By Barbara Gayle, Staff ReporterTHE LEGAL battle over the bills to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) starts today in the United Kingdom Privy Council.
Opposition Leader Edward Seaga, along with the Jamaican Bar Association, the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights and the human rights lobby group, Jamaicans for Justice, have taken the case to the Privy Council.
They are contending that the bills are unconstitutional because the CCJ is not enshrined in the constitution and, therefore, will not be a permanent court like the Supreme Court and Court of Appeal.
The Court of Appeal, in upholding the Judicial Review Court's ruling this year, dismissed the appeal and held that Parliament was not acting in breach of any constitutional provisions in enacting bills to establish the CCJ.
R. N. A. Henriques, Q.C., Dr. Lloyd Barnett, Richard Small, David Batts, Nancy Anderson and Stacy Powell are the lawyers for the appellants.
Members of the legal team representing the government at the hearing are Solicitor General Michael Hylton, Q.C., and attorneys-at-law Dr. Stephen Vasciannie, consultant in the attorney-general's Office, Simone Mayhew and Gladys Young.
Judges have already been selected for the CCJ. The Regional Judicial Legal Services Commission announced last month that it had selected six judges to join CCJ President Michael de la Bastide of Trinidad when the court comes into effect between January and July next year. There will be no Jamaicans on the bench, as none of the six applicants, including judges, was successful.
The CCJ is to be Jamaica's final appellate court.
