KINGSTON, Jamaica — Minister of Justice Delroy Chuck says that the threat by the Barbados Government to leave the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is evidence of a flaw in the court’s jurisdiction, the Jamaica Observer reported on May 21 in an article written by Balford Henry, Senior Staff Reporter.
“Nobody should be able to leave the court because they don’t like a decision. We have to maintain that when you join the court, you stay there,” Chuck told a meeting of the Area One Council (Kingston and St Andrew) of the ruling Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) in Kingston yesterday.
Chuck said that it would make no sense Jamaica joining final appellate which any member country can just walk out of when they felt they needed to do so.
“We could end up being the only one left there,” he told the crowd of Labourites attending the meeting.
He said that the constitution ruling the court should provide that once a country joins the court it must remain under its jurisdiction, unless it is rejected by a referendum vote.
Chuck told the Jamaica Observer after the meeting that his view has always been that a member country should only be able to withdraw without a referendum decision, otherwise member countries would use the option as a threat to seek favourable decisions from the court.
The justice minister was reacting to reports in the Barbadian press yesterday, that the Prime Minister Freundel Stuart had threatened to withdraw from the CCJ, as its final court of appeal, as “judgements coming out of the CCJ were not reflecting positively on Barbados”, according to that island’s Nation newspaper.
