A Guide to Litigating Identity Systems
remedies and limiting function creep, that provides a variety of arguments
useful for challenging identity systems.
JULIAN J. ROBINSON V. THE ATTORNEY
GENERAL OF JAMAICA
16. The third case is Julian J. Robinson v. The Attorney General of Jamaica from
2019.11 The proposed Jamaican identity system would have required the
collection of biometric data from all Jamaican citizens and those residing in
Jamaica for more than six months.12 Those individuals would then be issued a
unique identity number, with verification of the number required for the
provision of any public goods or services and even some private services.13
The Jamaican judgment was delivered in three opinions written by Justice
Sykes, Justice Batts, and Justice Palmer Hamilton, with the Jamaican
Supreme Court ultimately rejecting a proposed identity system. The court
found the dissent from Aadhaar particularly persuasive, using its reasoning to
find that privacy rights violations implicated by a compulsory identity scheme
could not be justified by the system’s potential benefits.14 The court also
found that the Jamaican system was unconstitutional because of a violation
of the right to equality, as foreign nationals in Jamaica would not be subject
to the identity system requirements.15
11
Julian J. Robinson v. The Attorney General of Jamaica, Claim No. 2018HCV01788 (2019).
12
Julian J. Robinson, ¶ 31.
13
Julian J. Robinson, ¶ 31.
14
Julian J. Robinson, ¶ 247 (B)(52).
15
Julian J. Robinson, ¶ 247 (A)(16).
12