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The Caribbean Court of Justice has lost credibility

Nov 13, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The decision of the people of Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada not to accede to the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice represents a major blow to the credibility of the regional court. It now means that only four of the fifteen members of the Caribbean Community – Guyana, Barbados, Belize and Dominica – recognize the right of the court to hear appeals from domestic courts.
The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), however, has been endorsed by all member states in its original jurisdiction. Thus, it provides an avenue of recourse and remedies for member states and their constituents where there are disputes over the interpretation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the guiding charter of the regional integration movement.
Ironically, it is because of its rulings in the exercise of its original jurisdiction that the Court continues to lose the confidence of the people of the Caribbean.
The court made a highly controversial ruling in the Shanique Myrie case. This ruling now imposes an obligation on CARICOM states to grant an automatic stay of six months to persons arriving from within the region, including Haiti. A number of governments are not comfortable with this decision and its implications for immigration.
The sovereign right of member states to take action to protect their environment, and by extension the health of the citizens, is now limited because of a decision of the CCJ.
Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) took the Guyana government to the CCJ over a dispute concerning the waiver of the Common External Tariff on regional cement. TCL received a favourable judgment in that case. Guyana was forced to reinstitute the tariff which provides a form of protection for regional producers.
A Suriname company also was awarded a judgment against Guyana in relation to the imposition of an environmental tax on regional imports. Even though the World Trade Organization does allow states to impose domestic measures to protect human and plant health, the CCJ ruled that Guyana’s environmental tax constituted a tariff on regional exports – something that is forbidden by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The CCJ is a regional court, established by the Caribbean Community, but which in its original jurisdiction does not enjoy the confidence of almost three-quarters of the membership. And to add insult to injury, the host country of the Court has not acceded to its appellate jurisdiction.
The reason for this crazy state of affairs is that the Caribbean public, having seen some of the decisions emerging from these courts, prefer to stay with the Privy Council rather than transfer over to the CCJ.
While many regional governments may be willing to accede to the Court, their constitutions demand that a referendum be held to do so, and when these are held, their people have rejected the CCJ. If a referendum were held in Guyana tomorrow, the Guyanese people would reject the CCJ.
The CCJ, therefore, is still only supported by four member states of the region. It is most likely that had the United National Congress of Trinidad won the last elections in their country, it would have come under pressure to justify the costs of hosting the CCJ. And if the former Prime Minister of Barbados, Freundel Stuart, had not lost the elections this year, he would have pulled Barbados out of the CCJ. That would have reduced the CCJ to three members in its appellate jurisdiction.
The Caribbean people are clearly not ready for a regional court. They may not even be ready for regional integration.

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