed by the access to

practice and precept in the literature provided through

those activities. The law librarian therefore facilitates an

interaction between literature and user.

If, however, we were to approach this concept of the

law librarian as catalyst not so much from the level of hj~

specific activities but from the wider angle of the require­

ments of the legal system itself, it soon becomes clear that

there is greater scope for involvement from us; that what

we have so far contributed is inadequate, for we can con­

tribute more. Here is where we are called upon to ex­

amine those areas in which we can make specific

contributions, as a professional body, to the legal system.

Of course, one can always do so in one's own right as a re­

searcher and/or writer, but what I wish to concentrate on

are those areas which can make of the law librarian an

even greater catalyst than at present.

Earlier on in this paper, one of the definitions given the

word system was 'a logical grouping, a method or plan of

classification'. In terms of our own environment, we lack

a conceptual model of the Caribbean legal system. Even

though we are fundamentally a common law system, to say

so lacks precise meaning relative to the fact that Hong

Kong, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa,

etc., are also common law systems. Even at the level of or­

ganizing our library collections, we are using borrowed

classification schemes, or ad hoc ones, none of which

reflect the comprehensive reality of the legal system we

share. Since this S)"I em has not on the whole evolved

naturally, but has had several injections of various systems

of law at various times, it seems to me that, in contemplat­

ing any deliberate contributions towards development,

one of the first would be that of definition and classifica­

tion, followed by, in our case, the creation of an ap­

propriate law classification scheme.

It may be pertinent to note here that constructing a

classification of (111r law and legal system and creating a

classification for the organization of its literature are not

one and the same thing, although the latter may be derived

from the results of the former exercise. The first, by

definition, involves a level of abstraction that the second

need not contain. For classification, I have chosen to use

the following definition: 'any method of creating rela­

tions, generic or other, between individual semantic units,

regardless of the degree of hierarchy contained in the sys­

tems and of whether those systems would be applied in

connection with traditional or more or less mechanized

methods of document searching' (Elsinore Conference on

Classification, 1964). A classification scheme, on the

other hand, is the pragmatic application of some clas­

sification method in order to facilitate the retrieval of

books and other information-giving materials. The two

Cmibbcall .Tol/mal ofLegallllfol7l1Gtioll .- 19

are obviously directly connected and, particularly in the

Caribbean context, both operations can fall within the

province of the law librarian.

Before I attempt ajustification for this contention, you

may wonder at the necessity for making an issue of law

classification and its applicability to a law classification

scheme when so much else is happening in the informa­

tion field, based on post-co-ordinate automated informa­

tion retrieval methods. But if you examine this state of

affairs critically you will observe that its authenticity is

derived from and supported by a system of interlocking

components involving the writer/researcher, the publish­

er, the critic, the librarian, formal and informal modes of

communication - all of which, in a vibrant, research-or­

iented society, operate at a level of intensity that is not

descriptive or our own society. Developments in such

societies have necessitated, some argue, an inductive ap­

pi-oach to the organization of literature and its retrieval,

but it is wrong to assume that the same approach in our

society would necessarily achieve the results we seek.

In relation to our legal system, apart from those con­

straints already mentioned, we are also dealing with much

smaller numbers and with a research potential that has not

by a long stretch been exhausted, neither in terms of

quality nor quantity. This remark I confine specifically to

legal research in the Caribbean. I do not believe that the

absence of a publishing industry and the other constraints

I have mentioned are solely responsible for our slow pub­

lication rate. Possibly, if we were to examine this situation

more closely, we might find that these factors are not even

largely responsible for this. By my reference to the quality of legal research, I cast

no aspersion nor derision on the quality (or necessity, for

that matter) of existing individual pieces of research, but

rather I refer in the historical perspective to a stage of dev­

elopment in our own legal literature which is in many ways

still elementary - elementary because of the extensive

range of research topics still waiting to be explored and

because, so far, our writers have by and large tended to

concentrate on the pragmatic at the cost of the historical

and practical and on the specific at the cost of the theoreti­

cal and abstract. Of course, one may say that there are always areas of

research waiting to be explored, so that this is not in itself

a valid criticism, but the point is that the sum of what has

been produced has not done enough to provide us with a

conceptual proposition of our own value as a legal system.

