The Supreme Court building, downtown Kingston.
A.J. Nicholson, Contributor
The following is an extract from an address given by Attorney-General and Minister of Justice, A.J. Nicholson on the occasion of the swearing in ceremony of Justice Paul Harrison as president of the Court of Appeal on November 3, 2005.
AT A time of unprecedented challenge in this society, the Government remains committed to the rule of law and to orderly development. And, when I refer to the rule of law, I am not speaking theoretically. The rule of law is central to our mission, for it lays the foundation for the fair, just and equitable society that we are all working to establish.
We sometimes take manifestations of adherence to the rule of law for granted. As everyone here will recall, not so long ago, the Government sought to pass legislation for Jamaica to subscribe to the Caribbean Court of Justice in its appellate and original jurisdictions. The procedural approach adopted by the Government was accepted as appropriate by both the Jamaican court of first instance and the Court of Appeal. Our final court of appeal, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, found that this procedural approach was inconsistent with aspects of our country's constitutional provisions.
Now, two things bear emphasis today. In the first place, the Jamaican Government acted promptly to accept the decision of the final court. Of course, some could well have thought that the executive and the legislature might have resisted the court's decision. But that is not our way; that is not our tradition; that is not our way of the future.
Although the Privy Council decision worked strongly against the Gov-ernment's legislative programme, the decision was accepted, fully and expeditiously. The Govern-ment acted in this way because it believes, unquestionably, in the rule of law.
CARIBBEAN COURT OF JUSTICE
Second, at the time of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) decision and continuing, it may well have occurred to some that the reasoning of the Privy Council was not impeccable. That is not a point for today's deliberation. Signi-ficantly, however, even though the decision may have had its flaws, there has been no effort on the part of the Gov-ernment to condemn the Privy Council and this is precisely because we believe in the rule of law. The executive has not sought to criticise the judiciary or any aspect thereof, lest it be believed that the Govern-ment seeks to undermine the rule of law in any way possible.
But, although we have accepted the decision of the Privy Council in the CCJ case, I wish to reiterate that the Government remains committed to Jamaica's full accession and subscription to the jurisdiction of the CCJ. We are not unmindful that we still have some distance to go to put the appellate jurisdiction firmly in place.
For me, the Caribbean Court of Justice is meant to propel us along the road to true independence and self-definition. It is the road to the full realisation of our worth as a people. With our own final appellate court, we can witness our judges deciding our cases; our people armed with knowledge of our circumstances making decisions for us, about us, and with us, lodged as we are here in the Caribbean at the most pivotal point of the historic triangle.
As we celebrate the excellence of Paul Harrison and his predecessor, Ian Forte, as we acknowledge their legal acumen, can anyone really assert that there is any such thing as a 'fanciful risk' that the Caribbean is not ready to decide its own legal destiny?
I close with the reaffirmation of one other aspect of the rule of law. Within our system, judges are to be independent of the executive and the legislature and we remain committed to this principle. With this in mind, I would encourage the president of the Court of Appeal to stand firmly against any attempts at interference in the functioning of his court.
Mr. President, the Ministry of Justice is your partner in various aspects of the administration of justice in our country, but if you come to feel that we or any of our successors are overzealous, I am sure that you will not hesitate to put us, your partner, in our proper place. That is a role that the law has long assumed.
The ministry is committed to the protection and enhancement of the rights of all Jamaicans, but we know that, within our constitutional order, it is for the courts to determine the proper delineation of those rights in practice, taking into account the preservation of the national interest.
