Trinidad and Tobago still divided on CCJ full membership

PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -Trinidad and Tobago remains divided on whether the country should become a full member of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) with at least the head of one group of lawyers calling for a referendum on the issue.

Despite being based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, like a number of CARICOM countries is only a signatory to the Original Jurisdiction of the Court that was established in 2001 by regional leaders to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region's highest court.

The CCJ also functions as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the 15-member regional integration movement.

Only Barbados, Belize, Dominica and Guyana are full members of the court that has both an Original and Appellate jurisdiction.

In paying tribute to the first CCJ president, Trinidadian Michael de la Bastide, who died last week, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Reginald Armour said the 86-year-old represented “the best of Trinidad and Tobago in very many ways, and the celebration of his life represents a signal occasion for the people of this sovereign republic to reflect on our proud history, our significant achievements to present and the opportunities for the future, defined by the one word: Excellence.

“In acknowledging his indelible contribution to the quality of this Republic's proud development since its independence, the people of Trinidad and Tobago can now contribute to completing his dream of replacing the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) with the Caribbean Court of Justice,” Armour added.

But, while the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) has not yet issued any statement regarding Armour's statement on the CCJ, the President of the Assembly of Southern Lawyers, Saira Lakhan, told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper she believes the issue should be put to a referendum.

Lakhan described De La Bastide, who served as the CCJ president until 2011, as a towering, colossal and authoritative figure and a legal titan who made an indelible contribution as a jurist.

But she added that he also understood the overriding principle that true power comes from the people, and they must have the final say.

“We should not rush to abolish the Privy Council in favour of the CCJ lest we throw out the baby with the bath water. The PC has served us well for the past sixty (60) years. It is free from political influence and its judgments are respected and accepted by the people.

“This is a fundamental change, and it is best that the constitution be amended to provide for a referendum and let the voice of the people be heard on their choice of the final appellate court,” Lakhan told the newspaper.

She said that the focus should be on fixing the local courts which she described as the poor man's court.

“Our concern and priority is therefore about these issues that affect the ordinary man who cannot get justice,” she said.

“Yes, there is a place and time for the CCJ, but it is not an area of priority for my government at this point in time,” she told the then BBC Caribbean Service.

But when the country celebrated its 50th anniversary of political independence, the then prime minister Kamla Persad Bissessar told Parliament “I am pleased to announce that the  Government will be bringing legislation to this Honourable House to secure the abolition of appeals to Privy Council in all criminal matters so that this jurisdiction would then be ceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice.

“As a measure of our growing confidence in the CCJ, and as a mature and leading world democracy, in this year of our 50th independence anniversary, we will table legislation acceding to the criminal appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ, in very much the same way as Hong Kong did prior to the transfer of sovereignty to the Peoples Republic of China in 1979 and Singapore in 1989. There is ample precedent for such a phased withdrawal from the jurisdiction of Her Majesty's Privy Council.

Persad Bissessar said then that “such a measure will, of course, require a special majority and I expect bipartisan support for this historic withdrawal from the criminal jurisdiction of the JCPC.

“We will continue to monitor the developments taking place in both the JCPC and CCJ including the quality of their decisions in deciding the future course of our judicial system.”

Persad Bissessar left office in 2015 without Trinidad and Tobago being any step closer to being a full member of the CCJ and so far her United National Congress (UNC) has already indicated that it would not be supportive of the court in its current incarnation because its members can be selected by politicians.

In May last year, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley was critical of Trinidad and Tobago not being a full member of the CCJ, despite the fact that the court is headquartered there.

“Other Caribbean countries are one by one joining the CCJ because even some who are apprehensive have seen the value but we believe that is because a few well-monied people can go to the Privy Council once in a while on matters that they choose, but we have to wait until the Englishman tells us that something is good before it is good,” he said.

Trinidad and Tobago needs a special majority in Parliament to sever ties with the Privy Council. The ruling people's National Movement (PNM) controls 22 of the 41 seats in the Parliament.

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