UNCOMPLIMENTARY views understandably continue to be expressed over the Dominica Government’s decision to nominate and campaign for Baroness Scotland of Britain to contest the coming election in Malta for a new Secretary General of the Commonwealth, in preference to Sir Ronald Sanders who enjoys overwhelming CARICOM support as a regional candidate.

In contrast, however, the success by Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit’s government in severing his old colonial link with Britain’s Privy Council in favour of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as Dominica’s final appellate court, is being positively viewed as a welcome development within the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) — the first member country of the sub-region to have done so.

Establishment of the CCJ by unanimous agreement of Caribbean Community Heads of Government is certainly one of the most enlightened, historic decisions in favour of the regional integration movement now in its 42nd year.

Next month, on April 16, will mark the tenth anniversary of the CCJ, headquartered in Port-of Spain where its inauguration ceremony had taken place.
Its establishment was financed with a US$100 million loan raised on the international money market by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB), and with Barbados and Guyana being the first members of the regional court.

The momentous initiative somehow got stuck in the proverbial mud with eight of a dozen eligible member states having trapped themselves with self-serving language that mocks
their claim to be “free” of the vestiges of colonialism.
JAMAICA/T&T
Ironically, among the eight are Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, the first two CARICOM countries to sever the colonial relationship with Britain but where successive administrations in Kingston remain politically crippled by their own contradictory posturings to embrace the CCJ, as Jamaica’s court of last resort instead of maintaining access to Britain’s Privy Council.
Consequently, amid all the pathetic double-speak, particularly in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, involving not just politicians but also some leading legal and media minds – the more so in Kingston than Port-of-Spain — only a quartet of CARICOM member countries have replaced Britain’s Privy Council as their final appellate institution.
Along with new-comer Dominica, they comprise the first two, Barbados and Guyana, and, as of last year Belize. The CCJ is empowered to deal with all legal matters that normally occupy the attention of local courts of appeal. Further, instead of continuing the dependency syndrome on rulings by Britain’s privy council, it is empowered to function as the final appeal court for member states of the Community that access its jurisdiction.
The problem is that those deeply affected by a colonial mentality of bygone years, when the Union Jack fluttered over local parliament and court buildings, are yet to pay heed to the harsh reality that outstanding British law lords are themselves signaling their preference for an end to the burden they have in dealing also with appeals that could now be effectively addressed by courts of independent nations once former colonies of the United Kingdom
What self-contempt by the reactionary, anti-CCJ lobby. How pathetic!!
(Rickey Singh is a noted Caribbean journalist based in Barbados)

The problem is that those deeply affected by a colonial mentality of bygone years, when the Union Jack fluttered over local parliament and court buildings, are yet to pay heed to the harsh reality that outstanding British law lords are themselves signaling their preference for an end to the burden they have in dealing also with appeals that could now be effectively addressed by courts of independent nations once former colonies of the United Kingdom. What self-contempt by the reactionary, anti-CCJ lobby. How pathetic!!

Analysis by
Rickey Singh