By Vernon Daley, Parliamentary Reporter
Patterson
PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson yesterday gave clear indications his Government would be pressing ahead with the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), without a referendum.
Mr. Patterson has all but closed the door on critics who have been insisting that the Government should hold a referendum before replacing the UK-based Privy Council with the CCJ as the island's final court of appeal.
He told the House of Representatives that under the Jamaican Constitution, Parlia-ment could remove the Privy Council by simple majority because that court was not entrenched by the framers of the Consti-tution.
"I have already indicated why that section was not entrenched. It was to permit the move that this House is now being invited to take," Mr. Patterson said in opening debate on a resolution calling for the ratification of an agreement setting up the court.
Ratification of the agreement by itself will not bring the court into being. Rather, it is a commitment by Jamaica that it will put in place the necessary legislation to implement the agreement.
"I entertain not the slightest hesitation in saying that for the CCJ, the time has come," the Prime Minister said. "I therefore ask this House to view this in its national dimension, its regional perspective and to regard it as a necessary act to complete our process of sovereignty."
Dr. Carolyn Gomes, executive director of Jamaicans for Justice (JFJ), was not impressed by the Prime Minister's presentation.
"It was disappointing," said Dr. Gomes, who listened to the Prime Minister from the visitors' gallery at Gordon House. She said that while the authors of the 1962 Constitution might have envisaged the swapping of the Privy Council for a regional court, Jamaicans should not be denied the right to say whether they want such a court now.
Groups such as JFJ, the Farquharson Institute of Public Affairs, and the Jamaican Bar Associa-tion have all called for a referendum on the CCJ.
At the same time, the Prime Minister shook off suggestions from critics that the Government was pushing the establishment of the CCJ so it could resume hanging. He argued that the idea of a Caribbean court was mooted some three decades ago during the period when hanging was "alive and well in the United Kingdom."
He said that regional leaders had taken steps to protect judges of the CCJ from political interference as well as provide adequate funding for the court.
Mr. Patterson pointed to the creation of a US$100-million trust fund, which is to be set up by the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to fund the court. About US$12 million will be used for start-up costs for the CCJ while the remaining US$88 million will be placed in the trust fund. Jamaica's contribution to the fund is US$26.8 million.
The Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission, which will be responsible for appointing judges to the CCJ, has been fully protected from political influence, he said.
He said that with only the chairman of the 11-member commission subject to appointment by regional leaders, this would make the CCJ the most politically-insulated regional court.
The CCJ is expected to be operational by 2005. It will have two tiers an original jurisdiction, which will adjudicate on trade arising in the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), and an appellate jurisdiction, which will serve as a final appeal court to replace the Privy Council.
So far, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, St. Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago have all ratified the agreement for setting up the court.
