AG: Caribbean Court by Nov...if Opposition agrees

By November our highest court of appeal will no longer be the British Privy Council but the new Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), disclosed Attorney General Glenda Morean-Phillip.

She was addressing a media conference at her office yesterday after the first meeting of the task force formed to organise the court’s inauguration. Eight task force members were also present, including ACP (Special Branch) Frank Diaz. Saying that the agreement to establish the court had been signed by the former UNC government in 2001 and ratified by the current Government in 2002, she effused: “We are now in the home stretch of establishing the court.” Morean-Phillip said the court would not only be regional countries’ highest appellate court, but would also be an international court to adjudicate on issues on the treaty which establishes Caricom. 

A booklet issued to reporters stated: “The Caribbean Court of Justice will be called on to apply and interpret the Treaty of Chaguaramas as revised to create the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.” Morean explained that to give effect to this treaty locally, our Parliament had to pass enabling legislation. She said: “We are in the process of having that drafted. It should be brought to Parliament in the next two or three months.” Later she was asked whether she expected she would require Opposition support for such a bill. Morean-Philip replied: “If - and we expect we will do that -  it contains provisions for the court to be the last or appellate court, then we would need a special majority, which would mean that the cooperation of the Opposition would be necessary. This is part of their own process, a process that was actually continued during their term. I don’t think this would be an apt case to say ‘constitutional reform’ before the court is established. So we would look forward to their cooperation in this effort.”

Task Force co-ordinator, Sheldon McDonald, a Jamaican attorney based at Caricom headquarters in Guyana, interjected that by May the 11-member regional judicial services commission would be established and would start recruiting judges and by November there would be a functioning court. How momentous an event would the establishment of a Caribbean top appellate court be? Morean-Phillip replied: “That’s the moment of the century. That should be our final act towards full sovereignty.” McDonald added: “I can think of no other event outside of the founding of the Caribbean Community itself which will be as epoch-making. It will be the first court which will be a municipal tribunal of last resort for probably 10 or 12 sovereign states as well as being an international judicial tribunal charged with interpretation and application of a regional economic integration regime.”