The plea by attorney Sjamira Roseburg for “full courts” rather than single judges to rule on big trials (see Tuesday paper) is interesting. In the Netherlands crimes with maximum prison sentences of more than one year are handled by three-judge panels while in the Dutch Caribbean the latter only applies for appeal cases.
Her argument is that the application of justice should in principle be equal throughout the kingdom. This makes sense especially when one considers the joint final appeal – cassation – option at the High Court in The Hague.
However, there are huge practical issues having to do with logistics and primarily money. Already now the Joint Court of Justice headquartered in Willemstad often finds itself juggling to fly judges back and forth between the islands to cover all the legal proceedings.
Besides, funding such an expansion would probably require assistance from the Netherlands, because the limited tax bases and current financial situations of Curaçao, Aruba and St. Maarten simply don’t allow it. Perhaps placing all the kingdom’s courts directly on the Dutch budget and charging the overseas countries a reasonable user’s fee could be an answer.
Another related problem deserves attention as well. There are still relatively few local judges, prosecutors and even lawyers, which means many often only come from the Netherlands for a certain period.
Stimulating islanders to join the legal profession is therefore important and former Minister Richard Gibson certainly deserves credit for pushing to realise the law programme at University of St. Martin (USM) via University of Curaçao. The lack of relevant human resources is also felt, for example, where it concerns legislation jurists.
Hopefully efforts now taking place will gradually change this picture, so that more of the island’s own legal experts can help shape their society’s future.
