Chief Justice of Fiji

Judiciary of Fiji

Judicial officers Chief Justice Appeal Court President Chief Magistrate Justice of Appeal Puisne judges High Court Masters Institutions Supreme Court Court of Appeal High Court Magistrates Courts Judicial Service Commission

The Chief Justice is Fiji's highest judicial officer. He or she is appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister, who is required by the Constitution to consult the Leader of the Opposition. This does not give the Leader of the Opposition a veto, only the right to be consulted. The appointment is permanent, until the Chief Justice reaches the age of 70 years. At the discretion of the government, the retirement age may be waived until the Chief Justice reaches the age of 75 years; it may be extended once more, by a maximum of three years. No person, therefore, may hold the office of Chief Justice after reaching the age of 78.

Like other judges, the Chief Justice does not have to be a Fijian citizen. When Tuivaga retired in 2002, there were calls from the Citizens Constitutional Forum (a pro-democracy, human rights organization) for a foreigner to be appointed, to recover the independence of the judiciary that had been seen to be politically compromised by the 2000 coup. The government disagreed, however, and appointed Daniel Fatiaki.

Powers of Chief Justice

According to Chapter 9 of the Fijian Constitution, The Chief Justice presides over both the Supreme Court and the High Court, but is disqualified from presiding over, or even sitting on, the Court of Appeal. This stipulation is designed to give the Appeal Court a measure of independence from the other two courts. According to the 2013 Constitution of Fiji, The Chief Justice is the first in the order of succession to discharge the duties of the President as the Acting President should the President of Fiji be absent from the duty or from Fiji or is for any other reason unable to perform the function of the president or if the Office of the President becomes vacant for any reason. The 2013 Constitution also stipulates that in the absence of the Chief Justice, the next senior most substantive judge shall perform the of the President as the Acting President.

Effect of 2000 Coup

The constitutional arrangements relating to the Chief Justice were temporarily overturned in 2000, following a counter-coup by Commodore Frank Bainimarama to neutralize a civilian coup d'état instigated by George Speight. The then-Chief Justice, Sir Timoci Tuivaga recognized the Interim Military Government that took office and abrogated the Constitution on 29 May, and drafted the controversial Administration of Justice Decree that was immediately promulgated by the military administration. This decree abolished the Supreme Court, made the Chief Justice head of the Appeal Court, and raised the retirement age of the Chief Justice from 70 years to 75. These changes were reversed following a decision of the High Court to reinstate the Constitution on 15 November 2000, a decision upheld by the Appeal Court on 1 March 2001.

Current Chief Justice

The present Chief Justice is Anthony Gates, who succeeded Daniel Fatiaki following the military coup that deposed the Qarase government on 5 December 2006, when Commodore Josaia Voreqe (Frank) Bainimarama, the Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces and Acting President of Fiji, sent Fatiaki on leave. The military regime named him as Acting Chief Justice on 3 January 2007, and installed him as the formal Chief Justice on 5 December 2008.

List of Chief Justices of Fiji

Chief Justice of the Kingdom of Fiji (1872–1874)

The first Chief Justice of Fiji was appointed by King Cakobau during the short-lived Kingdom of Fiji.

• 1872–1874: Sir Charles St Julian ^[1] (died in office 27 November 1874, a few weeks after Fiji's annexation by Britain.)

Chief Justice of the Colony of Fiji (1875–1877)

Fiji was annexed (somewhat unwillingly) by Great Britain on 10 October 1874, and the Colony of Fiji was established under the provisions of the Pacific Islanders Protection Acts of 1872 and 1875, which sought to bring the rule of law to British subjects who were engaged in blackbirding to supply labour for the European-run cotton plantations in Fiji.

• 1875–1876 Sir William Hackett (judge) ^[2][3]

• 1876–1877 Sir John Gorrie ^[4][5]

Chief Justice of Fiji and Chief Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific (1877–1961)

The British Western Pacific Territories were established by the Western Pacific Orders-in-Council 1877 (amended in 1879 and 1880), and by the Pacific Order-in-Council 1893.^{[note 1]}

The functions of the monarch as head of state were exercised by a High Commissioner of the Western Pacific, who was also ex officio the Governor of Fiji (after 1953, the Governor of the Solomon Islands). The High Commission provided a justice system for the entire region, whose senior judge was the Chief Justice of the High Commissioner's Court, otherwise known as the Chief Judicial Commissioner of the Western Pacific. The post was held ex officio by the Chief Justice of Fiji. Appeals lay to the Privy Council in London.

• 1877–1882 Sir John Gorrie

• 1882–1885 Sir Henry Thomas Wrenfordsley.^[6][7][8] This somewhat difficult man only served eight months in the job and took sick leave in early 1884.

• 1885–1889 Sir Fielding Clarke (acting 1882 and 1884–1885)

• 1889–1902 Sir Henry Spencer Hardtman Berkeley^{[9][10][11][12]}

• 1902–1914 Sir Charles Henry Major^{[13][14][15][16][17]}

• 1910–1911 (acting) Albert Ehrhardt ^[18]

• 1914–1922 Sir Charles Simon Davson ^{[19][20][21][22][23]}

• 1922–1923 (acting) Kenneth James Muir MacKenzie ^[24][25]

• 1923–1929 Sir Alfred Karney Young, KC

• 1929–1936 Capt. Sir Maxwell Hendry Maxwell-Anderson, CBE, KC RN (retd.)

