CCJ judge says it's insulting to have Privy Council as final court

A member of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) told a Caribbean audience in New York Sunday it is an insult for the region to continue using the Privy Council as its final court of appeal.

Justice Adrian Saunders was speaking in Brooklyn at a luncheon to celebrate the independence of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

He acknowledged that there was a time when it was necessary for the regional states to use the British system but insisted that that is no longer so.

"In my view, it is an insult to the dignity of our people that we should continue to entrust the tasks of adjudging our disputes and protecting our democracy to the judges of another civilization, especially when we have established our own final court," he said.

Saunders said abolishing appeals to the Privy Council completes "our independence" and noted that the objections to the CCJ shows a lack of faith.

"It is this same scepticism, this absence of confidence that the faint-hearted experienced when we established our own University of the West Indies in Jamaica in 1948; when we began training our own doctors; when we established our own Council of Legal Education in 1970 to train our own lawyers; when we, in St Vincent and the Grenadines, proceeded to Associated Statehood in 1969; and when, ultimately, we obtained political independence 30 years ago," he said.

“The historians will record that, at every single one of these stages, there have been those timorous souls who were unable to bring themselves to believe in their own capacity as a proud people to deliver a quality product and to be as good as the best anywhere else," the judge said.

He warned that so long as the people of the Caribbean continue to regard themselves as inferior they would not advance themselves. He said making the change is a challenge but added that he believes "we are perfectly capable of fashioning and maintaining appropriate institutions".

Saunder said, "The Caribbean has repeatedly demonstrated its ability to produce outstanding jurists acclaimed throughout the world, even as their exploits are rarely mentioned in the region."

The pointed to two criminal courts of the UN headed by Caribbean nationals. Patrick Robinson of Jamaica, he said, is President of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, and Sir Dennis Byron of St Kitts is President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda.

Saunders statements follow recent comments by Lord Phillips, President of the new Supreme Court in Britain, who called on Caribbean countries to establish their own final court of appeal.

Lord Phillips told London’s Financial Times newspaper that he plans to curb the “disproportionate” time he and his fellow senior justices have been spending in hearing legal appeals from independent countries from the Caribbean and other Commonwealth countries to the Privy Council.

Read the feature: Time to end appeals to the Privy Council?
Related: Jamaica re-evaluating position on CCJ

The Trinidad-based CCJ has been hearing disputes arising from the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Only Barbados and Guyana have signed on to use the court as their final court of appeal.

Saunders said the CCJ as a final court will act as a social tool to "make the society a better place, in order to protect and enhance our democracy...Judges who sit and reside in the Caribbean are better equipped to perform this role."

He argued that they would have a different perspective on matters before them because they are "near to and aware and sensitive of the values, traditions, customs and norms of our people."

He emphasised that no judge can be fully effective if she or he is out of touch and has no personal insights into the broad values of the society and "does not understand, appreciate and personally experience the consequences of the judgments the judge delivers."