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The judiciary is independent and its members can only be dismissed for not
discharging their duties or misbehaviour.
The Westminster model is not without its critics, starting with the legislature
and the executive, both arms of the state tend to always overlap. Member of
the executive are also members of the legislature as the legislature consists
of both houses of parliament. Professor Stephen Vasciannie, in his article
Judges on the border of Border of Law and Politics (1996), identified a
disadvantage where the executive and the legislature overlap substantially.
According to Vasciannie, this can lead to an overcentralisation of power for
the elected majority and undermine vigour in democratic interaction. The
term overcentralisation of power is in fact an issue to contend with,
especially where the executive has a substantial majority in the parliament.
Where this is a reality, the cabinet will always have the possibility of
introducing legislation with little or no opposition as the majority of their
members tend to vote in accordance with the policy of the cabinet and as
such, the opposition who holds the minority in both houses of parliament will
be of little influence in passing legislation as a majority vote is needed for
legislation to be passed. The overconcentration of power, though it is a valid
point, the Jamaican constitution safeguards any arbitrary action on the part
of the executive. According to section 69 (2) of the constitution under
chapter 6, the cabinet is accountable to parliament for its actions and to a
larger extent the electorate and as such their actions are guided by both. In
addition Section 50 of the Jamaican constitution requires a two thirds
majority in both houses of parliament before certain sections of the
Constitution (Section 13 to 26) can be amended. Sections which require such
a vote include The Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms which
protect the basic human rights of Jamaican Citizens. A two thirds majority
vote requires both the government and opposition members of parliament to
agree. This is a method by which the power of the executive is kept in check.
Members of government can comprise of more than two thirds in the house
of representative as what occurred in the Jamaican Elections of 1983,
however the number of members who can sit within the senate are fixed and
the proportion of government members to that of the opposition ensure that
less than two thirds of senators belong to the government. This ensures that
executive does not exercise full control over the legislature.
According Laski, as cited in the Judges on the border of Border of Law and
Politics (Vasciannie 1996), without the separation between the executive and
the judiciary, the executive would be able to influence judicial decisions and
become the unlimited master of the state. This essential mean that the
executive will be all powerful. In the Privy Council decision of Hinds v The
Queen 1976 1 All ER 353, the independence of the judiciary as stated by
the Jamaican Constitution was highlighted, their Lordships stated that
those who hold any salaried judicial office in Jamaica shall be appointed on
the recommendation from the Judicial Service Commission, and that their
independence from political pressure from parliament or by the executive in
exercise of their judicial functions shall be assured by granting them such
degree of security of tenure in their office as is justified by the importance of
the jurisdiction that they exercise . From this it can be argued that there is
separation of powers between the Executive and judiciary as enshrined in
the Jamaican constitution. Judges security of tenure enables them to carry
out their duties in an impartial manner free from political interference.