The Attorney General’s Chambers is undertaking a million-dollar exercise to consolidate and revise the national laws, resulting in all the laws of St. Vincent and the Grenadines being available online.
Attorney General Louise Mitchell also said in her address to mark the beginning of the law year that the Gazette would also be available online.
She, however, announced that the New Democratic Party government considers as “an important medium-term objective” the construction of the halls of justice proposed by the Unity Labour Party adminstration, which was voted out of office in November.
Mitchell told the court that the compilation of the laws of SVG will include all laws passed up to Dec. 31, 2025.
She noted that the last consolidation and revision of SVG’s national laws was completed in 2009 and, as such, a further revision is long overdue.
“The transition from a previous service provider to the Regional Law Revision Centre in Anguilla, who we have now engaged, represents a strategic shift towards regional cooperation whilst maintaining sovereignty over our legal framework.”
She said a fundamental benefit of this new engagement is that the Government of St. Vincent and the Grenadines will own the resulting legal compilation.
“The decision to produce the consolidated laws in MS Word format reflects practical considerations,” Mitchell said, adding that this alignment facilitates knowledge sharing and investor confidence through clear legal frameworks.
“It directly supports Sustainable Development Goal 16, which calls for peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all, and effective, accountable institutions.
“And more importantly, the AG’s Chambers says it’s necessary to reduce the number of complaints received from the Bar Association about why we haven’t done this as yet.”
She told the court that the Ministry of Legal Affairs’ website has a copy of the Gazette published since 2016.
“I shall put things in place to ensure that we will be positioned to post all laws passed under the new administration on the said website in the coming months.”
The attorney general told the court that the digitisation of the Land Registry Project is ongoing and is expected to conclude in 2028.
Its scope includes scanning all existing deeds and producing summaries for each document, she said, noting that to date, approximately 250,000 deeds have been scanned from the period 1939-2025.
She said the Legal Professions Bill — which was introduced under the previous government — will be placed on the parliamentary agenda in the first quarter of the year.
“It seeks to ensure that we as practitioners hold ourselves to the highest of standards, and is quite relevant in light of the theme of [“The ECSC: Justice that Endures – Anchored in Independence, Strengthened through Trust”] of this sitting today,” Mithcell said.
“We must adopt principles as practitioners where our integrity is not compromised. The passage of this bill will serve to enshrine in law the ethical standards by which all lawyers should operate.”
Halls of justice on hold
Meanwhile, the attorney general said she had heard the reports of mould and termite infestation, as well as challenges of inappropriate spaces for the conduct of hearings, deliberations and fraternal discussions in the High Court building and problems of terrible conditions in the magistrates’ courts.
She noted that Prime Minister Godwin Friday has stated publicly that a new Parliament building is not a priority and plans to build one are on hold.
Mitchell pointed out that the previous government had planned to build both a new parliament building and the halls of justice at the same time.
“I’m pleased to let you know that the building of the Halls of Justice remains an important medium-term objective of this government,” she said.
The attorney general said a first step will be taken this year towards the realisation of an adequate building to house the courts.
“This year, there will be a study commissioned that will look into the comparative costs and suitability of housing the halls of justice in the old Court House Building or in constructing a new one on the vacant lands allocated in Kingstown for this purpose,” she said.
“Accordingly, by the end of 2026, the government will have a concept design completed and a decision made on the location of the halls of justice. God willing, in 2027, funding will then be sourced,” Mitchell said.