Jamaican drafts legacy in Commonwealth

The Caribbean has strengthened its influence in legislative drafting across the Commonwealth with the presidency now occupied by Jamaican attorney-at-law and legislative drafter Michelle Daley, who was elected president of the Commonwealth Association of Legislative Council (CALC) at the body’s conference in Singapore last month.

Daley is not only the first Caribbean national and the first Black woman to hold the position, but also the first person from a small island developing state to do so. Her election comes after nine years in an executive position, including two two-year terms as vice-president.

The position also comes despite a ‘chronic’ deficit of legislative drafters in the Caribbean and throughout the Commonwealth. Daley previously served on the council for nine years, including two two-year terms as America’s representative and two terms as vice-president, giving her administrative experience and the opportunity to work closely at the seat of power.

CALC connects professionals from nearly 80 jurisdictions who share best practices in drafting legislation. Bringing awareness to the issues affecting member countries will be a priority of her tenure, Daley told The Gleaner.

“This meeting brought together all the legislative drafters from around the Commonwealth.

Similarly to what happened when we had the conference in Jamaica two years ago, so we would have had, in Singapore, over 40 countries represented. Elections, however, were done online so that it allowed all the members of the association to participate. Voting was open to all members of the association to participate, not the persons who were at conference. So, even if somebody didn’t physically attend the conference, they were able to vote during the voting week. About 2,700 people available and qualified to vote...,” Daley told The Gleaner.

Now a full-time consultant drafter, she runs her own company, with the bulk of her work coming from overseas territories, jurisdictions in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and a short project with the Pan American Development Foundation, which is geared towards training people to prepare legislative drafting instructions.

However, small island developing states face many challenges in the area of training, which has fuelled a global shortage of legislative drafters.

“If we don’t systematically and strategically look at ensuring that we provide continuing legal professional development, then our drafters will go where they think they can find it, which is why there is a shortage around the globe. There is a shortage in the Caribbean, but there is also a worldwide shortage. But its more poignant within the Caribbean as we are a region of very small offices with two or three people to carry a whole legislative agenda for an entire country,” she told The Gleaner.

Daley’s expertise

She has drafted hundreds of pieces of primary and subsidiary legislation covering a wide range of legal areas and for multiple jurisdictions, including Jamaica, the British Virgin Islands, The Cayman Islands, Belize, Anguilla, the United Arab Emirates (DIFC, Dubai), Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

She has also led the development of harmonised legislation for the OECS and the Caribbean Community (Caricom).

In addition to legislative drafting services, she provides legislative audits and law reform services, consolidation and law revision services, and facilitates workshops on the legislation development process, preparation of legislative drafting instructions, parliamentary procedures and other ancillary legislative matters.

Widely recognised for her precision, attention to detail and ability to deliver high-quality legislative instruments within tight deadlines, her work is informed by internationally accepted methodologies and best practices, which she applies with strategic insight and analytical rigour.

Her extensive experience and deep understanding of legal systems in both national and regional contexts make her a highly valued expert in the field of legislative reform and capacity building.

Focus of her tenure

For the next two years, constitutional reform of the organisation will be given priority, as an accredited institution of the Commonwealth. CALC has operated within that framework for a long time, she said.

“But as you can appreciate, with the enhanced requirements of know your customer, anti-money laundering, counter-terrorism financing, all of those requirements, are now are leading us to need to recreate or look at our legal personality status. Because whereas we don’t do business, we interact with people in business relationships. So we have to have a bank account which includes a lot of housekeeping,” she told The Gleaner.

Legislative drafting, while not sexy, is work that must be done, and she reminded that every law which governs every aspect of life from the parliaments has passed through the hands of a drafter.

She will also use her tenure to foster greater relationships with the countries of CALC.

“Currently, we have a major conference every two years. We’ve been trying to have regional conferences in between the two-year conference. And I’m hoping to try, during my two years, to have as many regional conferences as we can, so we are able to discuss the challenges that we’re all facing. See how we can retrofit it to better serve our individual needs. We often find that at the big conferences, we hear from the large resource countries, because they have the money to send people to conferences,” she told The Gleaner.

Even with conferences in the Caribbean, many member states often have to send representatives as a result of financial constraints. Only Barbados had delegates at the Singapore meeting.

Except for one president from Africa and India, the other presidents have come from Australia and the United Kingdom since it was established 42 years ago, during the first conference in Hong Kong.

erica.virtue@gleanerjm.com