A review of the laws

The National Law Review Taskforce has come up with many laws that need to be done away with, harmonized, implemented with procedural change and also enacted.

This taskforce got into action after His Majesty The King on 16th May 2014, in an address to the Parliament, expressed His Majesty’s concerns on proliferation and duplication of laws in the country.

The cabinet got into action and in 2015 set up the initial taskforce. It took seven-member taskforce supported by a secretariat of five lawyers more than three years to dig up the scope of the the extensive problem and come up with recommendations.

In that sense His Majesty The King has provided true wisdom and vision to the government and the people to recognize and deal with one of the biggest challenges faced by Bhutan.

Not only is the foundation of the Bhutanese democracy built upon laws but it is also one of the key pillars of the Bhutanese state and polity itself.

Good laws will strengthen the state and democracy and make the lives of people easier. While bad laws will make the lives of people difficult, make governance harder and harm Bhutanese democracy.

It is a mass tangle of conflicting laws that leads to not only a lot of confusion, but also gives scope for differing interpretations and applications that can further weaken the faith in the law.

As Bhutanese democracy has evolved, our MPs have gotten better at drafting laws and so the aim should not be the creation of just more laws; but, to see if the laws are really needed, if it is in harmony with other laws and what will be consequent impact.

Law and democracy while being stable and strong also need to be dynamic and so this exercise will serve that purpose too.

Now it is up to the incoming government and Parliament to study, deliberate and decide on what to do.

At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst.
Aristotle

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One comment

  1. This paper has done a good review and analysis concerning a very serious matter – duplication of laws in Bhutan, which none other than His Majesty The King had to point out four years ago.

    The initial article on this issue points out the “Civil Service Act unilaterally empowers RCSC to be the central personnel agency in the recruitment, training, transfer, promotion and management of certain levels of staff, thereby contravening the Constitution”. That begs the question – has the RCSC Act been contravening Article 19 of the Constitution which categorically states:

    The Druk Gyalpo shall, by warrant under His hand and seal, appoint:

    (m) The Cabinet Secretary on the recommendation of the Prime Minister;

    (o) Ambassadors and Consuls on the recommendation of the Prime Minister;

    If RCSC has been involved in the appointment, extension or whetting of these posts, whichever clause in the Act has been used to do so should be rescinded at once.

    The country should not have to wait another 4 years before another Task Force puts out another report stating the obvious after another prodding by The Golden Throne.

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