Dear Editor: In the Cook Islands High Court Bench Violation Book, 4.2 rule of law, it states, “the doctrine of the rule of law”, in its simplest form, means that we are all subject to clearly defined laws and legal principles [rather than the person whims of powerful people] and that those laws apply equally to all people all the time.

The reason I bring this up is in regards to an article in the Cook Islands News on 21-10-24,headlined,CIIC directors seek $350,000 in damages over defamatory claims against George Pitt and Elijah Communications where lawyer Brian Mason representing the plaintiffs who are current and former directors of the Cook I islands Investment Corporation.

Mason told Chief Justice Patrick Keane that the Defamation Act used to demand a jury trial and was removed in the Cook Islands because the late Vincent Ingram, who was a Member of Parliament, sued a newspaper for defamation knowing that he was so disliked that a jury would never find in his favour.

Is this not in violation of the Cook Islands High Court Bench Book where a powerful person, such as Member of Parliament Vincent Ingram got a law changed because of his own personal whim?

How can this law Ingram got changed not be unconstitutional?

Steve Boggs