The JAICCOLS initiative has been developed from a suggestion in May 2005 by India’s Minister for Commerce and Industry, the Hon Kamal Nath, to Australia’s then Minister for Trade, the Hon Mark Vaile MP, for a consultative committee to strengthen the links in law and legal services between Australia and India. It is proposed that the consultative committee would do this by exploring matters of mutual interest to both countries relevant to legal cooperation, professional mobility, traded legal services and other matters.
This initiative was discussed further in India during the visit in November 2005 of Professor Duncan Bentley, who is a member of Australia’s International Legal Services Advisory Council.
ILSAC provides advice to the Australian Attorney-General who is Australia’s senior Law Minister.
Draft Terms of Reference and a suggested composition/membership of the consultative committee were discussed again with those interested in the proposed JAICCOLS during the visit to India in March 2006 of Australia’s Solicitor-General, Dr David Bennett QC AO. Senior members of the Law Council of Australia visited New Delhi in the last week of September 2006 for further discussions.
If there is broad support for the establishment of JAICCOLS and its draft terms of reference and suggested membership/composition, it is hoped that formal establishment of the consultative committee will occur later in 2007 and the body could hold its inaugural meeting late in 2007 or early in 2008.
It is envisaged that JAICCOLS would undertake a work program, commensurate with the resources available to it, involving preparation of papers, research, an exchange of information, and measures to encourage closer Australia – India links in law and legal services. Much of such work could be undertaken through communications by facsimile message and e-mail and by utilising one or more JAICCOLS internet web sites. When physical meetings of JAICCOLS occur, they could be linked to international conferences of lawyers in India and Australia, when this is feasible. Outcomes from the JAICCOLS initiative could be publicised through internet web sites. An early priority for the consultative committee might be to stimulate professional exchanges between India and Australia, particularly in the practising private legal profession.
Australia and India have a shared legal heritage and potentially much to gain from closer links in law and legal services. I commend this initiative to you and hope it will come to fruition.
Draft Terms of Reference and Composition/membership for the Joint Australia – India Consultative Committee on Legal Services (or JAICCOLS) have been prepared by Australia following two rounds of informal consultations in India (in November 2005 and March 2006) with a range of stakeholders, including the Bar Council of India, the Ministry of Law and Justice, the Ministry of Commerce, Delhi University Law School, and the Legal Committee of the Federated Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
The present draft Terms of Reference and Composition/membership proposed for JAICCOLS has not been agreed and are simply a revised draft on which comments and suggestions are welcome:
JAICCOLS is an initiative of the legal professions of Australia and India. Its broad objectives are: (i) to promote closer Australia – India links in law and legal services; (ii) to encourage the exchange of information relevant to the above; (iii) to foster professional contact, interchange and mobility on the basis of mutual interest or benefit and (iv) any other objective which has the joint support of the Co-Chairs of the joint Committee.
JAICCOLS will, within its available resources, examine those areas of legal service and interaction between the legal communities of both countries to:
a. identify those areas where services are being provided and/or interaction is occurring
b. find ways to facilitate improvements in existing areas of interaction and legal service provision
c. identify areas where government support would enhance and strengthen existing interaction and legal service provision and make recommendations as necessary to the relevant Government departments
d. identify through mutual agreement new areas of potential interaction and legal service provision acceptable to both sides, and
e. facilitate the provision of joint seminars, conferences, other forms of education and opportunities for discussion to enhance the knowledge and understanding of each other’s legal policies, education and practice in areas including, but not limited to:
i. Alternative Dispute Resolution
ii. GATS definitions, WTO and trade issues
iii. intellectual property
iv. sectoral issues of joint concerns such as resources
v. enforcement of judgements
vi. referral of work
vii. legal education and the development of interaction between law students
viii. structure and operation of the legal profession, and
ix. short and medium term exchange visits by lawyers, and
f. identify barriers to international legal cooperation, including, but not limited to, admission requirements, professional structure requirements, visa requirements, taxation systems and insurance regulation.
Membership of JAICCOLS is inclusive and applies to Australia and India, support for the objectives of JAICCOLS is the criterion for membership, ‘representation’ includes the plural, and any matter involving a decision or recommendation by JAICCOLS is by consensus of the Co-Chairs or, at a meeting, by those members present. Co-Chairs of meetings are to be determined by consensus by the Australian and Indian sides. Secretariat support is provided by the ILSAC Secretariat (Australia) and [the Bar Council of India Secretariat (India) TBC.]
The initial composition/membership proposed below is subject to finalisation through further discussions between Australia and India.
Representation from the Law Council of Australia
Representation from International Legal Services Advisory Council (ILSAC)
Representation from the Council of Australian Law Deans
Representation from commercial law firms
Representation from the corporate sector
Representation from the Attorney-General's Department
Representation from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Representation from the Bar Council of India
Representation from university legal education in India
Representation from the Legal Committee of FICCI
Representation from the Ministry of Law and Justice
Representation from the Ministry of Commerce
In July 2006 the Bar Council of India informed the five Australian University Law Schools (Australian National University, Bond University, Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and the University of New South Wales), which had applied for recognition of their undergraduate law degree , that their applications had been successful.
The recognition of the law degrees is applicable to Indian students studying at the above Australian university law schools and is subject to the students also satisfying several requirements of the Bar Council in order to be admitted as a legal practitioner in India. The recognition is much appreciated by the Australian universities concerned, the Council of Australian Law Deans, the Australian Government, and the International Legal Services Advisory Council.
The Chair of the Council of Australian Law Deans, Professor Michael Coper has commented that the recognition will ‘will strengthen the already strong legal and cultural ties between India and Australia in matters of legal education and legal practice’.
The recognition follows the visit of a Bar Council of India delegation to Australia in December 2004 which was hosted by the five Australian university law schools and supported financially by the Australian Department of Education, Science and Technology. The visit program for the delegation was organised by the ILSAC Secretariat.
For further information, see the link to the Bar Council of India's web site.
