By Robert Hart, Staff ReporterTHE HOUSE of Representatives yesterday passed the first of three Bills related to the establishment of the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), leaving only a Privy Council ruling later this year before the Government can historically abolish the Jamaican right of appeal to the same United Kingdom-based body.
The CCJ (Constitutional Amendment) Bill was passed by simple majority with 33 Government members voting for, 20 Opposition members against and Opposition MP Clive Mullings abstaining. The Constitutional amendment, already passed in the Senate, required at least 31 affirmative votes signifying the majority of all 60 members of the House.
The result was expected as the Opposition has consistently argued against the process for establishing the CCJ. But yesterday, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson outlined and attempted to answer questions he suggested might be put forward in the arguments against the Court.
POLITICAL GOVERNANCE
In opening the debate, the Prime Minister reaffirmed his conviction that the Opposition's frequent calls for a referendum on the CCJ were unjustified because the Constitution, as framed, does not require a public vote to enact legislation to repeal and replace section 110 of the Jamaican Constitution which relates to appeals to the Privy Council.
"Neither law, nor practice, nor some political governance requires a referendum for Jamaica's replacement of appeals to the Privy Council by appeals to the CCJ," said Mr. Patterson, while suggesting that the framers of the Constitution left Section 110 unentrenched as a "matter of policy".
The Prime Minister was later criticised by Delroy Chuck, Opposition spokesman on justice, who accused him of being unfair in making such a suggestion.
"The possibility exists that it was inadvertent rather than deliberate policy," Mr. Chuck said, noting that the question of entrenchment was nowhere to be seen in the minutes on the discussions that led to the creation of Section 110.
VERBAL BROADSIDE
Adding his voice to the debate, Opposition Leader Edward Seaga launched a verbal broadside against the Government's chosen direction in reinforcing the nation's judicial sovereignty. "To wilfully expose the weak Jamaican economy to further battering and the weak justice system to further erosion, all in the name of strengthening Caribbean regionalism at Jamaica's expense, cannot be accepted as the patriotic goal of a national Government," the Opposition Leader said. "These diversions from the true national goal of Jamaican development can only be denounced as an unpatriotic surrender of national sovereignty for dreams of a dubious Caribbean destiny."
He added: "The CCJ is part of this entanglement and cannot be judged in isolation, especially since it compares poorly to what we already have in the existing system of justice which is anchored by the Privy Council."
Also adding to yesterday's debate were Clive Mullings and K.D. Knight, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade. Minister Knight will pilot the remaining CCJ Bills in the House later today.
