SAINT Lucia has easily cleared all remaining legal hurdles to join Guyana, Barbados, Belize and Dominica in making the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) its final Court of Appeal (CoA), thanks to Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre’s Saint Lucia Labour Party-led (SLP) administration’s clear fifteen-two majority in the 17-member parliament.

The island will become the fifth CARICOM member-state to so do after the parliamentary process was fast-tracked on February 28 – a week after its 44th independence anniversary on February 22 (and Guyana’s 53rd Republic Anniversary on February 23).

The debate in the Saint Lucia parliament featured several highlights of the CCJ’s regional and global significance, insulated as it is from political interference by governments through its independent funding base and respected by CARICOM leaders, none of which are known to have ever opposed the regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission’s recommendations for appointments of new judges to the court’s bench, or its President.

Access to the court is also much easier and less costly to the average CARICOM citizen than to the London-based Privy Council – and CCJ cases are heard online.
During his contribution to the marathon debate on the necessary amendment to the Saint Lucia Constitution, former Saint Lucia Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny D.

Anthony, who initially supervised the drafting of the agreement by the inimitable and distinguished Guyanese legal luminary Duke Pollard while serving as CARICOM’s General Counsel at its Secretariat in Georgetown in the mid-1990s, chided those, he said, insufficiently acknowledged the Caribbean’s high standing in legal and judicial world history.

He recalled the Caribbean’s historical contribution to development of the judiciary in Africa after independence, distinguished West Indian jurists serving among the first Chief Justices in Kenya, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zimbabwe (among others), in the defense trial of Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta – and more recently, in the Yugoslavia and Rwanda war tribunals, as well as on top judicial bodies in The Americas.

Dr. Anthony, now in private practice and a back-bencher in parliament since his sixth consecutive re-election in 2021, had responsibility for Justice during his three five-year terms as Saint Lucia’s Head of Government – and took umbrage to the view proffered by some in the local opposition United Workers Party (UWP) that the CCJ is “a creature of a UWI Cabal” (referring to The University of the West Indies).

He recalled the strong contribution of “others like Pollard” in preparing the CCJ legislation and defended the integrity of today’s CCJ judges and other top Caribbean jurists, many of whom emerged from The UWI’s Legal Faculties in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad & Tobago, as well, as the University of Guyana (UG).

Saint Lucia’s speedy completion of its CCJ journey cannot easily be repeated outside of a massive election victory or a successful referendum result, but the island never needed a referendum in present circumstances, despite one being demanded by ex-Prime Minister and current Opposition Leader Allen Chastanet ahead of the debate (which he boycotted).

The island will, therefore, soon join the four CARICOM member states that have benefitted from the collective and visionary wisdom of CCJ rulings, highlighting and underlining the fact that Caribbean jurists are no less-capable and more well-placed to deliver justice in this region than the UK-based Privy Council.

Indeed, the rate of hearings of Caribbean appeals at the Privy Council is historically very slow and low, with Saint Lucia registering only 17 appeals in 20 years.

The CCJ is both popular and unpopular for its fair rulings in cases of public interest, from hijacked elections in Guyana and CARICOM citizens’ right to vote in Barbados elections, to same-sex relationships and selective travel restrictions and discrimination against Freedom of Movement by Jamaican or Guyanese traders.

A fundamental point emerging from the debate, however, was that unless justice is accessible it cannot be delivered, a feature largely underlined by the comparative costs of access to the Privy Council and the CCJ.

Arguably, no other region in the developing world has defended its regional court greater than CARICOM; and none has had greater influence on the judicial and legal mechanisms of global justice in the past six decades.

It cannot be argued, however, that the Caribbean isn’t better set, with every new CARICOM member state joining the CCJ, to see regional citizens making more and better use of their court for appeals – and expressing more confidence in the demonstrated ability of Caribbean jurists to deliver justice on demand, across the region, in full – and on time.