To be or not to be (the Chief Justice)!

 January 31, 2015

‘A Daniel come to judgment! Yea! A Daniel! O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!” – Merchant of Venice-Shakespeare

Some years back I was a member of the official bar in the famed south sea islands of Fiji. This was when that beautiful country of roughly 18,000 square km was, despite simmering tensions between the indigenous Fijians and the immigrant Indians, a sturdy democracy, with an excellent legal system and a judiciary of high repute.
If my memory serves me well, I believe the population of the entire group of islands then was about four to five hundred thousand, more or less. The judicial structure was three tiered, with the Magistrates Courts possessed of both criminal and civil jurisdiction as the base, the High Courts hearing bigger matters as well as holding appellate jurisdiction, and at the apex the Supreme Court.
To Be or Not to Be (the Chief Justice)! by Thavam Ratna