Vaughn warns CARICOM about CCJ

Former St Lucia prime minister Dr Vaughn Lewis has warned CARICOM countries that they face possible international rebuke if they fail to sign on to the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).



The CCJ is to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court of appeal.



Delivering a public lecture on Regional Integration in Dominica last night, Lewis, said the international community would be monitoring the region’s failure to sign on to the Trinidad-based CCJ.



The former senior lecturer at the St Augustine campus of the University of the West Indies said failure to join the court would also indicate an inability to make and stick with decisions on matters as serious as the law itself.



Only Guyana, Barbados and Belize have joined the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ which was established in 2001.



Most of the other CARICOM countries have signed on to the original jurisdiction of the court that also serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement.