Agreement in principle reached on
consensus law regulating Justice
WILLEMSTAD--The Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Curaçao and St. Maarten agreed in principle on Saturday how Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office will be structured on the islands after the constitutional change process. The four entities discussed the Consensus Kingdom Law on the Prosecutor’s Office in Curaçao on Saturday.
However, several technical aspects pertaining to the draft Consensus Kingdom Law still have to be investigated.
The draft Consensus Kingdom Law regulating the Prosecutor’s Office will be reviewed by the Council of State and finally the Island Councils of Curaçao and St. Maarten will have to approve the final draft.
The Council of State will review most especially whether the proposal to give the Dutch Minister of Justice authority to give instructions to the Prosecutor’s Office will be against article 42 of the Charter of the Kingdom. This article assigns to the Dutch Minister the function of guaranteeing the proper functioning of the rule of law in the Kingdom. However, the Kingdom Minister cannot be held responsible by the Parliaments of the future new countries.
Besides the Council of State, the Permanent Committee on Maintenance of Law and Constitutional Affairs PRRC has been tasked especially with further working out how the Attorney General will function effectively in St. Maarten and how the relationship between the Attorney General and the Prosecutor’s Offices on the islands will be structured.
St. Maarten’s advisor on judicial matters, former constitutional affairs minister Richard Gibson, explained that St. Maarten had signed the document with reservation because the supporting documents had not been received in time for the island to study them.
Attached to the signed document is the draft Kingdom Law, which includes all the regulations stipulating how the Dutch Justice Minister is to give directives, as well as the structure for the Prosecutor’s Office and the Attorney General’s office.
The draft law also includes areas that are not in the original draft. For example, it is specified in the draft that if the Kingdom Minister hands down a wrong directive, the civil responsibility will be borne by the Netherlands.
Dutch Justice Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin said almost complete agreement had been reached and that parties had been able to resolve the main issues. “We have draft legislation concerning the position of the prosecutors in the future. That is important to our people. I think what we achieved today was accomplished within very good spirit among the four delegations,” he stated.
He said it was important for the people that, in the new constitutional status law, enforcement would be well-positioned with the Prosecutor’s Offices for all islands and one Attorney General with offices in St. Maarten and in Curaçao.
He further stated that the Ministers of Justice of Curaçao, St. Maarten and the Netherlands would have the possibility to give instructions to the Attorney General. “It is quite exceptional that such an instruction would be necessary; nevertheless, we need to have that possibility.
“The Dutch Minister of Justice, as a member of Government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands as a whole, has the responsibility to take care of the guarantee function of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in certain circumstances. If, under certain circumstances, the very principles of the rule of law are at stake, he will be able to give instructions,” Hirsch Ballin stated.
The discussions about the Dutch Minister of Justice not being accountable to the Parliament of Curaçao or St. Maarten is being discussed, he said. “I think we have been able to find a solution for this problem. The Ministers Plenipotentiary on behalf of St. Maarten and Curaçao will be members of the Kingdom Government in the future.”
He said furthermore that it had been decided to include judicial review in the draft law. The Court of Justice of St. Maarten, Curaçao, Aruba and the other islands will have the power to squash a directive of the Dutch Minister of Justice if it is found to be incorrect. Hirsch Ballin believes the combination of the responsibility of the government of the Kingdom and the possibility of review satisfy all questions that had arisen about the power to give instructions.
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