By Khalifa Hemed
Published May 2, 2020
The Commonwealth of Nations has announced a free legal scheme to assist member countries protect businesses and economies disrupted by COVID-19 pandemic.
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Warning that an ‘economic tsunami’ could follow the health and social costs of the pandemic, Patricia Scotland, Secretary-General of the political association of 54 member states affiliated to Britain, says the pro-bono legal support initiative ‘will assist our members to implement measures, with tailored solutions contextualised to the needs of each country’.
The aim of this COVID-19 Business Law Response Initiative (COBULRI), the latest in a series of COVID-19 response measures from the Commonwealth, is to ‘offer guidance and knowledge to governments of developing countries in particular as they rapidly adjust legislation to meet the huge disruption caused by the pandemic’.
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The Commonwealth, that draws membership from mostly former British colonies, says it has assembled a team of specialists to help countries in reviewing their laws and regulations to mitigate the devastating effects of Coronavirus on people’s livelihoods.
“Lawyers involved in the initiative will work pro-bono as they carry out in-depth research and recommend proposed legislative changes where countries have expressed a need. They will liaise with experts in-country to ensure advice is tailored to domestic legal frameworks,” a statement from the Commonwealth headquarters in London, England, says.”Among various areas of interest covered by the initiative are job retention schemes, corporate financing, data protection and business rate breaks.”
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The Commonwealth says it has sent an invitation outlining the benefits of the initiative to Law Ministers and Attorneys-General of all Commonwealth member countries.
Other actions the Commonwealth says it has set up to assist member countries tackle crises include the setting up of the Commonwealth Coronavirus Response Centre and the COVID-19 Tracker which pulls in a wealth of data from all member countries.