If we feel that this is a worthwhile objective, each active

party in the system (by active party I mean, for example,

law teachers as a group, lawyers as a group, law librarians

as a group, etc.) must examine the role it plays. It must be

prepared to strip and test the assumptions that are ge­

nerally made in relation to its progress (or non-progress,

as the case might be) vis-a-vis its desired objectives. It

must also be able to accommodate the unorthodox, where

such methods can be more appropriately applied in our

context. Given the state of the art of the literature in this legal

system, I think we can reasonably assume that the law lib­

rary becomes a focal point and has the potential for be­

coming ever more so if we as law libr,[rians assume at least

partial responsibility for facilitating or bringing about a

change in the present state of affairs,

In terms of the imporlance of the law library to a com­

monlaw system, I have no evidence that highly developed

legal systems in this family can or do flourish without the

support of law libraries, though I suspect not. I am con­

tending that, given our cultural diversity, our particular,

social, financial, geographical, and political realities, there

are certain factors which inhibit a natural flow of legal

academic discourse. I am also contending that, given the

relationship between source and precept in common law

systems, there is a parallel connection between the devel­

opment of the legal system and its literature; hence, the

system becomes as good as the literature which represents

it. Consequently, this has implications for the extent to

which we view our law libraries, either individually or col­

lectively, as archives of the laws and jurisprudence of our

particular system.

If we accept the foregoing while bearing in mind our role

as operators in a system with particular and peculiar

characteristics, then we ought to be able to deduce some

of the principles upon which we should operate in terms

of the acquisition and organization of our legalliterat ure.

As a first step, I think we would need a law classifica­

tion for the Caribbean. At the moment, I stress law clas­

sification and not law classification scheme, for the

objective I am addressing now is wider than that of shelf

arrangement: that is, the objective of scientifically know­

ing our legal system. Upon this knowledge we can lay the

basis of several other functions (thesaurus construction

for indexing purposes and collection development, for in­

stance), knowing what it is important for us to acquire in

relation to the sources of other common law jurisdictions;

what, for instance, constitutes a minimum standard for law

libraries in the Caribbean.

On a theoretical level, classification offers a means of

providing definitions, of determining the range and scope

of concepts, of showing relationships that these hold and

of assigning or creating a logical order among them. It has

been said that the value of classification is based on 'the

human need for order, the need to know what exists and

what does not and the potential this gives for directing

men's endeavours into newer and previously unexplored

and unresolved areas of debate and study' (Datta and Far­

radane). In undertaking such an exercise for law, we are

helped by the fact that there are certain structured

relationships from which one would not be able to deviate. These I have defined as:

(a) Semantic relationships in law - that is, the legal IllC3Jlil1!! of word" and, vict' versa. thc mcaninf' of legal terms and phrasEs.

(b) Structural and associative relationships - by this I mean the boundaries within which legal concepts fall. An example of a structural relationship would be: damages, remedies, law of contract (or tort), private law, common law. An example of an associa­tive relationship would be: domestic law as a subsys­tem of a jurisdiction (Jamaica, say), which is a subsystem of the Caribbean legal system, which is a subsystem of the common law family (made up of several jurisdictions), which is a subsystem of all types of systems of law.

(c) Legal form - that is, the forms in which laws are represented and the level of authority attached to each type of source.

After we have understood these relationships, we can move on to construct an appropriate model of the rela­tionship between jurisdiction, form, and content in the Ca­ribbean context. In this model ought to be represented the several influences that have contributed to the present composition of our legal system. In order to achieve this, there are several levels of relationship that would have to be taken into account, namely:

1. The hisiOlical, socia-political, and comparative as­pects of the legal s),stem. Here, attention would be given to those aspects of our legal system that have developed or devolved through association with some other country or system of law. For instance, there is the common law by virtue of our colonization by Great Britain; there are areas of Roman-Dutch law that are still operative in Guyana as a consequence of that country's historical as­sociation with Holland; similarly, 5t Lucia's civil law was passed on by the French.

Other influences to be taken account of would be the personal laws that came with the various peoples who were settled here and who now constitute our plural soc­iety. And, of course, there are those autochthonous legal concepts which have evolved out of our own local cir­cumstances, such as may be found particularly in family law and the law of real property.

