(Trinidad Express) THE democracy of Trinidad and Tobago will be compromised if the London-based Privy Council is abolished as this country’s final court of appeal and replaced by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) without a referendum from the population.
This was the view of former prime minister Basdeo Panday, leader of the Independent Liberal Party (ILP) Jack Warner and former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj during a public education campaign yesterday to determine if the Privy Council should be replaced by the CCJ without the population having an input.
There have been various promises to have the CCJ as the highest court in the land. Both the Government and the Opposition have taken a position to abolish the Privy Council as the final court of appeal and replace it with the Caribbean Court of Justice without acknowledging the people’s consent in a referendum.
But Warner said the support of the ILP is critical in all aspects of this country, including a decision on the future of the Privy Council.
“There will be no Privy Council without the ILP’s consent,” said Warner.
Also at the public education campaign was former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sir James Mitchell.
He said even though he was in support of a political union and justice among the islands, he said many of the Caribbean courts fail to recognise bias and shortcomings in the judicial system.
He said in St Vincent, a commission of enquiry had been set up to investigate a failed project under his tenure and it was a commission in which there was bias and political interference.
Both Panday and Warner said they hold the view that people need to have confidence in the courts they get justice in.
They argued that there is an Integrity Commission that does not guarantee integrity in public life.
“The perception exists that almost all our institutions in this country have been compromised in some way or the other, except for TV6 and the Express,” said Panday.
They also argued that the maintenance of appeals to the Privy Council is not a derogation of the national sovereignty of the country and the cost to pursue an appeal before the Court of Appeal in this country is much higher than an appeal before the Privy Council in London.
