Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)

1. Created in 2005 to replace the Privy Council at the apex of the judicial appeal system.
2. The Privy Council is based in Britain and was established during colonialism.
3. Only Barbados and the Republic of Guyana have signed on to the CCJ, with the other
Caribbean countries choosing to remain under the appellate jurisdiction of the Privy
Council.
The main reasons given for declining to join the CCJ are as follows:
Fear that the CCJ will be unable to dispense impartial justice.
That the CCJ will prove to costly to the region.
The region will be unable to select judges for the CCJ on merit.
That the judges will prove incompetent.
That the CCJ will be dominated by the Caribbean’s larger territories.
Partisan Politics.
Despite the lack of members the CCJ still languishes as it symbolises to Caribbean people
a way of unshackling its’ colonial past and cementing the region as a place of self-
independence. The result of this outcome and the unwillingness of all Caribbean states to
commit to the CCJ is the appearance of two final courts of appeal. This reflects a slow
process of transition being undertaken in the legal system of the Caribbean.