EDITORIAL - Unconvincing claims about CCJ

This newspaper, as we believe to be the case of most Jamaicans and anyone, anywhere, who has been in contact with him, has profound respect for the intellect and integrity of Dr Lloyd Barnett, the distinguished lawyer and jurist. Indeed, it is hardly comprehensible that Dr Barnett would, knowingly, be party to any action that would undermine the independence of a judicial institution whose capacity for unfettered delivery of its mandate and maintenance of public trust rests on that independence.

Yet, that is precisely what Caribbean people are being invited to do with regard to Dr Barnett's role as deputy chairman and chief spokesman for the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC), which has responsibility for the appointment and conduct of judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the broad management of the court.

Recently, several senior functionaries have resigned or disengaged from the Trinidad and Tobago-based CCJ, whose role is to interpret the treaty establishing the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), as well as, under another hat, to act as a final court, in civil and criminal matters, to member states that accede to that aspect of the CCJ. Jamaica is not yet a member of the latter aspect of the CCJ, and there is substantial public debate whether it should be.

This week, Leighton Jackson, a Jamaican law lecturer, who was disengaged from his acting post as registrar to the court, warned Jamaica against "rushing into the court". He deemed the structure of the CCJ to be "incomplete" and accused its justices of "mismanagement, arbitrariness and judicial misconduct".

Further, he accused the RJLSC, of which the court's president, Justice Dennis Byron, is officially the chairman, of "taking over" functions that, properly, ought to reside with administrative staff. "It impacts on judicial independence, the balance of power and the regulatory accountability of the Caribbean Court of Justice," Dr Jackson said. Others have painted Justice Byron, a highly respected international jurist, as something of an administrative tyrant.

Those, judging merely by the accusations, might be justifiable fears.

But Dr Barnett has suggested that perceived problems at the court stem, largely, from a reorganisation of its systems a decade into the court's operations. "The (RJLSC) sought to examine how things operated ... . Having done that, we decided on a more logical alignment of responsibility than what obtained before," he said.

We believe it would be useful for Dr Barnett and the CCJ to offer the public more specifics on the restructuring. That notwithstanding, we believe that there is a higher bar to be scaled to establish a credible case of a corruption of the court, which is perhaps the most insulated of any such institution in the world.

We remind that the RJLSC, which appoints the judges, other than the president, is made up of people nominated by several regional institutions, including CARICOM, bar associations and law societies, legal education and judicial oversight commissions. Nor do we forget that Dr Barnett was the attorney who led the judicial challenge to the process by which the government of the day attempted to leave the Privy Council and accede to the CCJ as Jamaica's final court on criminal and civil matters.

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