Preserving the subject matter

Belize Alliance of Conservation Non-Governmental Organisations v Dept of the Environment and another (PC TLR 25 September)

The court has jurisdiction to grant interim relief where appropriate in order to ensure that any order which it made on the eventual hearing of the appeal should not be rendered nugatory. The clearest and most obvious instance of that was in staying execution of a death sentence. The Privy Council therefore had jurisdiction to grant an interlocutory injunction to preserve the subject matter of a pending appeal. However, in the present case the petitioners were seeking to prevent further progress in the construction of a dam in an area of rainforest of great scientific and archaeological interest. Having regard to the strengths and weaknesses of the petitioner’s case, to the extent to which construction was already underway, to the cost of delay and in the absence of an undertaking in damages from the petitioners, it would not be right to halt a major project of real importance to the economy of Belize.