It is enshrined in the laws of Zambia that both the Republican President and the Speaker of the National Assembly are impeachable subject to laid down constitutional procedure. Paradoxically, the law makes no such clear reference towards impeachment or removal from office of the Chief Justice in similar concisely specific language as it does for the President and Speaker. The law only speaks to the removal of judges from office pending submissions and investigations to the relevant commission. The referenced specific points of law in question are Article 108: Impeachment of President; then Article 83: Removal of Speaker on specified grounds; and Article 143: Removal of judge from office. The law proposes that all three state organs, namely Executive, Legislature and Judiciary are either equal or, at least independent of each other. The most obvious reason is that two of the three state organs are direct functions of the electorate and therefore prone to populism and the […]
DEMOCRACY AND THE JUDICIARY– PART II
