Second Generation Institutional Change

• Author: Terri-Ann Gilbert-Roberts
• Profession: Research Fellow of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies (SALISES) University of the West Indies Mona
• Pages: 179-195

 8

Second Generation

Institutional Change

Notwithstanding the disappointing reversal of commitments to the

principal elements of the agenda for governance reform, between 2005

and 2009 the institutional framework did in fact undergo a further period

of change. This second wave of post-Rose Hall institutional change,

which led to the realisation of some of the commitments discussed

in chapter 6, emerged independently of the three-pronged reform

       

 

explores the relationship between the Rose Hall-inspired agenda for

 

of institutional change. These cases have been highlighted in this brief

discussion to separate the formative elements of the emerging agenda

from the outcomes which have been driven by other contextual factors.

Firstly, it discusses the controversial path to the full realisation of the

supranational mode of governance, introduced in chapter 6, with the

inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in 2005. Secondly,

it discusses the implications for governance of the launch of the Single

Market in 2006 and the adoption of a Single Development Vision in

2007. Thirdly, it analyses the implications of the rationalisation of

the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) within the

CARICOM Secretariat in 2009. The chapter concludes with a brief

analysis of context and prospects for future governance reform.

The CCJ and State Sovereignty

Undoubtedly, the CCJ was an important element of the Prime

Ministerial Expert Group on Governance-Technical Working Group

on Governance (PMEGG-TWG) proposals for governance reform. It

was expected to play an important role in enforcing implementation

of the treaty, via interpretation of the proposed body of Community

Law and by resolving disputes among members. Indeed, some legal

The Politics of Integration



180

experts argued that its role was so crucial that it should be promoted to

the status of a Community Organ, appropriately acknowledged under

the revised treaty.1 However, the Court remained separate from the

central institutions recognised under the Treaty of Chaguaramas and

           

it was established. The path leading to the Court’s inauguration on

16 April 2005 was an arduous one, particularly for the Jamaican and

Trinidadian governments. The inauguration date was postponed on two

occasions as a result of challenges to the constitutional legitimacy of the

Court’s appellate jurisdiction in Jamaica. Its central role in the regional

governance architecture, therefore, warrants a brief discussion of the

process towards its establishment – one which further highlights the

pronounced nature of the sovereignty paradox in the Caribbean.



2004 to repeal judicial appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy

Council of the United Kingdom (JCPC) in order to install the appellate

jurisdiction of the CCJ in its place. Although three bills were passed

by a simple majority of Parliament (33 People’s National Party [PNP]

government members of the total 60 representatives of the House), the

process by which they were adopted was challenged by various state and

non-state actors, including the Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP).

Ironically, the JLP had proposed the creation of a Caribbean court in 1970

when in government, but had maintained while in political Opposition, a

critical view of the impending establishment of the CCJ and the deepening

of Caribbean integration more generally. The challengers argued that

          

Jamaican Constitution and that a full referendum of the Jamaican

people was necessary. Unsurprisingly, the PNP government was reluctant

to pursue this avenue, given the legacy of partisan politicisation of the

referendum held during the Federal negotiations, and argued that a

referendum was unnecessary.

Public resistance to the Court’s appellate jurisdiction had emerged

among human rights organisations, in particular, based on a perception

that the Court had been conceived by political leaders as a tool to

expedite the resumption of capital punishment. Capital punishment

has been suspended in most Commonwealth Caribbean countries as a

result of a landmark ruling by the JCPC in the Jamaican case of Pratt

and Morgan v. AG.2 The judgment which stipulated that, in cases where

convicted persons had been sentenced to death and execution had not