Robert Hart, Parliamentary ReporterTHE DEBATE on three Bills relating to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will begin in the Senate on July 1, following the Government's latest victory in a court battle over the legality of the process of establishing the CCJ.
Minister of Justice A.J. Nicholson disclosed yesterday that the debate will begin next Thursday and is expected to be concluded on Friday after a marathon two days of discussion.
"Bearing in mind that the Parliament does not usually sit during the month of August, and in view of the fact that these Bills will have to be presented to the House of Representatives after the Senate has dealt with them, it is necessary now for us to proceed expeditiously," Minister Nicholson, who is also the Attorney-General, said in a prepared statement.
THREE BILLS
The debate on the three Bills had been slated to begin earlier this month, but was postponed as hearings on a challenge brought by the Opposition and civic groups had not yet been completed in the Court of Appeal. Opposition Leader Edward Seaga and the other parties had appealed a Full Court ruling against their claim that the Bills were unconstitutional because the CCJ would not be a permanent court such as the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal.
However, the Court of Appeal subsequently upheld the Full Court ruling, and on Thursday granted the appellants conditional leave to take their case to the United Kingdom Privy Council.
Yesterday Senator Anthony Johnson, Leader of Opposition Business in the Senate, questioned whether the Government's decision to go ahead with the debate was a challenge to the appellants' rights to continue arguing the case up to that final level of the nation's judicial structure.
But Minister Nicholson retorted that the Privy Council has in the past heard similar cases related to other former British colonies. He pointed to four instances where the Privy Council heard the cases after the final court was already legislatively approved.
