FOR THE second year in a row, Chief Justice Ivor Archie will today address the nation virtually as the judiciary commemorates the opening of the law term.

But while last year the CJ's speech came against the backdrop of the initial stages of the covid19 pandemic, this year's speech comes amid concerns over a different disease running amok in our country: violence against women.

Since we last heard from the CJ, the list of women felled by men in acts of violence has grown longer, with public outrage reaching fever pitch earlier this year - only for the killings to continue with confirmation last Thursday of the death of 27-year-old Kezia Guerre.

Only 48 hours after that gruesome find, another woman was reported missing in suspicious circumstances, with Princes Town police on Sunday urging the public to come forward with any relevant information.

We expect the CJ to regale us with the usual figures and statistics about budgetary funding levels; to tell us about the performance of the judiciary's courts and online systems in the 'new normal;' to provide updates on new facilities and methods of conducting hearings; to shed light on the workings of the rules and procedures meant to improve the administration of justice.

All of it will be of little relevance to the families of women lost to violence, who all yearn for one thing: justice.

It is clear that the law's deterrent effect has been undermined, admittedly over the course of decades, by the incredibly long logjams that have made legal matters function at a snail's pace; the problems with the detection of crimes, and the issues relating to the way the law surrounding protection orders has been implemented by both trained and untrained law-enforcement authorities.

But there are crucial areas of the law itself that cry out for amendment beyond those which affect the ordinary workings of the criminal justice system.

The question of legal reform to bring about justice for women is far wider than the single issue of tinkering with the legislation to allow more police - and not ordinary people - to carry pepper spray.

In the wake of the murder of 25-year-old Reshma Kanchan, who was hacked to death by a man while on her way to work last year, a debate emerged over lingering issues that Parliament has failed to address.

The judiciary has a role in advocating for reform in the absence of parliamentary action to remove the archaic provocation defence, to class murders by degrees and to bring about widespread use of electronic tagging in protection-order cases.

Some of these matters are supposedly being addressed by state authorities, but the judiciary would do well to admit that progress is not being made fast enough.