So, with the passage of this motion from the Briceno Government's super-majority in the National Assembly, public funds will be used to settle this costly legal fight with Belize International Services Limited.
Two years ago, we directly questioned then Prime Minister Dean Barrow about the judgment from the CCJ against his government's nationalization of the registries. Here's how he continued to defend that course of action even though the highest court in the land struck it down and scolded his administration for what they ruled as executive overreach:
File: July 2, 2020
Rt. Hon. Dean Barrow - Prime Minister
"I think Mr. Justice Jamadar offered those criticisms. All I would say to him is that is one of the disadvantages of a court that is not based in Belize, staffed by judges that have no idea of local conditions. If he thought that the government was arrogant in treating the owners of the ships registry it is because he doesn't know the nature of the beast. He doesn't know the personalities with which we were dealing. I would suggest to him that maybe he would like to have a word with the stevedores, and he would get some sense as to why we operate in a particular manner, vis a vis these people. In terms of the decision itself, let us be quite clear as to what has happened. Number one, we won in the supreme court; we won unanimously in the court of appeal. The CCJ has gone a different route, they are the final court of appeal, and we simply have to accept their ruling, although, of course, we strongly disagree with it. But if you, in fact, deconstruct the ruling, let us understand what has happened. The judges accepted our contention that that contract was tainted with illegality, in fact, that that contract was unconstitutional. But in effect, what they said: well, the government ought to have tried to renegotiate the contract to see if it could be cured of unconstitutionality. I make the point, they don't know the animal which we were dealing with."
We now take you a little further back to the press conference which former Prime Minister Barrow hosted in 2013 to justify the nationalization. In that public disclosure, the former PM insisted that BISL's lawsuit would fail. Here are those famous last words:
File: June 12, 2013
Hon. Dean Barrow
"And I am even more confident that in any case there claim will be dismissed because it is so very patent that the so called extension was done in violation to Belize's law. Any cost benefit analysis done on the basis of a national interest calculus will tell you that you cannot continue to run the risk that the European Union after they have given you a decision in writing will in fact move to the next level and impose a band on your exports- I'm prepared to defend to the death, forgive my hyperbole. Our actions which are the only actions any right minded government that it's true to it's compact to serve the national interest of the country, the only actions that any such government can take."
We note that the Leader of Government Business, Eamon Courtenay, told his senate colleagues that shortly before the first hearings of the BISL lawsuit, the government decided to withdraw its claim against BISL that the registries were mismanaged. Courtenay said that Denys Barrow, who was part of the then government's legal team, called him to say that the government did not have sufficient evidence to prove that claim in court.
