|
The
origins of the Office may be traced to November 1734, when a decree
of the King of France established a Conseil Supérieur on our
island, which comprised of the office of the Procureur Général.
In
1810, the British during
the Napoleonic wars colonised our island
and Sir Robert Farquhar,
the first Governor appointed by the British Crown, proclaimed
that the prevailing judicial institutions would be kept and
maintained.
The
holder of the Office, the Procureur and Advocate General, as he was
formally known, was a senior civil servant, and the most senior
member of the bar. The Lawyers working under him were known as the Substituts
du Procureur.
He
was entrusted with three principal functions: legal advisor to the
Government, responsible for the promulgation of laws and for public
prosecutions. He was also by statute the guardian of the
Bar's professional honour.
The
Constitution of 1964 turned the Procureur into a British
styled Attorney General, with all its previous functions, save for
that of public prosecutions, which was entrusted to the newly
created office of the Director of Public Prosecutions.
The
changes brought about by the 1964 law are preserved in our present
day Constitution of 1968 (vide sections 69 and 72).
Pursuant
to section 69 of the Constitution, the office of the Attorney
General is also that of a Minister.
The
current official designation of the
Attorney General is the
Honourable Attorney General and Minister of Justice and Human
Rights.
|
