LOOKING FOR THE LAW IN 21ST CENTURY IS MORE EASIER THAN IN THE PAST
Looking for the Law has certainly become easier in the 21st Century due to availability of numerous and accessible tools now.
Drafting Law in the past was cumbersome as it took long for the Law on civil procedure and criminal procedure or the broad basis on which the principal lines of it’s construction would be settled before it was to be finally elaborated and enacted.
During colonial period the principal judge, R W Hamilton undertook the drafting work both on civil and criminal procedure, but he purposely restrained from talking or asking the government to take steps with Iterance to an enactment of civil procedure so that it might not interfere with the production of the enactment on criminal procedure which he considered to be the most important of the two. In august 1908 the drafting of he criminal procedure ordinance began. The draft of the first local criminal procedure ordinance was completed in December 1908 and in January 1909 it was sent to the Crown Advocates office for consideration by the government. Thereafter every effort by the principal Judge to get the work pushed forward was made without much success. The draft led to wait until 1913 when the ordinance was enacted, taking into account the fact that the preparation of a code on criminal procedure had been directed in 1985, the completion of ordinance in 1913 was already long-over-due;
Judge Hamilton had intended to have the state of the civil procedure ordinance ready for submission to the government as soon as the criminal procedure ordinance was passed, and the endeavored to carry out this intension amid treat pressure of ordinary work accentuated by leaves of absence and sickness on the staff, occasionally some delay on the commencement of the drafting work. Nevertheless, in early 1913, Chief Justice R W Hamilton completed the first draft of the protectorates civil procedure ordinance, and in April 1913 he forwarded it to the Chief Secretary owing to circumstances under which the work had been done, it’ been impossible to have the manuscript typed and the one sent to the Chief Secretary was the only copy that existed and had therefore, to be considered sent up and printed in order that it might be considered in order that it might be considered as a whole.
The availability of public libraries with numerous materials: electronic resource, micro films, computers, photocopier among others have aided research to both students and legal practitioners. Due to the presence of old books in the libraries, the researcher is able to do comparison of the Laws in the past and the ones in present and identify whether there is a loop hole in the Law. The availability of libraries have also provided conductive environment whereby the researcher are able to carry out research in the libraries without much disturbance hence effective research is achieved.
The faculty of Law are also numerous whereby the quality education is offered to students thus leading to increase in number of the learned. Due to the presence of those people with export knowledge in the law, the researchers are able to inquire from them on certain matters in the law during research process by interviewing them thus arriving on perfect conclusion in the research question.
The invention of Oscola, a referring material has facilitated the quality submissions. The researchers and the legal practitioners are now available to present the quality and procedural documents in the court when handling a legal problem thus the judges parties to a suit and the audience are able to make reference and get satisfied with the ruling of the court.
The research in the past was traditionally as it depended on the pinion of the people in authority which were adopted in the society without verification of these statements. The knowledge of the law therefore was subjective and static due to individualistic knowledge. The people in authority due to insufficient tools to carry out legal research could consider the agency of the law before elaborating and enacting it
Due to the available tools in large number which are accessible to all researchers, looking for the law has become easier in 21st century. The researchers wrote a research proposals before carrying on with the research to avoid going directly to look for primary sources of the law before looking for secondary sources which enables them to know when in particular in primary source to find the law and helps them to understand the law better since they commend on the land thus saving on time and cost.
Researchers also perform literature review which enables them to read materials on the same study by other authors available in books and on website which enables them to advance or expand on the reasoning of other people thus improving knowledge in the law processes; i.i: The common law are adopted in Kenya when the circumstances permit whereby the law are amended before being imposed.
Legal practice by the legal practitioners has become more easier and efficient due to scientific way of legal research in Kenya. Solving legal problem is not hard since the court rules according to the law from Primary source (constitution) and the procedure of the similar case ruled by the higher court in the same jurisdiction. Ruling of the subordinates court and the court in different jurisdiction guides the researcher.
We should therefore expect to see superior legal opinions, research and submissions then was possible in the past since nowadays legal researchers have strong views that seem to contradict and overrule the legal opinions, research and submission that were possible in the past. In the PUBLIC LAW OF EAST AFRICA pg.75, Lord D.Plock said: It would in my view be a grave locuna in our system of public law if a pressure group, like federation or even a single spirited tax-payer were prevented by outdated technical rules of Locus Standi from bringing the matter to the attention of the court to vindicate the rule of law and get the unlawful conduct stopped.