Draconian Legislation introduced
The budget debate took up the largest part of the proceedings in the House of Representatives last week so few persons noted that an alarming piece of legislation was sneaked through the House. It is the Supreme Court of Judicature (Amendment) Act, 2010.
The new law gives to the Supreme Court of Belize the power to issue an injunction against any person, company or even arbitrators who may have commenced arbitration against the Government of Belize.
Once the injunction is issued, if the arbitration goes ahead, those involved, including their lawyers, advisers, corporate directors, shareholders and secretaries can be criminally charged and fined up to half a million dollars or jailed for up to ten years. A further three hundred thousand dollars can be charged for each day a person continues in breach of the injunction.
And get this, it doesn’t matter if the arbitration occurs in Belize or not. Nor does it matter if the injunction was breached in Belize or not. So if a complaint is made against you, you can be tried and found guilty whether or not you are present in Belize for the trial.
What’s this all about? Well GOB has two sizeable arbitration awards against it by the former management of BTL and by NEWCO, the company that initially had the lease of the international airport. This new law empowers the court to declare those awards void.
What’s wrong with this, you may ask? Well, to begin with it gives Belize’s courts extra-territorial criminal jurisdiction, breaches treaty obligations and subverts established principles of international arbitration and private international law.
A few businesspersons contacted by News Five say they are afraid this new law will make the investment climate radioactive in Belize. No serious investor having sight of this legislation would consider investing in Belize as there would be no way of protecting their investment.
This is major oppression, this is not about any law suites, it is the power to become a dictatorship.
If you don’t like it the law says you are a criminal. Hopefully true representatives of the people will vote this down. You must call or e-mail your representative about this, or it is welcome to the USSR!. Someone is trying to take over your country! I can’t imaging moving to such a place, I would be afraid to visit it also if this is passed. This is Waaaaayyyy too much power for anyone or any government. Goodbye freedom. Goodbye tourist business, goodbye investors. Call now.
This is the worst piece of law passed through the house!! It is unconstitutional in everyway and deprives us of the constitutional provision of the right to speech, protection of property, security and protection of the law. This is rediculous, Belize is becoming a big Joke, the laughing stock of the Caribbean and I thought Jamaica was bad and corrupt. You know they can stay in power as long as they want with this new law passed. This is a breach in the constitution and it must be challenged
great!…first BTL takeover now this…anything else Finiance Minister/Lawyer Barrow..??? He must be a real bitter person to want so much hard times for the people of Belize. Just go away Barrow!
And so it begins…..it seems as though the people of Belize has no say in this country’s affairs anymore. What the govenrment says……goes……end of story. The cries of the people are falling on deaf ears as the government is trying to have it’s way by twisting the laws to their liking. It’s just like telling a kid not to do something and to turn around and find out he/she did it anyways just to see what would happen. The present government doesn’t want to understand the needs of the people and to make it worse, they are unwilling to dialogue with us to come to a resolution that would be beneficial to all parties. This government has to realize that it was these same people out here who put them were they are today… and we are the same people who will remove them next time around if not before.