Our justice system is still colonial and corrupt. Except for one reform many years ago we could still be considered in the grip of the colonial justice system with its outdated laws. Not even the UK is using these laws still on our books, although made by them, and most important, the absence of discretion in passing judgement among our judges is a serious concern.

Further, higher education is still a privilege in our part of the world, and whereas lawyering of our colonial masters all came about from privilege pity for the poor, the reverse, contempt is often the response of our Courts.

The uniform of judges and lawyers and their stage, posture, language is geared to frighten those poor and uneducated, dragged before their represented majesties. The straw wigs we have managed to remove, but the imperious stance goes with the bands, the black gown, and the raised seat, where justice looks down on the people.

The Caribbean, subject to British law, is the only former colonial territory which has no escape from white foreign law. To white Canada and the U.S. their laws reflect who they are, and they change and adapt as needed; the Africans in Africa have maintained their traditional Courts where local discretion is observed, and the Indian nation has retained their traditional systems of justice along with their newfangled colonial laws.

The culture of a people is reflected in their laws and justice system, and there is no real independence where the colonial master still controls the justice system. When every important area of government control swears allegiance to a foreign power, their heirs and successors, how can they still claim independence.

The resistance of several islands to acceptance of the CCJ as our Apex Court, shows the backward plantation politics which still controls the lives of the poor, whose confidence in the local governments and the Courts leaves much to be desired. When the Executive controls the Court Registry, its staff and computerized systems, justice becomes their own playground.

When the social system is based on imported values and norms, those in the middle and at the top of the social ladder, control the authority to be always right, because their thinking is within their strata, and they respond to that stimuli.

The culture of concern for poverty and colonialism is missing from our Courts, whose laws were created to keep those very citizens poor and controlled. Our Justice system needs a revolution, not just reform.

Lawyers and Judges owe the English speaking peoples of the Caribbean an independent Judiciary, one which reflects the culture and real status of a self-governing people. Get rid of the language the poor and oppressed do not understand; use words that all understand. Wear the right clothes which gives comfort to all, including yourself – the black gowns and ultra formal get-up separates justice from the people, and is clearly uncomfortable in the heat of our region.

The image of pomposity of Brittania must go!