Dear Editor,
Once again I am obliged, ex virtute officii, to place on record for public consumption the Government’s position regarding the Fugitive Offenders (Amendment) Bill 2009 which is a mirror image of the legal principles enunciated in King, predating the decision of the Full Court in Dataram. These principles were extracted from the King decision of the Court of Appeal and crafted in parliamentary language or format. There never was any lacuna as alleged, whether based on fact or law, but had its unfortunate conception in the Dataram decision, rightly or wrongly.
It is an enormous discredit to the legal profession when an attorney-at-law can subscribe his name to the following paragraph, viz,
“I am of the humble view that Professor Peter Britton S.C. won King.
The written decision is a permanent indictment on (sic) those who sat and those who follow” (sic).
The public may wish to know that the Judges to whom reference was made are Chancellor K.M. George, LLM, CCH, OR; Chancellor AFR Bishop LLM, CCH, OR; Chancellor C.C. Kennard, CCH, OR; Justice of Appeal M.A. Churaman and Justice of Appeal Prem Persaud, CCH. These Judges executed their duty without fanfare and the amendments passed recently are justifiably a lasting testimony to their forensic and jurisprudential expertise.
In concluding the discourse on the Fugitive Offenders Act 1988 and its amendments I must express my appreciation to all those who have made interventions and wish that we be guided by the admonition of no less a person than President John F Kennedy: “Let us resolve to be the masters not the victims of our history”.
Yours faithfully,
Charles R. Ramson S.C., M.P.,
Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs
