GUYANA-Yet another plea for Caribbean countries to become full members of the CCJ.

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – A senior Guyana government minister has taken Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to task over the decision of some of them not to be full members of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) that was established two decades ago to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s highest and final Court.

“It is an oddity, some countries still prefer, six or seven decades after they have attained from Her Majesty’s government, continue to cling to an institution that is of a colonial creation, Her Majesty’s Privy Council and that remains an oddity, it flies in the face of Caribbean integration and regional unity,” said Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall.

Speaking on his weekly “Issues in the News” program on Tuesday night, Nandlall said that, even as regional countries preach regional integration and unity, some still do not see the need to make the CCJ their final Court.

“Most of the independent Caribbean territories have not signed on, and that is a travesty. We often speak about regional integration which is being passionately perused, we passionately pursue our rights as sovereign nations, issues such as regional unity, issues such as the creation of a common single market and economy and here it is that can’t get our acts together to support one of the most significant regional institutions in the Caribbean—the Caribbean Court of Justice,” he said.

The CCJ was established on February 14, 2001, and is intended to be a hybrid institution: a municipal court of last resort and an international court vested with original, compulsory, and exclusive jurisdiction over the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, and St. Lucia are full members of the Court. At the same time, all other CARICOM countries are signatories to the Court’s Original Jurisdiction, which serves as an international tribunal that interprets the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

“There is hardly another institution of greater significance than the CCJ, and countries in the Caribbean, which are otherwise the champions of regional causes, are not signing up to the most premier regional institution, the CCJ,” Nandlall told his viewers.

He said that the seat of the Court is based in Trinidad and Tobago, and yet that country “has not signed on.

‘No one can force a sovereign government to join the Court, but we have to exert more efforts in getting countries in the CARICOM region to sign on to the Appellate jurisdiction of the Court. One can’t fault the quality of jurisprudence.

Nandlall said that the quality of judgments emanating from the CCJ “can hold its own against any courts of similar jurisdiction,” he said, adding that he has appeared before the CCJ both as a private lawyer and as a government minister.

He said he has also appeared before international courts, having just returned from making an appearance before the Paris-based International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), and the Caribbean Court of Justice can stand and hold its own with any of these international tribunals.
“So it is really an enigma that it is not winning the support of the rest of the Caribbean, and we all have to work to change that,” he said.

Earlier this month, the CCJ President, Justice Winston Anderson, urged CARICOM countries that are not full members of the Trinidad-based Court to become members, saying that since its establishment 20 years ago, the CCJ has produced a well-deserved and proud record.

Addressing a special sitting to commemorate his inauguration as the fourth president of the CCJ, Justice Anderson said that first and foremost, the emphasis will be on the continued production of superior judgments and that the CCJ has firmly rooted the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in the rule of law, ensuring the rights of all Caribbean citizens are respected.

“A sense of belonging to a community governed by law has begun to take shape in our region,” he said about the CSME, which allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labor, and services across the region.

The Jamaican-born jurist, who was sworn into office in Jamaica in July, said he hopes to continue advancing the efficiency and transparency of the CCJ’s work during his tenure, noting that, in the 20 years of its existence, the CCJ has accumulated a significant body of judicial precedent.

He said the Court has delivered a total of 347 decisions comprising 40 in the Original Jurisdiction (OJ), including an advisory opinion, and 307 decisions in the Appellate Jurisdiction (AJ).