Historical step towards fully-fledged state under the rule of law

December 08, 2010 10:32 AM

The Lieutenant Governor of Bonaire, Glenn Thodé, officially opened the new office building of law firm VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne in Bonaire last week.

On this occasion, Mark Kater of the law firm introduced some new faces of the office in Bonaire. Kater himself has been here for almost two years. Some people began in Bonaire on December 1, and some are still coming. Kater thanked everyone who cooperated in creating the building and also all tenants. He emphasized that VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne is very proud to be in Bonaire. Lieutenant Governor Glenn Thodé stated that people think something of each other in every community.

“At some point in time, this becomes an opinion. They think you have done something well or that you have done something poorly. And gradually out of this opinion rises a kind of practice of standards. And if you work with that for a long time, of course these standards are laid down in laws. And finally you apply a legal practice. At a certain time law develops around this legal practice." Thodé considers it an important thought to linger on. "We see quite a development in Bonaire where we think anything of each other and slowly this develops into standards and gradually it becomes law. The law is put into practice.”

Own group of lawyers
The legal practice is presently expanding on the island. Thodé: “It is very important to have our permanent judge who settles conflicts by means of legal standards that have been laid down. You now also see that the Public Prosecutor’s Office is expanding. We have a chief public prosecutor and a permanent public prosecutor in Bonaire to prosecute people exactly where we find that standards have been violated that are so serious that they are punishable. You need legal scholars or lawyers for this.” According to the Lieutenant Governor, it is consequently important that we can follow this development here in Bonaire. “Important for this legal practice and this development of this law is our own group of lawyers, people who have made themselves familiar with law, and if this group of lawyers grows, it generates sufficient critical mass to ultimately develop our own law. Our own mandatory legal nature, our own legal practice, and ultimately a wide range of a community where you can say high standards apply of ethics, practice and procedures that are followed, and gradually this becomes a form of legal certainty. This creates trust and is ultimately attractive to people to live in and be involved in entrepreneurism. That is why I consider it very important and fantastic that today we have such a beautiful building here of a very renowned law firm that chose to establish an office here over a year ago, then still under unstable and uncertain circumstances regarding the direction in which Bonaire would go. They chose to play an important role in this development of Bonaire. And today we see the result here: a fantastic building, a team that becomes increasingly stronger.” Thodé congratulated the entire team of VanEps Kunneman VanDoorne. But he also congratulated Bonaire. Thodé: “With this office we make a historical step towards being a fully-fledged state under the rule of law.”

(Source: local newspaper Antilliaans Dagblad)

6 December 2010