CCJ moving ahead

Attorney General and Acting Prime Minister the Hon. Steadroy Benjamin says Antigua and Barbuda is ready to move ahead with making the Caribbean Court of Justice the nation’s final court of appeal.

The CCJ President, Sir Dennis Byron is on island with a team meeting with government officials. This is his first visit since the country expressed interest in the judicial body.

Minister Benjamin reassures Sir Dennis that the government has already gone ahead and set timelines as to how it intends to achieve certain matters relating to becoming a member of the CCJ.

He says this is a move towards achieving true Caribbean integration and the intention is for Antigua & Barbuda to be fully on board in less than a year.

Meanwhile, the CCJ President says that the nation will benefit significantly by the decision it is making, especially the average man.

The CCJ was established in 2001 to replace the London-based Privy Council and while most of the Caribbean countries have signed on to the court’s original jurisdiction, only Barbados, Guyana, Belize and Dominica, are signatories to the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ that also serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the 15-member regional integration movement.