PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – A new publication examining the various arguments for and against retaining the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court, has been presented to the President of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Trinidadian-born author, Sherese Chee Mook, presented the book “Sovereignty deconstructed and self-definition revisited: A perspective on the abolition or retention of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago” to the CCJ president Michael De la Bastide.
The 2010 publication provides a “balanced view” on the various arguments for and against the retaining of the Privy Council, while creating a discussion on the related issues of sovereignty and self-definition.
The book is one of the two published academic works of Chee Mook, who has also released a selection of legal essays covering the topics of Contract Law, Treaty Law, Law of Diplomatic Relations, International Comparative Law, and War, Law and Morality.
The CCJ was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court.
However, while Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have signed on to the original jurisdiction of the court that serves as an international tribunal to interpret the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs CARICOM, only Barbados, Guyana and Belize are signatories to the appellate jurisdiction of the Port of Spain-based court. (CMC)
