State Of Emergency in Jamaican Constitution

Taken from Chapter III Subsection 26

http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Jamaica/jam62.html

(4) In this Chapter "period of public emergency" means any period during which-

1. Jamaica is engaged in any war; or
2. there is in force a Proclamation by the Governor-General declaring that a state of public emergency exists; or
3. there is in force a resolution of each House supported by the votes of a majority of all the members of that House declaring that democratic institutions in Jamaica are threatened by subversion.

(5) A Proclamation made by the Governor-General shall not be effective for the purposes of subsection (4) of this section unless it is declared therein that the Governor-General is satisfied-

1. that a public emergency has arisen as a result of the imminence of a state of war between Jamaica and a foreign State or as a result of the occurrence of any earthquake, hurricane, flood, fire, outbreak of pestilence, outbreak of infectious disease or other calamity whether similar to the foregoing or not; or
2. that action has been taken or is immediately threatened by any person or body of persons of such a nature and on so extensive a scale as to be likely to endanger the public safety or to deprive the community, or any substantial portion of the community, of supplies or services essential to life.

(6) A Proclamation made by the Governor-General for the purposes of and in accordance with this section -

1. shall, unless previously revoked, remain in force for one month or for such longer period, not exceeding twelve months, as the House of Representatives may determine by a resolution supported by the votes of a majority of all the members of the House;
2. may be extended from time to time by a resolution passed in like manner as is prescribed in paragraph (a) of this subsection for further periods, not exceeding in respect of each such extension a period of twelve months; and
3. may be revoked at any time by a resolution supported by the votes of a majority of all the members of the House of Representatives.

(7) A resolution passed by a House for the purposes of subsection (4) of this section may be revoked at any time by a resolution of that House supported by the votes of a majority of all the members thereof.

(8) Nothing contained in any law in force immediately before the appointed day shall be held to be inconsistent with any of the provisions of this Chapter; and nothing done under the authority of any such law shall be held to be done in contravention of any of these provisions.

(9)For the purposes of subsection (8) of this section a law in force immediately before the appointed day shall be deemed not to have ceased to be such a law by reason only of-

1. any adaptations or modifications made thereto by or under section 4 of the Jamaica (Constitution) Order in Council, 1962, or
2. its reproduction in identical form in any consolidation or revision of laws with only such adaptations or modifications as are necessary or expedient by reason of its inclusion in such consolidation or revision.

Document: The Jamaican Constitution in a Nutshell

The global recession and the impact it has had on Jamaica's fragile economy have directed attention away from issues of dual citizenship and constitutional reform. The latter has, until recently, dominated political discourse as a result of a court ruling that declared that several sitting members of parliament were not eligible to sit in the House of Representatives because they had dual nationality at the time they were nominated for the 2007 general elections.

The aftermath of the court ruling produced numerous allegations and investigations of MPs on both side of Gordon House, culminating in the holding by-elections in a number of constituencies, including West Portland and North East St Catherine. The stakes of the election outcomes were increased by the fact that the ruling Government only held a thin majority of seats required in the house needed to maintain power. PM Golding went as far as proclaiming that he would sooner call a general elections, than loose power on a technicality.

Not many Jamaican's would disagree that constitution reform is necessary, but such a discussion is unlikely to happen soon as the country tries to navigate its way through turbulent economic conditions. This does not change the fact that the country needs to have an important discussion on constitution reform before the next general elections, expected to occur in 2012. For those persons still interested in constitutional reform, or just generally learning about the Jamaican constitution, I've attached to files that might be of use.

The first is a summary of the various sections of the Jamaican constitution. It was produced by the Jamaica Information Services in 1990, but still provides an overview of the important facts; I doubt many things have changed since then. I've also attached a link, to the complete constitution. This link is to the constitution as it is written--legal lingo and all. I hope you find both useful.

One point of interest, that is relevant to this whole dual citizen debate is a clause specified in Chapter 5:

"Any Jamaican citizen of 21 years or over or any Commonwealth citizen 21 years or over living in Jamaica for at least one year, can become a member of either House of Parliament." --Chapter 5, Jamaican Constitusion

In effect, the current constitution allows for a random person from Australia to live in Jamaica for a year and then become Prime Minister, but prevents persons of the Jamaican diaspora who have migrated to the US and gained citizenship, from even holding a seat in Parliament. The last time I checked, not only does the largest collection of Jamaican diaspora reside in the United States, but it is also the place where the majority of our "precious" remittances originate. Are we really working to the benefit of ourselves or do remnants of our the colonial shackles still remain?

"Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery; None but ourselves can free our minds."

--Uncle Bob

Jamaican Constitution in a Nutshell -- http://www.jis.gov.jm/special_sections/bills%20&%20acts/pdf/constit.pdf

Jamaican Constitution (Whole) -- http://pdba.georgetown.edu/Constitutions/Jamaica/jam62.html

Update 1/2/09 1:01AM

Corrected election date to 2012 from 2011

Update 1/1/09 4:45PM

Anticipating where this discussion might go, I am also adding a study commissioned by the Caribbean Policy Research Institute(CAPRI) on the issue of Jamaican Dual citizenship. It is a quantitative study of policy decisions faced by MPs. Below is an excerpt from the findings of study:

"In the initial survey year (2005), the act with the highest incidence of potential

conflicts of loyalty was the Extradition Act; the team adjudged that roughly 15% of the legislation, by clause, posed potential conflicts of loyalty for any legislator. The Terrorism Act was the only other act of legislation in that year which presented potential conflicts of loyalty. Overall, therefore, we found that in 2005, in the total act of legislating, potential conflicts of loyalty arose for dual citizens 0.3% of the time.

When we then applied the methodology over the ten-year period, the results were consistent with this finding. We thereby concluded that 2005 was not a statistical outlier, but was in fact a representative year."

Get the full CAPRI article here - http://www.capricaribbean.org/research/dual-citizenship