As they Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) approaches its seventh anniversary since its inauguration on April 16, 2005, in Port of Spain, there are three related developments worth noting.
Perhaps most important is the recent call by its President Sir Dennis Byron to Caribbean Community countries to complete their political independence from Britain by replacing the Privy Council as their final appellate court.
Secondly, years after Barbados and Guyana were the only two CARICOM states to access the CCJ as their court of last resort, followed in 2011 by Belize’s membership, Dominica last month announced its readiness to push ahead with arrangements to be the fourth community partner to cut colonial links with the Privy Council and have the regional court as its final appellate institution.
Thirdly, the CCJ will, for the first time since its historic inauguration, sit in Barbados on April 18. The occasion will mark the start of hearing the sensational case brought against Barbadian immigration authorities by a 22-year-old Jamaican woman, Shanique Myrie, for an alleged “cruel and vulgar cavity search” on March 14 last year, as claimed in an affidavit.
Over the years, prior to the inauguration of the CCJ and since, it became the norm for government spokesmen to engage in rhetoric about support for or delaying access to the CCJ as a court of last resort.
Often, they did so without taking time to tell the people of their respective jurisdictions why [they thought] it was essential to maintain a colonial dependence on the Privy Council – sadly even in the face of Britain’s own anxiety for this to occur.
Although the first president of the CCJ, Trinidad and Tobago’s Michael de la Bastide, was known to be quite keen for the regional court to be fully representative of Caribbean Community member states and would often allude to this desire, current president Sir Dennis seems to think it necessary to go public in a more specific appeal to the region’s political directorate to end the delay in cutting the apron strings with the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and access the regional court.
He would not have been unaware, as he did, that with precious few exceptions – Trinidad and Tobago’s Chief Justice Ivor Archie among them – of the prevailing reluctance to go public with persuasive pleas in favour of the CCJ.
Further, Sir Dennis must also know that there are Heads of Government in CARICOM, including Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar and Prime Minister Denzil Douglas in his own homeland, St Kitts-Nevis, who are yet to make any definitive statement in favour of going beyond the CCJ as a court of “original jurisdiction” to settle bilateral disputes, trade and otherwise.
Gambling on risk?
Was it then a shot in the dark by Sir Dennis, a wake-up call to end political slumbering on a fundamental issue relating to the development of West Indian jurisprudence?
Or gambling on a risk that could deliver positive responses, and not negative political repercussions, in some regional jurisdictions?
There are well placed Caribbean nationals who, while being quite supportive of the CCJ, feel that it should not be a function of the CCJ president to be openly canvassing governments to sever their colonial relationships with the Privy Council in favour of accessing the regional court.
Against this background, what could ironically generate or excite popular regional interest in having the CCJ instead of the Privy Council is the public hearing next week of the case brought by Jamaica’s Shanique Myrie against Barbados Immigration regarding the “cavity search” she underwent at Grantley Adams International Airport prior to her deportation on March 14 last year.
So far as widening the membership of the CCJ is concerned, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit is to be commended for following the path taken by his Belizean counterpart Dean Barrow and end the rhetoric in favour of constitutional arrangements to replace the Privy Council with the regional court.
Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, was the first leader of the OECS subregion to take the initiative to move in this direction, as outlined in an approved parliamentary motion for a national referendum to end the current monarchical system of government.
He lost the referendum but remains committed to having the CCJ as his country’s final appeal court.
Perhaps it’s time for us to hear on this issue from, for instance, the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua and Barbuda, St Kitts-Nevis, St Lucia, Grenada, and Jamaica as well.
