Law Revision

The Law Revision Secretariat (LRS)

Overview

The Law Revision Secretariat (LRS) (also known as the Law Revision Office) is the office of Government that is responsible for consolidating the ‘Laws of Jamaica’ and publishing the ‘Revised Pages’ of the Laws through collaboration with the Jamaica Printing Services (JPS), and also increasingly via digital mediums.

It should be noted that –

  • The function of Law Revision is authorized and governed by the Law Revision Act, 1969 (as amended), which charges the Law Revision Committee (LRC) with ensuring that this crucial work is carried out on a continual basis.
  • The Law Revision Committee is comprised of between three (3) to six (6) Appointed Commissioners alongside five (5) Commissioners   Ex-Officio, who are the Minister of Justice (who chairs the Committee), the Attorney General, the Solicitor General, the Chief Parliamentary Counsel, and the Director of Legal Reform.
  • The LRS is the section within the Ministry of Justice tasked with undertaking the practical work of Law Revision, under the technical supervision of the Law Revision Committee.
  • The ongoing task of consolidating the Laws of Jamaica is done on a year-by-year basis (i.e. revision years), and involves the reviewing of all new legislation that are ‘in force’ up to the ‘cut-off’ date (December 31st each year), to include all Acts passed (and ‘operationalized’) and all subsidiary legislation promulgated (both duly ‘gazetted’), in order  to determine what changes to the ‘Revised Laws of Jamaica’ have been instructed by said new legislation. These changes may include the insertion of entirely new primary or secondary legislation, or amendments to existing (primary/secondary) legislation, as well as the removal of repealed legislation.
  • Once these changes have been identified, they have to be incorporated into the ‘Revised Pages’ of the Laws of Jamaica, and those adjusted pages republished. Publication is primarily done in physical form through the printing of the updated Revised Pages by the Jamaica Printing Services (1992) Limited under the authorisation of the Minister and guidance of the LRS. The Revised Pages are also digitized by the LRS, thus reproducing the content for dissemination online, and via other media, so as to facilitate wider and easier access.

LRS Mission Statement

“To facilitate access to the current laws through the preparation of the revised pages of the Laws of Jamaica (Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation).”

LRS Main Functions

The main functions carried out by the Law Revision Secretariat include:

  1. Identifying and executing textual changes to the Laws of Jamaica (both Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation) to be made according to legislation promulgated throughout the course of the legislative year.
  2. In the course of the consolidation exercise, typesetting and thereafter proofreading the content set out by:
    1. New Statutes (Acts) and Subsidiary Legislation (Regulations, Notices, Orders, etc.), issued directly and indirectly under the authority of Parliament.
    2. Amendments to existing Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation.
  3. Preparation of the all relevant supplementary documentation/information (transmittal notices, alphabetical lists, chronological table) necessary to guide end-users on the updated composition of the Revised Laws, as they are to reflect in the official volumes.
  4. Production of the correctly updated and properly formatted updated pages to the Revised Laws, in ‘camera-ready’ form, for delivery to the Jamaica Printing Services (JPS) for publication. 
  5. Digitisation of the Laws of Jamaica (Statutes and Subsidiary Legislation) primarily to enable the updating of the online repository accessible through the Ministry’s website.
  6. Ongoing maintenance of indexes and database as a store of information on the continuing changes to / development of primary and secondary  legislation.