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ST JOHN’S, Antigua, Mar 09 2016 – The President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Sir Dennis Byron is in Antigua & Barbuda as the country kicks off a public education campaign on the CCJ Thursday ahead of the referendum.
No date has been given for the referendum in which Antiguans & Barbudans will vote to determine whether the CCJ should replace the London-based Privy Council as the country’s final court of appeal.
Sir Dennis points to the satisfaction of the Caribbean having its own court adjudicating on its own matters.
“I think it’s very important for the point of our pride as equal human beings living within an independent community,” he said in an interview on local radio.
“Secondly, coming to the CCJ provides much greater opportunity for ordinary citizens to have access to a final court of appeal.”
Political Leader of the opposition United Progressive Party (UPP) Harold Lovell said every effort has been made for us to produce in the Caribbean an institution which can be the envy of the world.
“I believe that in terms of judicial competence we have it; in terms of impartiality in the selection process, we have it; in terms of the funding of the court which frees it and insulates it from direct political involvement and interference, we have it,” Lovell said.
“So for those reasons I support it in addition to the point…which is from a philosophical point of view I’m attracted to the idea of Caribbean judges adjudicating on Caribbean cases.
