Dominica moves to CCJ in February

The Caribbean Court of Justice building in Trinidad
The Caribbean Court of Justice building in Trinidad

Come February, Dominica will be joining Belize, Guyana and Barbados in making the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) its final appellate court.

This means that the island will be cutting all ties with the London-based Privy Council.

The announcement was made by Prime Minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, on state-owned DBS Radio on Monday evening.

He said presently there are some administrative matters being worked out as the move is being finalized.

“There are some administrative matters that we would have to take into consideration but we expect the court to come into full effect for Dominica by early February 2015,” Skerrit stated.

He said the move is a momentous opportunity for the country.

“Certainly, as we indicated last year, this is one of the historic opportunities for Dominica and it would mean that allowing our ordinary citizens to have greater access to the judiciary system,” he said. “So we are very keen on seeing the operationalization of the court in its final jurisdiction for the Commonwealth of Dominica.”

In January of 2014, Dominica received approval from Britain to leave the Privy Council and join the CCJ as its final court of appeal and the matter was ratified in Parliament on July 1.

Dominica is now the fourth country in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to sign on to both the appellate and original jurisdiction of the CCJ that was established in 2001.

The CCJ also acts as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that established the Caribbean Community.

Copyright 2012 Dominica News Online, DURAVISION INC. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or distributed.

Disclaimer: The comments posted do not necessarily reflect the views of DominicaNewsOnline.com and its parent company or any individual staff member. All comments are posted subject to approval by DominicaNewsOnline.com. We never censor based on political or ideological points of view, but we do try to maintain a sensible balance between free speech and responsible moderating.

We will delete comments that:

  • contain any material which violates or infringes the rights of any person, are defamatory or harassing or are purely ad hominem attacks
  • a reasonable person would consider abusive or profane
  • contain material which violates or encourages others to violate any applicable law
  • promote prejudice or prejudicial hatred of any kind
  • refer to people arrested or charged with a crime as though they had been found guilty
  • contain links to "chain letters", pornographic or obscene movies or graphic images
  • are off-topic and/or excessively long

See our full comment/user policy/agreement.

10 Comments

  1. Peter Potter
    January 28, 2015

    This is a very bad move for Dominica! You’ll all see where this is going to end up. Why you all think Skerrit is pushing so hard for it?!

  2. FORKIT
    January 28, 2015

    I suspect a lot of people will take the law in their hands because this court will not be a COURT OF JUSTICE, but a court for reginal governments.

  3. Titiwi
    January 28, 2015

    May God save us.

  4. January 28, 2015

    so DBS turn Parliament now??? ell announcements are made there by all ministers. Seems like dey fraid.

  5. January 28, 2015

    In time to come we will see the emergence of China influence in our justice system. Our values, rule of law, human rights, and democracy are distinctively different from that of China, however many of our caricom countries are heavily reliant on financial support form the world’s biggest lender to developing countries. So how are we as caricom nations able to uphold our rule of law, human rights and democracy when opposing values are trickle down into our society? And so in order for caricom to maintain good economic and financial standing we dance to the tune of our piper.

  6. RASTAFARILEADSTHEWAY
    January 27, 2015

    Apparently CCJ fosters the Caribbean Islands with the worst crimes in the Caribbean Trinidad, Guyana and Belize. Their leniency in those Islands has fostered a hot bed for criminal activities along the loss of capital punishment and overflowing jail cells full of hardened career criminals. Bring back hanging.

  7. King Skerrit
    January 27, 2015

    Bad move. Justice for sale to the highest bidder. :(

  8. surprise surprise
    January 27, 2015

    more corruption to happen. it will be based on who knows who and who is who. bad move.

  9. Rabbit
    January 27, 2015

    The commonwealth we need to leave next.

  10. timtim
    January 27, 2015

    Hmmn….no justice no peace!

Post a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

:) :-D :wink: :( 8-O :lol: :-| :cry: 8) :-? :-P :-x :?: :oops: :twisted: :mrgreen: more »

 characters available