From the examples given, it is evident that what is im­portant is not only the legal concept itself but also the origin of the concept. Some significance would therefore have to be attributed to such occurrences as the reception of law, slavery and its abolition, indentureship, indepen­dence and the constitution, etc., for each of these devel­opments has been the starting point for further developments in the legal system.

2. A mechanism for linkinJ? legal concepts that are not all pmt of the same system of law. This mechanism should enable one to recognize where deviations from the English common law have occurred. It should link concepts in such a way that each concept retains its integrity to what­ever system or origin it belongs to, while at the same tim\: showing how they connect, so that the whole represents a coherent picture of Caribbean jurisprudence. So, for ex­ample, personal property and real property would be linked in some way to moveable and immovable property, for these are all valid concepts in our jurisprudence and one cannot be substituted for the other, neither can we in­clude only one at the expense of the other.

3. Some means of ranking the relationships between our own and othercommolllaw jurisdictions. For instance, the model should address the issue of how important and/or relevant the common Jaw system of, say, India or Canada is to us to show what measure of equivalency there is, if any, among these relationships. This is a much more dif­ficult task than the preceding two, for whatever results arc arrived at will tend to be open-ended, as some jurisdic­tions will become more or less important or relevant over time, at least until our legal system develops to such a de­gree that it can be said to be self-sustaining. The results can also vary considerably depending on the evaluative criteria used.

Anyone of the three characteristics of the model out­lined above can constitute an area of research in itself. Each individually explores an aspect of our legal system for which answers need to be provided in the interest of our own self-knowledge, and each has implications for the kinds of literature we should seek to stock in our libraries.

On the matter of a classification scheme for law books, we come now to a pragmatic application of the principles derived from law classification. At this point the interest of the law-library user bccomes important. The objective of the scheme would be to facilitate easy retrieval at its op­timum relevance. The greatest disadvantage of using a foreign law-classification scheme is that such a scheme would have been constructed with a particular environ­ment in mind, and any transfer to another environment would immediately create problems of relevance and suit­ability. In a scheme that claims to encompass all common law iurisdictions, problems of relevance and generality would also arise. Some examples of the kinds of limitation that can arise (using the Moys scheme as an example) are:

1. What is enumerated for one environment does not necessarily reflect what would be enumerated for another. For example, the Moys scheme does not enumerate Chat­tel House, Constitutional Interpretation, Entrenchment, Freedom of Association, and several others which we

CC!libbcan Journal c;f Legaf Jnfi''I771 Giiol1 --- 27

i ,

~ ----

would recognize. It has giyen, though considerable enum­

eration of Ancient and Mediaeval Law and Religious Legal

Systems, both of which for our purposes could have been

compressed to [all ullde! General alld C':nparalive Law.

2. Specificity of enumeration would pose the same

problem. A sample of the different titles that would fall

within one category using the same classification scheme

are:

Some problems of a hybrid legal system: a case study of

Sf Llicia

English law in the West Indies: law in the West Indies,

some recent trends

Introduction to sources and systems of the common law

Caribbean

Law alld society ill Barbados at the tum of the 19th cen­

twy Reception of law in the West Indies

171e TVest Indian slave laws of the 18th century.

These titles all represent important dimensions of our

legal system, and were we to classify them using the num­

bers in the scheme, they would all be lost in a general

category, in this case KL24 - Legal system - Surveys by

cotll1tly - West Indies.

3. The hierarchies, given certain concepts, may not at

all reflect our own realities. So, for example, in the Moys

scheme, Slavery is confined to the context of Allti-SlavClY

laws, which falls under Race Relations, which falls under

Social Laws and Services. Likewise, Sources of Law falls

under a general section entitled Jurispmdellce, which in

turn falls between the section including Joumals and Ref

erence Books and another section entitled General and

Comparative Law. If anywhere, I think these subjects

would have fallen under Constitutional History and Legal

System, respectively, in a scheme that had been con­

structed with our environment in mind.

4. The vocabulary or terminology used may not be the

preferred one for our particular environment. For ex­

ample, we may prefer the terms 'human rights' or 'fun­

damental rights and freedoms' to the term 'civil rights',

which is the preferred term in the Moys scheme, and we

most certainly would not substitute 'sovereignty' for 'inde­

pendence', as appears in her index thesaurus.

