The panel in session one, from left to right: Sen. Ian Gorst, Chief Minister, Jersey; Sen. the Hon. Prof. Velma Newton, Barbados; Chairperson Hon. Jacquie Petrusma, MP, Tasmania, and Hon. David Agius, MP, Malta.
involvement of Commonwealth Parliamentarians in decisions taken by their governments with regards to foreign affairs. She made specific reference to the Commonwealth Caribbean which are unlike the larger Commonwealth jurisdictions such as Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom where resources make it viable for effective parliamentary committees on foreign affairs to function. Smaller Caribbean jurisdictions have a tradition in which the executive, as the successor to the prerogative powers of the Crown, conducts foreign affairs, defence and international trade matters and accedes to international treaties on behalf of the state. This is usually
done without the approval, or indeed the knowledge, of Parliaments and without the production of documentary authority or full powers. She said that during her 12-year tenure as an independent Senator in Barbados there had never been any debate on the country’s foreign policy or international trade objectives. The Senator pointed out that the
current position with regard to treaties, which is the same as for foreign affairs and which was exemplified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969, identifies Heads of Government and Ministers of Foreign Affairs as representatives of their respective states for the purpose of performing all acts relating to the
conclusion of treaties. She explained that in many democracies outside the Commonwealth permission to conclude treaties was usually given to the officials, subject to constitutional provisions guaranteeing legislative participation. She stated that in the constitutions of the 12 independent Commonwealth Caribbean states, the concept of legislative participation is not a permanent feature. She cited several examples from the region and explained that, in general, treaty-making is regulated by the rules of common law and there is no requirement that treaty provisions be subjected to approval of Parliament. Antigua and Barbuda,
however, passed in 1987 a rule for parliamentary approval in treaty control. The Senator made a number
of recommendations for scrutiny of foreign affairs in the Commonwealth Caribbean, including:
• The establishment of parliamen- tary committees to investigate foreign and international affairs, as was done in Barbados in 2002 and then in 2006; • Annual parliamentary debates on foreign and international affairs, and • Legislation to ensure parliamen- tary involvement in the ratification of international treaties. She was of the view that the most