“I don’t agree with very many of his conclusions” – Barrow on Mendes

Dean Barrow

This afternoon, we sat with former Prime Minister Dean Barrow, himself a distinguished attorney, to discuss his perspective on the Mendes opinion.  He says that he opposes quite a number of Mendes’ deductions where the validity of the Definitive Agreement is concerned.

Dean Barrow, Former Prime Minister

“I don’t agree with Mr. Mendes’ opinion at all, or perhaps I should rephrase that.  I don’t agree with very many of his conclusions.  Certainly, he ended up saying that Erwin Contreras had actual authority to sign that Definitive Agreement.  I think he is way wrong on that.  But, in any case, what I think we need to focus on is why the administration, the current administration, felt it needed to get a second opinion after the Juratowitch opinion.  It’s almost, well it’s not it’s almost, it’s clear that the administration was opinion shopping.  The way I see it, they were determined to go around until they got an opinion that suited them.  Clearly the Juratowitch opinion didn’t suit them.  That’s the first point.  The second point is that, as far as we can tell, none of the opinions, neither of the two opinions were shared with Cabinet at the time the Cabinet memorandum was presented and discussed.  Now that is very significant because Juratowitch said plainly, he ended on the note that everything else apart, the fact that the so-called Definitive Agreement sought to bind parliament means that it is unenforceable, punto final.  When Mendes opined, he differed on several points from Juratowitch, but he did concede that the clauses in the agreement that sought to bind parliament were illegal.”