There are many more examples of this sort which can

be given in relation to the Moys scheme, but the Library

of Congress classification, which is the other general

scheme favoured here, poses even more of these prob­

lems. The above examples certainly establish the relevance

of having one's own classification scheme, the con­

struction of which can only be achieved through minute

scrutiny of the semantics and syntax of the legal terminol­

ogy to be used, a.s well as disciplined, systematic, and

rigorous application of scientific methodology and the

development of some system, notational or otherwise, by

which legal literature can be retrieved with the minimum

of interference. In the final analysis, the scheme should

reflect the proper priority of the local legal literature in

relation to the literatures of other non-Caribbean com­

mon law jurisdictions. It should also offer some insight

into the foreign legal primary sources, common law or

otherwise, which still form an extant part of our law.

In general, by reflecting in a classification scheme an

order and method of organization appropriate to the

larger classification framework, we shall be seeking to ac­

tivate the potential creativity of the researcher, which in

turn will develop its own momentum as it is applied to his

research, his teaching, and his professional practice.

I have, in all areas of activity highlighted in this paper,

attempted to offer some justification for contending their

importance. However, there are some further comments

to be made on the question of providing a minimum stand­

ard for law libraries in the Caribbean, which I see as some­

thing coming out of a general law classification. I perceive

a minimum standard for our law libraries as particularly

important. Our law librarians have neither the formal

training nor the experience to equip them with a com­

prehensive, in-depth understanding of the legal system in

which they operate. Hence the need for some standard by

which these people in particular can develop their collec­

tions and measure gro\\1h.

In terms of my coverage of the components of the sub­

system outlined earlier, there are a few final points I would

like to make. The law librarian, on moving into the areas

of activity discussed in this paper, will in effect be pushing

the system towards newer boundaries of knowledge. In­

variably, he/she will be challenging assumptions that have

been made by other active groups in the system. These ac­

tivities are not the kind that depend particular lyon financ­

ing, nor do they depend on administrative or bureaucratic

decisions. They depend mostly upon the time given, ded­

ication, foresight, and intellectual capability of the person

involved. In this respect, it would be useful if our law lib­

rarians could all gain some in-depth knowledge of the Ca­

ribbean legal system. This need not imply that every law

librarian pursue a degree in law, although this would be

one way of doing so. Another possible way could be

through workshops which seek to familiarize people with

the Caribbean jurisdictions - the legal concepts they have

in common and those that are unique to each.

With respect to the professional development of the

law librarian, it stands to reason that in opening ourselves

to a wider academic community we open ourselves to a

more varied form of critical analysis of what we are doing

and of what we hope to achieve. This rarely fails to en­

hance a professional career, sometimes even when it takes

place only by way of detraction. It may be pertinent to note here that the kind of activities I have proposed have ramifications not only for people professionally associ­ated with the law but also for historians, sociologists, lin­guists, etc.

A developing legal system such as ours requires a higher order of law librarian. I find the following quota­tion on the Ethiopian experience instructive:

As a basic resource .. , one needed, of course, a law library. Here again there were interesting problems in view of the diversity of Ethiopian law. But beyond that, it seemed that Ethiopia (and other Third World African countries) needed, on principle, both an 'interdisciplinary' and a comparative law-oriented library - if not in depth, at least in terms of basic materials deal­ing with the kinds of social phenomena which seemed relevant to a problem-centred approach to legal education - an approach which (in theory) was to emphasize comparalive socio-leg­al perspectives on legal development. For ex­ample, materials on land reform, or bureaucracies or political modernization were at least equally important as heavy French tomes on esoteric points of civil law. Unfortunately, this kind of library development requires profession­al skills of a high order, difficult to obtain, or retain, in the Ethiopian setting. (Paul, 1981)

Even though the emphasis of thi~ writer is more on contemporary developments in the legal system, as op-

posed to my own approach, which is primarily historical, the writer has obviously recognized the greater respon­sibility of the law librarian and the law library. I do not think this point can be made strongly enough, and I hope that in accepting this responsibility we do not fall prey to the fcars expressed by Professor Twining when he says:

There appears to be a number of factors militat­ing against experimentation and innovation; thinking about appropriate forms of expository literature, modes of production, classification, and so on is often very primitive or non-existent. Unthinking imitation is often, quite unnecessari­ly, the order of the day. A little ingenuity, a little enterprise, and some questioning of the suita­bility of existing works as models may lead to solution of some of the problems even within ex­isting constraints. (Twining, 1981)

REFERENCES Datta and Farradane, p. 7. Moys, E. Moys' Classification Scheme for Law Books (Butterworth.

