St. Lucia is now the sixth member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to obtain full membership in the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which will now serve as the nation’s supreme court in place of the Privy Council in London.
The Governor General of Saint Lucia has formally acceded to the CCJ’s Appellate Jurisdiction, according to a statement from CCJ President Justice Adrian Saunders. “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,” he declared. I send my deepest greetings to Saint Lucia’s citizens on this historic occasion on behalf of the CCJ.
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He noted that a few officials have been written to in order to facilitate access to the court, ” 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, has 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”.
According to Justice Sanders, the CCJ is prepared to assist St. Lucians, just 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.”
