Above: the CCJ’s headquarters in Port of Spain

By the Caribbean Journal staff

The Caribbean Court of Justice will meet in Barbados beginning April 16, the first time the court will be sitting outside of its base in Port of Spain.

Barbados Chief Justice Marston Gibson will deliver remarks, while Barbados Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite will give the feature address during the opening ceremonies of the sitting at the Supreme Court Complex.

The court will be in Barbados through April 19.

Barbados is one of three countries to have acceded to the Caribbean Court of Justice’s appellate jurisdiction, along with Guyana and Belize.

The remainder of the Caribbean has the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London as its final court of appeal.

The CCJ, the subject of many a heated debate across the Caribbean, was first established on February 14, 2001, deriving its legal mandate from the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

A total of 12 countries have signed on to the treaty, most recently Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Following the return to office by Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller in December, she signaled that her government would move the country toward the CCJ.