MINUTES OF THE SECOND MEETING OF CAPSL HELD IN KUALA LUMPUR ON 14 SEPTEMBER 1999 PRESENT: In the Chair, Dato Heliliah Yusof; 44 others (as recorded in the minute book). Together with, by invitation, representatives of the Zimbabwe Law Society. 1. WELCOME The Chairman opened the proceedings with a brief address welcoming all those present to her home country and stressing the importance which she attached to the Association and its future development. 2. APOLOGIES There were apologies from Ann Chaplin, David Gates and Eric Johnston (Canada) and Wally Hammond (UK). 3. MINUTES OF 26 AUGUST 1996 The Minutes of the Formation Meeting in Vancouver (Appx A to the agenda) were approved as a correct record. Arising thereon, the Secretary referred to the untimely deaths since that meeting of John Tait and Michael Saunders. 4. SECRETARYS PROGRESS REPORT The Report (Appx B) was received. It was noted that Greg Ross (Australia) had expressed an interest in taking over as Secretary in 2001. With regard to the Membership List August 1999, the Secretary drew attention to the omission of the Chairman and himself and of Sultan Sohawon (Mauritius) from the list of Individual Members and of the In-house Lawyers Group, Law Society of Scotland (UK) and of the Judicial and Legal Services Association (Malaysia) from the list of Institutional Members. 5. CONSTITUTION On the proposition of David Hamilton (UK), seconded by Clive Grenyer (Cayman Islands), it was AGREED that the revised Constitution (Appx C) be approved. 6. ELECTION OF OFFICERS FOR THE PERIOD 1999-2001 The President of the Zimbabwe Law Society addressed the meeting with regard to the election of the next Chairman and said he looked forward to welcoming members of the Association to Harare during the second week of September in 2001. On the proposition of the Chairman duly seconded it was AGREED:
7. FINANCE The Chairman expressed the view that, if the Association was to develop, then it would need its own funds and a subscription would be necessary. However, it was AGREED:
8. HARARE 2001 After some discussion of the possible options for the Associations involvement, it was AGREED:
9. SERVICES TO MEMBERS John Wilson (Fiji) expressed the view that the Association had yet really to identify with a precise role and felt that one area in which it might develop was the provision by its members of education in basic legal concepts for public sector administrators. However, an important first step would be building the institutional membership base. Reginald Amegatcher (Commonwealth Secretariat) said that the Secretariat could assist in this respect by providing the Association with a full contacts list. Others saw the Association as having a major role in the establishment of networks, which would be greatly assisted if the Association had its own web site with links to others with similar interests. With help from the Commonwealth Secretariat over contacts, the Association could establish and make generally available on the site a Directory of Commonwealth Public Sector Legal Services which identified for each jurisdiction the designations and roles of the service and an individual who could act as rapporteur. This would be especially helpful to the smaller jurisdictions. It would also facilitate the sharing of problems and experiences and the exchange of research projects. This would all encourage the growth of institutional membership. Some felt a need for the development of courses, seminars and workshops for members. In this context the Secretary referred to a current proposal of Public Administration International for a two week study programme in the UK in 2000 for government lawyers on Managing Change, details of which he undertook to circulate with the next Association Newsletter. After some further discussion, it was AGREED:
10. EXCHANGE PROGRAMMES Marie-Claude Goulet (Canada) drew attention to the programme of the Canadian Department of Justice, details of which she had brought with her and which were available to any who might be interested in it. CJDR 24 NOVEMBER 1999 |