KUALA LUMPUR: The Certificate of Legal Practice (CLP) will soon be scrapped in favour of the Common Bar Course (CBC) and Common Bar Exam (CBE), Law Minister Datuk Zaid Ibrahim (pic left) said.
Citing that a study by a committee appointed by the Legal Profession Qualifying Board (LPQB) on how to implement the move was in its final stages, Zaid said the goal was to standardise and improve the quality of law practitioners.
“The CBC and CBE will be mandatory for anyone who wants to practise law, whether they are local or foreign graduates.”
Zaid, however, would not speculate on whether the CBC and CBE would be the only prerequisite before a graduate is called to the Bar or whether chambering would continue.
“The course and exam will be overseen by a non-profit organisation supported by the Government.”
Zaid, who was speaking to reporters at the Parliament lobby, was expanding on a written reply to Bukit Gelugor MP Karpal Singh’s question on whether the Government had plans to abolish the CLP and what it would be replaced with.
He added that views from the Attorney-General’s Chambers, Bar Council, Malaysia Qualification Agency and universities were also being sought by the committee.
“The LPQB has also advised the committee to look into the possibility of local universities already offering law degrees to also offer the CBC, considering they have the infrastructure.
“I know this issue has been going on for a long time and that questions had been raised by students and parents. As such, we are moving forward to implement what has been discussed.”
When asked if the move was due to complaints by CLP students over the low pass rate, Zaid said he did not want to discuss that but was more concerned about executing what was planned.
He added that the report on the study would be ready in a number of months and that it was part of his responsibility as law minister to improve the current situation.
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Article taken from The Star Online
2 comments:
superb suggestion, at least our BN government had done something positive instead of Lingam, Lingam and Lingam......hope that this Common Bar Exam can really improve the overall quality of Malaysian law practitioners
ya..this is indeed a good choice for the implementation of cbc and cbe..i hope it will help to increase the quality of the law practitioners in whole Malaysia..looking forward to any news about the cbc and cbe..I think it's better the clp or bar.
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