Of the Privy Council and CCJ

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I read with interest an article in The Sunday Gleaner titled ‘Privy Council and CCJ can exist side by side, says UK court’. In light of that, I want to look at the whole issue of constitutional reform.

In recent times, two lords of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) have addressed, in The Gleaner, the issue of serving Jamaica and remarks made by a lord 14 years ago. This, in my opinion, suggests that there is a deep concern that Jamaica may replace the final court of appeal, JCPC.

So, is the Commonwealth still relevant? The British royal family views the Commonwealth as being critical to its interests and symbolism abroad. Moreover, since Brexit, the United Kingdom has been seeking to expand economically beyond Europe and sees the Commonwealth as a possibility to do so.

In addition, Jamaica is one of the three ideal Commonwealth Caribbean countries that UK wants to continue to trade with.

Hence, I believe the expansion will make it harder for Jamaica to become a republic.

On September 10, a spokesperson for the United Kingdom gave a speech at a United Nations conference in New York, USA.

The title of the speech was ‘The UK remains committed to upholding self-determination and responsibilities in overseas territories: UK statement at UN Fourth Committee’, which was published on October 11.

In my opinion, I believe one of the purposes of the speech was to strengthen the territories and also to seek to expand economically beyond Europe.

CCJ IS STILL EVOLVING

Regarding the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), it is still evolving.

The leader of Trinidad and Tobago’s Opposition party, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, recently spoke in Parliament about abolishing criminal appeals to the JCPC and adopt CCJ for criminal appeals, but not civil appeals.

She wants JCPC to retain the civil appeals because of the need for commercial-related purposes.

Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley welcomed the development, but is not in favour of CCJ not keeping both the civil and criminal appeals.

It is now more than 18 years since CCJ was established.

CARICOM was first established in 1973, and revised in 2001 to include CCJ. CCJ came into force on July 23, 2003, and was inaugurated on April 16, 2005.

Of the 15 member nations of CARICOM, four nations – Barbados, Belize, Dominica, and Guyana – have adopted CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction as their final court of appeal. Thus, there is much more work to be done in order to replace the monarchy and have an alternate final court of appeal.

CARGILL KELLY