Nazri: AG, Cabinet to discuss setting up of legal academy

(Bernama) – The proposal to set up a law academy will be discussed by the Cabinet and the Attorney-General soon, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz said Monday.

He said it was high time for a new organisation, other than the Bar, to be formed to represent those who studied law.

“The Bar is for those who practice law, but most of those who studied law like the academicians or those in the banking sector or former judges, they don’t have an association to represent them,” he told reporters at the hand-over ceremony of the e-Kehakiman project here.

Bar Council member Abu Backer Sidek, had recently proposed that a new, independent lawyer body be formed as the existing Bar had failed to defend itself as a professional body with integrity.

The government had also agreed with the demand made by a group of lawyers intending to form a new organisation to represent their profession, welfare and legal interests. Mohamed Nazri said the setting up of the academy was aimed at avoiding monopoly in the issue of legal interpretation.

“I’m sure those in academia would have better interpretation of the law. The Bar may not get it right all the time. They are very partisan. I don’t think they should be given a monopoly,” he said.

On the e-Kehakiman project, the minister said that the government was planning to expand the project to more courts across the country.

“The courts have agreed to provide more access with the establishment of two data centres, namely the main data centre in the Palace of Justice and the support data centre at the Court Complex in Jalan Duta,” he said.

So far, all courts in six locations, namely Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Shah Alam, Georgetown, Johor Baru and Ipoh, had been equipped with the e-Kehakiman components such as e-filing access, Case Management System and Queue Management System.