Submission by George Elliot Harre,Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands 1993-98 and Puisne Judge 1988-93, 15 October 2007

This submission and the supporting documents address matters concerning the relationship between the judiciary and other arms of government,both in the Cayman Islands and London. Although I retired in 1998 they are not simply a matter of history,as the documents which I now send as appendices will show.

These appendices are as follows-

1. An aide memoire in five parts,recording correspondence between 1989 and 2004 with brief indications,where necessary,of the thrust of individual documents. Full copies of exchanges since 2004 have been added

2. Observations by me by way of a revision in April 2005 of a document

produced by me in September 2002.

3. A letter dated 1st February 1999 from the late Secretary of State to the Rt Hon Virginia Bottomley with my comment on it made at the time. I would now like to expand on that by saying that I think it quite wrong for a contract officer working in the executive arm of government,whatever his previous history, to , be commissiond,acting alone,to produce a report on the judiciary.It gives the appearance of bias,and I believe that the report produced showed actual bias. Its disparaging comment on the judges is completely at variance with a wealth of recorded and attributable political,professional and press opinion.

I regret that this submission has to relate to a matter so personal to me.. It does,however raise

wider issues which, I respectfully submit,fall within the terms of reference of the enquiry by the Committee on standards of governance in the Overseas Territories

Having sought by reference to the historical record to throw light on some problems, I feel an obligation to propose a possible way of alleviating them. It is that the affairs of Her Majesty's Judges in the Overseas Territories should fall under the responsibilities of the Minister of Justice and Lord Chancellor,by analogy with the position in England. The concerns of the judiciary are distinct from those of other arms of Government.,whether in London or in the Territory in which they serve. Interlocutors of the same professional background and sympathies as the judiciary and with the necessary influence elsewhere,are important safeguards against the development of the kind of confrontational situation which is an ever present danger where personalities clash in a small jurisdiction . Governors nowadays are able to talk with their diplomatic colleagues in London. Legislators in Cayman and London have good channels of communication. I cannot speak for today but in my time there was a sense of isolation when the inevitable tensions developed. Of course there is an abundance of international organisations ready to step into the fray but I have always preferred quieter solutions than that.

I shall keep this submission brief, but I am willing,if asked, to appear before the Committee to answer any questions arising from them and to share my impresions generally.