In what could reasonably be described as a most cynical view of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) by the Trinidad and Tobago Government, Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar informed Parliament on Wednesday that her administration has decided to access the regional court for criminal matters.
Basically, what this means is that instead of having the CCJ as its court of last resort, with both an original and appellate jurisdiction, the government seems bent on retaining the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London as its court of last resort for all non-criminal cases.
Simply stated, this means treating the CCJ as being capable of handling the numerous death penalty cases for murder that are forwarded on appeals to the Privy Council where the overwhelming decisions of law lords normally go in favour of the accused and to the dismay of the “hang them quickly” advocates in Trinidad and Tobago fed up with the spiralling murder rates.
Since the CCJ was inaugurated in 2005, with headquarters in Port of Spain, the region’s people have been sensitized to the scope of its responsibilities that encompass an original and appellate jurisdiction as a major pillar of the regional integration movement in interpreting and applying the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which anchors the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Therefore, for the government in Port of Spain to scuttle appeals to the Privy Council on criminal matters – the majority of which are normally death penalty cases – and refer such cases instead to the CCJ is tantamount to reducing the regional institution to a virtual “hangman’s court”, in the view of some leading Caribbean legal personalities.
Further, one very notable legal luminary of the region feels there is no certainty that as established and empowered the CCJ will accept an application from a member state of CARICOM to restrict its function to merely criminal matters.
This latest development underscores the determination of the current administration in Port of Spain to maintain its attachment to the Privy Council, even as it advances preparations to celebrate Trinidad and Tobago’s 50th independence anniversary from Britain on August 31, 1962.
In sharp contrast, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller is quietly but methodically moving to break the colonial link with the Privy Council and have Jamaica access the CCJ as its final appeal court – hopefully to coincide with the country’s half century of political freedom from Britain on August 6, 1962.
The possibility of this happening seems more favourable now with the signal that came from the opposition Jamaica Labour Party that it may no longer insist on a national referendum on the matter.
