The post of president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) is currently being advertised and early next year applications will be invited for the posts of the five judges.

Project Co-ordinator of the Project Coordinating Unit, Sheldon McDonald said at a press briefing yesterday that details on the terms and conditions of office and application form are published on the CCJ website `www.caribbeancourtofjustice.org'.

The application for president will close on January 30 and the appointment process should be complete by the end of February.

The CCJ will in part be the region's final court of appeal replacing the United Kingdom's Privy Council for some Caribbean countries. It is expected that the date for the inauguration of the court will be announced at the Heads of Government (HOGs) meeting to be held in St Lucia in March.

The president has to also participate in the appointment of the judges so that advertisement for the judges will also be out early next year.

The term of the president is non-renewable and emoluments are wholly exempted from any tax with a salary of US$144,000 as well as generous housing, travel and entertainment allowances.

The applicant is not required to be a Caricom national but may come from the Commonwealth group or any other country with similar legislation such as France, the Netherlands and Indonesia.

McDonald said the process for approving the terms and conditions of office by the Caricom Heads of Government took only seven days thus belying the often cited charge of lethargy.

He said it was not accurate to say that any leader or the Caricom Secretariat had lost resoluteness to have the CCJ in place. McDonald said the treaty bodies and the Board of Trustees of the CCJ had prevailed on the leaders to carry out their role and while there might be some public anxiety about getting the CCJ up and running, he asked that they keep the faith.

At the last special summit of the Heads of Government in St Lucia, McDonald recalled that the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) had raised concerns over how few states had actually enacted legislation to give domestic effect to the jurisdiction of the CCJ. At the time only Barbados and Suriname had actually enacted legislation.

At the Special Summit, the leaders of St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), Guyana, Jamaica, Belize and the heads of the delegation of Grenada and Dominica gave assurances that legislation would be tabled by or before December 2003. McDonald said that in the words of the RJLSC there would be more than a sufficiency of member states to give the court its jurisdiction.

He also noted that since the summit, St Lucia and Belize had enacted legislation while Grenada, Dominica, Trinidad, Jamaica and Guyana are to table their legislation shortly.

He said the Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Ralph Gonsalves, had given a commitment to enact legislation early in 2004.

In terms of legislation, he said, "Guyana is not in a complicated position" having made provision for the CCJ in the country's reformed constitution.

In terms of the work of the CCJ Board of Trustees, he said the board had met several times in relation to the CCJ Trust Fund. He said the board had expressed the view that they would like more time to do their task optimally. They have advertised for the post of the Chief Executive Officer for the fund.

Today, a delegation from the board goes to the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to continue discussions on the financial regulations of the fund and investment guidelines to ensure that the US$100M is managed efficiently. He said both the financial regulations and investment guidelines have to be approved by the leaders. The trust fund is a public trust and the taxpayers of the member states, would be repaying the loans contracted by the CDB, through their governments.

Since its inauguration, McDonald said that the RJLSC had been preparing administrative budgets; examining draft estimates for the biennial budget of the court itself; and preparing job descriptions and recruiting staff for commission and the court. While setting up offices in Port of Spain they have also been receiving reports on the physical state of the building to house the CCJ.

The commission has taken over a seal competition, which was initiated by the CCJ Project Co-ordinating Unit.

Asked about the delays, he said that he felt based on an analysis that the dates were realisable but "we are in unchartered waters..." (Miranda La Rose)