I FEEL IT WOULD BE REMISS OF ME TO CONFINE MY REMARKS
TO YOU TONIGHT EXCLUSIVELY TO OUR RELATIONSHIP AS FELLOW
MEMBERS OF THE BAR.
I MUST THANK YOU FOR THE WARMTH AND SUPPORT I HAVE RECEIVED
FROM MANY OF YOU IN OTHER SPHERES.
IN A SOCIETY IN WHICH YOU ARE NUMBERED AMONG THE PRIVILEGED
BY DINT OF YOUR EDUCATION AND YOUR PROFESSION, I URGE YOU TO
MAKE A CONTRIBUTION TO THE WIDER SOCIETY. THERE ARE MANY WAYS
IN WHICH YOU CAN HELP TO RAISE UP THE COUNTLESS NUMBERS OF OUR
FELLOW CITIZENS WHO THROUGH NO FAULT OF THEIR OWN, MORE OFTEN
THAN NOT BY THE SIMPLE ACCIDENT OF BIRTH, FIND THEMSELVES
AT A DISADVANTAGE IN OUR SOCIETY WHERE REGRETTABLY OPP0RTUNITIES
HAVE BEEN LIMITED. TO DO SO, WOULD DO ME - - HONOUR,AS I STRIVE
AS LEADER OF THE LAND TO MAKE OUR BELOVED COUNTRY A BETTER
PLACE FOR ALL OF US.
UWI LIBRARIES
Salutations.
Tonight, you pay me the highest honour that
any person may hope to be afforded by one's
professional colleagues in one's lifetime.
Not being by nature a cynic, I take the charitable
view that the magnificent turnout tonight is
due to your genuine desire to see one of your
number succeed in this high office. Rather than
any professional rejoicing to have one less advocate
in the field. You will not have failed to notice
that I have taken quite a few others with me.
I suspect not all here present will view with
equal relief that I refrain from making any announcement
tonight of an immediate or contemplated
intention to return. As a creature of precedent,
and having been right on the single occasion
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when I dared to do so recently, I will not run the
risk of repitition and prove that I can be wrong at
times.
Why I have chosen to leave the much maligned
profession of law to eneter the hazardous
and most maligned field of politics is something I
can never explain. It may simply be that both are
ncessary evils or that I have masochistic tenden-
. c1es.
But seriously, I am proud to be a member of
the noble profession of the law and humble to be
afforded the privilege of leading our nation at this
difficult and exciting time.
I can only pray that God will give the widom
and courage to do so with vision and integrity.
We have, I believe, been very fortunate in
our inheritance of this proud legacy of the
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cotntnon law. Our concepts of justice have
etnerged frotn age old principles forged in the
cauldron of titne and experience. These have
satisfied the instinctive hutnan test of what is
just and what is fair, what is right and what is
wrong.
Such concepts as the presutnption of innocence,
the right to a fair hearing and trial and
by our peers retnain the foundation on which
our detnocracy rests.
We tnust however, always retnetnber that
the cotntnon law evolved frotn the social circutnstances
and generally accepted values of
a particular titne and indeed of a particular
society. It was a society which often did not
apply these satne protections to people falling
under its authority, for people outside its
geographical boundaries. Who were "lesser
breeds within the law" - Kipling.
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The great strength of the com.m.on law has
rested upon its dynam.ism.. This has propelled
it in an evolutionary m.anner through the decisions
of Judges who have not been too tim.id to
interpret the law to reflect the goal of justice.
Where the shackles of precedence have inhibited
their interpretive freedom., m.any have not
hesitated to incite the legislative authority by
indicating strongly the need for changes in the
law.
It is the judicial boldness in the interest of
justice and legislative sensitivity to the need
for change which com.bine to create the enabling
and protective environm.ent of the law.
Our citizens m.ust feel confident that in truth
they are governed by laws rather than by m.en.
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We who live in young and developing societies,
alert to the need for social change and
tnobility, who are daily concerned with the
quest for the solutions necessary to achieve
econotnic stability tnuch tnore than older and
tnore settled societies, to focus on the law as
an instrutnent for the developtnent of our
people. The law tnust be a vehicle for the
achievetnent of our social and econotnic objectives.
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For us, the law beco01es a pri01e tool of
social engineering.
As we struggle to unify our country, as we
assert that each person has an equal stake in
the success of our efforts towards national
develop01ent, the i01ple01entation of our laws
01ust reflect equality of treat01ent. The content
of our laws 01ust be co01pletely nondiscri01inatory
in the widest and clearest possible
sense. It tnust never countenance inequity.
Only thus can trigger points of conflict
between various eletnents in our society
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be elitninated by the conscious use of the law
as a unifying force in the nation.
This objective requires the closest scrutiny
of the content and itnpletnentation of new
laws. It detnands a continued exatnination of
existing laws so that we tnay proceed to cull
out those which cannot pass the littnus test to
which I have alluded.
