Laingane Italeli Talia

Attorney-General of Tuvalu
Incumbent
Ms Laingane Italeli Talia
since 2022
Office of the Attorney-General
NominatorThe Prime Minister of Tuvalu, acting in accordance with the advice of the Cabinet of Tuvalu given after consultation with the Public Service Commission
AppointerGovernor-General of Tuvalu
Constituting instrumentSection 81 of the Constitution of Tuvalu
DeputySenior Crown Counsel

Laingane Italeli Talia, is the current Attorney-General of Tuvalu.[1] She is the second female Tuvaluan lawyer who has been appointed Attorney-General; she succeeded Eselealofa Apinelu who was the first Tuvaluan female who qualified as a lawyer, and also the first female appointed as the Attorney-General.

As Attorney-General she attends meetings of the cabinet and also sits in the Parliament of Tuvalu, but does not vote; the parliamentary role of the Attorney-General is purely advisory.[2] As the principal legal officer of Tuvalu, she is responsible for drafting legislation, and also advising the government and the government departments on legal matters related to government activities, such as the Tuvalu Climate Change Resilience Act 2019;[3] and advising on Law of the sea issues, such as the operation of Tuvalu Seabed Minerals Act 2014,[4] as Tuvalu's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) covers an oceanic area of approximately 900,000 km2.[5]

An important role in the period from 1916 to 2023 was her work on the Tuvalu Constitutional Review Project. From 2016 to 2018, she was a member of the Secretariat that was established to support the work of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC). Following her graduate degree study in London for an LLM, in 2020 she was appointed as the advisor to the Constitution Select Committee, which continued the work of the CRC.[6] The Tuvalu Constitutional Review Project ended with the Parliament of Tuvalu enacting the Constitution of Tuvalu Act 2023. This revised constitution declared that Tuvalu's area, including maritime zones (that is, the EEZ) are permanent, regardless of any effects resulting from climate change.

  1. ^ "Tuvalu's human rights record to be examined by Universal Periodic Review". The United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. 7 November 2023. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  2. ^ "Palamene o Tuvalu (Parliament of Tuvalu)" (PDF). Inter-Parliamentary Union. 1981. Retrieved 25 February 2024.
  3. ^ Italeli Talia, Laingane (2021). "Unwrapping the Effectiveness Test as a Measure of Legislative Quality: A Case Study of the Tuvalu Climate Change Resilience Act 2019". European Journal of Law Reform. 23 (1): 115. doi:10.5553/EJLR/138723702021023001005. S2CID 236701619.
  4. ^ "International Seabed Authority - Twenty-first Session" (PDF). International Seabed Authority. July 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2024.
  5. ^ A J Tilling; E Fihaki (17 November 2009). Tuvalu National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan (PDF). Fourth National Report to the Convention on Biological Diversity. p. 7. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
  6. ^ "Final Report – Constitutional Review Parliamentary Select Committee". Department of Foreign Affairs - Government of Tuvalu. 12 December 2022. Retrieved 25 November 2023.