Terms of Reference

C hief Magistrate – St Helena

INTRODUCTION

1. The island of St Helena, an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom (UK), is of volcanic origin and covers 47 square miles in the South Atlantic Ocean. St Helena is over 4,000 miles from the UK, 700 miles southeast of Ascension Island, and 1,700 miles from South Africa. The Island’s total population is around 4,000 persons, about 25% of whom live in the capital, Jamestown. The climate is kept mild and equable by the southeast trade winds and temperatures range from 14-32 degrees centigrade in the summer and 14-26 degrees centigrade in winter. The economy is small and is mainly based on offshore employment, agriculture, fishing and more recently a small but growing volume of tourism. Most commodities are imported and St Helena relies heavily on UK aid to support essential services and livelihoods.

2. St Helena now has a newly built airport. It is expected that commercial flights will start to operate from the airport sometime in 2017. The only regular mode of access to the Island is presently via the Royal Mail Ship (RMS) St Helena, which calls roughly 25 times a year, shuttling between St Helena, Ascension, and Cape Town. The airport will greatly improve travel to and from the Island, open up opportunities for sustainable economic regeneration and ultimate financial self-sufficiency for St Helena.

3. The Governor is the most senior official in the St Helena Government (SHG) and she is supported by the three next ranking officials i.e. the Chief Secretary, the Financial Secretary and the Attorney General. Strategic decisions are in the main taken by the Executive Council, which is chaired by the Governor and comprises of 5 elected Members of the Legislative Council and the 3 senior SHG officials as ex officio members. The Public Service comprises a number of directorates each headed by a Director reporting either to the Chief Secretary, Financial Secretary or directly to the Governor. Most of the directorates are also required to work with one or more of the 8 Council Committees that comprise elected Members of the Legislative Council. The Directorates are required to provide advice to, and take policy direction from, the relevant Committees.

BACKGROUND

4. St Helena is part of the United Kingdom Overseas Territorial Grouping of St Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha; three separate islands (in the case of Tristan da Cunha, a group of islands) in the South Atlantic Ocean. The legal systems of the territory are based on English law, as modified by various local enactments.

5. Of the three, St Helena has the largest volume of local legislation, and it has the largest geographical area, largest population, and largest caseload of judicial business. The Supreme Court usually sits locally twice each year (typically for between three to six weeks), with suitable business being dealt with (twixt visits by the Chief Justice) by teleconference. There is also a Court of Appeal, which has sat locally only once in the last 20 years; appeals are normally determined on written submissions.

6. Subordinate to the Supreme Court, there is a locally-constituted Magistrates’ Court. Prior to the first appointment of a Chief Magistrate in 2012, it had been comprised entirely of (lay) Justices of the Peace; it has criminal jurisdiction in all cases where the maximum sentence does not exceed 14 years (the summary court can impose up to eighteen months) and civil jurisdiction up to a financial value of ￡5,000.

7 The purpose of this appointment is to continue providing professionally-qualified input to the process, but without diminishing the importance of the Lay Magistracy. Enabling legislation came into force on 1 January 2012 which provided that the Chief Magistrate has jurisdiction to sit alone (but will normally sit with at least one Justice of the Peace). Retaining and enhancing the role of Lay Justices is fundamental to the concept underlying this appointment. The Ordinance also provided that the Court will have enhanced jurisdiction when the Chief Magistrate is sitting (Criminal up to 5 years’ imprisonment; civil to ￡20,000 in value).

8. The frequency of sittings of the Magistrates’ Court varies from one day to every day in a week, depending on the volume of business from time to time. The office of Chief Magistrate could not be justified economically if the post holder was to do nothing more than sit in the summary court. The successful candidate will therefore also be appointed to a number of other offices, and will act as a trainer and mentor to the Lay Justices and to the (unqualified) Clerk of the Peace and other Judicial Services staff.

Overall scope of work and objectives

9. The overall purpose of this appointment is to maintain and improve the quality, and the human rights compliance, of the administration of justice in St Helena. The Lay Justices do an excellent job with the benefit of the limited training they are given – but they themselves welcome the opportunity to develop their skills and capacity by having the opportunity to sit regularly with a qualified lawyer. As previously stated, the post holder will assume certain other offices (outlined below) which are of a judicial or quasi-judicial nature and in which it is considered necessary – in human rights terms – to introduce a more demonstrably independent decision-maker.

TERMS OF REFERENCE

10. The main activities of Chief Magistrate will be:

a) To sit in the Magistrates’ Court, usually with at least one Justice of the Peace, but with power to sit alone, to deal with a variety of (sometimes quite serious) criminal and civil cases.

b) To train and mentor, on a rolling basis, both the Justices of the Peace and the Clerk of the Peace and other Judicial Services staff.

c) To make recommendations to the Chief Justice for amending/modernising Rules of Court in so far as they apply to the summary jurisdiction.

d) To be the Chief Coroner (along with the current qualified and lay Coroners); to mentor and train the qualified and lay Coroners; and to ensure the smooth operation of the new Coroners and Presumption of Death Ordinance, 2015.

e) To be the Registrar of Lands (this post has a wider range of judicial or quasi-judicial functions than comparable posts in England); and to train and mentor the public servants who are engaged in managing the Registry.

f) To be appointed to participate on ad hoc Commissions of Enquiry.

g) To be the Labour Regulating Authority (loosely equivalent to an Employment Tribunal in the UK) under recently-enacted Employment Rights legislation.

h) To be the President of the Land Development Appeals Tribunal.

i) To be the President of the Media Commission.

j) To be a Trustee of the Legal Assistance Fund (St Helena’s rudimentary Legal Aid Fund) so as to bring a legally-qualified and impartial mind to bear on the allocation of these resources.

k) To facilitate and encourage the use of mediation and Alternative Dispute Resolution as a way of minimising the recourse to the Courts of St Helena.

l) To convene and Chair (at least once in every six months) meetings of the Court Users’ Group.

m) To Chair the Immigration Appeal Court.

n) To Chair the Mental Health Tribunal.

o) To be the Commissioner for Workmen’s Compensation.

p) To supervise the Registrar of Companies.

11. Finally, the appointee will also be appointed to be The Magistrate and Chief Coroner of Ascension Island.

Selection and Supervision

Since September, 2009, the independence of the judiciary has been much better protected than previously. The Governor can only appoint or remove ‘judicial officers’ (judiciary of courts subordinate to the Supreme Court) on the advice of the Judicial Service Commission.

However, the Governor has overall constitutional responsibility for the administration of justice and for the ‘partnership values’ in the Constitution – which include the rule of law, the impartiality of the administration of justice, and the maintenance of public order.

In addition, while there is no formal requirement, it is likely that the Chief Magistrate – without compromising the Chief Justice’s appellate role – will wish to establish constructive dialogue with the Chief Justice on evolving issues of concern.

QUALIFICATIONS AND EXPERIENCE

Essential:-

· Solicitor or Barrister qualified in England and Wales (or comparable qualification in Scotland, Northern Ireland, or a Commonwealth or EU jurisdiction) with at least 10 years experience of both civil and criminal work, including advocacy, and eligible for appointment to judicial office in the jurisdiction in which the legal qualification is held.;

· Fluency in written and spoken English;

· Good IT skills, including familiarity with all components of Microsoft Office;

· Demonstrable ability for rational and objective analysis of issues.

Desirable:-

· Previous/current experience in judicial or quasi-judicial office;

· Experience of living and working in a small island community.

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