The St Lucia government says it intends to begin public consultations on the island becoming a full member of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) later this year.

Caribbean leaders established the CCJ in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council as the region’s final court, but only Barbados and Guyana have signed on to the  appellate and original jurisdictions of the CCJ.

The other CARICOM countries have signed to the original jurisdiction that allows the CCJ to function as an international tribunal in dealing with breaches of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

“As I have often said the commitments that governments make at the CARICOM level must be upheld and must be sustained and so we are committed to that process and we believe it is one that we must continue to maintain…and hopefully by the end of 2010 going to 2011 St. Lucia will be in a position to move forward with the process,” Prime Minister Stephenson King told reporters.

King, who was among regional leaders attending the just concluded CARICOM intersessioanl summit, said there were a number of challenges, including constitutional requirements for a two-thirds majority in a referendum, to be dealt with before the island could join the CCJ.

On Friday, Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson called on his colleagues to ensure that they are full members of the CCJ.

“It weakens the CCJ when the country that is the headquarters of the CCJ, Trinidad and Tobago, is not a country that has acceded to the CCJ. So it is just one of those areas in which people see a yawning gap between the promise of unity and performance and as long as that is not resolved it will pose major difficulties for us.”

Thompson said that it was necessary for regional countries “to get with it” since their reluctance to join the CCJ could weaken the efforts towards establishing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

Original reporting via the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).

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Antillean · Bridgetown, Barbados

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