1968). Moys. E. Moys' Classification Scheme for Law Books (Butterworth,

1981) . Paul, J. 'Legal information and legal development: some reflections on

the Ethiopian experience'. in: Twining and Uglow (eds.), Legal Literature in Small Jurisdictions (Commonwealth Secretariat, 1981).

Ranganathan. Elsinore Conference on Classification. 1964. Twining, W. 'The concept of a national legal literature', in: Twining.

W .. and Uglow. J. (eds.), ibid.

(':'!I1'bbeGIl /]1!:7la! of Legal TnfOl771Glioll -~- 23

i , v

----_.

Duplicates-Disposal Scheme

JAMAICA

Acts 1978: Nos. 17-20,23 (3c), 26

1979: Nos. 1-15, 17-23,35-44 (NB: 3 copies

of Nos. 1-5,9-13; 5 copies of No.6)

1982: Nos. 14-16,20-21

1983: Nos. 3-8

1984: No.3

1985: Nos. 1-5,6 (2c), 7-9, 10 (2c), 14-21

(2c of each)

1986: Nos. 1 (2c), 2, 3-4, (2c of each)

Gazette 1986: No.3

Gazette Extraordinary

1978: Nos. 46A, 51A

1984: Nos. 4A, 8,11, 15A, 18, 19,20 (2c),

26, 26B, 27-28, 28A, 33

1985: Nos. 48A, 58A

1986: Nos. 5B, 6A, 9, lOA, 11, 1SA, 18A, 20

Gazette Supplement (Proclamations, Rules

and Regulations)

1981: Nos. 18A, 75B, (3c)

1982: Nos. 8A, 9C, 18, 21D, 23F, 24B, 24E, 27 ,

34A, 35D, 37B, 39A-41A, 43-46, 49, 50,

52-53 1983: Nos. 4C, 5C-16, 18A, 19,23,24, (2c),

25,27, 30A, 30Al (2c), 31-32, 38A, 43,

431A, (2c), 46-48, 51A, 57, 57B (2c), 58,

59 (3c), 6DB, 62, 67, 73 (2c), 75

1984: Nos. lA, 2 (2c), 8, HA, 12B, 13, 15B,

22-23,26,26B,30,61

1985: Nos. 1, 3, 3A, 3B, 4-5, SAl, 5A2, 5C,

5D, 6A, 6B, 6C, 6D, 7-8,16, 23A, 25Bl,

311A, 312A, 313A, 33A1, 63

MONTSERRAT

Gazette 1983: No. 12 1984: Nos. 1,3 (2c), 5,6 (2c), 8

1985: Nos. 1-2,8,9-10 (2c of each), 11, 13

Ordinances 1979: Nos. 4-35

1981: Nos. 5-6, 7-11 (2c of each), 12-16

1982: No. 24

1983: Nos. 1-2,3-6 (2c of each), 7, 8 (2c),

9 (2c), 10, 11 (2c), 13, 14 (2c), 30-32

1984: Nos. 1-4,6-8

1985: No.1 (2c)

Statutory Instruments

1982: No. 1538

1983: Nos. 762, 1106, 1112

Statutory Rules and Orders

1971: No.4

1979: Nos. 10, 19-27,29-66,68

1981: Nos. 27, 28 (2c), 29-33

1983: Nos. 15-19,23-29

1984: Nos. 3-6 (2c of each), 7-11, 12-17,

18-19 (2c of each), 27-28, 67-69

1985: Nos. 1-19,31-33 (NB: 2 copies of

Nos. 1,6,9,10, 18; 3 copies of No.8)

O.E.C.S. SUPREME COURT

Statutory Instruments

1985: No.1

St CHRISTOPHER and NEVIS

Acts 1982: Nos. 1-2

1983: Nos. 1-11 (2c of each), 16-17, 19, n 1984: No. 11 1985: Nos. 1-4,6-7,9-11,13

