No merit in sovereignty argument

THE EDITOR: Who may I ask is guilty of misinformation and fooling whom? According to a Newsday article of August 26, 2003 Mr Duke Pollard is reported as saying the CCJ will be the only court of its kind where judges will be appointed by an independent panel. Does Mr Pollard not know that this has been happening in Trinidad and Tobago since 1976? All judges in Trinidad and Tobago are appointed by the independent Judicial and Legal Service Commission and the Chief Justice is appointed by the President who is independent. The Chief Justice here is not appointed on the advice of any politician but merely after consultation with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
 
In the case of the CCJ the Head of the Judiciary is appointed by the politicians that is to say by 75 percent of the contributing territories. Who may I ask Mr Pollard are more independently appointed — the judges of Trinidad and Tobago or those of the CCJ? While I am at it, I wish to point out that whatever the argument in favour of the Caribbean Court of Justice the argument on sovereignty does not have much merit. Trinidad and Tobago is no more sovereign with Barbadians and Jamaicans or Grenadians sitting on its final Court of Appeal than with Englishmen. In any event who says that final courts of appeal are about sovereignty. They are about quality of justice.

ANJANIE RAMJITSINGH
Curepe