Prime Minister P.J. Patterson
Robert Hart, Staff Reporter
THE GOVERNMENT is standing firm on its vow to establish the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as the nation's final court of appeal, despite yesterday's ruling by the United Kingdom-based Privy Council that the government's handling of the process last year where the CCJ bills were passed in Parliament, was unconstitutional.
Reacting to the ruling, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said that the government's legal team was completing its analysis of the judgment delivered by the British law lords, and that Cabinet will consider the matter fully on Monday.
GOV'T REMAINS COMMITTED
"The Jamaican Government remains committed to the establishment of the CCJ as our final appellate court," Mr. Patterson said.
"(The Government) intends to take the necessary steps arising from this decision to honour our commitments to the Jamaican people and our partners in the region."
The prime minister's statement came after Government officials scrambled yesterday to come up with a response to the obviously disappointing ruling, which was delivered at about 5 a.m.
In its ruling, the Privy Council declared that the three CCJ-related companion bills passed by Parliament last year were unconstitutional and therefore void.
The bills would have withdrawn Jamaica from the Privy Council and established the CCJ as the final court of appeal.
The Privy Council sided with the appellants, including the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights, the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and others, ruling that to establish the CCJ as the country's final appellate court, without it being entrenched in the Constitution, would undermine the protection given to the Jamaican people by entrenched provisions of Chapter Seven of the Jamaican Constitution.
The U.K.-based court concluded that the procedure appropriate for amendment of an entrenched provision should have been followed.
Senator Golding, JLP chairman, flanked by senior JLP officials, welcomed the ruling at the party's Belmont Road headquarters.
"We consider that the ruling of the Privy Council is a vindication of the position that the JLP has taken," Senator Golding said.
He said that it was contemptuous of the government to seek to alter the rights of the people without consulting them through a referendum.
Susan Goffe, director of human rights group Jamaicans For Justice, described the ruling as a 'significant' victory for civil society.
"It is really a victory for the governance process and civil society. It shows that the bills that went to parliament are void and unconstitutional," Ms. Goffe told The Gleaner.
