On the heels of statements from former judge Herbert Volney in which he attacked Chief Justice Ivor Archie, Industrial Court president Cecil Bernard yesterday reiterated the need for the independence of judges.
During a special sitting of the Industrial Court, at the start of the new law term, Bernard, although he did not make specific reference to the "war of words" between the Chief Justice and Volney, said there were "boundaries" between the Executive and the court, which had to be observed. "When I address the Executive mediately, my intention is to remind the Executive that between itself and the court there are legitimate boundaries," Bernard said. He said judges to the Industrial Court were appointed by the President on the advice of the Executive, but the court was not a department of the Government.
"I have said on many occasions that the court can only flourish in an atmosphere where its independence is not in doubt," he said. He next turned to the "judicial conduct" of judges, which he said should be limited. "When I speak to judges at these special sittings, I intend to point out that the tremendous role of a judge in the society is counter-balanced by serious restrictions and severe limitations on those freedoms which the Constitution guarantees to every citizen," he said. He said although a judge was free to express himself like every citizen, it must be free from the "appearance of political, ethnic, religious, class or any other bias."
"It may be constitutionally lawful for a judge to join a political party, but a judge must consider whether to do so would be consistent with the ethical constraints which operate against the full enjoyment by a judge of such freedom," he said. In April 2010, Volney resigned as a High Court judge and joined the UNC to contest the May 24 general election. Bernard said judges needed to look beyond law books and draw from their own folk-memories. Such sayings derived from these memories, he said, include, "To thine own self be true and you cannot then be false to any man" and "Those who live in glass houses must not throw stones."
Bernard called for the Industrial Court to be established as a separate entity under the Constitution. As it is, the Court is listed under the "Statutory Boards and other Bodies." "The least that one would expect is that the Industrial Court would be accorded separate and individual identity," Bernard said. "Last year, I made the suggestion that the proper place for the Industrial Court is its establishment under the Constitution...I make no comparison between the Industrial Court and any other court in Trinidad and Tobago. "However, I venture to suggest that the longevity of the Court, the sustained high standard of scholarship in its jurisprudence, its national and international recognition as an independent court and its ever-increasing statutory jurisdiction proclaim loudly its qualification for enhanced constitutional status. It is not a squad."