(JollofNews) – The Gambia’s judicial system aspiration to be a democratic and just society of laws is floundering and is close to capsizing. Judicial quality and capacity needs a huge expansion in new Gambia.
Our judiciary needs more trained magistrates and impeccable judges, with less freelance lawyers and an efficient judicial infrastructure countrywide.
Speedy justice should be the order of the day and adjournments should be few in our justice system. There is a terrible discrepancy between the population and the number of judges and magistrates required to cater to the population a speedy justice, and avoid delayed justice, the government should raise the number of magistrates and judges in our courts.
The average time our courts expends on a case takes time. Imagine something that makes its way up for decades gets decided without much application of judicial mind due to paucity of time.
The Gambia not only need more judges and magistrates but also need a layer of appeals and higher courts to shield the lower courts from being flooded with litigation especially since the purpose of civil litigation is usually to deny discharge of obligations and contracts.
New Gambia also need more criminal courts to try government corruption expeditious and make government less burdensome on people. The government could also do well with tax courts focused on revenue and taxation issues.
Clearly, the Gambia will do well with a lot more magistrates and judges and hopefully with little less litigation and lawyers.
While passing the bar exam may be a source of joy to the successful examinees, the entry of hundreds of new lawyers into the workforce each year raises some concerns.
In a country beset with numerous economic and social problems, is there a need to produce that big number of lawyers every year? With more lawyers looking for ways to earn a living, are we not fostering the growth of a litigious society?
In his book “The Price of Inequality,” Joseph Stiglitz, a Nobel Prize winner in economics, said some studies “… showed that countries with fewer lawyers (relative to their population) grew faster. Other research suggests that the main channel through which a high proportion of lawyers in a society hurts the economy is the diversion of talent away from more innovative activities (like engineering and science).” This observation applies foursquare to the Gambia.
Nice piece from Alagi; It’s the same old. same old. All that is different is its Barrow’s photo on the top of pyramid and not Jammeh’s. Looks like Barrow and Darboe aim to be around for a long time. The others just glad they got a job. So what’s fresh ?
How time only reveals different faces and not different policies. I am feeling the shame of Gambia and Gambians again. How they must fear, fear, when fear is not the problem. It’s what is inside the heart that colours and man’s truth.. The Games people play.
I must confess that I have had to read Mr Jallow’s article a couple of times before I could comprehend the underlying message. This could to a large measure be attributed to the fact that there is a lot that indicates that he has for some reason or other left out the term “jurist” in his analysis. Thus equating a mere law graduate (a “jurist” by definition) with one who has been called to the Bar, a lawyer.
I agree with Mr Jallow that a small economy as that of The Gambia should be careful not to produce too many lawyers. Not least, in that some of these peoples’ talents could otherwise be useful in other sectors of the economy. Having said that, I must add that at this moment in time, the Gambia has yet to produce the hundreds of lawyers he claim in the article. Rather, the country is merely producing dozens of jurists (i.e. law graduates) annually and the number of those that end up being called to the Bar are much less. In other words, one is not automatically a lawyer just because one has an LLB degree. The man in the streets in The Gambia has yet to learn about this important distinction between a “jurist” and a “lawyer”. On a personal note, as a law graduate, I am a jurist by training and profession, but I have never had the need to be a lawyer at this moment in time. Instead, I use my highly valued skills elsewhere in both the private and public sectors of the economy of this northern European kingdom.
On the other hand, scientific studies in the northern part of Europe have confirmed time and again that it is the advent of civilization per se that entails the explosion of rules and regulation in society so as to keep pace with the technological and cultural developments that we have been witnessing in the past decades. Hence, in this part of the world it is the absolute minority of jurists who end up being lawyers. Instead, most of them end up as senior level bureaucrats, legal consultants, judges, senior level police officers, directors of private and public companies, etc. Not least, those specializing in commercial law and similar specialized areas. Seen in this light, I can at this moment in time not see any reason why the number of jurists in the country should not keep rising in the foreseeable future – i.e. in line with global trends and the increasing intellectual sophistication of the average Gambian compared to just two decades ago.
As to the need for more judges and courts, I do agree with you on that score. International studies have however shown that that goal is more easily attained by making judges pay and condition of service more attractive vis-a-vis private legal practitioners’ – remember, many judges around the globe have been in private practice in their respective jurisdictions before.
In short, we should expect a huge expansion in the number of law graduates (jurists) in the country as society becomes more and more sophisticated in the coming decades. Which is not the same as saying we need more lawyers!