Former Acting Prime Minister, Former Minister of Foreign Affairs and past political leader of the COP, Winston Dookeran is weighing in on the question of whether the Caribbean Court of Justice should replace the Privy Council as Trinidad and Tobago's final appellate court.
While Dookeran believes the move is ultimately inevitable, he says there are critical considerations that must be addressed, including questions of sovereignty of the Caribbean region, diplomacy, and political will.
00:00The newly sworn-in president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, the CCJ, Justice Winston Anderson, says he hopes more Caribbean countries will adopt the CCJ as their final appellate court during his tenure, speaking after his official swearing-in on July 6th.
00:18Justice Anderson said he remains optimistic that other states will honour their treaty commitments and move toward full membership.
00:26However, recently, Prime Minister Kamala Passat-Bissassar has said she will hold on to the Privy Council as the final court at this time.
00:35Today, Dukaran tells the TV6 Morning Edition that change will take place, but it will take time.
00:42Justice is a matter, in my view, of trust.
00:47And until and unless such time as the countries that are engaged have 1,000% trust in the discharge of that, I would believe that we should be cautious in Russian position, but I think it will be inevitable.
01:07Dukaran explains that this trust cannot exist only within the borders of the adopting country, but must also be reflected in how the court is perceived and respected by others beyond its shores.
01:21In his view, the credibility of a final appellate court depends not just on internal confidence, but on the broader legal and diplomatic environment in which it operates.
01:32It's something that we do not quite appreciate, the extent to which the trust has to be international as well as local.
01:42I think the local situation has changed where the Caribbean Court of Appeal has indeed arrived at a position that in terms of the action, they can be a trusted institution at the local level.
01:58But it is not only an issue for the local level.
02:04Dukaran acknowledges concerns that the Privy Council may be distant from the realities and challenges facing Caribbean states, leading some to question whether its rulings truly reflect the region's current climate.
02:20However, he stresses that the Privy Council's decisions are grounded strictly in the law, a standard he believes the CCJ must also uphold.
02:30The deliberations of the Privy Council, I presume, has been on the basis of law rather than the basis of the circumstances, and that therefore has given it a level of credibility.
02:46And therefore, there might be the need to ensure that that level of deliberation is ingrained in the apparatus of the CCJ.
02:57But I do think that you cannot impose a legal jurisdiction unless the countries themselves are willing to accept it.
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