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Finding the Law in the Pacific Islands: Observations with Special Reference to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2019

Edward P. Wolfers
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Extract

Law librarians whose work requires them to obtain and stock materials on the Pacific islands face some problems which seem worthy of special comment. These problems are essentially of two kinds—

  • problems which are inherent in the nature of Pacific islands legal systems; and

  • problems involved in obtaining relevant information.

Type
Article
Information
International Journal of Legal Information , Volume 10 , Issue 3 , June 1982 , pp. 93 - 121
Copyright
Copyright © 1982 by International Association of Law Libraries 

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References

1. The Constitution of the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, section 9.Google Scholar

2. Ibid., section 24.Google Scholar

3. Including, it might be argued, the draft Constitution and the Minority Report by Mr. M. T. Somare, M.H.A., Chief Minister, and Dr. John Guise, M.H.A., C.B.E., Deputy Chief Minister (Draft and incomplete) (mimeo), which was withdrawn and replaced by the Government Paper, op. cit. Google Scholar

4. Edited portions of the debates on citizenship in the Constituent Assembly, taken from the Daily Hansard (mimeo)—which is … “not … a final and accurate report”—have been published (with permission) in Wolfers, Edward P., “Defining a Nation: The Citizenship Debates in the Papua New Guinea Parliament”, in F. S. Stevens and Edward P. Wolfers (eds.), Racism: The Australian Experience. A Study of Race Prejudice in Australia, Volume 3 (second edition): “Colonialism and After” (Australia and New Zealand Book Co., Sydney, 1977), pages 301–397.Google Scholar

5. Constitution, Schedule 5.Google Scholar

6. The Constitution of Solomon Islands, Schedule 3, section 1.Google Scholar

7. New Hebrides (re-named “Vanuatu” at independence), Constitution, section 93.Google Scholar

8. Constitution, Schedule 2.3, section 1.Google Scholar

9. Ibid., Schedule 2.1.Google Scholar

10. See respectively, Schedule 3, section 3 and section 93(3).Google Scholar

11. Contributions which deal specifically with Papua New Guinea include: Barnett, T. E., “Law and Justice Melanesian Style”, in Anthony Clunies Ross and John Langmore (eds.), Alternative Strategies for Papua New Guinea (Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1973); B. J. Brown (ed.), Fashion of Law in New Guinea: Being an account of the past, present and developing system of laws in Papua and New Guinea (Butterworths, Sydney, 1969), especially the chapters by Peter Lawrence, J. F. Hookey, T. E. Barnett and B. J. Brown; A. L. Epstein (ed.), Contention and Dispute: Aspects of Law and Social Control in Melanesia Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1974); Lynch, C. J., “The Adoption of an Underlying Law by the Constitution of Papua New Guinea”, Melanesian Law Journal, 4 (1), June 1976, pages 37–66; Papua New Guinea, Law Reform Commission, “The Role of Customary Law in the Legal System”, Report No. 7 (Port Moresby, November 1977); and D. Weisbrot, A. Paliwala and A. Sawyerr (eds.), Law and Social Change in Papua New Guinea (Butterworths, Sydney, 1982).Google Scholar

A detailed study of public attitudes towards the introduced legal system is contained in Marilyn Strathern, “Official and Unofficial Courts: Legal Assumptions and Expectations in a Highlands Community”, New Guinea Research Bulletin, 47 (New Guinea Research Unit, Australian National University, Port Moresby, 1972).Google Scholar

Many of the issues involved in the establishment of village courts are discussed in Jean Zorn and Peter Bayne (eds.), Lo bilong ol Manmeri: Crime Compensation and Village Courts (University of Papua New Guinea, University, 1975). The early experience of one such court is analysed in Warren, Neil, “The Introduction of a Village Court”, IASER Discussion Paper, 2 (Institute of Applied Social and Economic Research, Boroko, July 1976.Google Scholar

12. A paper published by the Papua New Guinea Law Reform Commission— “Law Information Centre”, Occasional Paper, 6 (Ward's Strip, Papua New Guinea, November 1977) analyses problems involved in collecting information about customary or traditional law, and proposes solutions.Google Scholar

13. Compiled by the Staff of the Office of the Legislative Counsel of Papua New Guinea in association with Young & Williams, Barristers & Solicitors, Faculty of Law, March 1981.Google Scholar

14. Port Moresby, 1979. An earlier list of“all significant publications relating to the received law in, and the legal administration of, Papua New Guinea”, was published in Griffin, J. A. and O'Regan, R. S. (compilers), “A Select Bibliography of Melanesian Law”, Melanesian Law Journal, 1 (2), December 1971 pages 105–109.Google Scholar

Additional useful, relevant material is contained in two chapters in B. J. Brown (ed.), op. cit.—J. J. Janousek, “Report on Law Materials and Law Recording”, and H. J. Gibbney, “Some Materials on Papua and New Guinea Law held in Australian Archives”,—and in Abdul Paliwala, “Legal Publishing in Papua New Guinea: Severing the Colonial Link”, Melanesian Law Journal, 5(1), June 1977 pages 70–90.Google Scholar

15. A number are cited in Ahmed Albadawi Elzaki, op. cit. Google Scholar

16. National Library Service of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, 1979.Google Scholar

17. Peter and Bridget Sack, The Land Law of German New Guinea: A Collection of Documents (Department of Law, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, 1975).Google Scholar

18. For relevant bibliographies, see—for Papua New Guinea: William A. McGrath, A Select Annotated Bibliography of Land Tenure in the Territory of Papua and New Guinea (Department of Lands, Surveys and Mines, Port Moresby, 1964); and for Solomon Islands: Ian Heath, “Bibliography” in Peter Larmour (ed.), Land in Solomon Islands (Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific and Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, Solomon Islands, Suva, 1979), pages 261–265.Google Scholar

A wide-ranging survey of legal issues associated with land tenure in the Pacific islands is contained in Crocombe, R. G., “Improving Land Tenure: A survey of the problems of adapting customary land tenure systems to modern economic conditions in the region served by the South Pacific Commission”, Technical Paper, 159 (South Pacific Commission, Noumea, September 1968).Google Scholar

A useful—mainly descriptive—survey of courts and other aspects of the legal systems in the Pacific islands during the mid-1970s is contained in Pacific Courts and Justice (Commonwealth Magistrates Association and Institute of Pacific Studies, University of the South Pacific, Suva, 1977).Google Scholar

19. Members of the Australian Book Publishers Association have shown sympathetic interest in the proposal.Google Scholar