Government Amends Laws, but Judiciary Needs to be Strengthened

Michael Ashcroft

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Dean Barrow, the government has amended laws on several occasions to suit its position on legal matters and introduced retroactive amendments.  This was first evidenced during litigation following the acquisition of B.T.L. in 2009.  While Lord Ashcroft is aware of these sudden constitutional changes, he also points to the coincidence of losing cases in the local courts before finding vindication at the Caribbean Court of Justice.  He says that Belize’s judiciary needs to be strengthened.

Lord Michael Ashcroft

“There’s so many times that the government has amended the law to suit its self.  At one stage during the B.T.L. litigation they changed the law to make it illegal to enforce a foreign arbitration in Belize, contrary to the investment protection treaty that they had signed between the United Kingdom and Belize.  And eventually we had to get that unconstitutionality overturned and equally, twice the government has gone in forcibly to take over assets.  It has to be more than a coincidence there’s always lost at the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal and then won at the C.C.J.  It’s too much of a coincidence that the lower courts, in the view of the C.C.J., not giving the right decision.  But I’ve gone on record in saying at the last interview that I gave, is that I would like the judiciary in Belize strengthened up and greater independence of tenure of the judges.  At one time we had quite a number of very good Caribbean judges and eventually, again by coincidence, I’m sure that every time they seem to give an opinion against the government they lost their jobs.  So I think something needs to be done in strengthening the judiciary at the lower levels.”