It’s painful to have to justify CCJ’s legitimacy, competence – Justice Saunders

…says regarded with utmost respect in the world, except in Anglo-Caribbean

For close to two decades, the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has prided itself in leading by example and being a model of judicial excellence.
Notwithstanding, only four of the 15 Caribbean Community (Caricom) nations—Guyana, Barbados, Belize, and Dominica—have made the CCJ their final appellate court, replacing the London-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council.

While addressing a recent dinner to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Court of Appeal of Jamaica, CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders renewed his call for the remaining 11 member countries of Caricom to join the CCJ and make it the official judicial arm of Caricom.
In its Original Jurisdiction, the CCJ is an international court with exclusive jurisdiction to interpret and apply the rules set out in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC)—which established Caricom and the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).
In its Appellate Jurisdiction, the CCJ is the final court of appeal for criminal and civil matters for Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana that have altered their Constitutions to enable this.
The CCJ was inaugurated on April 16, 2005.

Advancing Region’s jurisprudence
During his remarks, President Saunders justified the decision taken by the Governments and Parliaments of Guyana, Barbados, Belize, and Dominica, and hopefully soon Saint Lucia to alter their Constitutions to send their appeals to the ‘Caribbean Court’.
Making his case for the other countries to join the CCJ, Justice Saunders reasoned that accession to the court offers the best opportunities for advancing both the Region’s jurisprudence as a whole and that of each State. Accession, he noted, also ensures that the children of the Region will be able to aspire to one day holding office of President of their own final court of appeal.
The St Vincent and the Grenadines-born Judge expressed that it is painful to have to justify the legitimacy and competence of the Region’s final court and its judicial complement.
He said it is especially egregious that one must do so in the face of contrary views from the most unlikely sources, noting that he expected this when the CCJ just started, but not after 17 years.
“Not after a record of efficient service; not after a fair body of jurisprudence has been built up that can easily be assessed, analysed, and compared. Remarkably, it is only in the English-speaking Caribbean that the merit and worth of the CCJ are questioned. In the rest of the world and even among our colleagues in the United Kingdom, the CCJ is regarded with utmost respect.”
According to the esteemed jurist, the highest courts internationally including those of the United Kingdom (including the Privy Council) cite CCJ judgements with the same high regard as the CCJ cites theirs. But still, he noted, there remains, in some quarters in the Region, the notion that the Judges of the CCJ are not or cannot be objective; that they are or can be ‘reached’ by politicians; that Caribbean Judges can’t be trusted because our societies are too small and so on and so on.
Remarking on the progressive work of the court, Justice Saunders said, “I am also satisfied that, both in the original jurisdiction and especially in those States that have given us the honour of hearing their final appeals, we have contributed to clarifying and elevating the rule of law.”

Accessible, fair, efficient justice
Over the years, he pointed out that the CCJ has also paid tremendous attention to its underlying administrative and other processes that support the receiving, processing, and adjudication of its caseload and outreach initiatives. “Our aim is truly to live our mission to provide ‘accessible, fair and efficient justice for the people and States of the Caribbean Community’ and to realise our vision, which is ‘To be a model of judicial excellence’. The aim of the CCJ is to lead by example.”
Earlier this year, while delivering remarks at the Bar Association of Guyana annual dinner, Justice Saunders said that he and every CCJ Judge are bombarded with questions from every regional journalist about those countries that have not yet “demonstrated the same faith, or that, for whatever other reason, have not yet acceded to our appellate jurisdiction”.
Addressing this issue, the CCJ President underscored that, “Whether a State chooses to continue having Her Majesty’s Privy Council adjudicate its final appeals is of course a fundamental constitutional question for that Government and its people. It is disappointing, however, that any Caribbean country should renege on its treaty responsibilities preferring instead to have British Judges continue to interpret its Constitution and laws.”
“But it is a choice that has consequences. I have already alluded to one such choice. People of ordinary means are deprived of the ability to avail themselves of a level of access to justice that they could and should enjoy…” he noted in his remarks to celebrate the court’s anniversary.
Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica – the two most populous Caricom states—were at the forefront of the establishment of the CCJ as the Anglophone Caribbean’s final appeal court.
But ironically, to date, they still use Her Majesty’s Privy Council.
At the Bar dinner, he had even pointed out that during the years that Guyana had a single appellate tier, the justice system in the country did not flourish as well as it could otherwise have.
He, however, added that by the time the CCJ was launched in 2005, the Guyana judicial system had not kept abreast of all the reform initiatives that had swept through much of the Region in the ‘90s and early part of this century. But fast forward to two decades later, Justice Saunders applauded Guyana for having a justice system that is now dynamic, responsive, and innovative.
The regional court, which has a Bench of seven Judges presided over by its President, is the realisation of a vision of our ancestors, an expression of independence, and a signal of the Region’s coming of age, noted the court in its about information. (G1)