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Showing posts from October, 2015

The CCJ: The Role of the electorate

                           The CCJ debate in the Senate is in full swing: lots of distractions , drama , and rhetoric but woefully devoid of substance . We have expressed our discomfort with the decision of Jamaica’s final appellate resting solely on the vote of one Opposition Senator “exercising his conscience” and being anxious to be on “the right side of history”. One of the key elements is the role of the citizens (not their elected representatives or their appointed agents) in the making of this decision. On strict Constitutional terms there is none. The Constitutionalist : The PNP Government has decided to replace the Privy Council with the CCJ as Jamaica’s final appellate court The severing of ties with the Privy Council requires only a simple majority in both Houses. The government of the day has such a majority so that is a relatively simple exercise. Both our Supreme Court and our local Court of Appeal are “entrenched”. The UK- based