The bill entitled, the Law Revision (amendment) bill 2008, was last Wednesday amended by Members of the National Assembly at the second meeting of the members in the 2008 legislative year.

This bill seeks to reflect changes by amending the Law Revision Act to facilitate the publication of a revised edition of the laws of The Gambia. The Law Revision Act was first enacted in 1990 as part of efforts to consolidate and maintain the Laws of The Gambia on a cumulative basis.

Presenting the bill before the house, Marie Saine-Firdaus, Attorney General and secretary of state for Justice said this task is fullfilled through inter alia, revision of all acts and Subsidiary Legislation on the appointed date as well as omitting all Acts that have either been repealed or have come, become,, spend or sxpired.

She added that, this exercise has not ben undertaken since the first revised edition in 1990, 18 years ago. She note that, during this perio, the laws of The Gambia have undergone a lot of changes and noted that, this bill will therefore seeks to reflect such changes by amending the the Law Revision Act to facilitate the publication of a revised edition of the laws of The Gambia.

” Fundamental among the changes that have taken place since the last revision exercise is the coming into force of ‘Decrees’ as part of the laws of The Gambia. The bill also seeks to expand the meaning of ‘enactments’ to include ‘Decrees’ and to re-designate same as Acts” she said.

This bill she stated, also seeks to empower the Attorney General, with the approval of the President, to cause a Revised Edition to be prepared from time to time.

Supporting the amendment, Fabakary Tombong Jatta, Majority leader and NAM for Serrekunda East described the amendment as positive. He then called for the estblishment of the Laws of The Gambia Library to ensure that such laws are properly archieves for posterity.

Netty Baldeh, NAM for Tumana also commended the secretary of state and her tean of experts for a very bold initiative. He noted that updating and making the laws of The Gambia current is vital but quickly called on the secretary of state for Justice to provide the National Assembly with a legal expert to enable them create private member bills.

Sedia Jatta of Wuli West and Bekai Camara of Wuli East all welcomed the amendement.