Laws of Belize now on Internet
They say that ignorance of the law is no excuse for violating it. And with the latest action by the Attorney General’s Ministry, there is even less excuse than ever. Jose Sanchez reports.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Prior to today if you wanted to delve into the laws of Belize you would have to find the six rare volumes and sift through thousands of pages. Now the Attorney General’s Ministry has made it possible for the laws to be accessible to everyone.
Godfrey Smith, Attorney General
“What we’ve done there is that all of the laws of Belize now, as of December thirty-first, 2000 have been updated and can be found in one place. Now in the past it used to just be printed in six volumes and presented. But we decided to make it available in electronic format on the Internet on-line as well as on CD-ROM. The benefit of that is to update the laws from here on end will be much easier, because as the laws are passed through the house, they are just simply automatically updated on the computer and then available on-line almost, almost immediately.”
This six-month collaboration between government and Netkom Internet Solutions has created a properly structured electronic document, which makes it easy to browse and search through the three hundred and forty-one acts and amendments.
Elson Kaseke, Chief Parliamentary Officer
“The CD-ROM comes with several features which is user friendly. It will be easy for the average Belizean to access the laws even though he or she is not a lawyer. We have developed some features, which will greatly assist people in utilizing the CD-ROM. For example you when you go to the index of the CD-ROM you are told about all the laws which exist, you are given a chronological table of all the laws. So all you have to do is to go to the particular law that you are looking for.”
Lets just say that you are looking for justice of the peace. You simply use the binocular tool and type in the words “Justice of the peace” and it will highlight every instance of the word that appears in the act.
Godfrey Smith
“You have many investors, lawyers, people who are interested in doing research, students of course and the same is true here for Belize. The Laws of Belize is, as you know, not something you find knocking about any office. Now basically anybody that has access to a computer and the Internet will be able to go on-line and access the Laws of Belize.”
While the laws may be easily read, you will probably still need a lawyer to interpret them. Reporting for News 5 Jose Sanchez.
Smith says that the CD costs seven hundred dollars and it will be updated annually. But you can view the laws for free on the Internet at the website www.Belizelaw.org.
