The Law As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (LATT) says it will con­tin­ue to com­ment on mat­ters con­cern­ing jus­tice and the rule of law in this coun­try, as dic­tat­ed by its man­date.

It re­assert­ed its po­si­tion in a state­ment re­spond­ing the Prime Min­is­ter’s com­ments about the As­so­ci­a­tion’s state­ment on the ap­point­ment of the new Chief Jus­tice.

“The LATT reaf­firms its statu­to­ry re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to com­ment on mat­ters af­fect­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tion of jus­tice and the rule of law,” said the LATT state­ment, which was signed by its pres­i­dent, Lynette See­baran-Suite SC.

It con­tin­ued: “In ful­fill­ing this du­ty, the As­so­ci­a­tion acts in­de­pen­dent­ly, with­out fear or favour, and in ac­cor­dance with the high­est tra­di­tions of the le­gal pro­fes­sion. The As­so­ci­a­tion em­pha­sis­es that pub­lic dis­course on le­gal and con­sti­tu­tion­al mat­ters, par­tic­u­lar­ly among hold­ers of high of­fice, should be con­duct­ed with mu­tu­al re­spect and re­gard for the in­sti­tu­tions that safe­guard our democ­ra­cy.”

The LATT says it “re­mains un­de­terred in car­ry­ing out its man­date and will con­tin­ue to serve the pub­lic in­ter­est by pro­vid­ing fair and prin­ci­pled guid­ance on is­sues af­fect­ing the rule of law, while main­tain­ing the dig­ni­ty be­fit­ting its role in na­tion­al life.”