UQ’s TC Beirne School of Law is assisting the Government of Nepal to strengthen its legal system.
The School’s Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law (CPICL), has been awarded a consultancy with AusAid’s Public Sector Linkages Program to provide training to the National Judicial Academy (NJA) in Nepal.
CPICL Director, Professor Suri Ratnapala, said the consultancy was primarily aimed at training the faculty of the NJA to better perform their mission of developing and delivering training programs for judges, lawyers and government legal officers in Nepal.
“What we are essentially providing the Academy with is technical assistance in course design, program development and in the various methods of training and teaching,” he said.
“We will also be giving them some substantive knowledge in selected areas of the law; in particular, constitutional law and constitutional government, judicial ethics and accountability, and aspects of criminal law and evidence.”
Nepal is recovering from years of civil unrest. After adopting a new constitution in 1990 which created a parliament under a constitutional monarch, the country descended into near civil war following a Maoist rebellion until the King reclaimed complete control of the country.
In 2006, following weeks of public demonstrations, the King agreed to reinstate the parliament and establish an interim government leading to the election of a Constituent Assembly which will draft a new constitution.
Professor Ratnapala said the project therefore came at a critical moment in Nepal’s political transition to a constitutional democracy.
“For a democratic form of government to operate properly it has to be on the basis of the rule of law, and a strong, competent and independent judiciary is essential to having such a system of government,” he said.
“It is everyone’s hope that it will be a new beginning for Nepal under a democratic system of government.”
The project will be undertaken throughout 2007 and will involve training activities in Nepal and Brisbane, Australia, for senior judicial staff and court administrators.
Media: For further information contact Professor Ratnapala (07 3365 2460) or Dr Ann Black (07 3365 2243).
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