Maroc - NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - 17/Sep 10:49

Archie’s swan song

AS HE SETTLED down to deliver his last law term opening address, Chief Justice Ivor Archie, 65, betrayed no sign of leaving. In a speech lasting one hour and nine minutes, he spoke of achievements and outlined future plans. Then, the sting in the tail. He announced early retirement at a date to be specified in the current term. No one seated in the Convocation Hall was surprised. The CJ’s disposition to early departure was something of an open secret in the legal profession. Sunday Newsday exclusively reported this week on his planned exit, which he did not rule out in response to our journalists’ questioning. The jurist, in the Hall of Justice since 2008, could barely contain a smile as, on September 16, he came to the final minutes of his speech. “I am satisfied that we are in a much better place now than we were in 2008,” he said, beaming. “When I became CJ, the mandatory retirement age was 65. That was what I envisaged. And that was what I prepared for. One must have a life.” CJ Archie is passing the baton willingly; but there can be no doubt he has faced pressure to leave. The Privy Council’s March 24 ruling in the Marcia Ayers-Caesar matter, which implicated him in unconstitutionality, rendered his position fraught, if not untenable. A proposal, announced by the Prime Minister in July, for a new chancellor raised questions. As did cabinet ministers’ incessant nagging about virtual courts. Tension also attended the relationship between the Hall of Justice and the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions over indictments. More broadly, the Law Association’s move to bring about the CJ’s impeachment in 2018 was a damaging episode. The youngest chief justice when appointed, Archie will leave a mixed legacy. Assuming the mantle in the wake of the Satnarine Sharma scandal, his 17-year-old tenure can be credited with restoring a semblance of stability, even amid rocky moments. Many procedural modernisations were ushered in. The establishment of a judicial code of conduct in 2011 for the first time called on judges to discard bias on the basis of gender, race, religion or sexual orientation, among other grounds. In a conservative profession that is defined by looking backwards, at times the forward-looking Archie seemed an ill fit with his talk of “corporate governance.” The Judiciary’s failure, ultimately, to keep pace with crime mars his accomplishments. The CJ’s early departure, the second for a leader of an arm of the state in just one year, will precipitate a generational shift. Three justices of appeal and two judges will soon also depart, meaning whoever is installed as Archie’s successor could shape judicial temperament for decades to come. The post Archie’s swan song appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.