Government and Legal Status
The Federation was an internally self-governing, federal state made up of ten provinces, all British colonial possessions. The federation was created by the United Kingdom in 1958 from most of the British West Indies. Britain intended that the Federation would shortly become a fully independent state, thus simultaneously satisfying the demands for independence from all the colonies in the region. However, the project was doomed by political squabbling among the provinces, and the Federation never achieved full sovereignty, either as a Commonwealth realm or as a republic within the Commonwealth.
The legal basis for the federation was the British Caribbean Federation Act 1956, and the date of formation—January 3, 1958—was set by an Order in Council proclaimed in 1957.
As with all British colonies of the period, Queen Elizabeth II was the head of state, and The Crown was vested with the legislative authority for matters concerning executive affairs, defence and the financing of the Federation. Her representative, Patrick Buchan-Hepburn, 1st Baron Hailes, was given the title of Governor-General rather than that of Governor more typical for a British colony. The title may have reflected the federal nature of the state, or indicated the expectations that the Federation would soon become independent. The Governor-General also had the full power by the British Government to veto any laws passed by the Federation.
The Federal Parliament was bicameral, consisting of a nominated Senate and a popularly elected House of Representatives. The Senate consisted of nineteen members. These members were appointed by the Governor General, after consulting the respective territorial governments. Two members represented each unit (with only one from Montserrat). The House of Representatives had 45 total elected members – Jamaica had seventeen seats, Trinidad and Tobago ten seats, Barbados five seats, Montserrat one seat, and the remaining islands two seats each.
However the government (executive) would be a Council of State, not a Cabinet. It would be presided over by the Governor-General and consist of the Prime Minister and ten other officials.
There was also a Federal Supreme Court consisting of a Chief Justice and three (later five) other Justices. The Federal Supreme Court itself was the successor to the West Indian Court of Appeal (established in 1919) and had jurisdiction over the same territories (Barbados, British Guiana, the Leeward Islands (including the British Virgin Islands), Trinidad & Tobago and the Windward Islands) in addition to Jamaica and its dependencies. Under the 1956 British Caribbean Federation Act though, the Federal Supreme Court did not have any jurisdiction over British Honduras, as the British Honduras (Court of Appeal) Act, 1881, (which allowed for appeals from the British Honduras Supreme Court to go the Privy Council or the Supreme Court of Jamaica) was repealed under it (although the arrangement for appeals to the Supreme Court of Jamaica had generally ceased in 1911 anyway).
A total of three member states were ultimately proposed for capital city of the Federation. These were: Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago; although earlier in the federal negotiations the general opinion had been that the capital should be one of the smaller islands so that the capital would be in a neutral position to the larger territories and it would be able to inject some buoyancy into one of the poorer economies. To this end, Grenada was originally "tentatively" selected as the member state to host the capital but this was abandoned after protests from some of the parties involved and at the London Conference the smaller islands were ruled out for consideration. Within Trinidad and Tobago the first proposed site was Chaguaramas, a few miles west of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, but the site was part of a United States naval base. In practice, Port of Spain served as the de facto federal capital for the duration of the Federation's existence.
Read more about this topic: West Indies Federation
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