Call for Commonwealth to drop Privy Council appeal right - Solicitor News and Legal Jobs

LawFuel - The Law Jobs and Legal NewsWire

NZ Law Society - LawTalk - Commonwealth countries with links to the British Empire should drop their right of appeal to the UK’s Privy Council, former Commonwealth Secretary-General Sir Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal QC said during a lecture at the Commonwealth Institute in London on 7 December.

Organised by the Commonwealth Legal Forum, the hour-long lecture marked the 60th anniversary of the Commonwealth’s founding.

Failure to drop the Privy Council appeal right would leave those countries "loitering on the doorstep of colonialism", Sir Shridath said.

Calling on Commonwealth lawyers to "build upon the grand achievements of the past", Sir Shridath hit out at the apparent "hesitancy" of Caribbean judges, lawyers and governments to support the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Just two Commonwealth Caribbean countries out of 12 – Guyana and Barbados – have conferred the power of appeal to the CCJ, despite all signing a 2001 treaty establishing the court, he noted.

"Now that we have created our own Caribbean Court of Justice and done so in a manner that has won the respect and admiration of the common law world, it is an act of abysmal contrariety that we have withheld so substantially its appellate jurisdiction in favour of that of the Privy Council," Sir Shridath said.

He added that the issue was further "complicated" by the issue of the death penalty, which is still maintained by a number of countries in the region.

"Someday the Caribbean as a whole must accept abolition of the death penalty. I believe they should have done so already, but in a situation of heightened crime in the region, popular sentiment has been reflected in political reticence."

Sir Shridath’s comments followed those of Lord Phillips, chair of the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee and president of the UK’s Supreme Court, who in September attacked the "disproportionate time" he and fellow judges spend on Privy Council cases derived from Commonwealth countries. Lord Phillips commented that "in an ideal world" Commonwealth countries would cut their right of appeal to the Privy Council and instead set up their own final courts of appeal. Sixteen of the 54 Commonwealth member states still retain the Privy Council as their final appellate court.

del.ici.ous Digg reddit Facebook StumbleUpon