How long should a High Court Judge appointed to serve before it appears that his or her tenure security is not at risk? And, do judges with short appointments by the Government of Belize appear to be under influence by the Cabinet of Ministers, especially when the Government is a litigator.
Those are the questions that the Court of Appeal must consider after they heard the appeal by the Government of Belize. They are trying to get the decision by former Supreme Court Justice Oswell Legall struck down. Viewers may remember that the judge ruled that the Government's Constitutional amendments made in 2008 were unlawful, null and void. The effect of these amendments was to substitute an appointment tenure of 1 year where the appointment of certain judges did not have a specified end of their service to the court.
So, the Government got its day in court to convince the Justices of Appeal that they ought to reverse the Supreme Court decision. When the case was concluded this evening, we spoke to both sides about their arguments. Here's what they told us:
Godfrey Smith, SC - Attorney for the Bar Association
"This case is a challenge to certain constitutional amendments that the government enacted. I think it was in around 2009. Essentially we're saying that the amendments introduce 1 year periods of appointments for judges of the court of appeal which we believe are on constitutional in that it goes to the art of security of tenure. All judges, be they are Supreme Court judges or judges of the court of appeal should enjoy a certain independence. This is not saying that the judges are biased, that's a different argument. Our argument is that for the public to have confidence that judges are independent of the executive, there are certain objective conditions that need to be placed. One of them is that they should enjoy security of tenure which means that they should not be appointed for periods of 1 year. And simplifying it. Its more complex than that but that in essence was the argument today."
Michael Young, SC - Attorney for GOB
"The amendments which were comprised in the 6th amendment of the constitution were for the particular circumstance where judges of the court of appeal were appointed without the specific period of the duration of the office being inserted into the instrument of 
appointment. There were cases in which this was done and it raised questions as to whether the appointments were defective and that in itself could have some very serious consequences. Thus the legislature plugged the loophole by providing that in such cases the appointments would be deemed to be for a certain term. The Bar Association obviously took certain negative positions in relations to that."
The Court of Appeal has reserved its decision to a date to be announced.
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