The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has benefitted from the third iteration of The University of the West Indies (UWI) Trade Lab Clinic, in which third-year law students from the Cave Hill Campus produced 34 summaries of the decisions of the Court issued in the Original Jurisdiction between 2008 and 2020.
In its Original Jurisdiction (OJ), the CCJ decides on matters concerning the freedom of movement, trade, services and money within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), decisions which have been collated by the third-year students during the recent Trade Lab Clinic.
A release issued by The UWI Regional Headquarters in Jamaica notes that the case summaries were prepared by Chelsea Lawrence, Mya Brathwaite, James Morris and Régine Mondesir, under the supervision of The UWI Trade Lab Directors Dr. Jan Yves Remy and Dr. Ronnie Yearwood, and international trade law practitioner Claude Chase, who acted as a mentor.
“The collaboration was conceptualised by Dr. Jan Yves Remy and is intended to deepen the understanding of the Court’s role in interpreting and applying the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and deciding on issues regarding freedom of movement, trade, services, and money in the CARICOM region,” the UWI release explained.
At the formal handing-over ceremony of the Digest, The Honourable Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders, President of the CCJ, lamented the fact that regional citizens have not been making greater use of the rights they enjoy under the CARICOM Treaty.
“Any initiative that highlights how the rights are to be enjoyed; that places a spotlight on the jurisprudence that has been developed in this area; and that makes this jurisprudence more easily accessible to the people and States of the Community, does a tremendous service to the region,” Justice Saunders observed, as he commended the project.
He added: “This digest is more than just concise summaries of the cases. It includes aids that give significant added value for researchers, quite apart from providing a readily accessible snapshot of the decisions for the public at large.”
Speaking ahead of the students’ presentation, project supervisor Dr. Jan Yves Remy expressed the hope that it advances Caribbean integration efforts.
“I hope it will achieve, in some small measure, a greater implementation of this hope of Caribbean integration.”
“I am pleased that the CCJ has found this work useful! We see our role as contributing concretely to the issues of the day and playing our part to come up with practical solutions for the region,” Dr Remy added.
Speaking to the practical utility of the case digest, Dr. Yearwood noted: “…these types of summaries will allow practitioners and even [academicians] to be able to digest and reach into cases in a quicker way.”
The case digest is available at https://ccj.org/the-digest-of-original-jurisdiction-cases/.
