New British Court president lends support to CCJ

President of the new Supreme Court in Britain, Lord Phillips has called on Caribbean countries to establish their own final court of appeal, according to a report on www.cananews.net.



He issued the challenge as he announced plans to curb the \"disproportionate\" time he and his fellow senior justices spent hearing legal appeals from independent countries from the Caribbean and other Commonwealth countries to the Privy Council in London.



\"It is a huge amount of time. I personally would like to see it reduced. It\'s disproportionate,\" Lord Phillips said in an interview with the Financial Times.



He questioned whether some Privy Council cases which have ranged from Jamaican death row appeals to fights over press freedom in Bermuda needed to be heard by a panel of five of Britain\'s most senior judges.



Lord Phillips said he was looking to take some of the pressure off the new Supreme Court that become operational next month by drafting in Court of Appeal judges to help out, although he added that \"in an ideal world\" former Commonwealth countries would stop using the Privy Council and set up their own final courts of appeal instead.



The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was established in 2001 by governments of the region has both an original and appellate jurisdiction.



Most of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are members of the original jurisdiction that functions as an international tribunal hearing disputes arising from the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), but Barbados and Guyana are the only countries that have signed on to the appellate jurisdiction.