Five hundred legal professionals from 52 Commonwealth countries, including South Africa, gathered for the Commonwealth Lawyers Association Bi-Annual Conference in Goa, India from 5 – 9 March 2023. The conference was last hosted in South Africa, Cape Town in 2012.
The Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund (LPFF), along with other role players in the South African legal profession have regularly attended this conference, which addresses matters relevant to the South African legal environment. This year the delegation from South Africa included the LPFF Board Chairperson, Sophie Kekana; LPFF CEO, Motlatsi Molefe; Chairperson of the SA Legal Practice Council, J K Myburgh; Senior Counsel BP Joseph and President of the South African Law Society, Denise Lenyai,
Since 1955, the Commonwealth Law Conference has been bringing together lawyers, judges and academics from across the 56 nations of the Commonwealth, in a stimulating environment where they can debate current issues affecting the legal profession, network and share innovative ideas from legal professions from across the globe.
The conference covers a range of legal topics and issues relevant to lawyers and legal professionals in the Commonwealth. This year the five-day long conference was inaugurated by Goa Governor P.S. Sreedharan Pillai, and was attended by Union Minister for Law and Justice Kiren Rijiju, and Chief Minister of Goa, Dr Pramod Sawant.
During his address, Union Minister Kiren Rijiju emphasised the importance of the conference as a platform for open discussions on critical legal issues. He stated that the law must be comprehensible to the common man in order to achieve its desired result. He further highlighted his government’s commitment to good governance and the welfare of the people.
Different sessions took place during the conference, some of which included:
- Freedom of movement in post COVID world – which sought to answer the question: Are internal passports on the rise?
- Freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest
- Financial services best practice
- Democracy and the COVID aftermath – Abuse of emergency powers
- Judicial appointments – developments and regressions
Speaking on his experience at the conference, the CEO of the Legal Practitioners Fidelity Fund, Motlatsi Molefe said, “Meetings like this are very important, especially considering the challenges we are facing currently with our own legal system. Topics including safeguarding and strengthening the independence of judiciary were discussed in detail, and as legal practitioners in a country where attempts to undermine judicial independence are on the rise, this topic really resonated with the South African delegation”
The Commonwealth (Latimer House) Principles declare that an independent, impartial, honest and competent judiciary is integral in upholding the rule of law, engendering public confidence and dispensing justice, and as commonwealth legal practitioners, it was emphasised that the delegates must unequivocally reaffirm the importance of the independence of the judiciary, remain alive to insidious challenges, and be vigilant in safeguarding and strengthening the judiciaries in their respective countries.
