The Senate this morning approved the appointment of Senior Counsel Denys Barrow to the Court of Appeal, which sits in Belize City.
Barrow, who turned 57 last month, is the younger brother of Prime Minister Dean Barrow.
His appointment takes effect retroactively to August 1, 2009, and runs until he turns 75.
He will take up a post vacated by Justice Boyd Carey. The other judges of the Court of Appeal are Justice Manual Sosa, Justice Dennis Morrison, and Justice Elliot Mottley, president.
Barrow was admitted to the Bar in 1977, serving two stints as president in the late 70’s and early 80’s. He most recently served as a justice of appeal of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
The Belize Constitution requires that the Leader of the Opposition be consulted before an appointment is made to the Court of Appeal.
Private sector representative to the Senate, Godwin Hulse, said that even though assurance was given to them that Prime Minister Dean Barrow had approved of Denys Barrow’s appointment, the customary letter to indicate the approval of the Leader of the Opposition, Johnny Briceño, had not been shown to them – an issue that he recalled, had once led to the removal of Justice Sosa from the panel of Court of Appeal judges on protest by the Opposition. Nonetheless, the Senate unanimously approved Barrow’s appointment.
Senator Henry Gordon expressed concerns that the appointment instrument does not conform with the laws, in that the justice should be appointed until age 65 years, with the possibility for extension to 75 years.
Governor-General Sir Colville Young is the man vested with the power to execute Barrow’s appointment as Justice of the Court of Appeal.
The pending 6th Amendment to the Belize Constitution—which goes next for consideration to the Privy Council, on a constitutional challenge lost at the Court of Appeals by the Government—would remove approval of appointments to the judiciary out of the jurisdiction of the Senate, reportedly on concerns of independence from members of the judiciary.