Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission meets on Friday

BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, AUGUST 31ST 2011 (CUOPM) – The Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) meets in Basseterre, the St. Kitts capital on Thursday morning (September 1).

Present and former members of the RJLSC – Sitting: Sir Fred Gollop KA, QC, Prof Harold Lutchman, Rt. Hon Mr Justice Michael de la Bastide TC, Mr. Joseph Archibald; Standing: Mr Egbert Lionel, Hon Mr Justice Hugh Rawlins, Mr Martin Daly QC, Dr Lloyd Barnett, OJ, QC, Mr Jefferson Cumberbatch. (Absent: Ambassador Wendell Lawrence and Mr J Emile Ferdinand) (Photo is courtesy of the CCJ)

The RJLSC, of which four nationals of the Federation of St. Kitts and Nevis are members, meets ahead of the historic swearing-in later in the afternoon of Kittitian-born the Right Honourable Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron as the President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

The RJLSC has invited the President-designate to the meeting in relation to his new duties.

It is comprised of Jamaican Dr. Lloyd George Barnett, OJ, President of the Independent Human Rights Association of Jamaica; Kittitian Dr. Joseph Archibald, Q.C., Representative of the Organisation of the Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA)/Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bar Associations; Mr. Martin Daly, SC, President of the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago; Ambassador Plenipotentiary and Extraordinary, Nevis-born His Excellency Wendell Lawrence, accredited to the Organization of Caribbean States, the Caribbean Community and the Association of Caribbean States, who represents the OECS and CARICOM Secretariats; Chief Justice of the OECS Supreme Court, Nevisian Mr. Justice Hugh Rawlins, who is Chairman of the Judicial Service Commission of the OECS; Sir Fred Gollop

Nominated jointly by the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of the West Indies, Deans of the Faculties of Law of the Contracting Parties and Chairman of the Council of Legal Education and Kittitian Mr. J. Emile Ferdinand, LL.M., Nominated by the Bar or Law Associations of the Contracting Parties.

The RJLSC was established by the Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice (the Agreement). The Heads of Government of the Contracting Parties signed this Agreement in February 2001. It entered into force on 23rd July 2003 when a third country, Republic of Guyana, deposited its Instrument of Ratification following St. Lucia and Barbados.

In Article V (1) the Agreement sets out the composition of the Commission, as nominees from the regional entities or, in two cases, representatives of permanent organs of Member States.

“There is hereby established a Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission which shall consist of the following persons:
(a) The President who shall be the Chairman of the Commission;
(b) Two persons nominated jointly by the Organization of the Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Association (OCCBA) and the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bar Association;
(c) One chairman of the Judicial Services Commission of a Contracting Party selected in rotation in the English alphabetical order for a period of three years;
(d) The Chairman of a Public Service Commission of a Contracting Party selected in rotation in the reverse English alphabetical order for a period of three years;
(e) Two persons from civil society nominated jointly by the Secretary General of the Community and the Director General of the OECS for a period of three years following consultations with regional non-governmental organizations;
(f) Two distinguished jurists nominated jointly by the Dean of the Faculty of Law of the University of the West Indies, the Deans of the Faculties of Law of any of the Contracting Parties and the Chairman of the Council of Legal Education; and
(g) Two persons nominated jointly by the Bar or Law Associations of the Contracting Parties.”