A surprising disclosure came last week from the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago during the course of the CARICOM/Mexico Summit in Barbados that had nothing to do with the central purpose of that two-day event hosted by Prime Minister Freundel Stuart.
Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s announcement, following her participation in a pre-summit caucus session of Community Heads, was that her government would soon have ready for circulation a draft amendment to the Revised Treaty Of CARICOM to facilitate Trinidad and Tobago’s decision for partial access to the jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The immediate question that arises is: what unofficial signals or intimations the prime minister would have received, prior to or during the course of meetings here in Barbados last weekend, for her to make such a disclosure on a proposed amendment to the CARICOM treaty?
It would be quite a surprise, indeed a most significant political development within CARICOM, if any or all three of the current member states of our Community that have already accessed the CCJ as their final court for original and appellate jurisdiction – namely Barbados, Guyana and more recently Belize – would now be disposed to facilitating what Trinidad and Tobago is seeking.
For, basically, what the current government of Port-of-Spain wants to achieve is to maintain a colonial relationship with the Privy Council in London for civil and constitutional cases, while accessing, initially, the Port-of-Spain-based regional court on criminal matters.
This half-way house or two-stage approach might be politically expedient for the government of Port-of-Spain, but it flies in the face of the original vision that stirred the passion of regional governments to sign on to the 2003 accord or establishment of the CCJ as the final appellate court of member countries of CARICOM.
Indeed, it would be a virtual U-turn or political somersault by such signatory countries of the 2003 accord that had made possible the funding – via the Caribbean Development Bank – and subsequent ceremonial inauguration of the CCJ in 2005, with commitment to hasten termination of the colonial relations with the Privy Council and the development of a West Indian jurisprudence.
It would be interesting to know where the incoming chairman and host for this July’s annual CARICOM Summit, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony of St Lucia, stands on Trinidad and Tobago’s move for an amendment to the Community treaty on the CCJ.
After all, as a former legal counsel to CARICOM, intimately involved in helping to shape the Treaty Of CARICOM, Dr Anthony is also known as an inspiring voice for ending the dependency syndrome on Britain’s Privy Council.
