Nandlall slams Caribbean holdouts on CCJ adoption

Guyana’s Attorney General, Anil Nandlall, called it a travesty that most Caribbean nations still use the UK-based Privy Council as their final court of appeal rather than the Caribbean Court of Justice. Speaking on his weekly program, he said this contradicts the region’s strong public support for integration, sovereignty, and a unified market.

Only Barbados, Guyana, Belize, Dominica, and St. Lucia have adopted the CCJ as their highest appellate court. Even Trinidad and Tobago, where the court is headquartered, has not made the switch. Nandlall described this hesitation as an oddity, especially given the CCJ’s 20 years of operation and its role as a symbol of regional judicial independence.

He noted that referenda in several countries in 2018 showed voters preferred to keep the Privy Council, revealing a gap between public opinion and regional goals. Nandlall stressed that clinging to a colonial-era institution decades after independence undermines the Caribbean’s push for true unity and self-determination.

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