– trio of significant developments
AS the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) approaches its seventh anniversary of operations this weekend since its inauguration on April 16, 2005 in Port-of-Spain, there are three related developments of significance worth noting: + Perhaps most important is the just recent call by its President, Sir Dennis Byron, to Caricom countries to complete their political independence from Britain by replacing the Privy Council as their final appellate court.
+ Secondly, years after Barbados and Guyana were the only two Caricom states to access the CCJ as their court of last resort, followed in 2011 by Belize’s membership, Dominica last month announced its readiness to push ahead with arrangements to be the fourth Community partner to cut colonial links with the Privy Council and have the regional court as its final appellate institution.
+ Thirdly, a week from today the CCJ will, for the first time since its historic inauguration, sit in Barbados on April 18. The occasion will mark the start of hearing of the sensational case brought against Barbadian immigration authorities by a 22-year-old Jamaican woman, Shanique Myrie, for an alleged “cruel and vulgar cavity search” on March 14 last year, as claimed in an affidavit.
Over the years, prior to the inauguration of the CCJ and since it became the norm for government spokesmen to engage in rhetoric of support for, or delaying access to the CCJ as a court of final resort. Often, they did so without taking time to sensitise the people of their respective jurisdictions why it is really essential to maintain a colonial dependence on the Privy Council—sadly even in the face of Britain’s own anxiety for this to occur.
Although the first President of the CCJ, Trinidad and Tobago’s Michael de la Bastide, was known to be quite keen for the regional court to be fully representative of the member states of the Caribbean Community, and would often allude to this desire, current President Sir Dennis, seems to think it necessary to go public in a more specific appeal to the region’s political directorate to end the delay in cutting the apron string with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and access the regional court.
He would not have been unaware, as he did, that with precious few exceptions—Trinidad and Tobago’s Chief Justice, Ivor Archie, among them—of the prevailing reluctance to go public with persuasive pleas in favour of the CCJ.
Further, Sir Dennis must also know that there are Heads of Government in Caricom, including the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (Kamla Persad-Bissessar) as well of his own native homeland, St Kitts and Nevis, (Denzil Douglas) who are yet to make any definitive statement in favour of going beyond the CCJ as a court of ‘original jurisdiction’ in settlement of bilateral disputes, trade and otherwise.
GAMBLING ON RISK?
Was it then a shot in the dark by Sir Dennis, a wake-up call to end political slumbering on a fundamental issue relating to the development of a West Indian jurisprudence; or the gambling on a risk that could deliver positive responses, and not negative political repercussions, in some regional jurisdictions?
There are well placed Caribbean nationals who, while being quite supportive of the CCJ, feel that it should not be a function of the President of the CCJ to be openly canvassing governments to sever the colonial relationship with the Privy Council in favour of accessing the regional court.
Against this background what could, ironically, generate or excite popular regional interest in having the CCJ, instead of appealing to the Privy Council, is the coming public hearing next week of the case by Jamaica’s Shanique Myrie, against the Barbados immigration authorities on the claimed “cruel and vulgar cavity search” at Grantley Adams International Airport, prior to her deportation on March 14 last year.
So far as the widening of membership of the CCJ is concerned, the Prime Minister of Dominica, Roosevelt Skerrit, is to be commended for following the path taken by his Belizean counterpart, Dean Barrow, to end the rhetoric in favour of constitutional arrangements to replace the Privy Council with the regional court.
The Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, was the first leader of the OECS sub-region to take the initiative to move in this direction, as outlined in an approved parliamentary motion for a national referendum to end the current monarchical system of government.
He lost the referendum but remains committed to having the CCJ as his country’s final appeal court. Perhaps it’s time for us to hear on this issue from, for instance, the Prime Ministers of Trinidad and Tobago; Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis; St, Lucia, Grenada and Jamaica as well.