Jamaica re-evaluating position on CCJ

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding says his administration is re-evaluating its position regarding the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

Golding told a Town Hall meeting at the Mona Campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Tuesday a number of changes have been made to the CCJ, since his Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) and other regional groups had raised various concerns.

"We had reservations about the way in which the court was established. We fought a vigorous battle. I am glad that we did, changes were made," he said.

Golding noted that heads of government have agreed that a regional judicial services commission will appoint judges, not heads of government. That, he said, and the fact that there is a trust fund to ensure that the court will be funded in perpetuity are important changes.

"We wanted one more thing. We wanted to see that court in operation to satisfy ourselves that it can dispense the kind of jurisprudential quality," he told the meeting.

In 2001, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) governments established the CCJ to replace to the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court.

But there were concerns by some regional jurists that the CCJ may be open to political interference, a criticism dismissed by the Court itself and the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission.

The CCJ has both an original and appellate jurisdiction. But only Barbados and Guyana have signed on to the appellate jurisdiction.

Late last month, prominent British jurist, Lord Nicholas Phillips, indirectly endorsed the CCJ when he told the Financial Times newspaper that he and his senior justices spend a "disproportionate" amount of time hearing legal appeals at the Privy Council from independent countries from the Caribbean and other Commonwealth countries.

"It is a huge amount of time. I personally would like to see it reduced," said Lord Phillips, who is the President of the British Supreme Court.

He questioned whether some Privy Council cases - which have ranged from Jamaican death row appeals to fights over press freedom in Bermuda - needed to be heard by a panel of five of Britain’s most senior judges.

According to British jurist "in an ideal world" the former Commonwealth countries would stop using the Privy Council and instead set up their own final courts of appeal.

Read the news feature: Time to end appeals to the Privy Council?