Pros and cons of CCJ and Privy Council

THE EDITOR, Madam:

I BELIEVE there are advantages and disadvantages in having both the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and the Privy Council as our final court of appeal. I say this because of our many shortcomings.

For instance, there are no significant achievements that I can relate to, being an independent country. There is nothing we have achieved to show that we are independent. We are not self-sufficient to feed ourselves, our standards of living are not at an acceptable level, and not to mention the lack of basic safety and security.

Politicians were supposed to be the people’s servants but end up being our masters; and the concept of personal responsibility is not embraced.

Given all those shortcomings, it would appear that there is a perception that justice in our court system is only for the privileged and the well connected.

That being said, humans are not perfect, as a result our decisions are not objective, because our biases and prejudices are based on our life experiences.

I therefore submit that to support the CCJ comes with both advantages and disadvantages. And so does the Privy Council.

OWEN OGILVIE