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Jamaican Winston Anderson to be appointed CCJ president
Jamaican Observer – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have accepted a recommendation to appoint Jamaican jurist, Justice Winston Anderson, as the new president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Justice Anderson becomes the fourth president of the CCJ, replacing the St Vincent and the Grenadines jurist, Justice Adrian Saunders, who retires later this year.
The CCJ was established on February 14, 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s highest court, and while most of the regional countries are members of its Original Jurisdiction only Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and St Lucia are members of its Appellate Jurisdiction.
Under the original jurisdiction, the Trinidad-based court serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement.
“I want to also say that we took a decision to accept the recommendation of the Regional Judicial Legal Services Commission for the new president of the Caribbean Court of Justice to be appointed, and that is Justice Winston Anderson, and we congratulate him on the agreement of heads to his appointment to the highest position of the Regional Treaty Interpretation Body,” Barbados Prime Minister and CARICOM chair, Mia Mottley said.
Jamaican jurist, Justice Winston Anderson
Justice Anderson, 65, was sworn in as a judge of the CCJ on June 15, 2010.
He is a graduate and former lecturer of The University of the West Indies (UWI) as well as Cambridge University, where in 1988 he received a Doctorate in Philosophy majoring in International and Environmental Law.
Also, in 1988, he completed a course of training at the Inns of Court School of Law in London and was called to the Bar of England and Wales. In 1996 appointed Senior Lecturer, whilst on Fellowship Leave from the UWI, at the University of Western Australia; and in 1999 became UWI Senior Lecturer in Law.
Justice Anderson was appointed General Counsel of the Caribbean Community on secondment from UWI from 2003 to 2006, and in 2006, UWI Professor of Law.
Professor Anderson returned to the Faculty of Law in 2006 and was called to the Bar of Jamaica, also in 2006. He was appointed Executive Director of the Caribbean Law Institute Centre, in 2007, a position he held until 2010.
He is the author of numerous publications including The Law of the Sea in the Caribbean, Caribbean Private International Law and The Law of Caribbean Marine Pollution.
The move comes amid a raging debate in Jamaica over whether the country should accede to the CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction or establish its own final court to replace the Privy Council.
In January, Anderson asserted that Jamaica has a legal obligation to adopt the regional court as its final appellate tribunal, noting that the country has had ample time to consider its accession.
“Jamaica is under a legal obligation to join the court, so that there’s continuity of government because the government is not represented by one party, it is an institution which endures whichever party’s in power,” he told The Gleaner.
“When Jamaica signed on to the CCJ agreement, that was an international obligation that Jamaica assumed, and it, therefore, calls for the Government of Jamaica, whichever party is in office, to fulfill that obligation,” he said.
The ruling Jamaica Labour Party has argued that there is no consensus while the Opposition People’s National Party has declared support for the CCJ.
CMC contributed to this report.
(Jamaican Winston Anderson to be appointed CCJ president)
- Caribbean Court of Justice, Jamaican jurist, Justice Adrian Saunders, St Vincent and the Grenadines jurist, ustice Winston Anderson
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