LTC Judges appointments revoked under the 2020 Act<\/strong>
\nThe appointment of the LTC President followed on from the discussion of the claim that it was the Minister of Justice who revoked the LTC judges appointments.<\/p>\nSu\u2019a clarified that the statutory appointments under the LTC Act 1981 were revoked under the constitutional amendment passed in December 2020 and adopted in March 2021.<\/p>\n
She further stated that this is the legislation that the Minister is responsible for and administration of, and she is trying to preserve the status quo as much as possible until it can be remedied.<\/p>\n
Su\u2019a was asked if she thought the revocation of the LTC Commission under the LTC 2020 Act is unconstitutional if it removed the decisions of the judges that were duly appointed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe law revoked it completely without going through the process provided for by the legislation, because it affects the security of tenure that\u2019s provided for the judges,\u201d said Justice Tuatagaloa.<\/p>\n
Su\u2019a agreed but pointed out that \u201cin this particular case the changes were made through the amendment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Perese asked (in theory), if it was possible for the Government through legislation to do the same with the Supreme Court Judges.<\/p>\n
Su\u2019a said it would not happen because Samoa was founded on a Constitution and it would be very difficult for elected members to do away with it.<\/p>\n
Chief Justice Perese said there was a delay in filling the gaps of these appointments.<\/p>\n
Su’a responded that the provision is there for the appointment of the President but there was a delay in conferring the appointment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact is there was a delay, so how do we fill up the gap in the meantime, what happens now?\u201d<\/p>\n
“It is now up to the Head of State to make the appointment on the advice of the PM,” said Su’a.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the judges?\u201d asked Chief Justice Perese.<\/p>\n
Su’a said once a President is appointed, he will select a Land and Titles Court Commission who in turn appoints the nominees for the appointment of Judges.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt all depends on the appointment of the President because once that is done and then everything falls in place,\u201d said Su\u2019a.<\/p>\n
Breaches of the Constitution<\/strong>
\nThe Attorney General also brought up what she stated was the breach of the Constitution by the<\/em> constitutional amendments previously passed by Parliament.<\/p>\nShe clarified that it was not one or two breaches but a \u201cwhole body of cases from certain jurisdictions\u201d and Senior Judge Nelson asked for clarification.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been jurisdictions that have filed constitutional amendments later in Parliament, because there are constitutional amendments that have breached other provisions of the Constitution,\u201d Su\u2019a explained.<\/p>\n
Senior Judge Nelson pointed out that those are X Files and Su\u2019a said they are also related to the Constitution.<\/p>\n
She informed the Court she could not elaborate much on it at the time but confirmed that there is a whole body of cases where \u201cthe Court has declared those procedural matters as unconstitutional.\u201d<\/p>\n
Justice Tuatagaloa then referred to what Chief Justice Perese said about Article 2 of the Constitution as the Supreme Law to void any inconsistencies.<\/p>\n
\u201cShould the Court file a claim for reasons under Article 2 of the Constitution, and the Supreme Court rule to void it, can we do that?\u201d she asked.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an application to certain legislations,\u201d said Su\u2019a.<\/p>\n
The Supreme Court decision is reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Lagi Keresoma APIA, SAMOA \u2013 17 MARCH 2021: The Attorney General has clarified in Court that the appointment of the President of the Land and Titles Court, is made by the Head of State on the advice of the Prime Minister. This came out in the closing argument by the Attorney General in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[182,177,5],"tags":[583,584,59,568,482],"class_list":["post-10094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-court","category-latest","category-politics","tag-appointment-of-judges","tag-constitutional-breaches","tag-featured","tag-land-and-titles-court","tag-ltc-act-2020"],"yoast_head":"\n
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