RE: Court decision?1 Jan 2021 11:38
Star
Like the draft judgment. I just want to make one point but I do it in the knowledge you are tongue in cheek and not to correct.
The Judicial Review court is not weighing up the public interest. It is not deciding whether drilling is good for the Bahamas. It is a much narrower decision than that. The Court is looking to see if the process of granting certificates and permissions by the Govt was done lawfully or not.
There is no doubt that the JR will fail. I think it will fail now, at permission stage, but even if I am wrong about that it will fail at full argument stage. And there will be no stay so drilling will continue.
I say it will fail for a number of reasons. First, delay in applying. Fatal to the application. Second, along with others here I have lived through the last 10 years of consultations, certificates, impact assessments and discusssion and I do not believe processes were breached.
There is also the JR doctrine of "legitimate expectation". BPC are now entitled to act on the actions of the Govt in granting permissions to drill. That is because teh actions of the Govt have created a legitimate expectation that drilling will be allowed. That impacts the merits of the JR itself as well as the next issue, protection of BPC from loss during a stay.
A stay involves a costs issue for BPC, who are entitled to protection. For the Applicants to suggest it is unfair to join BPC to the JR in order to provide them with costs protection is laughable. Genuinely laughable. It is always an issue in commercial JRs. It was the Applicants who waited until enormous cost was expended and committed to before applying. That is not BPC's fault nor is it the Govt's fault and it ties back into the delay argument and why that may be the determinative and final issue in this whole thing.
Sign In
Follow the stocks
