Jamaica takes step towards rejecting Privy Council

| 14/05/2015 | 2 Comments
Cayman News Service

Caribbean Court of Justice

(CNS): Three pieces of legislation that may lead to the neighboring island of Jamaica ending its use of the UK’s Privy Council and creating a regional final court of appeal have been passed by the House of Representatives. The Jamaican government plans to establish the Caribbean Court of Justice as its last legal port of call but there is still a further hurdle for Portia Simpson-Miller’s government as the issue now moves to the Senate. In three weeks the government will need to sway at least one opposition member to steer it through the upper house.

Following her election to office three years ago Simpson Miller revealed plans to sever Jamaica’s ties with the British, making the island a republic and removing Queen Elizabeth as the head of state.

In her inaugural address she said the time had come for Jamaica to break with the monarchy and have its own president.

Her PNP party has consistently supported replacing the Privy Council with the CCJ, while the opposition JLP has been equally consistent that a referendum should be held to allow Jamaican electors to decide the issue.

The Caribbean Court of Justice was established in 2005 but only Barbados, Belize and Guyana accept its appellate jurisdiction, with Dominica only confirming its jurisdiction in March this year. Trinidad and Tobago, which hosts the CCJ’s headquarters in Port of Spain, has not signed on to its final appellate authority.

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Category: Caribbean, World News

Comments (2)

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  1. Haley says:

    The Cayman Islands benefit from its strong ties with the UK and therefore there is no chance in the foreseeable future that we’d navigate in the same seas as Jamaica.

  2. Anonymous says:

    Privy council is there to be an independent watchdog over the local judiciary. This is a sad day for Jamaica. Hopefully the Cayman Islands will remain- as it a check and balance and guidance for the local judiciary. Of which- Privy council decisions are binding on the Grand Court of the Cayman Islands…..

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