Grenada takes big step in process to ditch the Privy Council

June 23, 2016 in Regional

grenada-1ST GEORGE’S, Grenada, Wednesday June 22, 2016 – Parliament in Grenada has passed legislation to replace the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as the island’s final court of appeal, but the issue will have to go to a referendum before the move can be made.

The next step is for the CCJ Bill, one of several pieces of constitutional reform legislation before Parliament, to be passed in the Senate with a simple majority. If the Bill gets the Senate’s nod, citizens would have to vote in a referendum.

“Constitutional change is needed for this as it alters the provisions in the Constitution and the other constitutional instruments which establish and regulate the courts,” Legal Affairs Minister Elvin Nimrod, who piloted the Bill, explained in Parliament.

Barbados, Guyana, Dominica and Belize are the only Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that have signed on to the appellate jurisdiction of the court. Residents of Antigua and Barbuda are due to vote in a referendum later this year on making the move from the London-based Privy Council to the Trinidad-based CCJ.