by Oscar Ramjeet
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has been in operation for five-and-a-half years as a final appellate court, with only three countries on board, and already it is on the hunt for a new president and another judge, and one has already retired.
Guyanese Duke Pollard reached the age of 75 and went into retirement after being given a three-year extension.
President Michael De La Bastide, who celebrated his 73rd birthday on July 18 this year, will go into retirement mid-next year and the CCJ has already placed advertisements in the region’s media inviting applicants who have served as a judge for five years or more in a court of unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in the region, the Commonwealth or in a civil law jurisdiction.Applicants are also being encouraged from persons who have been engaged as a practitioner or teacher of law for not less than 15 years in a member state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) or in some part of the Commonwealth or in a civil law jurisdiction.
The CCJ notes that the tenure of the president is for a "non renewable term of seven years or until age 72, whichever is earlier.”
The lone female judge in the regional court, Desiree Bernard, will be 72, and if she does not get an extension, the CCJ will have to get a replacement and the question is if the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission will look for another female to fill the slot held by Justice Bernard who had several firsts -- the first solicitor to be appointed a judge, the first female to be appointed a judge in Guyana, first female to be an appellate court judge, also chief justice, and the first woman to be head of the judiciary in the Caribbean when she was named Chancellor of the Judiciary in Guyana more than a decade ago.
The regional court has the most modern technology in several areas -- for video conferencing, research, and even presentation in court -- and it is very unfortunate that after such a relatively long time only three countries have joined the court. It seems to me that the other countries have breached their agreement with the Caribbean Development Bank since they agreed to go on board within a reasonable time.
Although most of the countries have not abolished appeals to the Privy Council, so that the CCJ can be their final appellate court, the CCJ can still determine their issues in its original jurisdiction.
I am surprised and disappointed with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago because these two countries were in the forefront in the late 1980s and early 1990s towards the setting up of the court. I recall the attorneys general of these two countries, Oswald Harding of Jamaica, and Selwyn Richardson (now deceased) of Trinidad and Tobago, were moving around the region lobbying governments to join the CCJ, and it is unfortunate those two countries have not yet done so.
Trinidad and Tobago’s new prime minister, Kamla Persad Bissessar, said that she will seek a referendum from the electorate before doing so. This is a bit baffling because it was the UNC administration under Basdeo Panday which was pushing for the court -- hence the reason why the court is located in Port of Spain.
Former Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Shridath Ramphal, who has been advocating Caribbean integration for five decades, said in an interview with me that, if the CCJ collapses, the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) will fail.
Ramphal joined with four other eminent CARICOM nationals, former Jamaica prime minister, PJ Patterson; former CARICOM secretary general, Alister McIntyre; Dominica's president, Nicholas Liverpool; and University of the West Indies Vice Chancellor Sir George Alleyne, all recipients of the Order of the Caribbean Community (OCC), the highest award in the region, in calling on the other regional governments to rid themselves of the Privy Council and join the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ.
The latest call for the other regional governments to join the CCJ came this week from another distinguished Caribbean jurist, Patrick Robertson, president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, who said that the regional governments should have abolished appeals to the Privy Council since the day they became independent states.
So far, only Guyana, Barbados, and Belize have abolished appeals to the Privy Council. Let’s hope that the others will soon come on board.
October 19, 2010
caribbeannewsnow