Gazette 1983: Nos. 25,29-31,33-38,41-42,45,53,62,

67, 72 1984: Nos. 2, 19, 38-39

1985: Nos. 1-5,7-8,11,13-18,23-24,26-30,32

Statutory Rules and Orders

Acts

1984: Nos. 13-15, 17-20,23,28,30

1985: Nos. 1-6,8, 10-16, 18-19,21,24-25,27-30

St KITfS-NEVIS-ANGUILLA

1971: Nos. 1, 3-19, 21-28

1976: Nos. 3-40

.1

1977: Nos. 1 (2c), 2 Gazette 1977: Nos. 30-35

Statutory Rules and Order~ 1968: Nos. 1-48 1980: No. 43

Acts

StLUCIA

1983: Nos. 1-7 (2c of each), 9-14,15-24 (2c of each)

1985: Nos. 13-19

Gazette 1983: Nos. 12-13, 16-20,50-55,56 (2c), 59, 61-65, 67-72

1984: No. 19

Statutory Instruments 1983: Nos. 8-17 (2c of each), 18-19,20 (2c),

38-47,53-56,57-67 (2c of each), 68-76 1985: Nos. 77-93

Statutory Rules and Orders 1977: Nos. 209,12-15,17-19,21-27,31,32,

34-38,40-47,50-53

St VINCENT and THE GRENADINES

Acts 1979: Nos. 27-30 1981: Nos. 10-13 1983: Nos. 1-11 (2c of each), 24, 25 (2c),

26-43 1984: Nos. 1-3 (3c of each), 5-11 (3c of each) 1985: Nos. 1-6 (3c of each), 7-18 (4c of each)

Government Gazette 1984: Nos. 12-22 (3c of each), 24-32 (3c of

each), 33-34, 35 (3c) 1985: Nos. 39-57 1986: No.1

Statutory Instruments 1982: No. 210 1985: Nos. 1 (2c), 2-21

Statntory Rules and Orders 1977: Nos. 1,21-44 1979: Nos. 46-59, 59A, 60-67 1980: Nos. 1-3 1981: Nos. 22, 24,26-28,32-35,37-38 1983: Nos. 1-4 (2c of each), 24-42 1984: Nos. 1-4,5 (2c), 6-13 (2c of each),

14-19 (4c of each), 20-21 (Sc of each), 22 (4c)

1985: Nos. 1 (2c), 2-5 (2c of each), 6 (4c),

Acts

7 (4c), 8-12 (3c of each), 13 (4c), 14-16 (3c of each), 17-18 (2c of each), 19 (3c), 20-21

TRINIDAD and TOBAGO

1976: No.4 1983: Nos. 3-10, 11-12 (2c of each), 13,

15-16, 18-20 (2c of each), 21-23 1984: Nos. 1-2 (2c of each), 3-7, 8-10 (2c

of each), 11, 12-13 (2c of each), 14-20, 22-27,28-29 (2c of each)

1985: Nos. 1-5,6 (2c), 7-12,13 (2c), 14-23, 25,27-30,31 (2c), 33-40 (2c of each)

Gazette 1980: Nos. 39-111,113-134,136-146,176,178, 180,186,190-210,213,218-219,222, 231-234,236-246,279-283,285,300-311, 314,322-330,332,338-348

1982: Nos. 253, 256-264 1983: Nos. 1-4,49,60-84,86,88-93,95-119,

120 (3c), 121-127, 128 (3c), 130-153, 155, 167-172,173 (2c), 174,222 (2c), 300-317 (2c of each), 318-319-326 (2c of each)

1984: Nos. 1-39,40-49 (2c of each), 51 (2c), 52,53-54 (2c of each), 55 (2c), 56-65 (2c of each), 66, 67-88 (2c of each), 89, 90-96 (2c of each), 97, 98-104 (2c of each), 105, 106-108 (2c of each), 109-127, 129-131, 133-140,142-145,147-155,157-161, 163-167, 169-170, 172-316,319-349

1985: Nos. 1-259,261-287 (3c of each), 288-290, 291-292 (2c of each), 293-322, 324-330, 335,339-349,351-358,360-361

Legal Notices 1973: Nos. 10, 138 1982: Nbs. 128-138, 150-152 1983: Nos. 3,19-21,36-42,48-70,74-87,

89-93 (2c of each), 94-98, 99-100 (2c of each), 101, 124-136,142-146,151-162, 163-180 (2c of each), 181-184, 185-188 (2c of each), 189-193

