CCJ has not bite. Scrap it?

[Time]

Tell Barbados to pay Myrie

Montague presses Nicholson on CCJ ruling

BY ALICIA DUNKLEY Senior staff reporter dunkleya@jamaicaobserver.com

Saturday, February 22, 2014 21 Comments

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MONTAGUE… says the lack of quick payment by our sister nation makes the dream of a Caribbean Court of Justice just a dream, nuff bark but no bite

OPPOSITION Senator Robert 'Bobby' Montague yesterday called on Foreign Affairs Minister Senator AJ Nicholson to press the Barbadian Government to pay Jamaican Shanique Myrie the nearly $4 million in damages she was awarded by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) last year.

"Let us insist, Mr Minister, that Miss Shanique Myrie be paid the funds the court has ordered. The lack of that quick payment by our sister nation makes the dream of a Caribbean Court of Justice just a dream, nuff bark but no bite," Senator Montague told the Upper Chamber yesterday during his contribution to the 2014 State of the Nation Debate.

Myrie, in 2011 on a visit to that island, was detained at Grantley Adams International Airport and subsequently deported after being subjected to an illegal body cavity search and what she said was demeaning treatment.

She filed a suit against the Barbadian Government but is yet to receive the US$38,620 in pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages that the CCJ awarded her in October 2013.

"Can you imagine the cries and howling if it was Jamaica to pay?" Senator Montague asked yesterday. "Minister, the weakness of your Government is showing; it seems they all tek us fi bwoy. We can't allow our citizen to be poorly treated; get a court ruling in her favour and allow others to be thumbing their noses at us.

"Minister, call your colleague from Barbados. Put down your foot," Montague appealed.

Senator Nicholson, however, was far from amused by the call.

"Foolishness, please, come man, rubbish," he said sotto voce.

As a party to the Treaty of Chaguaramas, Barbados has an obligation to comply with all the judgements of the court promptly.

[Rockman]

Jamaica MUST act on the CCJ rulings,our courts have to officiate that ruling or it too is guilty of not giving the CCJ weight.
Liens.......

[Mosiah]

Grandstanding by Montague, but he's right!

[Historian]

A Question….

This post of mine, I must confess, has little to do with the Shanique Myrie case, and so I apologize if I have broken the focus.

Trinidad & Tobago lobbied hard for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) to be permanently seated in that country. In fact, the Basdeo Panday government (I’m open to correction here if my facts are wrong) was very anxious for the CCJ to come on stream in Trinidad during their administration. It did in Port of Spain around 2005.

Now, my question is this:
After so hard a diplomatic fight to have the CCJ based in Trinidad, and having succeeded, why is it that Trinidad & Tobago, even today, is not a member of the CCJ? As far as I’m aware, only three CARICOM states -- Barbados, Belize and Guyana -- have the CCJ as their final appellate court.

Is it that the CCJ is a colossal waste in several respects, akin to the stupidity of having the headquarters of CARICOM based in a not easily accessible South American country?

(Just wondering about this and that….)

[Assasin]

I think she should take CCJ and Barbados to the Privy Council.

[Historian]

Interesting Point, But....

I think she should take CCJ and Barbados to the Privy Council.

Yes, I agree that her lawyers should take the matter of Barbados to the Privy Council. But the CCJ is another matter. Would the Privy Council even consider a case against a prominent regional final appellate court, one which is already embedded in the constitutions of several CARICOM countries? This is a genuine question, and one which I have no answer for.

Also, by the time the process of taking the case to London and obtaining a ruling by the Privy Council is completed, would Shanique have any money left?

I’m just wondering, and so I welcome all relevant responses.

[Mosiah]

...a prominent regional final appellate court, one which is already embedded in the constitutions of several CARICOM countries?

Prominent?

How many countries have actually embedded it in their constitutions?

[Jawge]

Really? What's the point of the CCJ then? Can't these island nations cannot govern themselves? England may just have to build an app (algo) just to handle privy council cases. This is not a joke (the gap is widening whilst the fiddling continues).