When we becatne a nation we inherited
good laws and bad laws. The genesis of sotne
of these bad laws, particularly in the area of
critninal justice, lay in concepts of what was
necessary for the ruling power to tnaintain
control over the overwheltning nutnbers of a
,
fortner slave population who were still re-quired
to serve their erstwhile tnasters but
who were now free in law to pursue their own
purposes and desires.
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The vagrancy laws tnade critninal anyone
found wandering abroad without visible m.eans
of sustenance. The basis for this crim.e lay in
the need of the plantation owners for the
fortner slaves to rem.ain working on the plantations,
and the increasing propensity atnong
the fortner slaves to flee the plantation, far
frotn the tnetnory of the terrible experiences
tnany had suffered there. Today the Vagrancy
Act is still on our Statute books. As we
approach our 30th year of Independence, it is
titne for it to be retnoved.
At the ~ ar, I have always been concerned
with the injustice inherent in the Unlawful
Possession of Property Act. It is titne for this
Law to be repealed. Although no allegation
of larceny is tnade, a suspected person is
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required to account for property in his or her
possession, the ownership of which is not
claitned by anyone. The suspected person is
never sotneone considered well dressed or
belonging to certain echelons of our society.
This law discritninates against persons of a
certain appearance or seetning status. It tnay
be argued by sotne, that such a law is necessary
as a tool of critne detection. However,
legititnate instrutnents of critne detection cannot
be discritninatory. Neither should the law
be used to create a crim.inal class.
It is in the light of what I have outlined that
we m.ust also exam.ine even legislation which
we have ourselves fashioned. The Suppression
of Crim.e Act is a prim.e candidate for
such scrutiny.
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It was enacted at a tim.e when on our assessm.
ent, unusual m.easures, short of a state
of em.ergency, were required to deal with a
level and type of violent crim.inal activity
bordering on terrorism.. It was structured so
that it can be applied to specific areas. It was
never intended to be of indefinite duration.
The Act is now 18 years old. A generation
of the Security Forces has grown up with
knowledge only of the special powers given to
them. by the Act. A generation of citizens has
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cotnplained of breaches of their cotntnon law
rights.
Nearly every country including the United
Kingdotn and the United States, has found it
necessary to devise special laws and security
systetns for the entire society to be protected
frotn the terrible atrocities perpetrated by a
violent and highly organized eletnent cotntnitted
to terrorist activities. Jatnaica can be
no exception.
But I believe that in the light of our experiences
during these past 18 years, we tnust
look to providing those powers which we all
accept to be necessary for critne detection and
control in relevant and appropriate legislation
so that the Suppression of Critne Act tnay be
repealed.
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I have directed that this exercise should be
speedily concluded. I would invite a constructive
contribution frotn the Bar to this
end.
We are now engaged in J atnaica in transfortning
our econotny into a tnarket driven
tnodel. We should spend sotne titne exatnining
the role which the attorney should play in such
an environtnent. The other issue to which I
wish to draw your attention tonight is that of
the role of the attorney in a free tnarket
econotny.
We have been very fortunate in J atnaica in
the quality of ethics and professional integrity
of the legal fraternity. The bar is a self-regu-
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latory profession by virtue of the disciplinary
powers conferred on the General Legal Council
by the Legal Profession Act. Parliatnent
has therefore recognized that the profession
should possess the necessary will and integrity
to discipline itself.
We tnust strive to tnaintain this itnage and
continue to enjoy the confidence necessary
between lawyer and client in the conduct of
the client's business as well as a level of
cotnpetence assutned by the fact that the law-
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. '
yer is certified as qualified to practice the
profession.
Traditionally we have tnaintained that the
ethics of the legal profession are not synonytnous
with the ethics of the tnarket place. We
tnaintain that the profession is a higher calling
than the nortnal practice of business.
But we cannot isolate ourselves frotn the
society of which we are a part. With the evolution
of the tnarket driven econotny a whole
new range of areas will open up.
In a centrally controlled econotny governtnent
provided protection for the consutnercitizen
in a nutnber of ways. In a tnarket
driven econotny "let the buyer beware" tnust
also afford the buyer adequate legal recouse to
protect one self.
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The Fair Cotnpetition Act, for exatnple,
will tnean new areas of operation for the legal
fraternity. The legal fraternity is obliged to
offer services to those whose rights need equal
protection but who cannot afford to tneet the
legal costs. For in a very practical way "the
law" tnust in, tnany instances becotne the
effective an residual as the protector of the
people.
I urge you to consider increasing your
participation in legal aid progratntne in this
particular area.
The question of legal training is another
area to which I would like to direct your
attention. A period of internship prior to certification
is a tnethod successfully used in the
tnedical profession. I invite your consideration
of a proposal which would institute a
period of internship for law graduates to be
served in legal aid in civil and critninal cases
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or in the legal services of governm.ent prior to
certification.
It would give our young attorney a solid
grounding in these aspects of legal practice
befor they qualify as full professionals. It
would give the beneficiaries of legal education
the opportunity to give service to the
com.m.unity which has provided them. with
their legal education.
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