…depth
The address by President Anthony Carmona of T&T to the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association (CMJA) Conference, suggested that Burnham might’ve thrown out the baby with the bathwater when he did away with the “titular” Presidency. Carmona demonstrated with panache why one needs some sober and educated voices at the top of the state – to balance the inevitable partisanship of an Executive Presidency.
Our own Arthur Chung, like Carmona, was also a judge and by the time he acceded to the Presidency as designed by the British in a reflection of their own “titular” Monarch, he’d been imbued with wisdom about the faults and foibles – as well as the strengths – of the Guyanese people. Carmona reminded all of us in his speech about “what might’ve been”.
He reminded us, as another one did the English way back in 1936, that justice was not a cloistered virtue. When Judges handed their judgements from their Olympian chambers, what is the ordinary plebes to do when all they get is the effect passed down by the ubiquitous Policemen at various and sundry roadblocks? He pleaded (pun intended!) for judges to write their opinions in plain and ordinary language. The Americans have made this mandatory decades ago… and the sky hasn’t come crashing down. Carmona suggested that the Bar Association ought to place a greater role in making the public an “informed” one, as far as the “law” and their rights.
Carmona also suggested that perhaps our local judges oughtn’t to be such pedants about “positivism” in interpreting the law – “what is” cannot ignore “what ought to be”. How else are we ever going to have an “autochthonous law” to go along with our “West Indian Civilisation” that is now taught in our Law Schools? Carmona accepted that while judges have to know the law, he spoke about judges being “steeped in a type of social and global consciousness” that -as in the US – guide the evolution of law.
This was brought out even clearer in his pointed exhortation for the judiciary to be “intellectually ambitious” so they can craft the necessary “transformational judgement law” that gives life to the constitution. Too often we see in Guyana rather pedestrian judicial opinions – with the noted exception of former Chief Justice Ian Chung. Say what you may about the man – but he was “intellectually ambitious”.
And that reminds this Eyewitness about one of his pet peeves in judicial interpretation: the painful insistence of our judges not to use the opening of Justice Brennan in Mabo to extend the rights of our Indigenous Peoples to THEIR land.
How long are we going to split hairs to maintain the status quo?
…settlement
Pressie gave his 15 minute in the spotlight at the UN to push our case for the Venezuelan sword of Damocles over our (development) head, be removed. He called the recent Venezuelan shenanigans (extending maritime boundaries, chasing off oil exploration ships from our waters, etc,) “a scandalous revival of the conquistadors all disease that once plagued their own history. They are a crime against our humanity clothed in the verbiage of national honour. “Whew!! Talk about a “feral blast”!!”
Since the Venezuelans placed their concocted Border Controversy in the hands of the UN Secretary General (SG), Pressie called upon the incumbent Ban Ki-moon to leave as his legacy a solution. Among the options the SG has is a “juridical settlement” – meaning we and Venezuela present our cases to the World Court at The Hague.
Problem is… Venezuela has to agree. But with their case so weak, they ain’t going down that road willingly.
