The Jamaican Constitution (hereinafter “the Constitution”) came into effect with the Jamaica Independence Act of 1962. The Act was tabled to ‘make provision for and in connection with, the attainment by Jamaica of fully responsible status within the Commonwealth.’ This document formed the framework for Jamaica’s political independence and created the premise on which this fledgling nation could carve out its own legal system based on its own moral, cultural and political experience. The Constitution though largely reflective of the previous colonial relationship, has within it an innate balance of power between the arms of government that is theoretically and fundamentally positioned to support the country’s self-governance. This balance …show more content…
The rule of law as proposed by A.V. Dicey asserts that no man should be punished except for conduct in clear breach of the law. This assertion supports the fact that the legal system rests on the objectivity of the Judiciary. Where we are governed under a system which rests upon the impartial application of laws, and under which citizens’ rights and obligations are regulated by those laws, there must be an established and accepted system for making law. The law must be publicly known. Interference with rights and obligations must be justified within the law as the perception of rights, freedoms and equality in society is influenced by the quality of Judicial rulings. In the spirit of Judicial Independence, the Judiciary must be impartial and may not be influenced by any source except the law. Within the Constitution, security of tenure and security of salary are entrenched provisions designed to insulate the Judiciary from pressure intended to influence their rulings. Judicial Impartiality is defined as ‘the freedom of each individual judge to reach a decision within the law without undue interference or pressure from government, other judges, the media or any other source.’ While attempts to directly interfere with the fair and effective administration of
Upon initial consideration, one would presume that the United States Constitution and the Constitution of Jamaica would not be similar at all. After all, the United States Constitution was ratified in 1787, whereas the Jamaican Constitution was not ratified until 1962, the year Jamaica gained its independence. At first glance, Jamaica's constitution appears to be most similar to that of England, because they both establish a parliament and share the same chief of state (Queen Elizabeth II). These similarities are understandable considering the United Kingdom owned Jamaica until Jamaica gained its independence in 1962. But if one digs deeper into Jamaica's constitution, the many resemblances with the United States Constitution begin to
The doctrine of judicial independence rests on three concepts. The first one is the security of tenure of office which is supposed to guarantee judicial officers freedom from the interferences by the parliament or the executive. The doctrine requires
Throughout the essay Jamaica Kincaid expresses her idea of the severe power imbalances that existed in Antigua. This is viewed through a Marxist lens, which enables to analyze how the power is distributed and imposed. Kincaid evidently reveals that the government is fully in control and
To be sure, modern laws are made to express the general will, a will that aims at the common good. This means that laws in most cases intend to protect every social member’s rights under the principle of justice and fairness. For telling examples one need to look no further than American judicial system. The access to the two courts systems, one federal court and one state court, provides citizens with the greatest potential to have their legal problems
concentrates that law is purely used to promote good by the state. Furthermore, law should
The independence of the judiciary from the executive and legislative is said to kept by things like their fixed salaries and sub judice rule. Their salaries ‘are paid from the Consolidated Fund’ and aren’t fixed or changeable by Parliament or the government which keeps the judiciary free from political pressure in terms of finance. The sub judice rule is where the MPs in the House of Commons are unable to comment on current or pending cases. This keeps the judiciary free from political interference and prevents prejudice against judicial decisions. This rule is followed by
Criminal law is a construct of the government, enforced through tangible measures. In a democratic society, the government is elected by the citizens, and as such, laws are generally conceived with the aim to reflect whatever ethical or moral standards are presently acceptable. However, in order to be truly effective, some legislation must circumvent current sociological viewpoints in order to create laws that are genuinely in the best interests of society. This results in a delicate balancing act, as lawmakers attempt to weigh the views of the majority against the need for laws to be both reasoned and objective.
The American system has been widely recognized as a model of democracy and effective governing, but critics argue its flaws in policy making. Founders of the United States made a three branch system, in which they later introduced political parties. At times, the system can be viewed as having poor efficiency in legislation and poor accountability. In our government's system, policies are implemented after completion of a long process of incremental decision making, and that has shaped our own political community and parties.
Judicial Independence is fundamental to democracy, it serves as a guarantor of the rule of law and separation of power . However, nothing is perfect. There is some defect regarding to the judicial independence and solution must be made to curb the weakness.
In the course preserving the law and order, the effectiveness of the system designed to administer justice cannot be over emphasized. Faith in the adjudicatory system by the populace is often underscored by the satisfaction the populace derives from it in terms of its administration of justice. Hence it is pertinent to analyze the approach certain countries are employ in their respective adjudicatory process.
There are both similarities and differences, when referring to checks and balances and separation of powers. Both have to do with the Government. But separation of powers is a model of government in which different parts of the government are in charge of different tasks; in the United States, these parts are known as the Legislative, Executive, and Judicial. Checks and balances is a means of trying to ensure that these three parts of government stay equal, and that one does not try to take over another.
Law is a system of rules that are enforced through social institutions to govern behavior. (Robertson, Crimes against humanity, 90).Laws can be made by a collective legislature or by a single legislator, resulting in statutes, by the executive through decrees and regulations, or by judges through binding precedent, normally in common jurisdictions.
For instance, if the parliament, acting on public opinion, was to make a law severely curbing the rights of some minority, the supreme court has the right to struck it down as unconstitutional, irrespective of the public support behind that law. This principle takes into account the notion that popular sentiments should not always be reflected in state policies, especially when they contradict the law. The process of judicial elections, however, is entirely based on public support as the basic legitimizing criteria for the justice system and fails to consider the fallibility of popular opinions. And, when judges are elected to their offices, the cannot work irrespective of public opinion which helped them gain their seat in the bench. Therefore, election of judges contradicts the basic principles of democracy as well as independence of the judiciary.
In this essay I will be explaining how the doctrine of the separation of powers has been compromised to a less extent in the nation like Australia. The first section will constitute in exploring the history and the significance of the separation of the power doctrine. In the second section I will discuss about the compromise of the doctrine, especially between the administrator and the legislature with some good cases held in high court. Besides, some clarification will be provided to explain how the philosophical system of separation of power is being compromised. This estimate will be supported by the depth psychology of several examples and articles where the doctrine has been compromised concluding that the total separation of the power is merely a myth but as well in spite of that the doctrine protects the individual rights.
Laws serve several purposes in the criminal justice system. The main purpose of criminal law is to protect, serve, and limit human actions and to help guide human conduct. Also, laws provide penalties and punishment against those who are guilty of committing crimes against property or persons. In the modern world, there are three choices in dealing with criminals’ namely criminal punishment, private action and executive control. Although both private action and executive control are advantageous in terms of costs and speed, they present big dangers that discourage their use unless in exceptional situations. The second purpose of criminal law is to punish the offender. Punishing the offender is the most important purpose of criminal law