…And replacement of Privy Council with C.C.J.

One area that government is not seeing much opposition is a move to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice as the final appellate court. Courtenay this morning said he believes that “the abilities and qualities of the C.C.J. are as good if not better than those at the Privy Council”. He gave us a few other reasons why the C.C.J. would be good for Belize.

Eamon Courtenay, Attorney
“The Caribbean Court of Justice is something that we are paying for. We are paying for it already and therefore I think we should use it. I don’t see any loss at all to us as a nation in terms of accessing the Caribbean Court of Justice. And there can be benefits; benefits in terms of those judges have a much clearer understanding of Creole, for example. Simeon Sampson tells me that one of the cases that he did in the Privy Council, he had to explain to the law lords what it meant when the accused person said “she mi di abstract me”. They had no clue what that meant. Something like that is very easily explained in the Caribbean and a judge would understand that a lot better. We should insist I think, especially because of our geography, on the use of electronic filing and video conferencing for some of the hearings to cut down on the cost. So I think going to the C.C.J. is certainly a win-win for Belize. I think certainly for the court to be itinerant is important; Belizeans want to see their judges. They want to know who it is that is judging them ultimately. The Privy Council has done very, very little of that; very little of visiting; not actually holding sessions in the Caribbean or in Asia but having their judges visit. I think the C.C.J. judges have the authority under their statute and under the treaty to move to a jurisdiction and actually hold court there.”

While going to the C.C.J. would not be as expensive as going to the Privy Council, Courtenay stressed, that it will still be costly.