The Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) Friday said it will convene in St. Lucia next week to commemorate the opening of the Judicial Year 2026/2027.
The CCJ said that for the first time in it’s 21-year history, St. Lucia, which in 2023, became the fifth Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state to accede to the CCJ’s Appellate Jurisdiction, will host itinerant sittings, previously held in Barbados, Belize, Guyana, and Jamaica. The sittings will be from October 7-8.
‘The itinerant (travelling) nature of the CCJ allows the Court to sit and conduct court proceedings in any country that is a party to the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice,’ the CCJ said in a statement.
‘In keeping with the Court’s mission of ‘providing accessible, efficient and substantive justice for the people and states of the Caribbean Community’, holding sittings throughout the region brings the Court closer to the people it serves, allowing citizens to see the Court at work, and can further reduce travel costs for attorneys and litigants.’
CCJ President, Justice Winston Anderson said that the itinerant sittings enable ‘the people of the region to see us, interact with us, and realise that we are in fact their kith and kin, and part and parcel of the fabric of their society’.
While in St. Lucia, the full, seven-member CCJ Bench will hear three matters originating from St. Lucia, Guyana, and Belize, respectively. The Court will also deliver judgments in two matters from Belize.
Additionally, the Court will pay courtesy calls on the Acting Governor-General; Felix Finisterre as well as Prime Minister Philip J. Pierre, he Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Justice Margaret Price Findlay, and Opposition Leader, Allen Chastanet.