Conservation: The twelfth, and final, exception to our fundamental right to own and hold property deals with the public interest issues of conservation and improvement. The Constitution makes it legal for a law to be passed that takes away our property for so long only as may be necessary for the purpose of any examination, investigation, trial or inquiry.
So, if the police find my gun stolen from my house being used in a crime, they can confiscate it for so long as is necessary for it to be used as an exhibit in the trial of the offender, but they cannot keep it after the trial. They have to give it back to me after the trial.
It is this exception that makes it legal for a planning law to provide for private land to be temporarily taken for the purpose of doing soil conservation on it. If government sees that I am allowing my land to be eroded by water and I am not doing something to prevent the erosion, they can come in and construct a wall or other safety feature to stop the erosion, and I cannot complain, so long as it is done under a law that gives this power. Of course, water erosion is not such a big problem in Anguilla , but you get the point.
If the Agricultural Department has a law passed giving it the right to go into people's agricultural land and temporarily to take possession of it for the purpose of eradicating the hibiscus mealy bug if the owner refuses to do so himself, that would be legal under this exception.
"They have to give it back to me after the trial." This may be true in your world of constitutional law, Don, but in the world of most of us, the Royal Anguilla Police Force rules.
ReplyDeleteA man stole my garden hose and plant pots to grow the evil weed in the bush near my house. He was arrested and convicted. I was not a suspect. I was informed by the police that my stolen goods couldn't be returned to me because they had been used for criminal purposes.
Did they burn my hose with the plants? Did they sell it at public auction? Or is it now being used in some officer's garden?
Don't tell me to complain. You know I'd be targeted, and they would eventually find a way to get even with me for my disrespect.
QUESTION FOR MR. MITCHELL:
ReplyDeleteWhat about the section of the Biodiversity and Heritage Protection Act 2009, which states that the Governor can declare any land in Anguilla a protected area and acquire it under the land acquisition act (except the parcel of land on which your dwelling house or a church is built)?
Apparently he can then undeclare it and allow corrupt politicians to sell it to their developer friends?
Can he do that ? Can they do that?
The law says he/they can.
Have you read it Mr.Mitchell?
Why is the British appointed Attorney General passing these stupid laws in Anguilla?
All this smacks of emanations and penumbrae, of "living constitutions", of judicial legislationism. It is the state making rights for itself at the expense of the people it fraudulently purports to represent.
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing about Anguilla is that, like Texas not too long ago, virtually all of its property was in private hands. To the extent that that tips into the realm of government land control, for whatever reason, it all slides down the slippery slope to tyranny.
It's a shame that the people of Anguilla are contemplating the now-fashionable habit of political expropriation in the name of glorified state-worship.
Environmental statism is a religion. Expropriation and tyranny is its sacrament, and "externalities" and pseudoscience are its commandments and dogma.
The public interest must be protected that is the reason for such law.
ReplyDeleteYou must be joking, since when has the publics interest mattered.
ReplyDeletePersonal interest yes, the public normally does not benefit from laws written by the British, imposed on us by the AG and other civil servants, and then passed in the house which in the main is just pretty useless.
None of this is in the publics interest!!
Does any highly paid civil servants such as the AG and others ever act in the best interest of Anguillas public?
As i said before personal interest or British interest is the ruler.
The above poster's thinly-concealed racism would be less obvious if she included the fact that the Land Acquisition Act requires government to pay fair market value for such land.
ReplyDeleteIf she's right and the governor can "undeclare it and allow corrupt politicians to sell it to their developer friends", then we are on the way to becoming another TCI and our laws must be changed to prohibit such things.
We have a choice. We can correct these alleged problems or we can cry about what victims we are -- to promote our Independent Anguilla agenda, eh?
Again, "public Interest", "externalities" &cet, are code for "l'État, c'est moi", for all modern tyranny, soft or otherwise.
ReplyDeleteDouble goes for "racism", "sexism", &cet, BTW. Contrary to the near-universal emeticism of government hacks and politicians, "reform", "populist", "progressive" and otherwise, groups don't have rights: only individuals have rights.
FAIR MARKET VALUE?
ReplyDelete"........... the Land Acquisition Act requires government to pay fair market value for such land."
So, Bankie has the last piece of land on Rendezvous Bay. His intention is to pass it on to his children and their children and their children. It is not for sale at any price.
The governor can declare it a protected area for the birds, bees and fish. Then a couple years later sell it to a developer to build condo's?
Does that sound fair to you?
Tell Elizabeth Winsor I am coming to London, and I would like to buy Buckingham Palace for fair market value, whether she wants to sell or not!!!!!!
The point, if it still escapes you, is that these laws are all intended to take away the land from the “natives” and the British are part of the plan.
And all that Bankie will have is some red or green coloured paper( which they call money), unless he will be paid in gold bullion.
The only two valuable things are gold and Anguillian land!
5:58, does your therapist know you have access to a computer?
ReplyDelete