Repeal Section 8 of Constitution

The Editor, Sir:

The recent judicial decisions to declare the election of certain persons null and void by reason of the provisions of Section 40 of the Constitution illustrated our failure to deal with problems we inherited because we were ruled by the United Kingdom (UK).

The UK and the United States (US) have a historic problem of nationality which, arguably, has sprung from the fact that the US seized its independence from the UK on July 4, 1776. Prior to this event, one's nationality was simple and you could do nothing whatever to change this fact. This legal principle was age-old; its significance graphically described by the adventures of St Paul in the New Testament. (See the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 22 vs 27-29).

The idea that you can lose your Jamaican nationality if you become the citizen of another country is an American legal principle, and Section 8 of our Constitution is one of many examples of our crazy attempt to reconcile out British-based laws, which defined us as being a Christian kingdom, with the Holy Scripture as our fundamental Law, with American Law which defined the USA as a secular republic with a written Constitution based on 'reason'. Personally, I don't like the US system, since it makes it possible for a person to become stateless, which would today nullify a person's human rights to the greatest imaginable degree.

time to update laws

This idea, that your nationality at birth cannot be surrendered, caused a big problem for the UK when Ireland became a republic and left the Commonwealth. They overcame their problems by passing a law, similar to the one included in Section 12-(1) of our Constitution, which says that 'foreign country' means a country (other than the Republic of Ireland) that is not part of Commonwealth. Instead of wasting time and money holding further by-elections, why don't we repeal Section 8, and update Sections 9, 10, 11 and 12, so that the USA will cease to be a 'foreign country' as far a Jamaican law is concerned?

I am, etc.,

R.J. HOPKIN

Former Council Member

The Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs

PO Box 4

Kingston 6