The Caribbean Court of Justice in Regional Economic Development

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Pages: 555-567

The Caribbean Court of Justice555

Role of Law in National Economic Development

“ . . . justice sectors in the Caribbean have been seen historically as users of

resources, rather than as contributors to economic and social development. “ 1

An understanding of the role of the proposed Caribbean Court of Justice in

regional economic development would be greatly facilitated by adopting

as the point of departure an examination of the role of the justice sector, in

particular, and that of the law, generally, in the national economic development

process. For present purposes, law will be defined as the corpus of societal

norms which is established, interpreted, applied and enforced by the central

authorities of the state in order to regulate the conduct of persons, both natural

and juridical, in their normal interface with one another. The central authorities

which are normally involved in the process described are the legislative

assemblies, offices of the solicitors-general, offices of the attorneys-general,

ministers of justice, the courts, directors of public prosecutions, commissioners

of prisons and police, probation officers, legal aid clinics, associations of public

and private law practitioners and other relevant legal and administrative

institutions. Collectively, this assemblage of organisations and institutions is

known as the Justice Sector.

A generally acceptable compendium of factors perceived to influence

structured national social and economic development will probably include an

impressive body of determinants of a psychological, geopolitical, economic,

environmental, legal and institutional nature of a varying mix, depending on

the peculiar circumstances of the political entities examined. Of the factors

identified above, conventional economic wisdom would probably ascribe a

very low rating to the legal determinant. This disposition may be explained by

The CARIbbeAn COuRT

OF JuSTICe In RegIOnAl

eCOnOMIC develOpMenT

DUKE POLLARD

CHAPTER THIRTY