And while the law was originally passed by the Barrow administration, the Briceno administration did all it could to preserve it. And that may be because the National Gas company was a PUDP enterprise - and the fact that the state also has a share.
So, government hired the very best attorney it could. Ed Fitzgerald, along with Andrew Marshalleck, and another British attorney Angeline Welch.
We asked Smith if these senior legal eagles point to the importance of the case for government:
Jules Vasquez<
"For the government to have retained him for this matter is indicative of how seriously even this succeeding administration took this legislation. From the level of counsel available, would that indicate how seriously the government wanted to hold on to this, what is essentially a functional monopoly for the National Gas Company?"
Godfrey Smith, Attorney for Gas Companies
"Yes, I think that's a correct evaluation. I think the level of counsel retained is indicative of the stakes involved. And if I recall correctly, the agreement between the National Gas Company and the government of Belize, there was a definitive agreement."
"I think it may have had something in there to the effect that because of the size of the investment, the National Gas Company was making in this project, they had to be assured and maybe even guaranteed certain returns. So it has, I think, fairly substantial implications, to put it mildly."
"I think that the stakes are so high. It's natural to expect the Government to appeal to the CCJ."
Ed Fitzgerald is also one of the attorneys for Julian Assange.
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