The New Law Year (2015-2016) for the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court commenced on Thursday morning this week, September 17, in the nine regional jurisdictions including Anguilla. These comprise the six independent states of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the three British Overseas Territories of Anguilla, the British Virgin Islands and Montserrat.
In Anguilla, the Law Year commenced with a Church Service at St. Mary’s Anglican Church in The Valley, followed by a procession to the Court, the inspection of a Guard of Honour by Resident Judge, Justice Cheryl Mathurin, a Special Sitting of the Court with addresses by the Judge, the Attorney-General, the President of the Anguilla Bar Association and other Barristers-at-Law. It was at that sitting that the Chief Justice, Hon. Dame Janice M. Pereira, delivered the Opening Address from Grenada where the Court of Appeal is holding its first scheduled sitting for the New Law Year. The address was carried live, via simulcast, to the Courts in the other Member States and Territories.
The opening of the Law Year also entailed the commencement of the Court in its Criminal, Civil and Appellate Jurisdictions. The hearings will begin on October 6 and here, in Anguilla, the list of cases includes a number of criminal matters. This is sad because there was a period in Anguilla where there were no criminal cases so serious as to make their way from the Magistrate’s Court to the High Court. It was a pleasure then to hear the Attorney General telling the trial Judge that there were no such cases on the list, and it was therefore his delight to present the traditional pair of white gloves to the judge signifying that fact. Needless to say, this always drew congratulatory remarks from the Judge to the people of Anguilla, for their respect for law and order, good neighbourly love and peaceful co-existence.
Today, Anguilla is not unlike some of its neighbouring islands where crime has virtually obliterated that presentation of white gloves in the Court. It has been said repeatedly by our top law enforcement personnel that while there is criminal activity in Anguilla, it is well below the level of that in some of the other islands. This of course is of little comfort because, in a small, but developing and upmarket tourist destination, like Anguilla, one violent crime equates to “one too many”.
Our oft-repeated crimes include an unfortunate string of violent robberies, burglaries and sporadic shootings which have left individuals and families traumatised and a number of persons wounded, maimed or dead. The agonising and intolerable situation is likely to continue unless there is a determined, orchestrated and successful effort by our law enforcement personnel to stamp out the malady and ensure a peaceful state of law and order and security. Better still, this kind of criminal activity would self-destruct if those criminally-prone persons among us do not cease their outrageous behaviour and pursue a path of restraint and peace.
The Court is part of the law enforcement agency with responsibility to carefully consider cases coming before the Bench, and to hand down judgments imposing penalties on guilty offenders as punishment for crimes. It is not known how many persons in Anguilla will receive jail sentences during this Criminal Assizes, but those convicted would not have been in that predicament had they ensured that they did not break the law. If they hadn’t committed a crime, the trial Judge would have been obliged to accept the presentation of a pair of white gloves, instead, from the Attorney General.