1984: Nos. 3-12 (2c of each), 13-22, 145-163, 165-] 194-195 (2c of each)

1985: Nos. 150-162 (2c of each), 163-175, 176-184 (2c of each), 185 (2c), 187 (2c), 195 (2c), 198-200 (2c of each), 203 (2c)

TURKS and CAICOS ISLANDS

Gazette 1983: Nos. 36, 55

Carihbean JOllmal of Legal ["fonnation - 25

WEST INDIES ASSOCIATED STATES

SUPREME COURT

~':U;;U tory Instruments 1977: No.1 1978: No.1 (3c)

" 'I ./

.,,' (): l,f,'-

Persons interested in acquiring any material listed

above should contact Mrs. Yvonne Lawrence, Supreme

Court Library, P.O. Box 491, Kingston, Jamaica.

Caribbean Legal Miscellanea: it. Bibliography

ANTIGUA & BARBUDA - LAW - INDEXES Consolidated index of statutes and subsidiary legislation

to 1st January 1986. Compiled ... (by Sir Clifford Hammett). Cave Hill, Barbados: University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law Library, 1986. 95 pp.

BANKS AND BANKING - CAYMAN ISLANDS Smith, Grace A. Bank secrecy in the Cayman Islands.

1986 West Indian Law}oumal, Vol. 10, No.1, pp. 114-126.

BARBADOS - LAW STATUTES - ETC. Labour legislation in Barbados. Barbados: Government

Printing Department, 1987. 2 vols.

BRITISH VIRGIN ISLANDS - LAW - INDEXES Consolidated index of statutes and subsidiary legislation

to 1st January 1986. Compiled ... (by Sir Clifford Hammett). Cave Hill, Barbados: University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law Library, 1986. 71 pp.

CARIBBEAN AREA - LAW Marshall, Bernard. Law, social engineering and social

and cultural pluralism in the British Windward Is­lands during slavery. Cave Hill, Barbados, 1986. 170 pp.

CAYMAN ISLANDS - LAW - INDEXES Consolidated index of statutes and subsidiary,legislation

to 1st January 1986. Compiled ... (by Sir Clifford Hammett). Cave Hill, Barbados: University of the West Indies, Faculty of Law Library, 1986. 72 pp.

CML RIGHTS - GUYANA Shahabuddeen, M. Long through the night: two

speeches on the human condition in southem Africa and colonial Guyana. Georgetown, Guyana: Mini­stry of Information, 1986. 26 pp.

COMPUTERS Walker, Ian. Should computer programs be patent­

able? Computer technology and Caribbean courts. 1986 West Indian Law/oumal, Vol. 10, No.1, pp. 104-113.

CONSTITUTIONAL LAW Barnett, Lloyd G. Constitutional interpretation: judi­

cial techniques and counsel's tools. Paper presented at the Programme of Continuing Legal Education held at the Norman Manley Law School on 6 June 1987. 10 pp.

CORPORATION LAW Robinson, Patrick L. The fear of and insistence on a

reference to international law in the United Nations Code of Conduct on Transnational Corporations. 1986 West Indian Law Joumal, VallO, No.2, pp. 59-78.

CRIME AND CRIMINALS Chuck, Delroy. A public lecture on the politics of

crime. 1986 West Indian Law/oumal, Vol. 10, No.2, pp.79-92.

CULTURAL PLURALISM - CARIBBEAN AREA Marshall, Bernard. Law, social engineering and social

and cultural pluralism in the British Windward Is­lands during slavery. Cave Hill, Barbados, 1986. 170 pp.

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW - BIBLIOGRAPHY Moss, Sylvia G. Books and pedodicals on environmental

law held in the Faculty of Law Library, University of the West Indies. Cave Hill, Barbados: Faculty of Law Library, 1986. 68 pp.

EVIDENCE Cooke, Howard. Possession: unlawful and illegal pro­

cedure, practice and evidence. Paper presented at the Programme of Continuing Legal Education held at the Norman Manley Law School, June 1987.

Small, Richard. Confronting a witness: some working points. 1986 West Indian Law/oumal, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 107-118.

Smith, K.G. Identification: evidence and procedure. Paper presented at the Programme of Continuing Legal Education held at the Norman Manley Law School 20 June 1987.

COlib;)[c I journal of Legal Infomwli:-m -- 27