Delroy Chuck
The ruling of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) on the three Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) acts was a mighty blow to political bigotry and to those who believe politics 'run things'. It was an affirmation of the rule of law. It was a fitting reminder that the law of the constitution is supreme, even if it is only the right procedure to follow in amending it.
Barbara Gayle, The Gleaner's court reporter, must be commended. To the best of my knowledge, Ms. Gayle is neither a trained lawyer nor a university graduate, but she clearly discerned how simple the issue was that the JCPC had to decide. "It really is a simple point of law," Ms. Gayle notes in her column in Sunday's Gleaner, "and if one even applies the common sense approach to it, one can see that the appellants were correct from the outset that the CCJ which is to be Jamaica's final appellate court, must have permanence by being entrenched." She continued: "The nation's judges are the guardians of the law and, in particular, the Constitution, which is the supreme law of the land, and it is very disheartening when our judges miss such a fundamental point of law."
THOMPSON'S SELF-INFLICTED DAMAGE
Across the page, on the other side of the Sunday Gleaner, we easily discern why our leaders have failed us. Rev. Dr. Livingstone Thompson is, no doubt, a man of integrity, of supreme intellect, head of the Moravian Church in Jamaica, but, sadly, did himself much damage with his column "Whose
victory is this?" With due respect to Barbara Gayle, if she can see a simple issue of law to be decided, why can't Dr. Thompson, a man with training in religion and morality? With obvious disappointment, he laments: "It is a ruling in favour of retardation. It is a ruling against progress ... It is a ruling that smacks of ... paternalism ..." and so on. No doubt, Dr. Thompson in berating the law lords would want them to ignore the rule of law and the clear meaning of the Constitution, and support political decolonisation and progress.
It gets worse, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, Dr. Kenny Anthony, is obviously upset that the JCPC could make such a 'flawed' ruling. "In my view," he is reported in the Sunday Observer as saying, "The judgement is flawed and smacks of legal bigotry." I am
disappointed with my good friend and
erstwhile UWI colleague. When he and I were at UWI, I was teaching esoteric subjects like the law of trusts, contract, criminology and company law, while he was teaching
constitutional law, where he must have fully examined Hinds v The Queen, which is the legal precedent that Dr. Lloyd Barnett and other attorneys relied on to predict and secure the ultimate ruling.
Very few people would remember that the presiding head of the Judicial Board in this case was Lord Bingham of Cornwall who some years ago complained of the Caribbean workload. His comments then gave the clear impression that he wanted the Caribbean to get its final court of appeal and relieve the law lords of the unnecessary
burden. Yet, unthinking commentators would want us to believe that the JCPC sought to preserve their tenure and continue their colonial paternalism of adjudicating for Jamaica. One commentator in another Sunday paper abused the JCPC and
commented: "By its clever reading of the mind of our Parliament, the Privy Council gave itself a stay of execution and lives to fight the good fight another day."
APPLICATION OF THE LAW
Whose victory is this? To those who believe it is a victory for backwardness, for colonial governance and a blow to the progressive forces, I urge them to read the judgment
carefully. The law lords were simply
applying the law, respecting the procedure of the Constitution and, actually, merely adopted the submissions of Dr. Barnett, the foremost Jamaican constitutional lawyer. I do not feel elated I feel a sense of sadness. If our government, with so many lawyers in Parliament, with so many attorneys at their beck and call, cannot surrender to constitutional authority, so evident to even the uninitiated, then what will stop them from using politics to override everything, again, including the rule of law.
The decision of the law lords in the CCJ acts is a wake-up call to thinking Jamaicans, to the members of the media who want to perform their duty well, to the church
leaders, and to anyone who has the interests of Jamaica to think clearly and independently and, please, not to be overtaken in the dark corners of politics, partisanship, passion and bigotry.
Delroy Chuck is an attorney- at-law and Opposition Member of Parliament. He can be contacted by email at
Delchuck@hotmail.com.
