Constitutionalism in Belize: Lessons for the Commonwealth Caribbean?

• Author: Godfrey P. Smith
• Pages: 225-247

Constitutionalism in Belize:

Lessons for the Commonwealth

Caribbean?

Godfrey P. Smith

1. Introduction

The Belize Constitution, like most Commonwealth constitutions,

is based on the eponymous Westminster model of parliamentary

democracy. In terms of the structures of governance they created, the

Commonwealth constitutions substantially mirrored Westminster’s. In

using the term ‘Westminster model,’ one is mindful of SA de Smith’s

caution that ‘the Westminster model will never be a term of art, and

the political scientist may also prefer to handle it circumspectly’1 as well

as Professor Carnegie’s repartee ‘that when we speak of Westminster

model constitutions, we are not being lawyers or even political scientists.

We are at best being poets.’2 To avoid issues of constitutional taxonomy,

the label ‘Westminster model’ is used here simply to describe those

Commonwealth constitutions which reproduced the essential features of

parliamentary democracy as it obtained in England at the time of their

independence, described by Professor Albert Fiadjoe as the ‘barest bones

of the “Westminster model.”’3

The bare bones of the Westminster model included: a ceremonial head

of state who is the Queen’s representative, a legislature with at least one

chamber democratically elected by the people, an executive of cabinet

ministers accountable to the legislature, safeguards for an independent

  

there were also some key differences. Commonwealth constitutions,

unlike the old Westminster constitution, contained clauses declaring the

supremacy of the written constitutions and had entrenched bills of rights

which, together, sourced the principle of separation of powers and the

tool of judicial review.

1. S.A. de Smith, ‘Westminster’s Export Models: the Legal Framework of Responsible Government’

(1961–63) 1 J of Commonwealth Political Studies 2.

2. A.R. Carnegie, ‘Floreat the Westminster Model? A Commonwealth Caribbean Perspective’ (1996)

6 Carib LR 1, 12.

3. A. Fiadjoe, ‘The Westminster Transplant in the Commonwealth Caribbean-Some Pertinent Issues’

(1987) 11 WILJ 64, 67.

226

Transitions in Caribbean Law

By the time of the promulgation of the Constitution of Belize in

1981, the Commonwealth already had 20 plus years of experience with

Westminster-style constitutions. While in many Commonwealth African

countries there had been by 1981, fundamental departures from the



Commonwealth, there was little that could be termed as fundamental

change.4 Caribbean judiciaries and the Judicial Committee of the

Privy Council had already begun shaping the region’s constitutional

jurisprudence through such seminal cases like Thornhill v AG,5 Collymore

v AG,6 DPP v Nasralla,7 Minister of Home Affairs v Fisher,8 Hinds v

R,9 Maharaj v AG.10 Thus, when Belize attended the constitutional

conferences in London in the months leading up to independence, it had the

 

to guide it. In terms of the drafting of its constitution, Belize could avoid

            

Westminster transplant in the Caribbean, if not the Commonwealth.

In terms of interpreting the Constitution, the Belizean judiciary, with

         

could help to exorcise the spectre of hesitancy and conservatism that

haunted the region’s early constitutional judgments.11 The lateness of its

independence, therefore, presented Belize with an opportunity to make

        

jurisprudence.12

        

alterations to the Westminster transplant model which, as will be

shown, assisted the judiciary in expanding the frontiers of Caribbean

constitutional interpretation. But the advancement of constitutionalism

in Belize was not the exclusive province of the judiciary. Unlike many

legislatures throughout the Commonwealth, the Belizean legislature

was proactive, even aggressive, in discharging its role of developing the

4. See generally, W. Dale, ‘The Making and Remaking of Commonwealth Constitutions’ (1993) 42

ICLQ 67. Ghana, for example, which became independent in 1957, had introduced republican form

of government by 1960 and had a one-party system by 1964.

5. (1981) 31 WIR 498 (PC T&T).

6. (1969) 15 WIR 229 (PC T&T).

7. (1967) 10 WIR 299 (PC Ja).

8. (1979) 44 WIR 107 (PC Ber).

9. (1975) 24 WIR 326 (PC Ja).

10. (1978) 30 WIR 310 (PC T&T).

11. See L. Jackson’s ‘Fi Wi Law,’ Chapter 1 which provides an engaging, if withering, account of the

region’s tentative and formalistic approach to constitutional interpretation.

12. 

and Guyana following in 1966. Belize in 1981, Antigua and Barbuda in 1981 and St Kitts-Nevis in

