To realise the government’s master plan of building the country into a state governed by the rule of law, Laos will continue to work with Japan to enhance their joint efforts to develop institutional and individual capacity in the legal sector.
This was the key message delivered by the Vice President of the People’s Supreme Court, Mr Khampha Sengdara, when he addressed the 5th Joint Coordination Committee Meeting of the Project of Human Resource Development in the Legal Sector (phase 2), held in Vientiane on Friday.
Mr Khampha said the project focused on implementing four activities: making civil law, writing handbooks on civil law and economics, writing handbooks on criminal law, and developing an education law institute.
The working group members comprised officials and lecturers from the Ministry of Justice, the People’s Supreme Court, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor Office, and the National University of Laos.
The group has systematically analysed legal theories and practical issues relating to the civil code, civil procedure and criminal procedure, and developing a handbook summarising the result of the analysis.
The group has explained how to use the handbook and its contents to institutions and officials/lecturers in the legal and justice sector.
The project has been implemented through a technical cooperation agreement between the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Ministry of Justice, the People’s Supreme Court, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor Office, and the National University of Laos.
The goal of the project is to enable institutions and officials/lecturers in the legal and justice sectors and legal education to develop their institution/individual capacity to advance legal studies on Lao law on the basis of systematised analysis of theories and practices.
During the meeting, participants discussed the progress and outcomes of the project over its implementation period. According to the terminal evaluation team from JICA, the expected outputs are to be realised as planned in the project design.
Based on the evaluation criteria such as relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability, the project has been evaluated high or fairly high overall, said Mr Khampha.
The first phase of the project began in 2010 and ended in 2014, focusing on strengthening the capacity of institutions and officials in the Lao legal and justice sectors, as well as legal education.
The meeting was attended by representatives from JICA, the Ministry of Justice, the People’s Supreme Court, the Supreme People’s Prosecutor Office, and the National University of Laos.
Source: Vientiane Times
