The Commonwealth of Dominica, will on Friday 6 March 2015, officially recognize the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as its final appellate court.
The historic occasion, scheduled to take place at the State House’s conference room from 10AM in the presence of Sir Denis Byron, the president of the CCJ, will be carried live on Vibes Radio.
The CCJ, headquartered in Port of Spain, Trinidad, was established in 2001, to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court of appeal.
Dominica signed the agreement establishing the CCJ on 15 February 2003 and in 2014 received the formal go-ahead from Britain to delink from the Privy Council and join the CCJ.
Attorney General Levi Peter said during a radio program on state owned DBS Radio on Monday 2 March, the decision to adopt the CCJ as Dominica’s final appellate court is a significant one as.
“The cost entailed in often paying for an attorney or attorneys to travel from Dominica, in addition to the UK attorneys, who have to be engaged, in addition to the air flights, the class of air flight, to be provided, expenses involved and just the other general cost in relation to legal proceeding,” he said.
Mr Peter explained that the reduction in the cost will also allow more people to take advantage of, or seek to exercise the right that they have than the very small number who currently go to the Privy Council.
“Because for most ordinary people, the Privy Council is beyond their reach for a number of reasons and cost is one of those reasons,” he said.
While Mr Peter noted that the closeness of the court is another benefit of adopting the CCJ, he said there is need to create, develop and advance jurisprudence “that comes from ourselves”.
“We need to further develop our self-confidence and our belief in ourselves as individuals and also our fellow compatriots, men and women from our jurisdiction and from other jurisdictions in the region”.
“We have people who have the intelligence, capacity, ability to sit in judgments over our issues and in-effect take forward laws that are by us and of us, and it is high time that we do so and complete the circle of sovereignty which we have embarked upon initially through associated statehood,” he said.
Dominica joins Belize, Guyana and Barbados, the only three countries of CARICOM which have abolished the Privy Council and made the CCJ their final appellate court.
The CCJ also acts as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the 15-member regional integration movement.
