Commentary: Separation of powers - judiciary should not be compromised
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| Published on Tuesday, December 1, 2009 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
The Constitutions of the English speaking Caribbean were drafted by the British since they were all former British colonies, now called overseas dependent territories, and the governments are divided into three sections, the executive, parliament and the judiciary.
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| Oscar Ramjeet is an attorney at law who practices extensively throughout the wider Caribbean. |
There has always been separation of powers where the executive is separate and apart from parliament, and the judiciary and vice versa. This is to ensure that there is impartiality in each section of government.
However, recently there have been movements between Parliament and the Judiciary. It started in Guyana in the late 1980s when the Chancellor of the Judiciary at the time, Keith Massiah, became the country's Attorney General the day after he vacated the highest bench in the Judiciary of the Co-operative Republic. This move was severely criticized by legal circles in the Caribbean.
I recall Massiah was confronted by his colleagues especially the Jamaican delegation when he represented Guyana at a meeting of the Council of Legal Education in Tobago.
It was ironic that a few years later Karl Rattray, who was Attorney General under the Michael Manley Administration was appointed as a Judge of the Court of Appeal. Prior to being appointed, Attorney General, Rattray was the law partner of PJ Patterson, who succeeded Manley as Prime Minister. He served as Attorney General between 1976 and until the PNP lost power in 1980.
In Barbados, distinguished jurist, David Simmons, QC, LLM, LLD, was appointed Chief Justice, the next day after he vacated office as Attorney General. In fact, Simmons served two terms as the country's chief legal advisor between 1985 and 1986, and from 1994 to 2001 when he took over as the Head of the Judiciary.
It was even worse in Guyana when Charles Ramson, who was serving as Attorney General, moved to the Court of Appeal, and after a few months he quit the Bench and went back as Attorney General. He still holds that position.
This to my mind is a blatant move to and from political office then to the judiciary and back.
The most recent was in Bahamas, another Caricom country, when Michael Barnett, the serving Attorney General, was appointed Chief Justice on August 24, 2009 and less than two months later he was knighted by Her Majesty the Queen.
This problem does not exist in the Eastern Caribbean since the Supreme Court in that sub-region is structured differently. The Court serves nine jurisdictions, six independent states, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts/Nevis, Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines, and three British Overseas Dependent territories, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands and Montserrat.
The Judical and Legal Service Commission, which is headed by the Chief Justice, comprises representatives from member states/territories.
It was customary that circuit judges were being shifted from island to island after every three years, but it seems as if this practice does not exist anymore. I wonder why.
St Lucia is the headquarters of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) where the Chief Justice and Court of Appeal judges are based, but the Court of Appeal is an itinerant Court and the appellate judges travel from circuit to circuit to determine appeals. | | | | Reads : 925 | | | |
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