Mr Lawson Jack Samuel

Secretary of the Vanuatu Law Reform Commission

A new day has dawned. The VLRC is pleased to welcome you to our website.

The Law Reform Commission was regulated in 1980 when Vanuatu gained independence from England and France. However, the formal establishment of the Commission was only in 2011 with the appointment of the first Secretary in 2012. On 20th April 2018, I was appointed as Secretary and this is my third term in office.

The Commission has since progressed with growth in staff from five in 2018 to 10 in 2026, an increased annual budget and our own Law Reform House. Law reviews that were once collecting dust are now being progressed into comprehensive policy papers and Council of Minister (COM) papers and have also increasingly been transformed into drafting instructions.

However, knowledge about the roles and responsibilities of the Commission within the Government and in Vanuatu as a whole is minimal. This website is another step to advance the visibility of the Law Reform Commission in keeping everyone updated on the work and the progress of the current projects that it is undertaking.

Our main focus is to provide content that is accessible, easy to understand, informative and useful to not only our major stakeholders, but also to the public. It is our hope that through this website, everyone will be able to get a better understanding of what law reform is, the process that is followed when reviewing legislations and the important roles that everyone plays in producing a successful outcome.