(Trinidad Guardian) Chief Justice Ivor Archie yesterday challenged judges of the Supreme Court to be bolder when delivering judgments. He issued the challenge while delivering a speech at The Convocation Hall, Hall of Justice, Port-of-Spain on Thursday evening.
“I think it’s time we grasp public policy and say so when we deliver our judgments.”
His speech was part of the Trinidad and Tobago Judicial Education Institution’s lecture series entitled “Celebrating Fifty Years of the Court of Appeal of an Independent Trinidad and Tobago: The Role of the Court of Appeal in Developing and Preserving an Independent Trinidad and Tobago”. Archie said the lecture series would help the Judiciary understand its role in a developing society such as T&T.
“The common law can only develop when judges find creative means of solving and coming to a just resolution of problems,” Archie said. He added that legal precedent was only one aspect of law, and suggested that judges consider the history and culture of T&T society. “We are in search of something more fundamental, which I hope will be the legacy of this current bench,” Archie said.
He said it was the Judiciary’s goal to gain more public trust and to be relevant in society by understanding its needs. Archie also expressed a desire to reduce the backlog of cases that are currently before the courts. Social scientist Prof Selwyn Ryan, who was also among the speakers, shared Archie’s concern about the backlog in the courts.
Ryan said citizens of T&T should be proud of the Judiciary, but referred to two surveys he did in 2000 and 2006, in which a large majority of those polled claimed they had little or no trust in the Judiciary. “I have a feeling in the decade ahead we can have a problem.” The other speakers at the lecture were Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) judge Adrian Saunders and Senior Counsel Russel Martineau.
Ryan noted that the T&T Judiciary had not been plagued by corrupt practices as seen in other jurisdictions in Central and South America. Ryan said he believed that owing to increases in narcotic trafficking, judicial officers might fall prey or be seduced by criminal elements who wished to offer bribes in an attempt to pervert the course of justice.
He was also critical of local prison conditions and suggested that the Prison Remand Yard be condemned, owing to conditions there which he deemed “cruel and unusual punishment.” “There is no space for such a facility in this day and age,” Ryan said.
