Background
11.1 The Court Bill contains two clauses empowering the court to make rules.1 For clarity and drafting consistency these clauses should be combined. The Bill further provides that the rule-making power of the court may be exercised by a Rule Committee upon which the judges, commissioners and the legal profession are represented.2 The Committee would comprise the Chief Judge, three other judges, a commissioner, a practising barrister and a practising solicitor. This clause should be amended to ensure that the rule-making power is given exclusively to the Committee as distinct from the court, which we think to have been the intentions.3
Submissions
11.2 The submissions did not deal with the rule-making power of the court, although his Honour Judge Manser in his submission4 argued for the standardisation of powers and procedures as between the new Compensation Court, the Supreme Court and the District Court.
Issues Involved
11.3 We support the creation of a Rule Committee, and offer no criticism of its proposed composition. The opportunity should, however, be taken to give a lead to the proposed Rule Committee by encouraging a thorough-going revision of the rules which presently govern the operation of the Commission. We suggest that for this purpose section 161 of the District Court Act, 1973, may be taken as a model. We suggest that there is much to be gained from drawing on the rules of the Supreme Court and the District Court. Encouragement in this direction may be given by a rule-making power which is framed in similar terms to the District Court rule-making powers.
11.4 Reference is made to our recommendation for a special rule-making power relating to pre-trial procedures.5
Summary
11.5 We recommend implementation of the proposal to create a Rule Committee, and to authorise the making of rules of court. We suggest that the drafting of the necessary clauses could be improved, and the Rule Committee encouraged to consider the extent to which practices in other courts could be adopted with a view to uniformity.
FOOTNOTES
1. Court Bill, cll. 22, 44.
2. Court Bill, c1.42.
3. Cf. Supreme Court Act, 1970, ss.123, 124.
4. Schedule: Item 26.
5. Infra., paras.10.9-10.10.
