by Oscar Ramjeet:

Jamaica’s prime minister came in for a blistering attack by the opposition People's National Party (PNP) for his recent statement that Jamaica should get rid of the Privy Council but should not go into the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), "but remain where we are, and our Court of Appeal would be our final court."

The party in a statement said that the JLP was "frustrating the CCJ process" with its latest suggestion.

The statement said, "The Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) continues to shuffle from pillar to post first by saying Jamaica should remain with the Judicial Committee because it was far away and had an international content within a globalised world and now by batting for a national final court.”

"Evidently the JLP and the prime minister are confused; if you don't stand for something such as the integration movement, you will fall for anything," the PNP said on Wednesday.

It went further to question the source of the funds to establish a final appellate court in Jamaica to be on par with similar court elsewhere.

A well-known Jamaican Queen's Counsel, Frank Phipps, told the Jamaica Observer that the suggestion by the government that Jamaica have a national final court of appeal is feasible, but says what would be practical is if the present Court of Appeal is made the final appellate court -- but stressed that not without a referendum.

Phipps added, “Golding could not seriously be saying that you put another court of appeal on top of the present Court of Appeal. That could never be the position the government is taking when the issue that has been debated all along is whether we should have a Caribbean Court of Justice to replace the Privy Council."

According to the Queen’s Counsel, any such decision must be "made by the people of Jamaica and not by the 60 members in the House of Representatives and 21 in the Senate.”

He emphasised that "this must be done in a referendum, the parties must listen to the people in a referendum and not the people listen to the parties in a referendum. The new court, Phipps said, must be deeply entrenched in the Constitution so that it cannot be open to have the judges manipulated by whatever government may be in power."

He went on to say as to Golding’s belief that Jamaica has the judicial experience and maturity to establish its own final appellate court, "if that his argument we need not go beyond our present Court of Appeal. Those people who are available, that source upon which you can draw, put them in the final court."

Jamaica was in the forefront of the establishment the Privy Council more than 20 years and it was under the JLP administration and it is very surprising that the party is now taking a different stand.

The then attorney general, Oswald Harding under the Edward Seaga administration, was moving from country to country in the region persuading governments to abolish appeals from Privy Council and join the CCJ.

Harding who is now President of the Senate was complaining about a year ago that there was no Jamaican judge in the CCJ and he had no confidence in the composition of the court, and also said that although Jamaica is contributing 27% towards the running and administration of the regional court, no Jamaican is a member of the court although several distinguished jurists had applied.

However a Jamaican, Professor Winston Anderson, who was a senior lecturer attached to the Faculty of Law at Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies, was recently appointed as judge to the Court.

So far only three countries, Guyana, Barbados and Belize, have removed the Privy Council as the final appellate court and adopted the CCJ as the final court.

December 25, 2010

caribbeannewsnow

Caribbean Blog Internaional