The Prime Minister – who said he will definitely not renew his membership in the Bar association has told the media that under the constitutional provision for freedom of association, compulsory membership in the bar most likely cannot b enforced. But Senior Counsel Andrew Marshalleck
told us that in the research done so far, there is no precedent which says that compulsory membership is unconstitutional:
Andrew Marshalleck - Former President/Current Member, Bar Association
"The doing away of compulsory membership is presumably being done on the basis that compulsory membership is unconstitutional. This is an issue that
the bar has studied and has actually commissioned a legal opinion from and the conclusion is that it's not unconstitutional. So the need for the change
starts from the wrong place. There is nothing that anybody can point to no decision in this region or decision of any court which demonstrates they
compulsory membership in the bar association as presently provided by the legal provision act."
Our archives show that in 2010, Justice Minnette Hafiz ruled that the Citrus Processing and Production Act contravened sections 13(1) and 15(1) of the Belize Constitution because the Act sought to make membership in the Citrus Growers Association compulsory for those wishing to sell product to the Citrus Growers Association. After that, the CGA's monopoly on the Citrus industry was broken and Belize Citrus Mutual - a competing citrus association - was formed.
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