Govt sends 2 for legal advice in London

GOVERNMENT has sent two persons to London to seek legal advice and to brief English Queen’s Counsel on the claim filed by Barbados last month against Trinidad and Tobago over the failure to reach a new maritime agreement. Phillip Sealey, TT’s Consul General to New York, and Gerald Thompson, Director of Legal and Maritime Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, went to London on Monday night where they held discussions with a prominent English QC on Tuesday and yesterday. When contacted yesterday, the Attorney General’s Chambers declined to disclose the name of the British QC, saying “we want to keep something close to our chest at the moment.”

Newsday learnt that Sealey and Thompson briefed the English QC on the claim filed by Barbados on February 16 before the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) in Hamburg, Germany. The TT delegation will also seek a legal opinion from the British QC on the entire matter, including whether this country can be forced into arbitration by the Barbados Government. The TT delegation will return home shortly where they will brief Minister of Foreign Affairs Knowlson Gift, Attorney General John Jeremie, and the legal team put together by Government to work on the response to the Barbados claim. Government will then examine the legal advice from the British expert before Gift announces Trinidad and Tobago’s representative to sit with Barbados’ nominee to work out the procedure to be adopted for the arbitration hearing. There are four persons in contention for selection, but Government is considering whether it should go into battle in Germany with a local or foreign player.

While Trinidad and Tobago are ‘taking their time” to respond, Barbados has gone ahead and nominated its Attorney General Mia Mottley as that country’s agent. The co-agent for Barbados is Englishman Robert Volterra, who lives in London. Barbados has appointed Vaughan Lowe, Chichele Professor of Interna-tional Law, at Oxford University as a member of the Tribunal to hear the arbitration matter. ITLOS is an independent judicial body established by the United Nations to adjudicate disputes arising out matters involving maritime boundaries. Disputes before the Tribunal are relayed via written application or by notification of a special agreement. The dispute relates to the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone and Continental Shelf between Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago. Barbados wants a single unified maritime boundary line, promising to give more details of its claim at the stage of the arbitration hearing. On February 7, two Babadian fishermen were caught by the Coast Guard illegally fishing in Tobago waters. They were taken to court two days later, but freed after the court prosecutor informed the court he had instructions not to proceed with the case against the Bajans. The fishermen left Tobago with their catch.