Responding to a question during his weekly radio call in programme “Ask the Prime Minister,” Douglas said St Kitts and Nevis would proceed to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), as part of the collective body that presently utilizes the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) system. “I have been advised of this sometime ago. We do not necessarily have to hold a referendum if we want to advance to the CCJ as our final appellate court rather than utilizing the (London-based) British Appellate Court,” said Douglas, who said he was willing to check with legal advisers to see if the position remains the same.
“We support the CCJ. We are not against it for we support it, but we will advance with the other OECS countries as the entirety of the OECS Supreme court system,” said Douglas.
Of all the CARICOM member countries only Barbados and Guyana have the CCJ as their final appellate court.
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is the regional judicial tribunal established by the “Agreement establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice.” It had a long gestation period commencing in 1970 when the Jamaican delegation at the Sixth Heads of Government Conference, which convened in Jamaica, proposed the establishment of a Caribbean Court of Appeal in substitution for the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
The Caribbean Court of Justice has been designed to be more than a court of last resort for Member States of the Caribbean Community. For, in addition to replacing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the CCJ will be vested with an original jurisdiction in respect of the interpretation and application of the Treaty Establishing the Caribbean Community. In effect, the CCJ would exercise both an appellate and an original jurisdiction.
In the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, the CCJ will consider and determine appeals in both civil and criminal matters from common law courts within the jurisdictions of Member states of the Community and which are parties to the Agreement Establishing the CCJ. In the discharge of its appellate jurisdiction, the CCJ will be the highest municipal court in the Region.
In the exercise of its original jurisdiction, the CCJ will be discharging the functions of an international tribunal applying rules of international law in respect of the interpretation and application of the Treaty.
By interpreting and applying the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which establishes the CSME, the CCJ will determine in a critical way how the CSME functions.
Member States signing on to the agreement establishing the CCJ agree to enforce its decisions in their respective jurisdictions like decisions of their own superior courts.
October 15, 2009
caribbeannetnews
