Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights (1998) Ltd & Ors v. Marshall-Burnett & Anor (Jamaica)

The CCJ is to have an original jurisdiction. It is also to have an appellate jurisdiction, defined as in the new section 110 inserted in the Constitution by the Constitutional Amendment Act. Section 16 provides:

Provision is made in section 20 for a Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission which is to consist of persons appointed in accordance with the Agreement. Under section 21 the Commission has responsibility for making appointments to the office of Judge of the Court, other than that of President, terminating appointments in accordance with the provisions of the Agreement, making a recommendation for the appointment of the President and exercising disciplinary control over the Judges of the Court other than the President. By section 21(5),

(2) Subject to Article IV, paragraph 6, a Judge other than the President shall be removed from office by the Commission if the question of the removal of the Judge has been referred by the Commission to a tribunal; and the tribunal has advised the Commission that the Judge ought to be removed from office for inability or misbehaviour referred to in paragraph 4.

If at least three Heads of Government in the case of the President jointly represent to the other Heads of Government, or if the Commission decides in the case of any other Judge, that the question of removing the President or the Judge from office ought to be investigated, then �

Thus the Constitution and not, as in the United Kingdom, Parliament is (save in respect of Chapter III of the Constitution) to be sovereign. It was of course foreseen that with the passage of time and the benefit of experience alteration of the Constitution would on occasion be necessary, and the framers of the Constitution took care to grade its provisions so as to require differing levels of popular support depending on the structural significance of the provision to be altered.