Who should fill Belize’s judicial vacancies: qualified Belizeans or foreign recruits? That’s the question being raised by the Association of Defense Attorneys, which says the influx of foreign magistrates is becoming difficult to defend. President Richard Bradley contends that experienced Belizean lawyers are being overlooked despite meeting the qualifications for the posts.
Dickie Bradley
Richard “Dickie” Bradley, President, Association of Defense Attorneys
“The issue is that there is- Magistrate in Toledo who is a foreigner. There is a magistrate in Belmopan who is a foreigner. There is a magistrate in Independence who is a foreigner. There’s a magistrate in Belmopan, there’s a magistrate in San Ignacio, there’s a magistrate up north, and there are about three or four in Belize City, all recently appointed, all appointed against the fact that Belizeans applied. Do you know even up in the higher part of the judiciary, the judges, some of the persons who are judges in this country right now were at school with persons who are lawyers. Mm-hmm. So the point is that not a single Belizean gets appointed. You can’t say, “Oh, they’re green, they just come up the other day and they hurry want to be magistrate.” No, because that is not the fact. You can’t say, “Well, they’re not up to standard yet to be a judge.” Because no, they’re even more qualified and more experienced than those who are sitting on the bench. So that is an argument that should go nowhere. The bottom line is that the judiciary is the third, the third branch of government in this country. But a famous poem said that nothing or no one is an island unto themselves. You come into this country, we have, as Sharon is explaining to you, we have our traditions, we have our norms, we have certain things which are peculiar.”
The Association of Defense Attorneys maintains that it is not criticizing the performance or questioning the qualifications of the magistrates but demanding transparency in the hiring process.
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