Dear Editor,
There are still a number of Guyanese professionals with excellent legal brains despite the brain drain and the passing of a number of legal luminaries. However, resort to the Caribbean Court of Justice by some Attorneys raises a number of serious questions. Is it because we have little confidence in the local judiciary which has often been bashed for partisan rulings? Or is it an attempt to get a second opinion on issues? If an appeal is filed based on arguments that there were errors in the trial’s procedure or errors in the judge’s interpretation of the law then that hinges on the question of competence . Indeed law is not an exact science and the English Language, like other languages, changes with time. But most words remain constant over a long period. We call a spade a spade. But what colour is the black pen? For argument sake one may talk about different shades of black. Indeed there are cases where interpretation of some words should be sought. One of the earliest cases I remember was that of `The Trial of Lady Chatterley’ in which the Bri-tish court was asked to interpret what is the meaning of “obscene” as a result of the publication by Penguin Books of “Lady Chatterley’s Lover.” It was the first case that was brought under the Obscene Publications Act.
It was perplexing when Guyana’s Appeal Court was asked how to interpret “more votes are cast” in Article 177 (2) (b) of the Constitution and whether it should be interpreted to mean “more valid and credible votes cast.” Without a question a vote can only mean and be counted as a valid vote after it would have gone through an elaborate screening process by GECOM Staffers and representatives of political parties. As far as I know the word “vote” is one of those basic words which, as far as I know, has not undergone a metamorphosis. However, in the eyes of APNU, it can certainly mean “invalid votes” which the PNC has used in a number of rigged elections to declare victory.
Yours faithfully,
Dhanraj Bhagwandin
