The Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) will meet in October to determine the timing of its approach to the capital markets to raise the US$100 million for the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) trust fund.
The agreement establishing the court came into effect on July 23 when Guyana became the third country to present its Instrument of Ratification to the CARICOM Secretary-General. The other countries are St Lucia and Barbados.
However, the CCJ is not expected to begin its work before the second half of next year. In the interim, member states have to complete the legislative process to provide for the CCJ to be their final court of appeal and to bring them within its original jurisdiction. So far, because of their civil law tradition, only Haiti and Suriname will be exempt from the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ.
The CARICOM Heads at their meeting here last month took the decision to establish the fund and determine an indicative schedule of repayments by the member states. Sheldon McDonald, the coordinator for the CCJ project unit in the CARICOM Secretariat told a press conference yesterday that the portion of the US$100 million that each state will pay and the repayment period were determined according to the system of contributions to regional institutions and their standing with the CDB.
As a consequence of the decision to establish the trust fund, CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington told reporters at the CARICOM Secretariat press conference that a number of international organisations made offers to assist in providing computers and law volumes for the library. He said that the United Kingdom and the European Union were two of the organisations which made offers.
McDonald said that October was the target date for the establishment of the eleven-member Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC).
The Commission, according to McDonald is the principal administrative structure of the Caribbean Court of Justice and will be responsible for interviewing and appointing the judges to sit on the court and support staff.
The President of the Court will chair the commission but at its first meeting, the members will select from among themselves a chairman until it identifies and recommends and the Heads accept a jurist to head the CCJ.
McDonald said that the Commission would consist of the President of the CCJ when appointed; two persons jointly nominated by the CARICOM Secretary-General and the Director-General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States; two persons nominated jointly by the Deans of the Faculty of Law of the Universities of the West Indies, Guyana, Suriname and Haiti as well as the Chairman of the Council of Legal Education; the Chairman of a Public Service Commission of a member state selected in reverse alphabetical order; the Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission of a member state selected in alphabetical order; two persons nominated jointly by the regional organisations of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations and the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States and two persons nominated jointly by the bar associations of the members states.
The life of the first commission McDonald said would be one year and thereafter three years. With the President of the CCJ appointed and in the chair of the RJLSC, McDonald said that consideration could then be given to its budget.
As the centrepiece of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), Single Market Adviser, Desiree Field-Ridley, stressed the urgency for all the members of the Community to complete the arrangements for membership of the court. She explained that it is the CCJ that will appoint the members of the Competitions Commission and to do this the seven-member court must be in place. Should the CCJ not be in a position to do this the Commission will be appointed by the CARICOM Heads according to Field-Ridley.