Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall has criticized Caribbean countries that have not signed on to the Caribbean Court of Justice to be their final court.

Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Dominica and St. Lucia have made the CCJ their final Court of Appeal.

Other countries have not yet changed their laws to replace the Privy Council with the CCJ and according to Mr. Nandlall it remains an odd situation.

He said even though Caribbean countries preach regional integration and unity, they still do not see the need to make the CCJ their final Court. He noted that even though the seat of the CCJ is in Trinidad, that country’s final court is not the CCJ.

“Most of the independent Caribbean territories have not signed on and that is a travesty. We often speak about regional integration which is being passionately perused, we passionately pursue our rights as sovereign nations, issues such as regional unity, issues such as the creation of a common single market and economy and here it is that can’t get our acts together to support one of the most significant regional institutions in the Caribbean—the Caribbean Court of Justice,” Mr. Nandlall said.

Mr. Nandlall, who was speaking during his weekly “Issues in the News” programme, stated that the CCJ remains a beacon of hope for the region and that it was important for all countries in the region to recognize the CCJ as their final Court.

“There is hardly another institution of greater significance than the CCJ and countries in the Caribbean who are otherwise the champions of regional causes are not signing up to the most premier regional institution—the CCJ, its an oddity,’ Nandlall said.

Back in 2018, a number of Caribbean countries conducted a referendum, and there was an overwhelming response from their citizens to stay with the London- based Privy Council as their final court. The Attorney General said there must be greater political will on the issue

“Some countries still prefer, six or seven decades after they have attained from Her Majesty’s government, continues to cling to an institution that is of a colonial creation—Her Majesty’s privy council and that remains an oddity—it flies in the face of Caribbean integration and regional unity” Mr. Nandlall argues.

The Caribbean Court of Justice has been in operation for the past 20 years.

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