St Lucia congratulated, other CARICOM nations urged to make CCJ final court

The Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA) has congratulated St Lucia on making the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) its final court and urged the other 10 Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that have not already gone that route to make haste to do so.

St Lucia on Tuesday became the fifth CARICOM nation to accede to the CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction, joining Barbados, Belize, Dominica and Guyana.

“We offer our heartiest congratulations to the people of St. Lucia as well as to the St. Lucia Bar Association and our colleague attorneys-at-law who practise in that jurisdiction,” the Jamaica-based OCCBA said in a statement.

Other CARICOM member nations -Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago – have only acceded to the Trinidad-based court’s original jurisdiction under which it discharges the functions of an international tribunal, applying rules of international law in respect of the interpretation and application of the Treaty of Chaguaramas.

“As regards the timing and process of the CCJ becoming the final appellate court for the remaining 10 CARICOM jurisdictions that have not yet become full members of the CCJ, OCCBA recognises that each country will have their own processes and relevant legal and constitutional amendments as well as changes to other laws, regulations rules and codes.

“We implore those governments – particularly those presently undergoing constitutional reforms, such as Jamaica – to treat as an urgent imperative the necessary changes/reforms of the constitutional, legal and administrative frameworks geared towards the CCJ becoming the final appellate court.”

The OCCBA also urged the various Bar Associations to assume an active role in this important exercise and to lend their voice, experience and guidance aimed at achieving this objective.

“Our support for the CCJ has been consistently maintained and endorsed by the bar associations of the 15 member states comprising OCCBA. Many of these bar associations have supported the call for the CCJ to become the final appellate court for their jurisdiction. Their support includes resolutions of the various bar associations, support in public fora and debates as well as submissions to the various parliaments,” it noted.

Additionally, the association called on regional lawmakers to “take a considered/responsible approach to this important issue and to support the CCJ as the final appellate court for all Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions”.

“We make it clear that we are not taking political sides and do not intend to be embroiled in a political tug-of-war. Our support for the CCJ is based on a considered examination of the CCJ which is well established, financed and ready to work in the interest of dispensing justice in a fair and unbiased manner for all those seeking justice before that court,” it said.

The OCCBA outlines the reasons it supports the CCJ as the final appellate court for regional countries which have used the UK’s Privy Council as their final court.

The include that: it has seen changes to the CCJ as originally structured that will better secure its independence and ability to provide justice; the CCJ and its various support mechanisms and entities are now well structured to ensure and maintain the independence of the judiciary, attract the finest legal minds and to insulate them from political or other interference and to be adequately and securely funded; and access to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council is simply not available for the vast majority of CARICOM nationals.

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