By: James G. Apple, Editor-in-Chief, International
Judicial Monitor and President, International Judicial Academy
The Caribbean area of the Western Hemisphere is not large.
The islands that make up the Caribbean are all relatively small, with the
exceptions of Jamaica, Cuba and Hispaniola (home of the Dominican Republic and Haiti). The
total land mass of all of the islands outside the above three would probably
not be greater than the state of Massachusetts in the United States. It
therefore might come as a surprise to a visitor to the Caribbean to find out
that the area actually supports two international courts. The first, the
Caribbean Court of Justice, has already been featured in an earlier issue of
the International Judicial Monitor (click Archive at the top of the Home Page
and then go to the January 2007 issue for a description of that court). The
second international court that exists in the region is the Eastern Caribbean
Supreme Court. The Chief Justice of that Court, Chief Justice Janice Pereira,
first Chief Justice of the ECSC was recently honored by Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom by
making the Queen’s Honors List and being named a Dame Commander in the Order of
the British Empire.
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court is a relatively old
international court when compared to others around the world. It was created in
1967; it has thus been in existence 46 years. During those 46 years it has been
led by 11 Chief Justices.
The court arose out of the West Indies Act of 1967 passed by
the House of Commons. As a result of this Act seven states of the Eastern
Caribbean were granted a new status of association with the United Kingdom.
These seven states were Antigua, Anguilla, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Vincent,
Saint Kitts and Nevis, and Saint Lucia. The Act called for the creation of
common courts. The result was eventually one court, the Eastern Caribbean
Supreme Court, which was composed of a Court of Appeal and a High Court of
Justice.