Latest update February 6th, 2025 7:27 AM
Jan 08, 2017 News
Since the recent appointment of Senior Counsel by President David Granger, various sections of society have debated the validity of the list. Of the nine newly appointed members to the inner bar is Justice Alison Roxanne McLean George-Wiltshire, a sitting judge of the Supreme Court of Judicature.
Justice Roxanna George-Wiltshire receiving her commission of appointment from President David Granger.
Historically, such an appointment was seen as going against the meaning of the appointment to those in the legal profession. In 2011, Karl Hudson-Phillips, former Attorney-General of Trinidad and Tobago, had condemned the appointment of sitting judges to receive their ‘silk’, the term used to describe the award since the robe they are given is made of the material.
He said that the award should be limited to practising advocates who would have distinguished themselves at the bar. He even went further to limit his welcome to the inner bar to practising members and withheld his congratulations from those members of the judiciary who he said had given in to accepting a title which is usually handed back, not granted, on elevation to the bench.
One of the justifications behind this position is that a judge is above the bar. The former AG said it is still thought by the more discerning that the honour should be reserved for advocates, particularly those who defend the liberty and the rights of the citizen in the High Court or Court of Appeal, not as judges but as advocates.
This issue came up once more the following year when in January 2012 then President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Michael de la Bastide, had criticized the appointment of a sitting judge of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Appeal, Wendell Kangaloo and Chief Justice, Ivor Archie as Senior Counsel.
Included in the list of those appointed were Attorney-General Anand Ramlogan and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bisessar.
He described the move as an outright ‘aberration”. De la Bastide’s argument was that the award is for practising attorneys and not for judges.
In his letter to the Trinidad Guardian, the former CCJ President said, “The award of silk to an incumbent Chief Justice or to a sitting judge of the Court of Appeal of T&T is an aberration which if previously committed, should not have been repeated.”
He said that the honour of the award can only be conferred on a ‘counsel’. De la Bastide added that there can be no definition or interpretation of the term ‘counsel’ that can include a judge of a superior court or record.
It was explained that a judge who has been a practising attorney before assuming judicial office, or may after a prescribed period return to practice after retirement, cannot serve to qualify them for the award while still on the bench.
He said that it is fundamental to the concept of justice that the roles of judge and counsel be kept strictly separate. “Those who accept judicial office are required to forego many of the advantages and opportunities that were available to them while in practice – one of these is the possibility of taking silk, at least while still on the Bench.”
De la Bastide was of the view that such an appointment could only serve to be a source of embarrassment and amusement for Trinidad and Tobago before the rest of the Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions.
After the outcry from many sections of the legal profession and civil society the appointed Court of Appeal Judge and Chief Justice had returned their patent or award.
He suggested that the responsibility for making such appointments should be taken out the hands of politicians. The learned Justice said that this duty should be given to an independent body comprising representatives of the legal profession and members of civil society.
On Wednesday, President Granger, during his remarks at the ceremony conferring the title of Senior Counsel to those appointed sought to defend his decision to select Justice George-Wiltshire.
“As far as sitting judges are concerned as in the case of Justice Roxanne George, she served for several years in the DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) office and were this a normal jurisdiction, during those years, she would have had the (Senior Counsel appointment) long ago.”
Additionally, according to Justice George-Wiltshire she was invited to apply for the title of Senior Counsel since 2003 which she did but nothing happened until now.
Granger said that there has been a 20-year absence of appointments which meant that a generation of qualified legal practitioners have missed out on receiving the honour.
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