The Bahamas should seize the opportunity to divorce itself from the United Kingdom's Privy Council and have its final appellate cases heard by the Caribbean Court of Justice, a former attorney general advised.

Alfred Sears, who served as attorney general during part of the Christie administration, likened recent comments of Lord Nicholas Phillips, Britain's Supreme Court president, to a tenant receiving a notice of eviction. Mr Sears said the country should take heed of this warning and quickly link itself with the regional appellate body instead of waiting for an immediate threat from the United Kingdom.

Recently Lord Phillips told the UK Financial Times that Law Lords on the Privy Council, spent a “disproportionate” amount of time on cases from former colonies, mostly in the Caribbean, the BBC reported.

The region's final appellate court — the Caribbean Court of Justice — currently only hears cases from Guyana and Barbados. Mr Sears said the Bahamas, as a part of CARICOM, is already paying a fee to the CCJ and should make use of its talented judges.

"I personally believe, and I'm speaking for myself not for the PLP, that as a paying member of CARICOM which currently makes an annual contribution to the CCJ that the Bahamas ought to accept the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ and unlink ourselves from the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council with our thanks for the excellent service that it has provided over the years.

"I believe that we have the talent in our region as well as talent outside of the region that is available to the region for the CCJ to perform equal to the performance of the Privy Council," Mr Sears told The Tribune yesterday.

His comments came a day after BBC Caribbean reported that Britain's first Supreme Court officially replaced the Privy Council. The new court replaces the appellate committee of Britain's upper legislative chamber, the House of Lords, BBC Caribbean said.

BBC Caribbean also reported that the new supreme court takes over from the Privy Council which serves as the final court of appeal for most Caribbean countries.

However, local senior attorney Brian Moree disagreed with the information reported and explained that it was the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords — the upper house of British Parliament — that was replaced by Britain's Supreme Court.

"Britain has not dumped the Privy Council and has not indicated through political channels or through judicial channels that it is not prepared to continue to provide the services of the Privy Council to those countries that would continue to wish to use it as its final appellate court."

"The judicial committee of the House of Lords is a different court than the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council even though the same Law Lords sit in both courts. In fact, apart from a very narrow area, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is not a domestic court in Britain, its function — apart from a narrow area of law — is to provide a final court of appeal to former colonies," Mr Moree told The Tribune.

He added that due to the respect, credibility and wealth of experience held by the judges on the Privy Council the Bahamas should not abandon the body as its final court of appeal just yet.

"It is regarded by most independent observes as one of the most competent, experienced and independent courts in the world. As a country we don't pay for these services and frankly it has been a bargain for the Bahamas," said the senior partner of McKinney, Bancroft and Hughes.

He said the CCJ was too young a court to have developed reputable standing in the community and questioned if the appointment of its judges are free of political influence.

Source: The Tribune