THE Minister of Justice in St Lucia under a new constitution should be an advocate for the Judiciary in the Cabinet liaising with the leadership of the Judiciary to more effectively communicate its needs at the level of the Executive.
This is among the many recommendations of the Constitutional Reform Commission, whose report we continue serializing:
The Role of the Minister of Justice
In light of the Commission’s proposals for reform of the lower judiciary, and mindful of the requirement to make recommendations designed to “maintain and strengthen the independence of the judiciary,” the Commission considered the potential role for the Minister of Justice in a revised Constitution.
The Commission took special notice of the Edinburgh Plan of Action for the Commonwealth that was prepared at the end of the Commonwealth (Latimer House) Colloquium held on 6th and 7th July, 2008 at the Scottish Parliament and presented to the Commonwealth Law Ministers meeting in Edinburgh in July 2008. In that connection, Commonwealth Law Ministers broadly agreed that adequate resources should be allocated to the judiciary to enable it to properly discharge its functions, judges should be accountable to the Constitution and should submit regular reviews to Parliaments on the financing and administration of the courts, and the Minister of Justice had an important role to play in Cabinet, as an advocate for judicial independence.
Accordingly, in the Law Ministers view, Ministers of Justice played an important institutional and political role in defending the independence of the judiciary. Via means of functional cooperation between the Minister of Justice and the Chief Justice, the Law Ministers envisaged opportunities to build public confidence in the administration of justice. Ministers were expected to facilitate an important dialogue between the Executive and the Judiciary on the one hand, and the Judiciary and the public on the other. Above all, a Minister of Justice was required to be a champion on behalf of the judiciary for the allocation of sufficient resources to secure its independence.
The Commission considered the recommendations coming out of the Colloquium and agreed in principle that a Minister of Justice should be a powerful advocate on behalf of the judiciary in Cabinet. The Commission agreed that the independence of the judiciary was closely related to its receipt of adequate resources to discharge its functions, and that some mechanism should be institutionalised to enable the Chief Justice to liaise with an appropriate functionary of the Executive, to make direct representations with respect to the same.
Recommendation
(156) With respect to the Minister of Justice the Commission recommends that the Minister should become an advocate in Cabinet for the judiciary and should liaise with the leadership of the judiciary so as to more effectively communicate its needs at the level of the Executive.