With Chief Jus­tice Ivor Archie con­firm­ing that af­ter 17 years in of­fice, this law term will be his last, at­ten­tion has now shift­ed to the ques­tion of suc­ces­sion.

Archie’s de­ci­sion to an­nounce his re­tire­ment a year in ad­vance was in­tend­ed to al­low for an or­der­ly tran­si­tion and sets the stage for one of the most sig­nif­i­cant ju­di­cial ap­point­ments in re­cent years.

Ac­cord­ing to the Con­sti­tu­tion, un­der sec­tion 102, the CJ is ap­point­ed by the Pres­i­dent af­ter con­sul­ta­tion with the Prime Min­is­ter and Leader of the Op­po­si­tion. The fi­nal de­ci­sion, how­ev­er, rests with the Pres­i­dent, in this case Chris­tine Kan­ga­loo.