A travesty is how Principal of the UWI St. Augustine, Professor Rosemarie Belle-Antoine, describes the fact that Trinidad and Tobago, and some other jurisdictions, are yet to adopt the CCJ as the final court of appeal. Meantime Senior Counsel Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj is calling for a referendum, so that the people of Trinidad and Tobago can decide. Rynessa Cutting reports.
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.
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