CCJ’s $2.5 million bash

TODAY’S gala inauguration ceremony for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) at Queen’s Hall, St Ann’s, will cost $2.5 million. This is only for the opening ceremony. There will be another huge bill when President George Maxwell Richards and First Lady Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards host “a black tie affair” at President’s House tonight to which hundreds of guests have been invited. The Judiciary will foot the bill for a cocktail reception for the visiting dignitaries which was hosted by Chief Justice Sat Sharma last night at the Hilton Hotel. The cost of the inauguration ceremony was revealed yesterday by Sir David Simmons, Chief Justice of Barbados, during a media conference at the CCJ temporary headquarters at the UTC building, Port-of-Spain. The CCJ will be located in a building on Henry Street, a cost which the TT Government is footing.

Simmons, who is also Chairman of the CCJ Regional Task Force, told journalists that the inauguration ceremony would cost US $398,000 ($2,503,420). He said the bill would be charged to the CCJ account, but pointed out that individual states would fund their delegations to the ceremony in Trinidad. Money has been allocated for rental of Queen’s Hall, equipment and furniture, security, food, drinks, decorations, transportation, hotel accommodation, artistes, and labour. President of the CCJ, Michael de la Bastide, told journalists that ten prime ministers of the region, along with several heads of the Judiciary, would be present for today’s ceremony. He said the leaders of the opposition in Caricom countries have also been invited to attend.

De la Bastide, a former Chief Justice of TT, said representatives of regional and international courts have also been invited. He pointed out that Lord Bingham, who heads the judges of the Privy Council, was invited. However, he said Lord Bingham cannot attend, but Lord Scott of Foscote would attend instead. The president of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, Dolliver Nelson, arrived in Trinidad last night for the ceremony. Pressed by journalists, de la Bastide acknowledged that the CCJ was coming on stream at a critical time when only Barbados and Guyana can appeal to the Caribbean court in its original and appellate jurisdiction. He pointed out that most Caribbean countries had passed legislation to appeal to the court in its original jurisdiction.

Simmons intervened and said that the Barbados government introduced three bills in its Parliament this week. He said Barbados had officially left the Privy Council on April 8, and that the attorney general Mia Mottley had indicated her intention to have her country up and running with the CCJ in May. When asked when he expected the CCJ to hear its first case, de la Bastide said that may take a while. He said the judges would now have to sit down and formulate rules of court for both the original and appellate jurisdictions. “I really hope we can complete this in a couple of months,” the CCJ president added. He also revealed that the court had to establish court registries in all member states. He said Barbados had given a cut-off date for the Privy Council, while Guyana, which left the Judicial Committee since 1970, would give a start-up date for the CCJ.

“I anticipate and hope it will be sooner rather than later. It is not in our hands,” de la Bastide added. The CCJ president anticipates no problems with only Barbados and Guyana aboard. “I cannot imagine what problems it may cause, except to make the rest of us a little ashamed. After 43 years of independence, imagine we cannot make our own judicial decisions, and we have to depend on Mother England.” Simmons, who was once the attorney general of Barbados, said there is a US$100 million trust fund to run the CCJ. He said the board of trustees comprise Caribbean persons in finance, business, labour, academia, law and judiciary. He said the Caribbean Development Bank raised the US$100 million, but this was only handed over to the trustees last week.