Peter Polack

The wires have been singing lately about the appointments of well regarded Caribbean jurists to international bodies who, like Bob Marley, often see minimal regard at home for their solid intellectual talents. Sometimes connections or provenance brings some lawyers off the substitute bench while others disappear into the lower courts never to leave.

Yeoman service is not enough. Jamaican Winston Anderson was recently appointed to be President of the Caribbean Court of Justice in a surprising move given Jamaica’s lackluster performance in moving towards a republic and greater participation in CARICOM. Mia Mottley’s home town is awash in qualified jurists and she is the Caribbean leader if there ever was one.

Not to be outdone, Grand Court judge Richard Williams of the Cayman Islands was just appointed to be president of the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association. A better and more rounded judge there can be none.

Marva McDonald-Bishop of Jamaica also joined this elite company and became President of the Commonwealth Secretariat Arbitral Tribunal.

Unlike the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council these appointments are substantive in their own right and not with the unfortunate condition of, by invitation only, to citizens of the British Overseas Territories.

Unlike the case of the poor, sick, old woman from Monserrat refused service by the British government without a peep from the colonial Caribbean leadership, no invitation at no time.

So it is incontrovertible that the Caribbean has been producing lawyers of international caliber, with some exceptions, but why is the administration of justice in such a mess of delayed hearings, trials, disposition of cases and a multitude of cases that carry over every year. 

Why are so many disputes being settled in the street or grown from adverse conditions among the poor and ill cared youth?

Why is there no peer review of judges perhaps by a review of their performance on appeal?

The answer lies with those hired to maintain the most important system of a civil society. This is not to bring administration into disrepute but analyze performance by empirical data or peer review. To pursue constructive and modern change.This has not been forthcoming in the molasses that is the status quo. 

More annual ceremonies with horse hair but not enough ideas or fulfilling change.

The answer has to come from failed political oversight of administrators, repeating the same formula and obsolete thought on punishment as well as rehabilitation.

Mass shootings, the recurring decimal, will be coming to visit you soon.

Notes

https://www.jamaicaobserver.com/2025/10/06/4-y-o-among-five-killed-gunmen-posing-police-linstead

Peter Polack is a former criminal lawyer in the Cayman Islands for several decade. His books are The Last Hot Battle of the Cold War: South Africa vs. Cuba in the Angolan Civil War (2013), Jamaica, The Land of Film (2017) and Guerrilla Warfare: Kings of Revolution (2019). He was a contributor to Encyclopedia of Warfare (2013). His latest book is a compendium of Russian espionage activities with almost five hundred Soviet spies expelled from nearly 100 countries worldwide 1940-88. 

His views are his own.