Jamaica passes first bill to establish Caribbean Court

KINGSTON, Jamaica: Parlia-ment approved the first of three bills required to replace London’s Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice. Governing legislators passed the constitutional amendment bill in a 33-20 vote Tuesday evening. The vote moves Jamaica a step closer to adopting the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate body for Jamaica and several other islands in the English-speaking Caribbean. Jamaica’s Senate passed the bill earlier this year. Opposition leader Edward Seaga repeated his party’s objections to the court, calling it an unpatriotic attempt to undermine Jamaica’s sovereignty in favour of a Caribbean federation of states.

“These diversions from the true national goal of Jamaica’s development can only be denounced as an unpatriotic surrender of national sovereignty for dreams of a dubious Caribbean destiny,” Seaga said. His Jamaica Labour Party has called for a referendum on the Caribbean Court of Justice, a suggestion rejected by Prime Minister PJ Patterson. During debate on the bill, Patterson said adoption of the court would bolster Jamaica’s autonomy by shedding the colonial-era Privy Council, used in the region for more than 170 years. “I do not believe we should depend on the decision of any foreign power for access to (its) court,” Patterson said.

Seaga and several civic groups are challenging the establishment of the court in a case expected to be heard by the Privy Council later this year. Legislators will debate the other two bills on the court pending the Privy Council’s ruling. Jamaica is the only country in the region where the court is being disputed. The Trinidad-based court is scheduled to be inaugurated in November.