The Effect of the Original Jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice on Regional Integration and National Law

Author(s):  
David S. Berry

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) serves as both a final appellate court and, under its original jurisdiction, as a treaty-interpreting court. Under this latter jurisdiction the CCJ has developed and enhanced the effectiveness of Caribbean Community law. It has introduced a number of legal doctrines, several of which parallel doctrines of European Union law. In doing so the Court has challenged fundamental national legal norms and traditions, including the dualist view of the relationship between international law and municipal law, the principles of constitutional supremacy and separation of powers, the role of legitimate expectations, and potential for indirect effect. This chapter introduces the CCJ’s original jurisdiction jurisprudence and places it in its legal and historical context. It identifies the different bases under which the CCJ can take jurisdiction, and critically discusses some of its foundational decisions in two areas, namely, free movement of persons and the rules related to the Common External Tariff. The chapter compares the jurisprudence of the CCJ to that of the European Court of Justice in order to assess the former’s potential effect upon Caribbean constitutional norms. The chapter concludes by suggesting that the CCJ has laid the foundations for significant legal developments which may reshape our understandings of the relationship between the regional and national spheres and the scope of authority within each sphere.

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (3) ◽  
pp. 579-601 ◽  
Author(s):  
SALVATORE CASERTA

AbstractThe article proposes an innovative theoretical framework outlining preconditions for Regional International Courts (RICs) to act as engines of supranationality in different institutional and socio-political contexts. In so doing, the article nuances the theoretical approaches to supranationality and supranational adjudication. The article focuses on the Central American Court of Justice (CACJ) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Both courts have been branded institutional copies of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU); they have even borrowed key jurisprudential principles from the Luxembourg Court with the goal of expanding the reach of Central American and Caribbean Community Laws. Yet, both the CACJ and the CCJ have thus far failed to foster supranationality in their respective systems. This is because the conditions allowing RICs to become engines of integration lie, for the most part, beyond the direct control of the judges, most notably, with other institutional, political, and societal actors, such as national judges, regional organs, legal and political elites, as well as academics. The article thus suggests that RICs can become engines of supranationality only to the extent to which they are supported by a set of institutional, political, and societal pre-conditions allowing for the concrete enforcement of the rulings of the RIC at the regional and national levels.


2008 ◽  
Vol 37 (4) ◽  
pp. 334-355 ◽  
Author(s):  
Derek O'Brien ◽  
S. Foadi

The Caribbean Court of Justice, which was inaugurated in April 2005, is possessed of both an appellate and an original jurisdiction. In its original jurisdiction the Court is vested with a compulsory and exclusive power to interpret and apply the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas which establishes the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy. This paper explores the Court's original jurisdiction and the role that it could play in promoting regional integration, taking account of the region's history and the institutional structure within which it will be expected to function.


Author(s):  
Iris Saraiva Russowsky

Resumo: O presente trabalho busca analisar a relação entre direito comunitário e o direito internacional a partir da integração regional ocorrida na União Europeia. Busca-se analisar a viabilidade da adesão da União Europeia à Convenção Europeia de Direitos Humanos (CEDH), levando-se em conta, principalmente, a atuação do Tribunal de Justiça da União Europeia (TJUE) e a reformulação ocorrida no bloco com o Tratado de Lisboa (2009). Palavras-chave: Direito Comunitário; Direito Internacional; União Europeia; Adesão à CEDH. Abstract: This study aims to analyze the relationship between European Union law and international law from the regional integration occurred in Europe. It analyzes the viability of the European Union's adherence to the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR), taking into account mainly the work of the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and the reformulation occurred in the block before the Lisbon Treaty (2009).  Keywords: European Union Law; International Law; European Union; Adherence to European Convention of Human Rights.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta ◽  
Mikael Rask Madsen

This chapter analyzes the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the creation of which was regarded as the culmination of the Caribbean’s long and protracted process toward independence from its former colonizers. Formally, the CCJ was instantaneously empowered to hear cases involving Caribbean Community law (Community law). The CCJ was also empowered to replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) in London—a last court of appeal for civil and criminal cases from the Caribbean and the most visible remnant of the British Empire’s former rule. The CCJ’s unique double jurisdiction—original over Community law and appellate over other civil and criminal matters—underscores the complex sociopolitical context and transformation of which it is a part. Ultimately, the CCJ’s growing authority has increasingly made the Court the institutional intersection for the convergence of these two different paths toward establishing the Caribbean as a legally integrated regional unity.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta ◽  
Pola Cebulak

Abstract International courts are increasingly called upon to adjudicate socially divisive disputes. They are therefore exposed to a heightened risk of backlash that questions their authority and impedes the implementation of their judgments. This article puts forward an analytical framework for mapping the resilience techniques used by international courts to counter this growing resistance. Case studies involve the Court of Justice of the European Union, which has been cautious in its stance regarding democratic backsliding in Hungary and Poland, and the Caribbean Court of Justice, which has engaged in legal diplomacy while adjudicating both on the land rights of indigenous groups and on Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Queer and Intersex (LGBTQI) rights. It is argued that, in order to effectively avoid and mitigate backlash, international courts should deploy resilience techniques that go beyond merely exercising their judicial function. The successful deployment of resilience techniques can allow international courts to become significant actors in global governance during a time of crisis for the international liberal order.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta

The book provides the first in-depth and empirically grounded analysis on the foundations and trajectories of gaining authority of the four Latin American and Caribbean regional economic courts: the Central American Court of Justice (CACJ), the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the Andean Tribunal of Justice (ATJ), and the Mercosur Permanent Review Court (PRC). While these courts were, on their terms, established to build common markets and to enforce trade liberalization, they have often developed bodies of jurisprudence in domains often not directly associated with regional economic integration. The CCJ has been most successful in the area of human and fundamental rights; the CACJ has addressed issues related to the enforcement of the rule of law in national legal arenas and long-standing border disputes between the countries of the region; the ATJ is an island of effective adjudication on intellectual property issues; and the PRC has significantly struggled to receive a significant number of cases to rule upon all together. The particular trajectories of the four Latin American and Caribbean Regional Economic Courts (RECs) suggest that there is no universal formula for success for these institutions and that their operational path is not necessarily a function of their formally delegated competences and/or of the will of the Member States, as it is often argued in mainstream legal and political science literature. Rather, local socio-political contextual factors—such as the historical legacies of a region, the interests and dynamics of socialization of legally and politically situated actors, the nature of national and regional politics, and legal culture—often play a far more decisive role in influencing the direction of RECs during and after their establishment.


Author(s):  
Salvatore Caserta

This chapter deals with the trajectory of gaining de facto authority of the Central American Court of Justice (CACJ), showing how, different from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), this Court has thus far failed to leave a significant mark in its operational context. In its early years, the Court fared rather well, especially in terms of its capacity to build a system of community law and to address some institutional difficulties of the Central American Integration System (SICA). However, when the Court became involved with several highly political disputes (i.e. a political clash between two former Nicaraguan Presidents and some territorial disputes among its Member States) in the early 2000s, it encountered strong resistance from several actors in its context of operation. As in the analysis of the CCJ, this chapter explains the fluctuation of the CACJ’s authority by looking at the role played by various contextual factors such as the institutional conflicts between the various organs of Central American integration, the highly polarised national politics of some of the Court’s Member States, and the divergent professional interests of the Central American legal elites.


2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-238 ◽  
Author(s):  
Désirée P. Bernard

The inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice in April 2005 represented the culmination of aspirations in earlier years to establish a court of last resort for the Caribbean Region to replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (The Privy Council) which was and still is for most Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions, the final court. These aspirations were endorsed by the legal profession through the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA) over thirty years ago, although the idea of such a court was not an original one having been contemplated early in the last century. The court was envisaged as a Caribbean Court of Appeal with an appellate jurisdiction hearing appeals from domestic appellate courts and an original jurisdiction to interpret regional treaties.


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