Call the referendum now
Published:Thursday | December 23, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Editor, Sir:
Our government's expressed intention not to use the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) but a home-grown final court of appeal to replace the Privy Council is ideal but not economically defensible at this time or for the foreseeable future.
I think, since we have already committed to financing the Caribbean Court of Justice, we do not know when we will be able to finance a Jamaican final court of appeal.
What the Government should do is to proceed with the Caribbean Court of Justice and instead of focusing on the Jamaican final court, focus on fixing the notoriously broken administration of justice in Jamaica.
On a recent visit to the Mandeville Courthouse, I was literally shocked to see that the number of cases listed in one of the courts was many times more than what I had to deal with when I sat in the chair of clerk of courts there in the 1960s with many years' experience unlike the presiding clerk who was just out of law school without any previous experience. Most of those cases will never be disposed of not even in the lifetime of the young clerk as the time of lawyers and the public is wasted.
Fabric of Caribbean unity
Incidentally, the Caribbean Court of Justice is supposed to be a thread in the fabric of Caribbean unity and do we really think it is prudent to draw from a wider pool of judges for our final court as currently the case of the Caribbean Court of Justice?
We cannot further delay abolition of appeals to the imperial court called the Privy Council that has manifested that we are no longer welcome. Call the referendum now and put our money to work in the Caribbean Court of Justice for now.
I am, etc.,
OWEN S. CROSBIE