Samuels enters plea for CCJ - Veteran attorney, heads of judiciaries defend integrity of regional court amid emails controversy

Lamenting that allegations surrounding the operations of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) have become “fodder” for those opposed to the regional court, veteran attorney Bert Samuels yesterday argued that the claims have no bearing on the court’s integrity.

Speaking during a press conference, Samuels said the allegations do not concern the delivery of judgments, the credibility of the CCJ’s president, or its judges.

The CCJ has been under scrutiny since recent articles published in Trinidad and Tobago’s Sunday Express newspaper cited a series of emails it said it obtained, which raised several allegations about the court’s operations, the relationship among judges, and what one email reportedly referred to as an increasingly ‘toxic’ environment at the court.

Agreeing with former co-chair of Jamaica’s Constitutional Reform Committee, Marlene Malahoo Forte, that the email leaks were a “poor display of judgement”, Samuels stressed that the success of the court is integral to the region’s integration.

“We cannot allow the CCJ to suffer the same fate as the integration move for the West Indies Federation,” he said.

The West Indies Federation, a political union established by 10 British colonies in 1958 so they could gain independence from Britain as a single nation, collapsed four years later.

Established in 2001 and opened in 2005, the CCJ is the regional judicial tribunal for CARICOM and is headquartered in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

The court acts as an international court with exclusive jurisdiction to interpret and apply the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which governs CARICOM and the single market and economy.

It also serves as the final court of appeal for five CARICOM states.

The newspaper revelation of tension among judges of the top regional court comes amid debate in Jamaica and other CARICOM states that do not use the CCJ as their final appellate court and instead retain the United Kingdom-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as their final court for civil and criminal appeals.

SUPPORT FROM THE PNP

The Opposition People’s National Party has maintained that the CCJ should be Jamaica’s final appellate court and has attached the party’s support for Jamaica’s constitutional reform to the simultaneous adoption of the CCJ. Party President Mark Golding told The Gleaner on Monday that the leaked emails have not swayed its support for the CCJ as Jamaica’s final court.

In a statement yesterday, the heads of judiciary of states that subscribe to the original and/or appellate jurisdictions of the CCJ expressed “grave concern” over what they said was a breach of confidentiality that resulted in the disclosure of what appear to be internal communications.

“We do not consider it appropriate to comment upon the merits of statements or allegations attributed to individual judges nor upon matters arising within the internal deliberative or administrative processes of the Court,” read the statement representing heads in Barbados, The Bahamas, Belize, Guyana, The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago.

“We remain confident in the Caribbean Court of Justice as a vital regional judicial institution and in the commitment of its judges to the principles which underpin the administration of justice throughout the Caribbean.”

In the meantime, Samuels contended that the region has produced many notable legal minds on par with those of the Privy Council.

“We have always suffered as a post-slavery, post-colonial society in underrating ourselves and elevating the British. It seems to me that when we open our courts as we always do with God save the King, we are virtually indoctrinating ourselves with ‘God save the King’s court, the Privy Council ‘,” he said.

In advocating for Jamaica to subscribe to the CCJ as its final court, he pointed out that when jurists are drawn from the collective pool of Caribbean scholars for the regional court, it strengthens the court’s ability to dispense justice through their acute understanding of Caribbean peoples.

“So many of my clients have been wronged and appeal to the Jamaican Court of Appeal and feel that they have a good case but no money to go to England, let alone to get a visa from the British embassy, which can be refused. Even the lawyer’s visa can be refused to go to the British Privy Council. So you are kept out of justice because you don’t have enough funds,” he said.

Meanwhile, Senate President Tom Tavares-Finson, who is also an attorney, warned that the claims could have serious implications for Jamaica’s consideration of the court as its final appellate jurisdiction.

He called for a public enquiry to address the matters facing the CCJ.

Under the agreement establishing the CCJ, disciplinary matters are handled primarily through the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC), formal tribunal processes and heads of government of CARICOM member states.

The RJLSC is an independent body responsible for appointing judges, except the president, and overseeing discipline among other judges and employees.

sashana.small@gleanerjm.com