CASTRIES, St. Lucia, CMC:
THE GOVERNMENT of Jamaica can establish the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to deal with issues related to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), despite Thursday's Privy Council ruling on the constitutionality of the CCJ as Jamaica's final court of appeal, Prime Minister Kenny Anthony has said.
The British law lords ruled that the Jamaica Parliament could lawfully remove appellate access to the Privy Council by a simple majority, but a special two-thirds majority was required to replace the Council with the CCJ.
"We speak of that as the original jurisdiction to replace the Privy Council to hear civil and criminal appeals, but what the decision speaks to are appeals in respect of civil and criminal matters; it does not touch appeals in respect of treaty matters," Dr. Anthony, who has lead responsibility in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) for justice and
governance, said.
"One could therefore imagine a situation in which the government will go ahead to establish the court to handle original jurisdiction issues such as those dealing with the treaty establishing the CSME, but in some cases they will have to consider implications for the appellate jurisdiction," he added.
DEEPER LEVEL
Dr. Anthony said the ruling suggests that although appeals to the Privy Council are not entrenched in the Jamaica Constitution, the fact that the Jamaica Court of Appeal is entrenched at a deeper level, "If Jamaica wishes to introduce the CCJ, it must entrench the institution to the extent that its own Court of Appeal is entrenched."
"In other words, the CCJ must have in the constitution of Jamaica, the same protection given to the Court of Appeal in Jamaica," he said.
In considering the implications for the rest of CARICOM, Dr. Anthony noted that various countries' constitutions were entrenched differently, as in the case of Barbados and Guyana.
He said as a result, these two countries can proceed almost immediately to allow the CCJ to hear appeals in respect of civil and criminal matters.
"In the case of Barbados, all that is required is to amend the Barbados Constitution, they already have a two-thirds majority, so
they can move on to the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ".
In the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States, the St. Lucia leader said, there were important differences especially in the constitutional provisions and in St. Lucia's case, appeals to the Privy Council are entrenched under the constitution, "so that we would have to satisfy the basic requirements established by the constitution itself."
