Three courts have now ruled that the Government's repealing of the controversial Section 34 was legal. These courts were the T&T's High Court, T&T's Court of Appeal and the London-based Privy Council (our final court of appeal for these matters).
One wonders how the Caribbean Court of Appeal (CCJ) would have ruled if this matter was before them?
It would have been really interesting to test how the CCJ would have ruled given the same evidence and materials presented to the Privy Council. The presentations of both sides to the Privy Council over the three days could have been made available to the CCJ for their own deliberations in a test/mock scenario in these days of modern technology.
In other words, a sort of "side trial" or mock trial could have been implemented with the CCJ's rulings made and sealed until the Privy Council gave theirs. Both rulings could have been then compared if different.
These types of innovative arrangements would have brought some additional confidence to the CCJ for the Caribbean people and more so the T&T public in this instance.
We wasted this golden opportunity. However, it is not too late though. We can have some post judgment discussions with the CCJ judges sharing their opinion though it may not be the real thing.
Bonnie Smith