Law of civil, commercial, labour and administrative procedure in Rwanda

The adaptability principle is the hallmark of a stable legal system, there are many laws enacted recently or some years back which are being repealed thus they can be able to cope with current legal issues and abrogate obsolete. today it is a turn of  a law governing civil,commercial, labour and administrative procedures in RWANDA ( referred to as law of CCLAP ).

Before, there had been the Law of CCLAP No 18/2004 of 20/06/2004 repealed by that of No 21/2012 of 14/06/2012 repealed by the very recent one No 22/2018 of 29/04/2018 adopted by the session of lower chamber the 25/04/2018.

The former law contained 376 articles, while the new contained 283 articles.

The current law has brought new features which were absent in the ex law, one can mention article two on definitions which was missing on the former law of 376 articles.

The current law provides for conciliation as well as mediation in pretrial phase which was informal in the ex law.

The current law provides that a claim is filed electronically.

The powers of the court clerks have been established namely applying for a free advocates, conducting conciliation, settling disputes on value of subject matter and the like which is also not in the ex law.

Currently, when parties share interest in a case they pay one filing court fees i.e a joint claim whereas in the former law, each was paying separately.

In the current law of CCLAP a Court can sit on a matter not falling in their rationae materiae in case of the offence of contempt of court.

The duration for the exparte application is 2 days from 48 hours of the former law.

Claims under 5 MILLIONS Rwfs adding those related to negotiable instruments are in primary court.

Notwithstanding the law no 12/2013 of 22/03/2013 on BAILIFFS, the current law of CCLAP provides their competence, protection and sanctions.

In case the plaintiff is discharged to pay court fees and win, the respondent will pay court fees for public treasury, children defiled are exempted from court fees.

Technically, it is full of appreciation on how well it is presented and tabled.

The current law on CCLAP is  standing as a brief and concise even though some doctrinaires and civil society are showing that electronic filling of cases is not bringing equity in legal system and this service is still expensive to the vulnerable members of the Rwandan community.