Is the Establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice a Sound Move for Caricom? If so, Why Has It Not Been Adopted by More Caricom States

The question must be asked firstly, not what if the establishment of the Caribbean Court of Justice is a sound move but what exactly is the Caribbean Court of Justice. As many perceive the CCJ as it is commonly referred to, would be a replacement to the previous Privy Council; which was and still is in some Caribbean states the last court of appeal. The Privy Council is considered to be one of the oldest institutions of government. “It has many roles which include giving advice on the exercise of prerogative, (A Prerogative is an exclusive legal right given from a government or state and invested in an individual or group, the content of which is separate from the body of rights enjoyed under the general law of the normative state) powers and certain functions assigned to the Queen and Council by the Act of Parliament.”1 The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council also has a major role to play, as it is the highest and final court of appeal in the United Kingdom, it has overseas territories and Crown dependencies, as well as in the Commonwealth countries. This is expected because these territories and countries were once ruled by the British, before they became independent. Therefore, if they had any decentralization (Decentralization is the policy of delegating decision-making authority down to the lower levels in an organization) issues the Privy Council was the court used to deal with these issues As years past, these territories have become independent and they have developed their own Government and Judicial institutions. However, they still turned to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council to deal with certain cases which were beyond their calling because they did not have a final court of appeal. The Caribbean Community has come together and attempted to change this by making a proposal to set up a final court of appeal within the region. The Caribbean Court of Justice is projected to be more than the final court of appeal. There will also be an