Like most colleagues (I hope!), I have been following recent regional news reports hinting at a “Deep divide within CCJ”, a conclusion based on private email exchanges between judges and the CCJ President. Those emails somehow reached the media, most regrettably, sparking off all kinds of speculation about happenings within the court.
My phone has been ringing incessantly since then. Responses range from concern, to alarm, to deep disappointment (about the leaks), to anger (about playing right into the hands of the naysayers by what is perceived as ‘washing dirty linen in public’).
I am confident that, once handled carefully and sensitively, the court will emerge stronger than ever from this experience. This is a wake-up call for everybody, including for the CCJ President and Judges, for Bar Associations, and for Caribbean people.
Wake-up Call for Bar Associations
I wish to focus on the wake-up call to Bar Associations. The CCJ is our own unique Court – conceived, created, and championed by our own. It is actually two courts rolled into one – an Original Jurisdiction to authoritatively and exclusively interpret the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (addressing such critical matters as Free Movement throughout the region); and as a final Court of Appeal for civil and criminal matters.
Not only regionally, but internationally, the CCJ is recognised as a court of excellence.
Notwithstanding, after more than 20 years of the CCJ’s existence, nine Caribbean countries are yet to join its Appellate Jurisdiction, including Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and most of the Eastern Caribbean countries.
Commendably, Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Dominica, and St Lucia – in that order – have all fulfilled their treaty obligations and are firmly planted in the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Court.
Bar Associations, individually and through collective actions of umbrella bodies, have a critical role to play in ensuring that all jurisdictions, including ours (Grenada) join the appellate jurisdiction of the CCJ.
Bar Associations must be the lead advocates for the Court – our Court. For obvious reasons, neither the politicians nor the CCJ Judges are best suited for the lead role – though they also have important roles to play.
However, the role of Bar Associations does not end with simply being advocates. Bars must also be eternal watchdogs to ensure the Court functions in accordance with its mandate and continues to grow from strength to strength.
The same role holds true for our local/ECSC Courts.
Engage in continuing public legal education
Regional Bars need to rise to the occasion and play a more effective role in continuing public legal education and promoting the proper administration of justice. It makes it so much easier to deal with challenges when they arise, such as the one currently facing the CCJ.
Bars must be proactive, sharing knowledge and empowering people; not simply reactive to crises and making an occasional statement here and there.
We cannot leave it to the CCJ to promote and defend itself or even to respective Governments to do so. Bars must lead from the front. The training of lawyers equips them to best explain the technical ins and outs of the CCJ and courts in general: their structure, functions, operations, constitutional mandates, relationship with other arms of the State, and related issues.
Individual Bar Associations, and regional bodies like the OECS Bar and OCCBA must organise and deliver sustained public education programmes to empower our public and to encourage more healthy and informed debates on legal issues. “Debates” simply at the level of emotional rants take us nowhere.
Crises create opportunities
Crises create opportunities. We must therefore not miss the opportunities created by the present challenges.
While the naysayers welcome present developments, gleefully reminding us that we cannot take care of our own problems – trying to make us believe that we are less superior to our former colonisers – let us rise to the occasion and demonstrate otherwise.
Let us intensify the public education. There can be no better time than NOW when the CCJ holds regional attention to start the process.
Part of historic mission
We owe it not just to ourselves, morally and legally, but also to our ancestors, as part of an historic mission to free ourselves from the mental shackles that forever keep us in a state of self-doubt and breeds self-hatred and lack of self-confidence, thus seriously hindering our own self-development.
Let us not wallow in self-pity and self-blame when challenges arise. We must confront the issues constructively, maturely and soberly – not emotionally and arbitrarily – learn from each experience, and correct what needs to be corrected to make the institution stronger.
Awake from slumber
Differences will always arise in all field of human endeavour. In fact, conflict is integral to human existence. It inevitably leads to growth. What matters is not the conflict itself, but how it is managed and used positively to advance growth.
The CCJ is a tried and tested Court with over 20 years of service, marked by excellence to the region. Let us continue to build, promote, defend, and jealously safeguard it. Remember it’s our own.
One “crisis” – if it could even be properly called that! – in over 20 years of existence and excellence is certainly an impressive statistic – especially when that “crisis” concerns dress codes and leadership styles.
It has only become a “crisis” because private emails, meant to be strictly internal and confidential, entered the public domain.
Once what is confidential enters the public domain – whether personal, political or professional – it takes a ‘life of its own’, and therein lies the danger! Speculation becomes “rife” (rumours all over the place, all unconfirmed) and all kinds of conclusions are drawn (the tendency is towards the jucier conclusions), all without full facts and context.
We must capitalise on the present conflicts and challenges within the CCJ to emerge stronger and better. Let us awake from our slumber and sense of complacency, and do what is required to make the CCJ a stronger and better institution, embracing the trust and confidence of Caribbean people.
An organised, consistent, sustained, people-friendly programme of public education is an important starting point; and collaborating with civil society organisations and political parties to lobby Governments to take the big step must always occupy an important place on the agenda.
This “crisis” is probably just what we need to galvanise ourselves into action.
Wake up Bar Associations and Colleague Attorneys. Let’s not waste this “crisis”!
Ruggles Ferguson, KC is a former President of the Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations