THE VALLEY, Anguilla (CMC):

Newly-elected President of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bar Association, Nicole Sylvester, says the time has come for significant improvements to be made to the magistrate courts in the sub region.

The Vincentian lawyer, speaking here at the opening of the 2006/2007 OECS law year, said that she supports the argument that the magistrate courts should be fully integrated into the judiciary.

Ms. Sylvester, who has replaced Anguilla-based attorney Courtney Abel as the head of the sub-regional grouping of lawyers, said that no longer should the magistrate courts in the OECS be treated like an 'outsider' in relation to the administration of justice.

She said that the matter was addressed by the acting Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Brian Alleyne, when he spoke at the opening of the new law term in the British Virgin Island (BVI) last year.

"He indicated that the time has come for magistrates to be viewed as district judges and be incorporated into the whole administration of justice and that they come under the purview of the Supreme Court," Ms. Sylvester told the Caribbean Media Corporation.

The attorney said that now that the executive has a hand in dealing with the magistracy, that creates a difficulty for individuals who would like to see the purity of the justice system maintained.

Ms. Sylvester warned that the concept of the separation of the powers of the executive and the judiciary should be strictly adhered to.

"We have been very good in that the individuals who in many instances have been appointed (magistrates) have been individuals of integrity so that they may not have been easily influenced by the executive," she added.

But she believes there is room for possible 'outside' influence especially in some jurisdictions where magistrates are placed on contract "so that when their contract comes to that time for renewal you know how their judgments may go".

"I am not saying that it has happened but that possibility exists and it ought not to be in this current dispensation," said Ms. Sylvester, who was among scores of local and regional lawyers participating in the third annual OECS Law Fair, the sub-regional Bar Association's general meeting and the opening of the OECS Law year.

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands. CMC/kg/pr/pk/06