Following two rejections of judge appointments by the country’s cabinet, the judiciary is again searching for judges to fill the three vacant seats on the Traditional Rights Court.
The TRC handles land and traditional title disputes, and has not functioned since the beginning of this year, when the terms of the judges expired.
One local attorney called it “a very unusual situation” that the TRC has been without judges for this long, adding that no land cases are moving forward and scheduled trials are being postponed.
The Traditional Rights Court has been at the forefront of high-profile land and title disputes over the past two years. Most of the disputes center on land in Majuro, the nation’s capital, and Kwajalein, home of the U.S. Army’s missile testing range, and many involve large amounts of money for land rentals.
In one high-profile title dispute involving control of tens of thousands of dollars in U.S. Army land rental payments, the court ruled against powerful Kwajalein traditional chief and MP Michael Kabua’s position that a woman could not exercise the title of alab, or clan head, in the Ralik Chain, one of the two chains of coral atolls in this western Pacific nation. Kabua strongly criticized the decision in the media when the TRC ruled a woman was the right person to hold the disputed title.
In December 2008, a non-political Judicial Service Commission — headed by High Court Chief Justice Carl Ingram, and including the Attorney General and one community representative — recommended to the cabinet the reappointment of the three existing TRC members: Chairman Berson Joseph who has served since the 1990s, and Judges Botlan Loeak and Kalemen Jinuna.
The cabinet considered the appointment recommendation in March, but did not take action to approve any of the recommended judges, indicating it wanted additional names to consider, said Ingram.
In response, the High Court publicly advertised the positions in April. In May, the Judicial Service Commission resubmitted recommendations to the cabinet that included the three sitting judges whose contracts had expired as well as alternate candidates who had responded to the advertisements.
Instead of its earlier deferral action, this time the cabinet rejected the three existing judges and did not approve any of the alternates, which has forced the High Court to do another round of publicly announcing the availability of the TRC positions.
Ingram said late last week he expects to convene soon a meeting of the JSC to consider new applicants and to make a new recommendation to the cabinet so the TRC can be returned to functioning status.
