KNIGHT
Robert Hart and Barbara Gayle, Staff Reporters
DESPITE THE Court of Appeal granting permission yesterday for groups opposed to the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to take their case to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, the House of Representatives will today begin to debate three Bills to set up the regional tribunal.
In piloting the Bill, K.D. Knight, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, will call on legislators to support the Government's efforts to join with other Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations in abolishing appeals to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council and reinforcing the sovereignty of Caribbean states.
"I would hope that the contributors would stick to the matter at hand... to debate the Bills," Minister Knight told The Gleaner yesterday in anticipation of today's House sitting.
The CCJ measures were already debated by the Senate after a marathon two-day sitting ending on July 2.
Government's efforts to replace the U.K.-based Privy Council with the proposed CCJ have met stiff resistance from the parliamentary Opposition and several civic action groups. They include the Jamaican Bar Association, the Independent Jamaican Council for Human Rights and the lobby group Jamaicans for Justice.
Opponents of the CCJ insist that the Patterson administration should seek a mandate from the electorate by holdinga referendum. The group, led by Opposition Leader Edward Seaga went to the extent of asking the Supreme Court to rule against the procedures being used to establish the CCJ. They lost the case and on June 17, the Court of Appeal upheld the Supreme Court ruling which threw out the motion brought by the appellants on the ground that the motion was premature.
The Court of Appeal in dismissing the appeal said that Parliament was not breaching any constitutional provisions by introducing Bills to establish the CCJ as a replacement for the United Kingdom-based Privy Council, Jamaica's final appellate court.
There is little doubt that at the end of the debate, despite the expected resistance of the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP), the Bills will be passed and sent to Governor-General Sir Howard Cooke for his assent. However, Minister of Justice A.J. Nicholson has already given an undertaking to the Jamaican Court of Appeal that the Bills will not become law until after November 1, allowing opponents to seek a final hearing on the constitutionality of the legislation when the Privy Council resumes hearing matters in October.
ENTRENCHMENT
Opponents' claim that the Bills are unconstitutional is hinged on the concern that the CCJ will not be entrenched in the Constitution, though it would overrule the entrenched Supreme Court and Court of Appeal. It has been argued that, as a result, the CCJ could at a later date be easily replaced with a court of a future Government's malevolent design.
