The EBC Judgment – A Postscript The decision of the Court of Appeal concerning the UNC’s petition has settled the outcome of the 2015 elections. Unfortunately, the judgment has left open a can of worms and it will not surprise me if the aggrieved party now sues for damages in the Civil court. The judgment, that the EBC acted illegally, has left the door open to challenge their negligence or recklessness in the Civil Courts. Is it possible for the…..
On Idiots, Dictators and Juries Trial by jury is an ancient English systems of justice’ Its genesis may be traced to the Frankish kings; the system was introduced to England not long after the Norman conquest and has evolved and survived into the twenty-first century. Not so fortunate were the coeval trial by ordeal, trial by battle and trial by compurgation. Trial by ordeal was abolished by the Lateran Council in 1215, trial by battle was not abolished until 1819…..
A Constitutional Court? While he was arguing that Trinidad and Tobago ought to relinquish the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as its final Court of Appeal, Mr Michael de la Bastide, then Chief Justice, pointed out that many of the decisions taken at the final court are more policy decisions rather than legal decisions. The argument made good sense, for it is far better for a sovereign nation to make policy decisions than to leave that responsibility to a…..
The recent judgment by Mr Justice Peter Rajkumar betrays the colonial mind-set that is hampering the proper understanding and functioning of the 1976 constitution. Although there can be no question as to the correctness of the judgment, its language reveals the mind-set that is hovering like a dark cloud over the heads of those that need to interpret the constitution. In passing judgment, the judge, in effect, noted that the constitution did not authorise members of the Cabinet to trigger…..
Welcome. My name is Lennie M. Nimblett, author of Massa Day Done. I’m so happy to have you as a visitor to my blog about my new book. This project is very special to me, and I hope to share some of that excitement with you here. I’ll be using this blog to interact with you about Massa Day Done, expanding on some of the topics in it and blogging on some of the ideas related to my book. This…..