Jamaican gov't wants its own court to replace Privy Council; opposition wants CCJ

Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding is proposing a local court to replace the London-based Privy Council as the country's final court of appeal, not the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which is based ion Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Golding told Parliament Tuesday he wants the matter discussed “in great detail and in earnest”.

Speaking in the debate on a new Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms for the Constitution, the Prime Minister said, “We wish to consider our own final court of appeal. We would respectfully wish that is something for which due consideration to be given."

He added, “We believe we have the judicial experience, we believe we have the maturity to do it.”

The CCJ was established in 2001 as the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) alternative to the Privy Council. However so far only three states - Barbados, Guyana and Belize - are signatory to the court’s appellate jurisdiction. Jamaica and other CARICOM countries have signed only the original jurisdiction of the CCJ.

Golding, who is the current CARICOM chairman, insisted that Jamaicans should decide in a referendum in the same manner as St Vincent and the Grenadines did earlier this year. That was a ‘no’ vote against the CCJ.

"I don't think any of us in here must ever make the mistake of presuming that there is any consensus among the people of Jamaica on this, nor must we ever seek to assume that the majority of those people will vote in a particular way,” he said.

However Opposition Leader Portia Simpson-Miller is lobbying for the CCJ, saying, “We will not rest in our push for the CCJ to become our final Court of Appeal.”

Under Jamaica's Constitution, a two-thirds majority in both houses of Parliament is needed to accept the CCJ. An alternative is a 'yes' vote in a referendum.