KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC—President of the Caribbean Court docket of Justice (CCJ) Adrian Saunders, on Tuesday welcomed Jamaican-born jurist Chantal Ononaiwu as the latest choose to the Trinidad-based remaining Court docket of the area, extolling her expertise and suggesting “ that the area would profit much more enormously from her tenure on the Court docket.”
Justice Ononaiwu, the second Jamaican nationwide to affix the CCJ, which was established in 2001 to interchange the London-based Privy Council because the area’s remaining Court docket, was sworn in at a ceremony performed by the Governor Normal of Jamaica, Sir Patrick Allen, at King’s Home right here.
Justice Saunders mentioned that the settlement establishing the CCJ requires not less than three judges to own experience in worldwide regulation, together with international commerce regulation.
“Madame Justice Ononaiwu will not be merely an skilled in worldwide regulation. She is extra particularly an skilled in worldwide commerce regulation and an lively practitioner within the discipline,” Justice Saunders mentioned, including that she has appeared as counsel earlier than the CCJ in most of the Court docket’s seminal instances coping with the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) Single Market and Economic system (CSME) that permits for the free motion of products, expertise, companies, and labor throughout the area.
He mentioned the brand new choose has expertise adjudicating World Commerce Group (WTO) worldwide commerce disputes.
“The job she beforehand held concerned negotiating worldwide commerce points on behalf of the Caribbean Group. Certainly, she led the coordination of CARICOM’s exterior commerce coverage. Caricom’s undoubted huge loss is the CCJ’s achieve, however I enterprise to counsel that the area would profit much more from her tenure on the Court docket,” Justice Saunders added.
Justice Ononaiwu was chosen from a pool of 12 candidates by the Regional Judicial and Authorized Companies Fee (RJLSC), an unbiased physique of 11 people liable for appointing the judges and employees of the Court docket.
Candidates will need to have both served as a choose for not less than 5 years or have a minimal of 15 years of expertise within the observe or educating of regulation. Moreover, candidates are evaluated on excessive ethical character, mental and analytical skills, sound judgment, integrity, and an understanding of individuals and society.
With over 20 years of authorized expertise, Justice Ononaiwu brings specialist experience in CARICM and worldwide regulation, together with international commerce regulation. Her assorted authorized background contains roles as an adjudicator, litigator, authorized advisor, and college lecturer.
Justice Ononaiwu additionally has vital experience in business regulation, having labored within the worldwide enterprise and monetary companies sector because the Director of Worth Proposition Improvement at Make investments Barbados.
Moreover, she served as Vice Chair of the Worldwide Chamber of Commerce Digital Requirements Initiative Authorized Reform Advisory Board. She has additionally lectured on worldwide commerce and funding regulation, public worldwide regulation, and prison regulation on the College of the West Indies.
Earlier than her appointment to the CCJ, she served as Director of Exterior Commerce on the CARICOM Secretariat and beforehand as a Commerce Coverage and Authorized Specialist.
“I’m honored to function a choose of the area’s highest Court docket. Our Caribbean Court docket of Justice performs a pivotal position in advancing the rule of regulation in CARICOM and constructing Caribbean jurisprudence.
“I’ll work assiduously with my colleagues in service of the Court docket’s mission to supply accessible, truthful, and environment friendly justice for the folks and states of the Group,” mentioned Justice Ononaiwu.
Her appointment fills the emptiness left by Justice Jacob Wit, one of many first judges appointed to the Court docket, who retired in December 2023 and died in January 2024.
The RJLSC will quickly announce the appointment of one other Choose and the Court docket’s fourth President, who will succeed Justice Andrew Burgess and Justice Saunders, respectively, upon their retirements in 2025.
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