CCJ Judge Critiques CARICOM Nations for Not Embracing Final Court of Appeal

A judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has lamented the failure of most CARICOM countries to accept it as their final court of appeal.

While 12 CARICOM member states were in agreement on the court’s establishment 25 years ago and acceded to its original jurisdiction, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St Lucia are the only ones utilising it for appellate matters.

Responding to questions after delivering the Caribbean Development Bank’s (CDB) 26th William G. Demas Memorial Lecture in Nassau, The Bahamas, on Tuesday night, Justice Denys Barrow voiced concern about what he deemed “a failure on . . . the part of Caribbean nations and peoples [to] capture the embodiment of our fullness as a people, our talent, our worth as a people”.

The jurist spoke on the topic Contributions of the Courts to Caribbean Development: The Enduring Importance of Strong Institutions.

“A lot has been said, and there have been spurts in relation to the failure of . . . the two most populous CARICOM countries to accede to the appellate jurisdiction. The reasons given are varying, and in a sort of backhanded kind of way, it has been stated that the capacity, the ability of the members of the court, is not in doubt,” Barrow said.

“It is not so much, or really a question of the judges not being good enough. It is, as I understand it, a number of things, including trust in the composition of those who are appointed to the courts.

“The question is, who’s interested in something as unsexy as the appointing mechanism, but the appointing mechanism is such that the absence of any political manipulation, any political interference, in the process is virtually completely guaranteed,” he asserted.

“I think people nonetheless, sceptics, untrusting members of the public, look at the possibility for politicians in other ways to influence, to affect the judges, and think that the judges will be subject to political pressures or otherwise.

“So my sense of it is that that is the reason why it has not happened, but I think more fundamentally the failure to fully accede to the courts by all or virtually all territories is a failure on . . . the part of Caribbean nations and peoples,” the CCJ judge stated.

“We have failed to take advantage of something which is there, which would mark for us . . . the completion of our Independence, but more importantly . . . capture the embodiment of our fullness as a people, our talent, our worth as a people. That, to my mind, has been the bane of this lack of adherence and the factor which I am most concerned about,” he added.