Should the Commonwealth Caribbean Abolish Appeals to the Privy Council?

Рет қаралды 2,712

2 жыл бұрын

In the Commonwealth Caribbean, final appeals were traditionally heard by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, or ‘Her Majesty in Council’. Some islands have now replaced the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice as their highest court. The choice of highest court remains a controversial political issue in the Caribbean. While the Privy Council has deep colonial and imperial roots, it has sometimes been an important safeguard for fundamental rights: what are the pros and cons?
A lecture by Leslie Thomas QC
The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:
www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/c...
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Пікірлер: 7

@rapauli 2 жыл бұрын

Gresham offers so many interesting lectures. Thank you.

@cabraldouglas6457 8 ай бұрын

First of all, in March 2018, Dr Keith Mitchell won all 15 seats in the Grenadian legislature, a clean sweep in other words. It's simply not possible to have a better "super majority" than this. Yet the same electorate who saw it fit to grant Mitchell every single seat in parliament, also saw it fit to reject his constitutional reform agenda in attempting to replace the Privy Council with the CCJ. So as much as I respect Leslie Thomas, this lecture makes no attempt to understand or analyze the dynamics at play here. Fortunately for Grenadians their constitution required a referendum to amend the constitution. Had this not been the case, Mitchell much like Skerrit in Dominica, would have used his "super majority" in parliament to discard the Privy Council under the false pretense that it was the will of the Grenadian people, which couldn't be further from the truth. The reason why the people of Grenada rejected the CCJ is because they don't trust the judges to be impartial and nonpolitical in their decision making. This is what former Barbadian Prime Minister Freundel Stuart meant when he referred to CCJ judges as "politicians with robes"...!!!

@Hykoo79 2 жыл бұрын

No. The more checks on power the better.

@gabrieljean-batiste2006 2 жыл бұрын

They could instead have a Supreme Court in their own countries. No need for sovereign legal countries to refer legal cases' to another country (unless they choose to do so, but definitely not as a matter of fact as it is currently).

@kemal3599 6 ай бұрын

A national or Caribbean final court of appeal serves as a check on power in the same way. Asking a foreign court to interpret your domestic matters of law signifies subservience not independence.