By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE REGIONAL Judicial and Legal Services Commission which is based in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, and which is responsible for recruiting judges for the Caribbean Court of Justice, is now accepting applications for judgeships.
And the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) Legal Affairs Committee has recommended to Heads of Government that the age of retirement for the region's judges should be raised from 72 to 75 years.
The CCJ, which is set to begin sitting in June 2004, will be composed of the president and six judges.
Applications for the post of president closed in February and the commission will this month interview the three applicants who have been short-listed. One to be interviewed is from Jamaica and by month-end the commission will announce was selected president.
The post of president of the CCJ carries a tax-free salary of US$144,000 annually. The other six judges will each be paid a tax-free salary of US$120,000 and, like the president, they will each get a rent-free, fully-furnished 'super grade' residence or an allowance of US$30,000 per annum in lieu of housing. They will be provided with an official motor vehicle, fully maintained by the CCJ, and each will be assigned a chauffeur. A judge and his or her spouse will receive a travel grant of US$8,500 every two years.
MEDICAL BENEFITS, PENSION SCHEME
The judges, their spouses and unmarried children under the age of 18 years are entitled to free drugs and medical treatment at health institutions approved by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.
Pending the start of a pension scheme, a judge with less than five years' service will be paid 20 per cent of the pensionable emoluments at the time of retirement for every year of service. Those with five to 10 years' service will receive a monthly pension equivalent to two-thirds of the monthly pensionable emoluments and those with more than 10 years' service will get a monthly pension equivalent to the monthly pensionable emoluments at the time of retirement.
Persons applying for the six judgeships must be judges, attorneys-at-law or teachers of law with the requisite years of experience.
The advertisement states that each applicants must be:
a) A judge who has served five years or more in a court of unlimited jurisdiction in civil and criminal matters in a contracting party or in some part of the Commonwealth or in a civil law jurisdiction, or;
b) A person who has been engaged as a practitioner or teacher of law for not less than 15 years in a member-state of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) or in some part of the Commonwealth, or in a law jurisdiction.
In making or recommending appointments to judicial office, the commission is required to have regard to the following criteria: high moral character, intellectual and analytical ability, sound judgement, integrity and an understandiing of people and society.
The applications close at 3.30 p.m. on April 9.
