Prime Minister of Jamaica, Portia Simpson-Miller has commended Dominica for enacting legislation to amend its Constitution to facilitate the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice as the Final Court of Appeal.
Simpson-Miller’s congratulations came following the passage of the legislation in the Dominican Parliament on Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
“I express sincere congratulations to the Prime Minister, Government and people of Dominica for taking this important step towards the consolidation of their Independence,” the Jamaica Observer quoted Simpson-Miller as saying at the start of the session of the 35th Meeting of the Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government underway in Antigua and Barbuda.
She added that the constitutional amendment was a vote of confidence in the CARICOM regional institution and the high quality of the jurisprudence in the region, according the Observer.
She added that Dominica had set an example for several other member states, including Jamaica, which have not yet adopted the CCJ as their final Court of Appeal.
Both Simpson-Miller and prime minister, Roosevelt Skerrit, are attending the CARICOM Heads’ meeting now undeway.
The meeting concludes of Friday, July 4.
CCJ is a waste of time and precious money, it is a court setup to protect corrupt politicians and their friends in high places. One of the points made in support of the CCJ is that many of the judges in the region have served on the Privy Council and other international courts, to me the suggest that we as a region have already influenced these international courts to the extent that our nationals can serve as judges in these international courts. Our constitution and our local judicial system is based on the British judicial system of which the Privy Council is the Supreme Court. I hear of no plans to move away our local court system from the British model. We also need to understand that the CCJ court will also be comprised of judges from various countries and jurisdictions outside of the Caribbean region. The point is since the CCJ will now be competing with the other international courts to employ credible and competent judges, we may very well end up with CCJ judges who are not up to standard. Undoubtedly the more established courts will attract the superior judges leaving the crumbs for the CCJ. When we as a region have established our own legal system based on our culture, customs and moral beliefs that can be harmoniously applied throughout the Region Court System, then we can talk about CCJ. CCJ can never and will never be able to interpret law based on the British legal system better than the Privy Council. The last time I checked all the countries in the Caribbean have constitutions and local and regional court systems based on the British legal system (Dominica included). THE CCJ IS A DISTRACTION CREATED TO PROVIDE HIGH PAYING JOBS FOR JUDGES AND LAWYERS WHO ARE FRIENDS OF CORRUPT POLITITIONS, WHO WILL BE PROTECTED BY THESE CORRUPT AND INCOMPETENT CCJ JUDGES. Is no one concerned that we are not approaching this ona regional basis?
Oh please my people stop the name calling and respect other people’s opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion.
I may not agree with you but that doesn’t give me the right to call you a fool.
I can not wait for the case between Tommy Lee and the Government of Dominica to be called!
Unfortuntely Dominica cannot wish Portia the same. Whereras twenty two men and women can sit in the house and change the Constitution to satisfy one man, , in Jamaica, it is different, it is all the people that decide.
Please bloggers . Fast n FURIOUS is a Dominican like you and i .please give him his time and space to comment. i really dont have the time to angage this gentleman on DNO , He a mouthpiece for the govt never objective on any matter when we speak of Dominica. he speak like someone thats on a mission sent by the ruling party to blogg then come collect on wednesday from his masters .please let the man speak .
This medium is not for he who is fast and furious. Check the traffic signs. That blogger should first be checked for substance abuse.
uneducated idiot everything is politics scumbag
read what the article before u comment
The other islands are strategists. They know that if they encourage Dominica to make bad decisions they will look good! That is the reason why they commend us for our ill-thought out decisions.
There should have been a referendum in Dominica before the government decided to proceed with this monumental step!
You are right. A referendum would have killed it; just as it would have killed the march to political independence. It would have killed the abolition of slavery too.
The United States Constitution has been amended 27 times. Never had there been a referendum. It took 2 1/2 years for the 13 American States to ratify their constitution. Only 4 Caricom states signed the original Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973.
I must ask my mom for the words to the colonial era song, “Britania Rules the Waves”, emphasizing that the British “shall never, never be slaves”, while they rule over us and their vast empire. Oh, what about “God Save The Queen”? Long to reign over us! We’ve sung those songs for years when celebrating the queen’s birthday. We must now sing “Thee song of Freedom”. We can argue that we are not totally Free but we have to make it happen. Marcus Garvey, Toussaint L’ouverture, Che Guevara, Maurice Bishop, Nesta Marley, Roosevelt Douglas and Pierre Charles fought to make it happen.
Let’s get to work! Forward Ever!!
Astute, although the Constitution gives the government the right to do it the way they did, however since the Government has lost tremendous support from 2009 18-3 is definitely not the reality in Dominica today, a referendum would be the democratic way to go. I agree with you.
Any and everything goes in Dominica, Why? Because we act as DUMMY IN CANS.
Why is it that I did not have my vote?
So it good for Dominica, but it not good for Jamaica, eh? I find allu Caribbean prime ministers very crooked and two-face. It’s the same way de Vincie pm, Ralph Gonsalves say dat not building an international airport was good for Dominica, but he went right ahead and build one for his people.
I am aware that the PNP administration that Mrs Portia Simpson Miller leads is fully supportive of the CCJ. Former Prime Minister P J Patterson gave great guidance in the formulation of the CCJ. The process to move away from the Privy Counsel to the CCJ by Jamaica is more complicated than what entails in Dominica. So I know that the PNP government will move in that direction as Dominica did.
Remember Gonsalves told us that we did not need an international airport……
tell this lady that, It is better to be an example ,than to congratulate one,
And I want to see if she will not consault with the people of Jamaica before she make that move ,
b,no ,they are much wiser than thatecause I know ,The Jamaica people ,are not like we Dominicans ,where anything goes,
In Switzerland u cannot pass legislation without the consent of the people, in Dominica legislation is passed then the people consent, compare our development with the swiss, now u see why,
not because Prime minister of another island congratulate Dominica prime minister for C C J we the citizen must take it to heart a good deed was made on our behalf.let us remember that the prime minister of st vinsent came to Dominica on a political platform of this labour party and told us that we dont need an international airport.what did he do next? go back to his country and build one.whos fool are we stop fooling ourselves.
Portia is an educated woman, I believe she means well for Dominicans but she was sending a message to us Domincans. She is letting us know that we must think hard and look close at our leader and his motives.
If you are so sincere Portia Simpson Miller, that is your second term as P M of Jamaica why is it you have yet to make a move in the same direction?
you call that a comment??? Fool
What do you call it, Fool!!!!
Although PM Simpson-Miller has a two thirds majority (42/63) in Jamaica’s legislature, she does not have the luxury of a 75% majority like the DLP. With attitude like that of Prevost, Edison and Hector, ( I deliberately left out the Hon.), go figure!
Be that as it may, the Jamaicans clearly do not trust or want the CCJ.
We lead and the others follow.
…they follow u to hell in a hand basket.
Who u see that follow? Stupes, not even Portia herself.
The larger countries are the ones keeping CARICOM from what it’s suppose to be and they know why bcuz they have looked at what happened with large countries like Germany when the EU came to be.
Considering she sees it as a lead in the path, why didn’t she confirm that Jamaica will be making strides to follow?
Tell it to the negatives ones!
@ FAST N IDIOT I guess you are too stupid to know that Jamaica has not done so. That’s why you should listen to Q95. By now you would have left the stage of imbecility. SOT!
Negative?, more like defenders of our country that your crocks are busy selling from under your foot but your greed blind you to that fact.