Having high court judges on contract is never a good thing - because it allows the executive to lean on the judiciary - in an ever so subtle manner - when contract renewal time comes around.
The practice was prevalent in the 90's - but had been put to an end.
That is, until recently when two court of appeal judges who had indefinite tenure were put on one year contracts.
That has galvanized The Bar association on both sides of the political color bar and launched the association into action. It has filed a constitutional challenge of the government's practice after a unanimous vote from its membership at a bar meeting eleven days ago.
The bar complains that denying the justices of appeal security of tenure by limiting them to one year terms seriously and unconstitutionally undermines the independence of the judiciary.
The matter will now go to court - but today the Prime Minister told us that in his opinion it didn't have to go all the way there:..
PM Dean Barrow
"In 2 cases the last administration issued instruments of appointment that were open-ended, that did not say when the appointment would come to an end. As a consequence of that there is one argument that the people who were the subject of those 2 instruments of appointment can then stay there for life, can then stay there until they are old and almost non-functional, that in my view is unconstitutional. I want the Bar Association to point out to me any jurisdiction in which you can simply be appointed a judge forever. All we are trying to do is to regularize the position and to say in cases where the instrument of appointment does not contain an expiration date, since the last change in the constitution, those instruments will now come to an end within a year after the new constitutional provisions have gone into effect. Thereafter, it is perfectly open to say fine we will now give those judges new instruments of appointment that will comply with the constitution and have an expiration date. All they had to do was talk to me instead of flying off half cocked. That is not the intention at all. It is merely to regularize the situation like I said where the instruments are open ended and that in our view was unconstitutional. Once these things have been regularized then we start a fresh and we give a decent contract."
Justices of Appeal Mottley and Morrisson are the ones affected by the review of tenure arrangements.
Email
Print