Edmond Campbell, Senior News Coordinator
( L - R ) CHUCK and DE LA BASTIDE
OPPOSITION SPOKESMAN on Justice, Delroy Chuck, launched a broadside against president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Michael de la Bastide yesterday, chastising him for his recent criticism of a Privy Council ruling, last year. The ruling had deemed unconstitutional, local legislation to allow Jamaica to become a member of the regional court.
Making his presentation to the Sectoral Debate in Gordon House, yesterday, Mr. Chuck questioned whether Jamaica should rush to join the CCJ, "when the president sounds more like a politician rather than a judge".
Calling the CCJ president "out of order", Mr. Chuck said de la Bastide spoke scathingly and disrespectfully of his fellow Privy Councillors.
"If Justice de la Bastide's remarks were intended to encourage Jamaica to quickly join the CCJ, I reckon it has had the reverse effect," Mr. Chuck said.
He contended that the Privy Council was correct in its ruling that the three acts passed by Parliament to replace it with the CCJ were unconstitutional.
De la Bastide, in a lecture on May 17 in honour of the late West Indian economist, William Demas, said the Privy Council's ruling defied judicial logic.
