Jan. 8, 2008 — With striking serendipity, the Fifth Constitutional Convention decided Tuesday to incorporate some general constitutional legal education into its committee meeting — and an expert in constitutional and Caribbean law offered to provide exactly that sort of consulting service, completely free of charge.
The Fifth Constitutional Convention is working to develop a constitution for the territory, determining the structure of the territorial government and increasing local autonomy by replacing sections of federal law describing local government with a territorial document.
Meeting in Frederiksted's Lagoon Street legislative chambers, the Constitutional Convention had taken care of a number of budgetary and procedural decisions, when Delegate Gerard Emanuel, secretary for the Constitutional Convention, introduced a motion that the group's standing committees get expert legal advice.
"I think it is important when we move to public meetings of our various 12 committees that we are at least minimally informed about what is involved," he said, outlining a number of areas of concern to him.
Among Emanuel's concerns were questions of whether or what legal authority the Constitutional Convention may have to establish any form of special rights or status for native Virgin Islanders and how the territory's legal status as an unincorporated territory without full citizenship rights might affect that.
Delegates Charles Turnbull — the former governor, — and Adelbert Bryan spoke in support of Emanuel's proposal. Delegate Mary Moorhead moved to have the expert consultation and education occur simultaneously with committee hearings to avoid slowing down the process. Then the motion passed with no dissent.
Immediately afterward, Delegate Francis Jackson introduced Dorothea Beane, a professor of law at Florida's Stetson University and director of that school's nascent Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy. Beane told the gathered delegates several of her law students, past and present, were Virgin Islanders, her family comes from the Caribbean and she feels the V.I. constitutional process is important and exciting.
"This launches me to want to make a contribution," she said. "Of my various concerns, one is the right of people to make a constitution that serves their needs and is consistent with the rule of law."
The services would be provided completely free, as a project of the Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy and as a kind of field research project for her students, she said.
"What do I get out of this?" she asked rhetorically. "I've already been paid. I get a salary. It is a matter of principle, a matter of believing in the rule of law. To be part of the creation of a constitution, that is reward enough. And it launches my institution and will hopefully attract more of your Virgin Islands students to our law school."
She also pointed out that her class semester begins in one week and ends in May, neatly coinciding with the core time frame within which the Constitutional Convention must create a document.
Delegates Arturo Watlington Jr., Bryan, Emanuel and others peppered Beane with questions about exactly what she was offering, what limits there were and whether there really was no cost to the territory. Beane responded that Stetson University and the Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy would definitely cover all of her and her student's expenses, including travel, lodging and supplies. But precisely what she would provide depended upon what the Constitutional Convention asked for.
"I think as long as you have a clear schedule in mind, we can work out whatever is necessary," she said.
Pressed for details, she said it was up to the delegates to tell her what they wanted.
"I need to know the scope of the work and exact examples of the issues most important to you," she said.
Delegate Rena Broadhurst asked Beane if she could provide some clear written outline of what she needed the Constitutional Convention to provide to her.
"I hear 'scope of work' several times," Broadhurst said. "Is there any way you can provide this body with some specifics as to what should be in that scope of work so we can essentially fill in the blanks and forward it on to you?"
Beane said she could do so. Constitutional Convention President Gerard Luz James II appointed an ad hoc committee to draft a description of the scope of work and negotiate further with Beane.
In other actions, the Constitutional Convention heard a budget report, approved a budget proposal and approved sending a letter to Senate President Usie Richards asking the Legislature to meet quickly to hear their budget needs.
The Legislature has appropriated $100,000 for the Constitutional Convention, and the Office of Management and Budget released $50,000 of that on Nov. 29. As of Jan. 7, $31,013 remained, Jackson said.
The other $50,000 has not been released, limiting the ability to travel and meet. The Constitutional Convention approved a budget proposal of $3.2 million to present to the Legislature at the earliest opportunity. That sum includes $114,000 in funds remaining from a University of the Virgin Islands' public-education campaign about the constitution, as well as the existing aforementioned appropriation of $100,000, Jackson said.
The U.S. Congress passed a law in 1976 to allow the people of the Virgin Islands and Guam to adopt territorial constitutions. Any constitution produced under that law has to be consistent with federal law and with the U.S. constitution. The form of the government must be republican in form, with executive, legislative and judicial branches, and it must have a bill of rights.
According to the legislation creating the Constitutional Convention, the delegates will have until July 27, 2008, to draft and approve a constitution …. Once two thirds of the delegates vote to adopt the document, it will go to the governor's desk. He will have 60 days to add his comments and forward it to Congress, which has 60 days to look it over. The V.I. delegate to Congress and others may testify, and Congress has the power to add or delete by amendment. If passed, the constitution will go to the president for signing, like any U.S. law.
The website itsourfuture.vi has excerpts and links to the full text of the relevant laws and much more information.
There have been four previous constitutional conventions. For a detailed history of previous conventions and extensive background information on the subject, see "V.I. CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTIONS: BACKGROUND."
The next meeting of the entire Constitutional Convention is tentatively set for 5:30 p.m. Feb. 12 in St. Thomas' Senate Building.
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