UK Privy Council judge visits Cayman
Lord Mance
(CNS): One of the UK’s most senior judges, Lord Mance, was in Cayman recently to deliver a lecture of the topic of jurisdiction and the issues which lawyers and courts have to consider when determining where cases can and should be heard and decided. As one of 12 judges on the British Privy Council, Cayman’s final court of appeal, Jonathan Hugh Mance also met with and spoke to members of the legal profession about access to the UK’s higher court.
Also a Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Mance is the highest ranking member of the British judiciary to ever visit Cayman during a reception hosted by the local legal fraternity. After the guest lecture he said he hoped that he had presented the “human face” of the Privy Council while he was here.
Lord Mance said the visit also offered an opportunity for him to meet the lawyers who appear before him and his colleagues, and to develop relationships with members of the judiciary on whose judgments they must decide.
He said he would take back to London suggestions that had been made about possible procedural changes to further the working relationships between the local practitioners and courts and the Privy Council, and reducing local costs of appeals to the Privy Council. He also said consideration would be given to preparing a summary of key cases on Privy Council practice to supplement the information in Cayman’s Grand Court Rules and Practice Directions.
Mance said that his visit had been “a very enriching experience” and that he considered it “a good idea” to maintain relationships with judges in local jurisdictions from which cases come to the Privy Council. He said that this visit helped to inform and consolidate understanding of the local legal scene and its nuances. As well as mingling with the local judiciary and seasoned lawyers, the top judge visited the Truman Bodden Law School and spoke with the country’s future lawyers
Chief Justice Anthony Smellie, who initiated the lecture series, which is held annually at the courts, said he was pleased with how the visit had gone and that Lord Mance had been keen to meet the judges and gain an understanding of the local circumstances and the business coming before the Cayman Courts.
Some 80 attorneys and other legal professionals attended the lecture on “Jurisdiction and Justiciability”, which was the Fifth Annual Judicial Distinguished Guest Lecture.
Category: Community
