court, following last week's forum of British and Caribbean leaders in London.

Or it could opt to continue to use the Privy Council as the final arbiters of Bermudian justice.

It should be remembered that one of the primary motivations for the establishment of the Caribbean court has been the Privy Council's practice of commuting death sentences to life imprisonment.

That point is moot in Bermuda, since capital punishment was abolished.

Nonetheless, the Caribbean court will have some appeal. To some degree, Bermuda follows the Constitutions and laws of Caribbean jurisdictions and some local lawyers have received their training and their early experience in the Caribbean.

Bermuda has also been well served by its own Court of Appeal, some of whose members also act as a travelling court for Caribbean jurisdictions.

However, Bermuda also draws much of its legislation from Britain and many lawyers received their training in the UK as well.

Last year, the House of Lords senior judge, Lord Browne-Wilkinson, said he would like to see Caribbean and Commonwealth nations cease using the Privy Council, showing there is a growing desire in Britain to cut judicial ties with its ex-colonies.

However, the British Foreign Office has made it clear that it does not share that view, and if citizens of the Overseas Territories receive British passports, it would be strange, if not unconstitutional, if British citizens were unable to appeal to the UK.

Finally, Bermuda's stability rests very much on the notion that Britain's best legal minds constitute the Island's final court of appeal. This counts for a great deal when companies are considering setting up in Bermuda and in other countries relations with the Island.

This may seem insulting to the fledgling Caribbean court, but hundreds of years of practice and respect counts for a great deal when compared to a new court without a track record, regardless of how bright the court's members will be.

Attorney General Dame Lois Browne-Evans was right last year to back retaining the right of appeal to the Privy Council. Assuming she and her Government still feel the same way, they are still correct.