Prime Minister Tuilaepa Dr Sailele Malielegaoi has issued a statement telling the New Zealand Law Society (NZLS) to mind their own business after the Society made public remarks about three amendment bills currently before the Parliament of Samoa.
The Prime Minister was responding to a recently published position on the NZ Law Society website where the organisation throws its support behind the Samoa Judiciary and members of the Samoa Law Society who have called for the removal of the amendment bills from the papers of Parliament in order to hold more extensive public consultations.
The three debatable pieces of legislation namely the Constitutional Amendment Bill 2020, the Lands and Titles Bill 2020 and the Judicature Bill 2020, have passed their first and second reading in the Samoa Parliament, and are now before a Special Parliamentary Select Committee tasked to hear public submissions.
In their public statement New Zealand Law Society President Tatiana Epati writes, “Senior judges and lawyers in Samoa are concerned that significant constitutional reforms are being progressed rapidly during the current COVID-19 pandemic and without the necessary consultation. The New Zealand Law Society | Te Kāhui Ture o Aotearoa shares these concerns.”
“The Government of Samoa is advancing a suite of measures – the Constitution Amendment Bill 2020, the Land and Titles Bill 2020 and the Judicature Bill 2020 – and the bills have reached an advanced stage. It is proposed that the constitutional right of Samoans to seek judicial review of a decision of the Land and Titles Court in Samoa’s Supreme Court and Court of Appeal be removed; and that the judicial function of Samoa be split into two separate and potentially competing branches”.
Ms Epati says the Samoa Law Society requested the assistance of the New Zealand Law Society and they are “more than willing to provide assistance and to speak out in support of the Samoan judiciary and legal community, while acknowledging that Samoa is an independent sovereign country with its own legal system, customs and fa’a Samoa.”


