00:00The headquarters of the Caribbean Court of Justice is located in Port of Spain, Trinidad.
00:06Yet Trinidad and Tobago is yet to adopt the CCJ as its final court of appeal, despite giving a commitment to pursue the same.
00:14When I served as Attorney General, I attended a meeting of the Caribbean heads of government in Barbados.
00:22At that meeting, a decision had to be taken whether the headquarters of the Caribbean Court of Justice would be in Trinidad and Tobago.
00:30The position taken by Trinidad and Tobago at that meeting, through the then Prime Minister, the Honourable Mr. Bastet Pandey, and I as Attorney General,
00:39was that Trinidad and Tobago would accede to the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago
00:47when such a decision is made by the people of Trinidad and Tobago in a referendum held for that purpose.
00:55The senior counsel is giving his stamp of approval.
00:58But Maharaj says the people of Trinidad and Tobago must decide.
01:03I am of the opinion that the Caribbean Court of Justice comprises eminent judges.
01:08The issue is whether the public of Trinidad and Tobago, as the beneficiary of the administration of justice in Trinidad and Tobago,
01:18ought to have a say in the replacement of the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice.
01:24The Privy Council has been the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago since colonial days.
01:31And I am of the opinion that any decision to remove the Privy Council as the final court of appeal for Trinidad and Tobago
01:39ought to be made by the people of Trinidad and Tobago in a referendum and not by a government of Trinidad and Tobago.
01:46While 12 CARICOM states have approved the CCJ to deal with matters concerning the revised Treaty of Chagaramus,
01:55only Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St. Lucia have adopted the CCJ as their final court of appeal,
02:03something the principal of the U.E. St. Augustine, Professor Rosemary Bell-Antoine, describes as a travesty.
02:09At this juncture, it is a travesty that all of the jurisdictions in the Commonwealth Caribbean have not joined the CCJ
02:17in terms of its original, in terms of its appellate jurisdiction, because we are in there for the original jurisdiction,
02:27which has to do with the Treaty of Chagaramus.
02:31However, at this point, I don't think there's any credible reason, really, why all of the countries in the region have not joined.
02:43It is an imperative. It will be inevitable, I do believe.
02:48But it is too slow in coming that Canada went through it, Australia went through it, New Zealand went through it.
02:56All of the self-doubt, all of the self-criticisms imposed the doubt on ourselves and our abilities.
03:05And eventually they came up, what we know them to be today, strong sovereign nations,
03:10which I still feel confident Trinidad and Tobago is.
03:15So I would say it is a matter of time.
03:18We have the talent, we have the maturity, we have an independent court,
03:23which has proved its worth.
03:25Those of you who can take the time can look at the decisions
03:28and see that they have been impartial, objective, quite worthy decisions.
03:33So I look forward to the future.
03:36Renasa Cutting, TV6 News.
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