Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji’s acting chief justice says appeal court will be fine despite resignations

Posted at 04:38 on 04 September, 2007 UTC

Fiji’s acting Chief Justice, Anthony Gates, says he is confident the Court of Appeal will continue to serve the public and the bar well, despite the resignation of the remaining appointed judges.

The group of five New Zealand judges and one Australian handed their resignations to the President saying it was clear they were no longer wanted.

Last week, the Court of Appeal sat using High Court judges rather than specifically appointed expatriate justices.

The New Zealand Law Commissioner, Helen Aikman, who has lived in Fiji, says at any other time there is no reason why Fiji should not develop a local bench:

“If it were not for the fact that the judiciary at the moment is completely riven, no reason alone not to have local judges, but I think in these particular circumstances it is particularly tragic because you have as I see it a mixture of some retired judges, some new judges and many of them have political history so all the more need in those circumstances to have people who are impartial from outside.”

Helen Aikman, the New Zealand Law Commissioner