Acting Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), Sir Bryan Alleyne, has spoken out against the upsurge of crime in the region which he described as “the explosion of crime” and outlined ways and means to expedite the hearing of criminal cases.
Speaking at a symposium in St Lucia to mark the 40th anniversary of the ECSC , Sir Bryan said that the increase in crime is affecting all the states and territories in the region and said it is not unusual for criminal trials on indictment to be outstanding for two years and more, and in one jurisdiction because of overcrowding at the prison, persons charged with serious crime have to be in custody for three and four years without trial and in some cases without a preliminary inquiry being held.
This, the acting Chief Justice said, is unsatisfactory and must be corrected. He added, “we have determined that one of the causes of delay is the legal requirement for a preliminary inquiry to be held prior to the issue of an indictment”.
He said an attempt to deal with that issue was made many years ago in most member states by making provision for what came to be called “paper committals”. However he said that the initiative had little impact on the problem and new approaches have had to be considered.
The court, he said, launched a pilot project in St Lucia in 2005, but various bureaucratic delays and inertia have meant that little concrete progress has been made. However, he said, the Court has undertaken a process of consultation with stakeholders throughout the sub region to discuss and promote legislation to implement the proposed reforms in the criminal procedure to eliminate time-wasting and unproductive steps and thereby overcome the delays which have been become endemic, delays which include, but are not limited to procedural issues and which involve administrative issues involving court staff, the police and prosecution departments, and process servers.
These reforms, Sir Bryan said, will dramatically transform the efficiency, timeliness of the justice system.
There is some concern about the independence of the magistracy in the OECS and the acting Chief Justice said that the ECSC has devised a system whereby the magistrates in the several states and territories would be structurally
integrated into the High Court specialised divisions, which, he said, “we are seeking to establish.” Among the innovations is that the magistrates would report to and be accountable to the Chief Justice rather than the executive.
The magistrates office would be absorbed into the High Court Registry for joint administration of the two systems, lending to economies of scale and relieving the senior magistrates of the heavy administrative burden they now carry.
The acting Chief Justice added that the ECSC has laid great emphasis on continuing judicial education, and judges, masters, registrars and magistrates participate frequently in regular as well as additional continuing judicial education programmes at the regional as well as the international level, particularly through the ECSC Judicial Education Institute, the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute and the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association.
Sir Bryan who goes into retirement in April, said that the ECSC has come a long way in 40 years and added that in his judgment the ECSC is well placed to meet the challenges. He concluded, “the administrative arrangements are in place, the professionalism of the judges and of the administrative support staff is unquestioned, our commitment to training and to creative thinking is firm, and I am confident that the ECSC is ready to meet the challenges of the next 40 years.
Members of the ECSC include Antigua and Barbuda, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts/Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
