EDINBURG, Scotland, CMC- President of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Courtroom of Justice (CCJ) Justice Adrian Saunders says regardless of its challenges, the Courtroom, which was established to interchange the London-based Privy Council because the area’s closing and highest Courtroom, “stays resilient and optimistic.”
The CCJ was established in 2001. Whereas many of the Caribbean Group (CARICOM) international locations are signatories to its Authentic Jurisdiction, solely Barbados, Belize, Dominica, St. Lucia, and Guyana are members of its Appellate Jurisdiction. As well as, the CCJ features as a global court docket decoding the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which governs the regional integration motion.
Delivering the annual Macfadyen Lecture right here, Justice Saunders spoke on the theme “Caribbean Courtroom of Justice at 20 years,” offering an in-depth examination of the regional Courtroom.
“I imagine that it says one thing for the vitality of the rule of regulation within the Caribbean that every one the judgments of the CCJ have been absolutely and promptly complied with, particularly provided that, in not a couple of of those instances, incumbent governments have been on the dropping aspect of the litigation, and the orders made by the Courtroom should have been very bitter drugs to swallow,” he advised the viewers.
He mentioned that regardless of the challenges, the CCJ stays “resilient and optimistic” and that the judges and employees of the Courtroom are absolutely cognizant that establishing the CCJ “is probably essentially the most impactful resolution ever made by the Caribbean Group.”
“We see ourselves as stewards. As ought to be the case in a well-functioning democracy, a wholesome dialogue happens between the CCJ and the Parliaments of the varied States by means of our decision-making.
“In not a couple of situations, legislatures have enacted new or amended current laws and authorized procedures to accord both with our judgments or intimations contained in these judgments.”
Justice Saunders mentioned that no court docket wherever on this planet can actually state that it has attained perfection, however each Courtroom should repeatedly intention for perfection.
“A court docket is one in every of excellence if it all the time so strives, and, on this regard, the CCJ makes each effort to stay as much as its imaginative and prescient “To be a Mannequin of Judicial Excellence.”
The Macfadyen Lecture sequence was established in 2010 by the Scottish Council of Legislation Reporting to commemorate the late Lord Macfadyen, who had served as a member of the Council. The annual occasion invitations esteemed jurists from world wide to debate essential features of regulation and the administration of justice.
In his handle, Justice Saunders emphasised the CCJ’s imaginative and prescient of being a mannequin of judicial excellence regardless of social challenges, including, “I hope I’ve not painted too rosy an image of a court docket that faces essential challenges.”
He mentioned the primary problem confronted by the CCJ in pursuing its mandate, which is to play “a determinative position within the additional improvement of Caribbean jurisprudence by means of the judicial course of,” is the comparatively modest uptake in instances filed in each the Authentic and Appellate jurisdictions.
“The explanations for this are assorted. Within the Authentic Jurisdiction, the majority of the authorized fraternity within the Caribbean will not be significantly skilled in litigation primarily based on worldwide regulation. Nor are the legal professionals well-versed within the provisions of the Revised Treaty.
“They’re typically, due to this fact, not significantly alert to advise on or exploit potential alternatives for advancing their shoppers’ causes in issues associated to the Revised Treaty. Then again, municipal judges haven’t referred any of the few disputes which have come earlier than them which may gain advantage from an interpretation by the CCJ of this or that provision of the Treaty.”
Justice Saunders mentioned that to attempt to handle this drawback, during the last two years, the CCJ has been internet hosting a sequence of seminars with these stakeholders and the enterprise neighborhood to elucidate the provisions of the Revised Treaty, the rights it confers on Caribbean nationals, and the position of home courts in implementing the Revised Treaty.
He mentioned the European Union has offered funding for that mission.
He advised the viewers that within the Appellate Jurisdiction, the query all the time requested of the CCJ is why lower than one-half of eligible Caribbean states altered their Constitutions to accede to the Appellate Jurisdiction of the CCJ.
“Why don’t the opposite states additionally ship their closing appeals to a court docket for which their tax {dollars} have been handsomely paid? The explanations listed here are additionally assorted. One in all them is that extraordinary constitutional hurdles should first be overcome.”
Justice Saunders mentioned Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda, for instance, have been saddled with independence constitutional provisions that require these governments to acquire a certified parliamentary majority in help of the measure and garner a two-thirds vote at a well-liked referendum.
“On three separate events, the governments of those two States simply obtained the certified parliamentary majority, however on every incidence, the measure failed on the stage of the favored referendum.”
Justice Saunders mentioned in Jamaica, the place the Structure doesn’t ostensibly prohibit parliament by peculiar majority from altering that nation’s Structure when the Jamaica parliament did so in 2004 utilizing a naked parliamentary majority, “the Privy Council, overriding the native courts, voided the measure by implying into the Structure the necessity for at the least a certified majority parliamentary vote.”
The St. Vincent and Grenadines-born jurist mentioned that, fairly aside from the target constitutional hurdles, there are different elements at play.
“In any nation, only some instances ever attain the ultimate appellate Courtroom. Within the international locations that haven’t but acceded, the lots nonetheless know comparatively little of the CCJ or absolutely admire its seminal worth to growing Caribbean society and jurisprudence.
“Many take into account that there are way more essential bread and butter points with which their authorities ought to concern itself. It’s also true that, regardless of the spectacular institutional and administrative measures employed by the CCJ to make sure transparency, consistency, entry to justice, and judicial independence, some folks nonetheless take into account that British justice will all the time be purer.”
Justice Saunders, who formally retires from workplace on July 3 this yr, mentioned regrettably that such pondering can also be a legacy of colonialism.
“To be truthful although, typically talking, there may be not the very best regard for municipal and State establishments within the area. Solely the international locations of Barbados, The Bahamas, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Dominica be part of the UK in rating within the prime 20 p.c of Transparency Worldwide’s 2024 Corruption Notion Index, and lots of individuals make no distinction between the CCJ, a self-governing worldwide entity, and native municipal establishments.”
He mentioned that blended messaging from London has not helped.
“Take into account these two associated questions. In precept, Is an unbiased, well-staffed Caribbean court docket essentially the most appropriate car for figuring out Caribbean closing appeals? Are the UK’s prime judges spending an inordinate period of time within the Privy Council listening to appeals that ought to ideally be heard by a Caribbean court docket explicitly established to hear to those appeals?
“It’d shock you to study that for the reason that Settlement Establishing the CCJ was signed, fulsome however contradictory solutions to those simple questions have been publicly superior by essentially the most senior British judges,” Justice Saunders advised the viewers.
He mentioned essentially the most essential roles of a closing appellate Caribbean court docket are to guard and advance democracy and the rule of regulation and to expound the nation’s written Structure.
“In fulfilling these roles, it’s typically essential to sort out tough or ‘gray areas’ of the regulation and, within the course of, to weigh and choose one of many nearly equally persuasive contending views. Acceptable decision of those gray areas essentially entails judgment and a component of judicial policy-making.
“Legislation, in any case, will not be arithmetic, and a written Structure is to not be interpreted as one may a Tax Code. The development of a Structure can’t be divorced from its social, environmental, and cultural context and a deep appreciation of its historic roots.
“Judges who’re naturally alienated from the heartbeat of a society, from the narrative that guides and animates that society and who don’t personally expertise the implications of the choices they make will not be ideally positioned to supply binding prescriptions to manipulate that society.”
He mentioned that the CCJ has heard at the least 37 instances in its Authentic Jurisdiction and Appellate Jurisdiction. The CCJ is greatest recognized for its judgments that advance the rule of regulation and handle circumstances the place litigants search redress for alleged breaches of their constitutional rights.
