TWENTY years on, and after 17 years on the bench, Justices of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) have repeatedly demonstrated why Caribbean citizens need to confide more in them.
But its judgments are not sufficiently communicated and explained to the region’s citizens, whether by the Court, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Bar Associations or national Judicial and Legal Service Commissions.
For example: The CCJ ruled ahead of a Barbados General Elections in favour of an appeal by CARICOM citizens working in Barbados for several years who qualified under law, but were disallowed from registering to vote. And in a more recent case, the judges ruled that a man can be raped.
Several rulings in Guyana’s courts have been either overturned, disallowed or adjusted by the CCJ; and in Dominica, too, judgments have caused discomfort to both government and private litigants.
But there’s an obvious disconnect between the capacity of lawyers in the four CARICOM member-states that have made the CCJ their final Appeals Court, and those in the 10 that haven’t said goodbye to the British Privy Council.
So, how do lawyers in states that haven’t made the CCJ their final Court of Appeal get up to speed on how to argue cases within the context of the Treaty of Chaguaramas (TOC)?
The answers are in a March 13, 2018 report on the CCJ’s website entitled, ‘Norman Manley Law School Wins 2018 CCJ International Moot Competition’, which looked at that year’s XII Annual CCJ International Law Moot Competition.
But then, what’s a ‘Moot’, and how does it work?
The CCJ Moot Competition was established in 2009 “as an in-person activity to orient law students in the processes and procedures of the court, while helping them become more familiar with the Court’s Original Jurisdiction (OJ)”, and it “focuses on the interpretation and application of the revised TOC”.
In its Original Jurisdiction (OD), the CCJ is an international court, and it’s the only court that has the authority to interpret the Treaty when there are disagreements concerning Freedom of Movement, Trade Services, and Movement of Money Within CARICOM, thereby allowing Countries, Businesses and Individuals to ask the Court to interpret the Treaty; and it’s Appellate Jurisdiction (AJ) makes it the region’s highest Appeals Court.
The Moot Competition is intended to familiarise law students with the TOC, and the workings of the CCJ’s OD, as well as to provide young jurists with opportunities to hone their talent, and to familiarise themselves with courtroom settings.
The CCJ Moots involve CARICOM’s six top law schools: UWI Cave Hill (Barbados), UWI St. Augustine (Trinidad & Tobago), Anton de Kom University of Suriname, University of Guyana, Hugh Wooding Law School (Trinidad & Tobago) and Norman Manley Law School (Jamaica).
President Sir Dennis Byron, in his final year in office back then, said the CCJ was “poised to contribute to positive change in the social order of our Caribbean societies, by delivering justice which is accessible, efficient and reflective of our values and mores”.
He also mentioned the positive difference the use of technology has made in the operations of the CCJ, saying, “This increased efficiency has resulted in a tremendous improvement to access to the Court.”
For instance, in 2016, only 18 cases were filed in the CCJ’s Appellate Jurisdiction, but that number almost doubled one year later, in 2017, to 35, a dramatic increase by 94 per cent.
Besides, most CCJ cases are disposed of within six months, from filing to the final judgment.
One of the members of the winning Jamaica team, Kimberly Blackwood, explained: “Having not acceded to the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Court, our [Jamaica-based] attorneys seldom get the opportunity to appear before judges of the CCJ; and being able to do this was just tremendous for us, and we had to seize that opportunity.”
Four years later, after a two-year hiatus caused by COVID-19 pandemic restrictions, the CCJ “decided to host a virtual moot, in keeping with its current practice of hearing matters virtually; and, notwithstanding the feelings of digital meeting fatigue often experienced by most students, six institutions competed in this year’s competition…”
Current CCJ President Adrian Saunders told the 2022 ceremony that hosting the annual Moot “is one way the Court can deliver greater awareness of the processes designed to promote regional integration within the framework of the RTC.”
He also hoped that by bringing the law students “face-to-face with the nuances of the revised Treaty, with the procedures for pursuing the rights bestowed by it, and with the Court that interprets and applies the Treaty, that this will ignite your passion as practitioners and scholars for the advancement of (Caribbean) Community law.”
The 2018 ‘mooters’ debated a hypothetical situation: “A CARICOM State imposed a tax on imported sugar-sweetened beverages, and a ban on advertisement of such beverages on TV and radio,” while the 2022 Moot’s scenario concerned: “Article 214 of the RTC, dealing with referrals from national courts to the CCJ, where the matter in question requires the interpretation and application of the RTC.”
The proceedings, and much more, can always be viewed on the CCJ’s website at www.ccj.org, but, here again, there’s need to avoid a dangerous region-wide overemphasis on the level of access available to the average Caribbean citizen with no residence Online, a number that’s grossly overlooked and underestimated by those living according to the Internet of Things.
Here, too, it’s important that the CCJ recognise that there’s a world-wide-web of a difference between making information theoretically ‘Accessible to all’, and the number of people who actually have the devices to practically access the information meant to be at their fingertips.
After all, access requires accessibility, which requires availability, which then requires the personal interest to use the tools at their fingertips to access knowledge more than entertainment, which, in this case, is a different matter.
And this is where the region’s media can make the difference.