IT is undeniable that the present investigation into alleged historical child abuse at Haut de la Garenne and elsewhere has cast a dark shadow over Jersey and its people. However, in spite of what some critics seem determined to assert neither the great majority of Islanders nor our political and legal establishments can be damned by awful events which, as far as we can tell, unfolded decades ago and clearly involved a restricted number of people.
In spite of this, it is possible that the Haut de la Garenne scandal could produce lasting effects that go beyond the scars that it will leave on the collective psyche of this Island. If Senator Stuart Syvret’s attempt to force the hand of British Justice Minister Jack Straw through a legal action calling for the intervention of English judges and prosecutors were to be successful, a constitutional precedent would be established.
But this would be no mere formality of interest only to constitutional experts and students of an arcane area of the law. It would rock one of the foundations of a relationship with the Crown, and therefore Britain, which has stood the test of the past 800 years. That foundation is the Island’s legal independence – its right to operate a justice system that is separate and distinct from that of the UK and has its own courts, its own presiding judges and its own legal infrastructure.
This is not to say that the imposition of English judges would mark the immediate end of our status as a Crown Dependency – in fact, there are occasions when, for reasons of its own, the Royal Court calls in UK assistance in certain cases – but it would signal that the established order is not beyond challenge. It would, moreover, offer encouragement to those who can hardly contain their eagerness to challenge our political autonomy.
It is impossible to say how far Senator Syvret’s case, which is also pressed in conjunction with Liberal Democrat MP John Hemming, will progress, although comments reportedly made by the Justice Minister’s department suggest that there will be little appetite for disturbing a status quo to which it has expressed commitment in the recent past and of which it is likely to mount its own defence.
It is, though, highly unlikely that the Senator is unaware of the possible far-reaching consequences of his foray into the English courts and of its potential for spurring a catastrophic reordering of not only the legal but also the political, social and economic life of the Island.