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Mark-pernes mis
Pur copy on
CALL FROM DESMOND KEANE QC: FURTHER OUTSTANDING PROBLEMS
WITH THE LETTERS PATENT
Fica.
But the
helters
Patent
were made under the perogati
itive
1. Desmond Keane phoned me today to thank me for sending him a copy of the Letters Patent on Article 14 but also to voice
his worries on Deputy High Court and District Court Judges,
which he had already voiced to Ms Major as she had set out
in her minute to you of 20 May. This time he went into slightly more detail.
2. He felt that the amendment to Article 14 did nothing to
resolve the difficulties that he sees with the appointment
of Deputy High Court and District Court Judges by the Chief
Justice under local legislation. In fact if anything he
thought it made the position worse. In his view the
appointment of judges is reserved to the Governor under the
Letters Patent and he does not believe that a colonial
legislature has the power to legislate in terms which would
put the prerogative aside. He questions the status of deputy judges. Quoting from a case in Natal (South Africa)
at the turn of the century (I think he called it the Ex Party Mares case) he said that this had found that dpeuty judges were the same as judges.
3. In summary, his point was that, for High Court Judges, was section 10 of CAP4, which gives the Chief Justice power to appoint judges, repugnant to Article 14 of the Letters Patent?
4. He also made some point regarding Article 16, which I could not quite follow. I think he may have been arguing
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