Update: Justice Adrian Saunders was on Wednesday installed as the third president of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), disappointed that more Caribbean Community (CARICOM) nations have not yet signed on to the court’s appellate jurisdictions but hopeful that they will eventually all get on board.
He took the oath of office at the Montego Bay Convention Centre, in Jamaica on Wednesday evening, ahead of the opening ceremony of the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM, before host Governor General, Sir Patrick Allen.
Addressing the audience that included Prime Ministers, Presidents and Premiers from across the region, and a delegation from the CCJ, the court’s new president expressed disappointment that the vast majority of the 15 CARICOM member countries have stuck with the Privy Council as their final court of appeal, instead of signing on to the Trinidad-based CCJ’s appellate jurisdiction.
Only three Caribbean countries have made the CCJ their final court – Barbados, Belize and Guyana.
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The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will see a change in leadership on Wednesday, when Justice Adrian Saunders takes over from Sir Dennis Byron.
The transition will take place as a part of the activities before the 39th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Jamaica.
In March of this year, it was announced that Justice Saunders, after an exhaustive international search, would be appointed the CCJ’s third President.
CCJ judge since 2005
“He has been a judge at the CCJ since 2005 and has contributed immensely to the administration and judicial functions of the Court,” the CCJ said in a release on Tuesday.
Justice Saunders is also the Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO) and the Course Director of the Halifax-based Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute’s CJEI’s Intensive Study Program. He is also one of the Institute’s Directors.
Author
Saunders has also co-authored the book, Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law and is a contributor editor of the Caribbean Civil Court Practice. In April 2018, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Global Judicial Integrity Network by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
