Everything about The Caribbean Court Of Justice totally explained
The
Caribbean Court of Justice (
Dutch:
Caribisch Hof van Justitie,
French:
Cour Caribéenne de Justice often abbreviated
CCJ) is an institution in
Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago of the
Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is the Caribbean regional judicial tribunal established on 14 February 2001 by the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice. The agreement was signed on that date by the CARICOM states of: Antigua & Barbuda; Barbados; Belize; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; St. Kitts & Nevis; St. Lucia; Suriname; and Trinidad & Tobago. Two further states, Dominica and St. Vincent & The Grenadines, signed the agreement on 15 February 2003, bringing the total number of signatories to 12. The Bahamas and Haiti, though full members of CARICOM, are not yet signatories, and because of its status as a British colony, Montserrat must await Instruments of Entrustment from the UK in order to ratify . The Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice came into force on 23 July 2003, and the CCJ was inaugurated on 16 April 2005 in Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, the Seat of the Court.
The CCJ is intended to be a hybrid institution: a municipal court of last resort and an international court with compulsory and exclusive jurisdiction in respect of the interpretation and application of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. On the one hand, it's vested with an original and compulsory jurisdiction with respect to the interpretation and application of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. In the exercise of this jurisdiction, the CCJ will discharge the functions of an international tribunal, applying rules of international law in respect of the interpretation and application of the treaty. the CCJ would thus be performing functions like the European Court of Justice, the Andean Court of Justice and the International Court of Justice. On the other, it exercises an appellate jurisdiction, as a final court of appeal for CARICOM member states, replacing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) for Anglophone member states. In the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, the CCJ hears appeals from common law courts within the jurisdictions of parties to the Agreement Establishing the CCJ, and will be the highest municipal court in the region.
The court was first proposed in
1970. The official inauguration was held in Queen's Hall -
Port of Spain,
Trinidad and Tobago on Saturday
16 April 2005.
As of 2005 the court's appellate jurisdiction is limited to only the CARICOM states of
Barbados and
Guyana. The first case heard by the CCJ was in August 2005
(External Link
) the case was to settle a 'decade-long' libel court case from Barbados.
The reasons given for the establishment of a supreme appellate court are many and varied, including a perceived regional disenfranchisement with the
British Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.
Controversy surrounding the establishment of this court corresponds to two major events that made the Privy Council unpopular in the Caribbean region.
One reason was the refusal of the Privy Council to allow
capital punishment for persons convicted of murder to be practiced in Caribbean states, even where a majority of the people in the relevant jurisdictions supported the death penalty.
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The second main issue was a case involving the government of
Antigua and Barbuda, where the Privy Council handed out a radio license to a company on behalf of the aforementioned government without its approval or consent. The British-based court has been perceived as having too much power in the Caribbean region.
Several politicians also lamented that the Caribbean nations are the only remaining region of the old British Empire still to rely on the British court system for appeals.
It is expected that the two Caribbean states that will have the most difficulty accessing the court will be
Suriname which has a
Dutch-based legal system, and
Haiti which has a
French-based legal system. All other member states have British-based legal systems with the CCJ itself being predominantly modeled after the British system.
Judges
As of September 24th 2006:
Further Information
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