Privy Council is "one of last vestiges of colonialism and should go"

Monday 13 June 2022

The Privy Council should stop being the final court of appeal for Commonwealth countries, a prominent QC has said.

Speaking to the Times, Leslie Thomas QC said that the council – which is also Jersey’s top court – was one of the “last vestiges of colonialism”.

Mr Thomas told the newspaper that it was time to axe the court, particularly for Caribbean jurisdictions. He said that the 21-year-old Caribbean Court of Justice should be the region’s top bench.

“Contrary to the widely held belief that the privy council is more independent than the Caribbean Court of Justice, recent cases debunk this myth and in fact establish that the CCJ has in recent years been a much better protector of fundamental human rights than the privy council,” he told the Times.

“The time is right to get rid of the last vestiges of colonialism and for Caribbean countries and peoples to have renewed faith in the CCJ. It has certainly proven its worth.”

Recently, the Privy Council ruled that the mandatory death penalty in Trinidad and Tobago, which dates from when it was a British colony, was not unconstitutional. It added that changing the constitution was a matter for the country’s parliament. 

Jersey is one of 27 jurisdictions, including Commonwealth countries, UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies, which use the Privy Council as a final court of appeal.

The members of its nine-strong judicial committee also sit on the UK’s Supreme Court.