MONROVIA, Liberia — The Ministry of Justice has formally advised President Joseph Nyuma Boakai to once again withhold assent from the re-enacted and re-submitted Liberia Sea and Inland Ports Regulatory Act of 2025, warning that the legislation perpetuates the same structural, governance, and institutional deficiencies that led to the President’s earlier veto.
In a comprehensive legal opinion dated January 12, 2026, the Ministry concluded that the Legislature’s revised version of the law failed to remedy the fundamental flaws identified in the original bill and, in several respects, continues to create operational contradictions within Liberia’s maritime governance framework.
Executive Veto Power Framed as Governance Safeguard
The Ministry emphasized that while the Legislature has constitutional authority to enact laws, the Constitution equally vests in the President a substantive veto power as a critical check within the separation of powers.
According to the opinion, the President’s role is not merely procedural but grounded in governance responsibility, particularly where a law’s enforceability depends entirely on the Executive Branch.
“A law, once enacted, depends entirely on the Executive Branch for its enforcement and implementation,” the opinion states. “If a bill, from an executive perspective, creates operational contradictions, mandates incompatibility with existing agency structures, or undermines coherent policy execution, its approval becomes problematic.”
The Justice Ministry underscored that Article 35 of the Constitution provides the President with the constitutional mechanism to address such concerns before enactment, not after damage has occurred through flawed implementation.
Legislature’s Claims Contradicted by Statutory Text
The opinion reiterates that the Senate’s official response to the President’s earlier veto contained material factual assertions that could not be substantiated by the actual text of the re-submitted law.
Despite claims that overlapping maritime functions had been deleted, the Ministry’s verification found that contested provisions relating to port safety regulation, vessel inspection, international maritime conventions, dangerous goods transport, and port facility operations were either retained, minimally altered, or cosmetically reworded.
“These incorrect claims, combined with the substantive defects in the Act itself, compel the recommendation that Your Excellency return this legislation for comprehensive amendment or explicit legislative justification,” the opinion notes.
Governance, Not Authority, at the Core of Objections
Importantly, the Ministry clarified that its objections are not rooted in a challenge to legislative authority but in concerns about effective governance.
“The core argument is one of governance, not legal authority,” the opinion states, warning that laws which create overlapping mandates, institutional ambiguity, and conflicting lines of accountability ultimately undermine public administration and regulatory certainty.
The Ministry warned that the re-submitted Act perpetuates the very institutional chaos it purports to remedy by consolidating conflicting functions within a new regulatory body while simultaneously subordinating that body to an existing maritime authority.
Final Recommendation: Exercise Veto Power
In its conclusion, the Ministry of Justice made an unequivocal recommendation that President Boakai exercise his constitutional veto power and return the legislation to the Legislature.
“Your Excellency should consider that the issues identified in this opinion are substantially identical to those identified in the Minister of Justice’s opinion that occasioned the earlier veto,” the document states.
The recommendation is based on two principal findings:
- Substantive deficiencies that remain embedded in the 2025 Liberia Sea and Inland Ports Regulatory Act itself; and
- Incorrect representations contained in the Legislature’s response to the President’s previous veto.
The opinion was respectfully submitted by Cllr. Cora Hare-Konuwa, Acting Minister of Justice and Deputy Minister for Administration and Public Safety.
Implications
The Justice Ministry’s position places renewed attention on the fate of the ports regulatory framework and signals that, unless substantially amended, the law is unlikely to receive executive assent. The development also reopens debate over maritime governance reform, decentralization, and the appropriate balance between regulation and operations in Liberia’s ports sector.
President Boakai has not yet publicly indicated his decision, but the legal opinion provides a clear constitutional and governance-based roadmap for executive action.
