To
Be a Judge in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Supreme Court
When
you accepted this job, you were
not being honoured for any merit on your part. The truth is rather that, for your sins, you
have been sentenced by the Chief Justice to a term of solitary confinement with
hard labour. Consider any little
innocent relief that the country you serve in may afford you as time off for
good behaviour. Follow this rule, and
you will not suffer any false expectations.
At the annual Armistice Day parade, when you stand in line behind the Governor
and the Prime Minister, in front of the Bishop and the Leader of the
Opposition, it is important to suppress that feeling that one must be a very
important person. It is not you that is
important. It is the job that put you there. And, it does not matter who is in front of
you, or who is behind you. You have no
say on the question. It is entirely in
the control of the Protocol Department. Let
them do their job and worry about who has precedence, while you concentrate on
doing yours.
When you go to the beach on a Sunday morning to have a swim, do not be surprised
at the number of towels that soon get spread out around your position. The sea-bathers will be very polite, perhaps
excessively friendly to you. You may not
have any idea who they are, but from the time you hit the beach, every litigant
for miles around will realise this is their chance to ingratiate themselves
with you, and will make a bee line to your spot of beach. Expect to see every one of them in the court
before you on the Monday morning. By all
means be polite to citizens, but avoid friendliness and the development of
social relationships. You have not
accepted this job to make friends, but to deliver blind and impartial justice
to all who come before you, whether they swim or not.
When you are working at the case load you
are given, be grateful that you are expected to be flawless and perfect. Have
no concern about making mistakes. That
is why there is the Court of Appeal. They are the only ones who can decide that you
made a mistake in law. The Court of
Appeal makes mistakes too. That is why
there is the Privy Council.
What you are expected to do is to impartially
hear both parties to every case, and to deliver your decision one way or the
other within a reasonable time, certainly not more than three months after the
end of the case. Lawyers and clients
will appreciate prompt decision-making much more than they will appreciate your
lengthy and laboured effort to produce perfect justice, especially if it delays
your delivery by several months.
When your
police orderly drives you in to work in the morning, it is not to make
you feel important. It is not for you to
show off. It is a simple device for
ensuring that the judicial office is not brought into disrepute. How can the citizen feel comfortable about you
trying careless driving cases, when you are driving yourself and crashing into
people and cars all over the country? When he takes you effortlessly through
security and immigration, it is not to emphasise your importance. It is only that the powers that be consider
that your judgments may be undermined in the eyes of the public if you are seen
walking across the departure lounge in your socks, and buckling back up your
trouser suit belt in public like everyone else. It is just one of the aspects of the job.
On the point of the police, remember that
your police orderly is not given the job for his good manners and polite behaviour. In some of our islands, his principal
responsibility is to fill out a report at the end of each day on anything useful
that he may have overheard or noticed while driving you. His promotion chances may depend on his
providing titbits that his superiors may be able to use one day against you, if
it ever becomes necessary. Some police
chiefs keep highly confidential files on judges, just as they do on
politicians, merchants, and lawyers. These
Commissioner and their Superintendents never know when they might need the
extra leverage. So, be very careful how
you conduct yourself in the presence of the police orderly.
When you enter the court room, and the
lawyers bow down, with their
foreheads nearly touching the polished bar table, keep in mind that it is not
to you personally that they are bowing. It is to the representation of the great seal
of the State that hangs behind you on the wall of the court room that they are
showing respect. You appearance in the
court room is no more than the trigger to set off a demonstration of loyalty to
the high ideals of justice which your office represents.
When your orderly carries your bag out to the aeroplane and ushers you onto it
before any of the other passengers are allowed to board, it is necessary to
remind yourself that he is not pampering you. What he is doing is to help you to carry work
home. The reason why the bag is so heavy
is that it holds a lot of work you are supposed to be carrying home each and
every evening.
While on the topic of aeroplanes, I hope I
never hear that you have been demanding that you receive ‘your’ favourite seat. As a judge, you have no right to any
particular seat other than that awarded to you by the airline. If you have no seat allocation, you board
humbly like everyone else and gratefully accept any seat that is available. Just hope the ‘plane takes off on time, and be
thankful if your bag is on the same flight.
The VIP
lounge at the airport, where you are sequestered before the flight is
called, is not some place of privilege to which you are entitled access. In my experience, the VIP lounge is used by
your orderly to keep you safely confined until he can dispatch you out of his
hands and onto the aeroplane. If you go
to an airport free of the custody of your orderly, use the departure lounge
like everybody else, don’t demand access to the lounge like some Eastern
despot.
One important matter I must touch on is the independence of the judiciary. It really is quite remarkable that no Chief
Justice, no Justice of Appeal, no judicial colleague will question you about
your job, except on an appeal. No one is
looking over your shoulder, checking on what you are doing. Always remember that this is not a privilege
special to the judge. It is not
something you have earned, or have any right to. As Chief Justice Sir Dennis Byron liked to
remind his judges from time to time, it is a privilege that belongs to the
citizen alone, certainly not to the judge. It is fundamental to our system of justice
that the citizen is entitled to be confident that his or her judge is
delivering judgment without fear or favour, with prejudice to none. The judge’s independence is his right and
entitlement, not yours.
Finally, each of our islands has its charms, and its challenges. Some islands
are coral and others are volcanic. Some
are mountainous and others are flat. The
people are universally friendly and polite. Show courtesy and politeness back, and you
will have no difficulty enjoying your period of service. And, when after a few years it is all done, we
look forward to your returning to us and re-joining the community of friends
and colleagues whom you are leaving behind.
We bid you adieu and bonne chance.
A speech after a Bar
Association dinner at my home in North Hill celebrating the appointment of my
one-time partner, Birnie Stephenson, to be a Justice of the Eastern Caribbean
Supreme Court, to serve in Dominica.
