the judicial system in britain, and consequently the system of most of the countries that were once colonies, such as the united states, differs from other countries in matters such as the jury system and the barrister lawyer system.
the judgments of conviction or acquittal in the courts are handed down to the accused by the decision of the jury, not the judge, who has the right to impose the penalty.
also, there is more than one job and definition for the lawyer in their system. there is the lawyer advisor, and the lawyer who specializes in a specific field such as criminal, family law, civil law, companies law, building laws, etc., and the task of the latter is limited to providing advice to the client, outside the court, but when the case requires referral to the court, here it requires the services of a barrister lawyer, usually of a higher level, to perform the task of pleading before the various levels of litigation, and obtaining the judgment.
there is no such discrimination in our judicial system, in terms of designation or assignment, where the lawyer can take over his client’s case and plead before the judiciary.
while researching the above topic, i discovered that there are two conflicting names for a public benefit association. on one of the sites, i found the kuwait society of lawyers and in another site, i found kuwait bar association.
there is no doubt that there is ambiguity in the matter, as there is no ‘barristers lawyer’ system in kuwait, nor even committees for specialized examinations in pleadings, and the only umbrella that brings together lawyers in kuwait is the lawyers association, which is a recognized body by a ministerial decision.
as for the barristers union, as its name indicates, it represents an entity that does not exist. there is no union for lawyers in kuwait, nor do we have a barristers system, and no law has been issued to establish it.
to avoid confusion and misunderstanding, we hope that the lawyers association’s board of directors will standardize the association’s name, at least on its two websites, and completely abandon the label “barrister lawyer”, as we do not have such a thing in the judicial system. we also hope to abandon describing the association as a “union” because it is a non-governmental association, and it has its place.
thankfully, the ministry of interior, through its public relations department, issues almost daily statements that show the ministry’s activities, especially those related to reducing crimes, its legal seizures, and the success of its men in detecting crimes and arresting drug dealers or consumers and other toxins and contrabands.
the public relations department also thankfully clarifies, confirms, or denies rumors related to security, and takes immediate action based on any serious complaint about the presence of serious violations and investigates them.
for years, it has been customary for the ministry to issue statements related to a headline stating that the measures that have been or will be taken were based on the directives of his excellency the minister and the supervision of the undersecretary.
such an announcement gives the impression that had it not been for the minister’s instructions and the undersecretary’s movements, the security forces would not have exerted their utmost efforts to arrest a dangerous suspect or a murderer and a smuggler and this deprives the interior ministry’s men of their right.
we wish the new minister, sheikh talal al-khaled al-sabah, to stop using this cliché in the ministry’s statements. neither his excellency nor the undersecretary needs such praise, they are higher than that.
i think that the faithful in the ministry, who are watching over our security, have no need of someone to urge them to do their duty.