Disclaimer: This work was produced by one of our expert legal writers, as a learning aid to help law students with their studies.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of LawTeacher.net. Any information contained in this case summary does not constitute legal advice and should be treated as educational content only.

Hinds v The Queen [1977]

387 words (2 pages) Case Summary

17th Jun 2019 Case Summary Reference this In-house law team

Jurisdiction / Tag(s): International Law

Hinds v The Queen [1977] AC 195

JAMAICA – CONSTITUTIONAL LAW – GUN COURTS ACT – MANDATORY SENTENCE DETERMINABLE BY EXECUTIVE BODY

Facts

By the Gun Court Act 1974 the Parliament of Jamaica established a new court, the Gun Court, to try “firearms offences.” The Act provided for three divisions of the court; the Circuit Court Division and the Resident Magistrate’s Division, constituted by a Supreme Court judge and a resident magistrate respectively, and the Full Court Division constituted by three resident magistrates. Section 8 prescribed a mandatory sentence of detention at hard labour during the Governor-General’s pleasure for specified offences, determinable only by the Governor-General on the advice of the Review Board. The appellants, who had all incurred the mandatory sentence under s.8, sought to argue that the provisions of the Act under which they were tried and sentence were inconsistent with the Jamaican Constitution.

Issues

The Privy Council were called upon to determine whether those provisions of the Gun Courts Act which purported to transfer sentencing powers to an executive body were compatible with the Jamaican Constitution.

Decision/Outcome

In allowing the appeal in part, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council found the following:

  1. The provisions of the Gun Court Act relating to the Circuit Court Division and the Resident Magistrate’s Division which did no more than extend geographically the jurisdiction of a Supreme Court judge in a Circuit Court and a resident magistrate respectively were not contrary to the Constitution and were valid.
  2. That the principle of separation of powers was implicit in the Constitution and Parliament had no power to transfer from the judiciary to the Review Board, the majority of whose members were not qualified to exercise judicial powers, a discretion to determine the severity of punishment.
  3. That the provisions of the Act which were inconsistent with the Constitution were severable from the valid provisions, since the valid provisions would survive without the invalid.

Cite This Work

To export a reference to this article please select a referencing stye below:

Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.
Reference Copied to Clipboard.

Related Services

View all

Related Content

Jurisdictions / Tags

Content relating to: "International Law"

International law, also known as public international law and the law of nations, is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally accepted in relations between nations. International law is studied as a distinctive part of the general structure of international relations.

Related Articles