AG went after De la Bastide’s appointment

ATTORNEY GENERAL John Jeremie played a leading role in getting the British government to agree to the appointment of retired Chief Justice Michael de la Bastide to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. Newsday sources in London revealed yesterday that Jeremie held talks on a number of issues with his British counterpart Lord Goldsmith in June in England. Jeremie’s visit to London was aimed at strengthening mutual legal assistance between Trinidad and Tobago and the United Kingdom. He also met with the legal team on developments in the maritime fishing matter between TT and Barbados, which is now before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague.

During his London visit, Jeremie held talks with the English attorney general on the possibility of having de la Bastide appointed to the Privy Council. Newsday’s London sources revealed that the attorney general of England agreed for de la Bastide to be appointed to the Judicial Committee and facilitated the amendments to the British judicial practice. Nationals of Trinidad and Tobago do not qualify for appointment to the Privy Council as this country enjoys Republican status. The late TT Chief Justice Sir Hugh Wooding was the last national to sit on the Judicial Committee, and this was when TT was still a colony. De la Bastide, who retired as Chief Justice in 2002, was appointed by the British government and will be formally sworn in as a Privy Council judge today by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in London.

De la Bastide has been proposed as the first president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which will be inaugurated in Port-of-Spain in November. He will be sworn in next month in Trinidad. Jeremie returned to Trinidad yesterday and welcomed de la Bastide’s appointment to the Privy Council. “This appointment comes at a moment of great importance for the people of the Caribbean. There is now a growing recognition by the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and others outside the region, of the abundance of judicial talent and independence of spirit, which is to be found not only in Mr de la Bastide, but also increasingly in the judiciary throughout the region.”

Jeremie said the appointment was a reflection that the contribution to Commonwealth jurisprudence of Caribbean judges, was extremely consistent with the standards to be expected of a judiciary. De la Bastide, 67, was one of three Caribbean jurists who were appointed to the Privy Council. The other two were Sir Denis Byron, chief justice of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), and Madame Justice Joan Sawyer, of the Bahamas. They join other Caribbean jurists on the Judicial Committee — Teleford Georges, Justice Edward Zacca, and Sir Vincent Floissac, who is also a member of the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission.