St. Lucia, has officially become the fifth Caribbean Community (CARICOM) country to have full membership with the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which now will replace the London-based Privy Council as the country’s final court.
In a statement, the CCJ president Justice Adrian Saunders said “the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) notes that the Constitution of Saint Lucia (Amendment) Act has been assented to by the Governor General of Saint Lucia and that state has now officially acceded to the CCJ’s Appellate Jurisdiction. On behalf of the CCJ, I extend my sincerest congratulations to the people of Saint Lucia on this momentous occasion.”
He added that ” The Honourable Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, Dame Janice Pereira, and the President of the Saint Lucia Bar Association, Ms Diana Thomas Hunte, have been written to advise of the readiness of the CCJ’s Registry staff to assist Saint Lucian court officials, litigants and counsel alike in the use of the CCJ’s electronic filing and case management portals in order to facilitate access to the Court”.
Justice Sanders said the CCJ is ready to serve St. Lucians as “we do all the states and people of the Caribbean Community and in particular, those of Guyana, Barbados, Belize and the Commonwealth of Dominica, whose final appeals we hear.”