CCJ celebrates 16 years of service to the Region

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the final court of appeal for Guyana and three other countries, marked its sixteenth anniversary on Friday, April 16, 2021. The CCJ was inaugurated in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago on April 16, 2005. It presently has a bench of seven Judges presided over by its President Justice Adrian Saunders.
The CCJ has an Original and an Appellate Jurisdiction. It is effectively two courts in one. In its Original Jurisdiction, it is an international court with exclusive jurisdiction to interpret and apply the rules in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) and to decide disputes arising under it.
The RTC established the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). In its Original Jurisdiction, the CCJ is critical to the CSME and all 12 Member States which belong to the CSME (including their citizens, businesses, and governments) can access the Court’s Original Jurisdiction to protect their rights under the RTC.
In its Appellate Jurisdiction, the CCJ is the final court of appeal for criminal and civil matters for those countries in the Caribbean that alter their national Constitutions to enable the CCJ to perform that role. At present, four states access the Court in its Appellate Jurisdiction, these being Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana.
However, by signing and ratifying the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice, Caricom Member States have demonstrated a commitment to making the CCJ their final court of appeal. The CCJ is the culmination of the integration ideals of early Caribbean visionaries and an expression of independence and a signal of the region’s coming of age.