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BUILDING OUR SINGLE ECONOMY Page 25
THE JUDICIARY
Every society needs a justice system to administer and regulate the laws that are necessary for the orderly functioning. The administration of justice must be fair, impartial and independent of the authorities who create the laws. Achieving this situation in very small societies like those of the islands of the Eastern Caribbean is a challenge that the Eastern Caribbean countries have overcome by pooling their resources to maintain one judicial system for all the countries.
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Indeed, one of the first areas of cooperation in the OECS was that of the Judiciary or Judicial matters and this was inherited from its predecessor, the West Indies Associated States Council of Ministers (WISA Council). At the time of the formation of the WISA Council in 1967, the Windward and Leeward Islands shared a common supreme court – the Supreme Court of the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands – and a common appeal court – the Court of Appeal of the Windward Islands and Leeward Islands that was established for its colonies by the British Government in 1939. With the new constitutional status of Statehood in Association with Britain, which was given to the Windward and Leeward islands in 1967, the Windward and Leeward Islands Supreme and Appeal Courts were converted into a single court “The West Indies Associated States Supreme Court”, consisting of a Court of Appeal and a High Court. The Court became an institution of the WISA Council of Ministers. When all the islands moved from Associated Statehood to Independence and the WISA Council evolved into the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in 1981, The West Indies Associated States Supreme Court was renamed the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and continued to be regarded as an institution of the new OECS, although this was not stated in the Treaty of Basseterre.
The Original Treaty simply listed the Judiciary as one of the fields for cooperation, harmonisation and the pursuit of joint policies. On the other hand, the Revised Treaty of Basseterre, setting up the Economic Union, specifically recognises the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) as one of the three institutions of the Organisation, the others being the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank and the Eastern Caribbean Civil Aviation Authority. The Court has jurisdiction over the Revised Treaty.
The headquarters of the ECSC is in Saint Lucia where the Chief Justice resides along with five Appeal Court Judges but the sittings of the Appeal Court are rotated among the Member States. However, a Judge of the Courts’ High Court Division is based in each Member State. The Judges are appointed by a regional body – the Judicial and Legal Services Commission- and are chosen from the Member States. The operational costs of the Commission and the Court are met jointly by all the States. By pooling their human and financial resources, the OECS Member States are able to secure the best available talent for the Court and to maintain the Court. The fact that the ECSC was fifty years old in 2017 and that it developed from a regional court that began in 1939 attests to the value of the regional integration of the judiciary for the Eastern Caribbean States.
Notes 1. The OECS Associate Member States of Martinique and Guadeloupe are not members of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