• 1936–1942 Owen Cecil Kirkpatrick Corrie MC^[26]

Between 1942–1945 the High Commission was suspended by military administration during the War in the Pacific.

• 1945–1949 Sir Claud Ramsey Wilmot Seton, MC^[27][28][29]

• 1949–1953 Sir James Beveridge Thomson

In 1953, Fiji and Tonga separated from the High Commission as a prelude to full independence, and the High Commission offices were transferred to Honiara on Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands. The office of High Commissioner was separated from that of the Governor of Fiji, although the High Commissioner's Court continued to sit in Suva, and the Chief Justice of Fiji remained the Chief Judicial Commissioner of the Western Pacific.

• 1953–1958 Sir Ragnar Hyne^{[30][31][32][33][34]}

• 1958–1962 Sir Albert George Lowe, the last judge to hold both titles.^[35]

Chief Justice of Fiji (1962-present)

From 1962 the High Court's functions began to be transferred to the increasingly independent island states under the provisions of Western Pacific (Courts) Order in Council, 1961.^[36] The Judicial Commissioner for the Western Pacific became the Chief Justice of the High Court of the Western Pacific, and removed from Fiji to join the rest of the High Commission in the Solomon Islands. The position was separated from that of the Chief Justice of Fiji.^[37] In 1976 the High Commission of the Western Pacific was abolished, the last archives being finally packed up in Honiara in August 1978.^[38] Although no longer connected with the British High Commission, the position of Chief Justice of Fiji continued to be filled by judges from Britain, Australia and New Zealand until the appointment of Timoci Tuivaga in 1980. See Appendix A below for a list of the remaining British High Commission judges.

• 1962–1963 Colonel John Levy Macduff, MC (died in office)^[39][40][41]

• 1963 Clifford Hammett (acting CJ)^[42]

• 1964–1967 Richard Hugh Mills-Owens^[43][44]

Fiji gained independence on 10 October 1970.

• 1967–1972 Sir Clifford James Hammett^{[45][46][47][48]}

• 1972–1974 Sir John Angus Nimmo, CBE^[49][50]

• 1974–1980 Sir Clifford Harry Grant^{[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58]}

• 1980–2002 Sir Timoci Tuivaga^[59]

• 2002–2008 Daniel Fatiaki (on leave after 2006 following the 2006 Fijian coup d'état)

• 2008–present Anthony Gates

Appendix A

Chief Justice of the High Court of the Western Pacific (1962–1976)

Although no longer connected with Fiji, the British High Commission judges continued to sit in the Solomon Islands from 1962, and the short list is appended here for the sake of completeness.

• 1962–1963 Geoffrey Gould Briggs^[60]

• 1963–1967 Lieutenant-Commander Sir Jocelyn Bodilly, R.N.V.R., V.R.D^{[61][62][63][64][65]}

• 1967–1973 vacant?

• 1973 Sir Dermot Renn Davis was appointed Judge of the High Court of the Western Pacific and as British Judge of the Joint Court of the Condominium of the New Hebrides.^[66]

Most of the island groups had gained some form of independence by 1971. On 2 January 1976 after nearly all had been given separate statehood, the office of High Commissioner and the entity of the Pacific Territories were abolished. Its only remnant was the High Court of the Western Pacific, and between 1978-1980 the former territories gained full independence.^[67] The relative lack of a trained judiciary and lawyers in the smaller states meant that Britain (and later Australia and New Zealand) continued to supply some members of the legal profession after independence. The only High Court for some island states was the High Court of the Western Pacific in Fiji and, as late as the seventies, appeals lay to the Fiji Court of Appeal.^[37]

References

Notes

Citations

Sources

• Biles, John (1996). "Western Pacific Territories". In Olson, James Stuart; Shadle, Robert. Historical Dictionary of the British Empire, Volume 2. Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 1156–7. ISBN 9780313293672. 

• Brereton, Bridget (1997). Law, Justice and Empire: The Colonial Career of John Gorrie 1829-1892. University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 9789766400354. 

• Care, Jennifer Corrin; Paterson, Donald Edgar (2007). Introduction to South Pacific Law (revised, 2nd ed.). Routledge. ISBN 9781845680398. 

• Daley, Kevin (1996), Communalism and the challenge of Fijian unity (PDF)  (D. Phil. dissertation)

• Lal, Brij V.; Fortune, Kate (2000). The Pacific Islands: An Encyclopedia. University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 9780824822651. 

• Lavaka, Penny (1981). "The Tonga Ma‘a Tonga Kautaha: a watershed in British-Tongan relations". Pacific Studies (Institute for Polynesian Studies) 4 (2, Spring 1981). 

Further reading

• Library Resources for Pacific History, University of Auckland Library

• Duff, Peter (1997) The evolution of trial by judge and assessors in Fiji Care, Jennifer Corrin (ed.) Journal of Pacific Studies Volume 21: Sources of Law in the South Pacific.

• Handley, K.R. (2001) The constitutional crisis in Fiji. The Australian Law Journal, Volume 75, November 2001, pp. 688–693.