In part one of this post Leave my right to appeal to the Privy Council I touched on the present cross fire between supporters and opponents of having the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal for Jamaica. Barbados already has made the CCJ their final court in their jurisdiction but my problem is the untrustworthiness of Jamaican politicians especially those pushing the line of removing the Privy Council as our final court with the Queen still the head of state and the lack of a track record of jurisprudence since it's inception over the past years.
Opposition PNP Senator & former Attorney General A. J. Nicholson in a recent radio interview said that it only required a simple 2/3rds majority in the house of parliament to remove the Privy Council but there are other actions that are required to set the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court which includes a national referendum whether to accept or reject the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court. I ask, Why not have the referendum before removing the Privy Council and have both running to test the validity??
"It is unflattering for us as a people of an independent country to have placed ourselves in a situation to be told in quite measured but certainly unambiguous terms that surely the time has come for the imperial apron strings to be finally cut," Nicholson told the Gleaner 25/09/09 in response to the uproar created by a comment from the President of the New UK Supreme Court. see original article here
Why the rush??
The Jamaica Observer cartoon captioned above just amplifies the feeling on the ground and in the legal circles of the lack of faith in even our own justice system with it's slow resolution of cases, delivery of judgements, archaic methods of even note taking which is still done by hand by judges in the RM courts in the face of technological advancements, some courts do not have a stenographer to accurately record the evidence and merits of cases. The physical state of some of our building is another matter (see here) only recently two police officers escaped injury in our Supreme Court building when a piece fell in.
If we can't get our local jurisprudence up to standards then it only stands to reason that we keep the Privy Council as an external unbiased appeal avenue to resolve matters after all trust is a main factor in justice.
a comment:
The final court of appeal in the U.K. used to reside in a committee of law lords sitting in the House of Lords; however, starting now, it has a new name, "U.K. Supreme Court," and, at vast expense, a new building. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has also moved to the new building. Nothing has changed in substance, although some fear that the new body could arrogate extra powers to itself. The new president of the "Supreme Court," Lord Phillips, has no power to change Jamaica's (or the other countries that use it) right of appeal to the privy council, whether he wants to or not.There seems to be an issue around whether the Judicial Committee needs to comprise of the very best legal minds in the country, as it now does, or whether some less senior Appeal Court judges could be brought in to help out with the (mostly) Caribbean caseload. (comment by Mark H a member of glbtjamaicalinkup)
Click logo on left to see the BBC's Q & A on their new UK Supreme Court
Justice for everyone is important and gays as a marginalized group must watch these matters as the quality of justice is crucial if we can't have a fair and trustworthy system.
Thanks to Mark H from my NING Page for helping out with this post.
See more posts on legal issues HERE and HERE from glbtqjamaica.
Peace and tolerance
H
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