THE Senate was forced yesterday to put off, for a week, a debate on Jamaica’s proposed ratification of the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) after Opposition members complained that most of them had not yet received copies of the agreement between regional leaders for the establishment of the court.

The agreement was signed in February 2001 and regional parliaments are being asked to ratify the pact ahead of the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) going to the international money markets to raise US$100 million to establish a trust fund to ensure the long-term financing of the court.

A recent ministry paper tabled by attorney general and justice minister, A J Nicholson, noted that the CDB “has made it clear that ratification of the agreement would strengthen the hand of the bank’s negotiators in their efforts to raise the required funds on the international capital market”.

But Opposition Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) senators , saying that the treaty for the court had not been laid in the Upper House and that they formally knew nothing of it, insisted that the matter was not ready for debate.

“Members need to be properly prepared,” declared Opposition member, Anthony Johnson. “… We can’t debate an agreement we have not yet seen.”

The currying attempt by Senate leader and information minister, Burchell Whiteman to have the agreement tabled, after he engineered a 10-minute recess, did nothing to convince the Opposition members that they should proceed.

“The establishment of the CCJ is a critical matter,” explained Bruce Golding. “The Opposition has a position, the Government has a position and other groups have their own positions on the issue. Parliament cannot be run by postal service. So let us approach this matter with the seriousness and sense of responsibility it deserves.”

Several Caribbean Community (Caricom) Governments intend the CCJ to be the region’s final court of appeal, replacing the UK Privy Council at their court of last resort.

The CCJ is to also have original jurisdiction in interpreting the Treaty of Chagauramas, which establishes Caricom, and is considered to be critical dispute resolution mechanism for Caricom to move, by the end of 2005, to a single market and economy.

But there is strong opposition to the court in some quarters, in some territories — for reasons ranging from the fear of political interference to concerns over the region’s ability to maintain the court and the likely quality of a Caribbean jurisprudence.

Regional governments have made substantial concessions over the selection of judges for the court, ceding the majority on a regional Judicial Services Commission to lawyers groups and independent organisations, also heads of government maintain the right to name the president.

More recently, opposition to the court has rested less on complaints that it is being established to be a hanging court in the face of the Privy Council’s increasing aversion to the death penalty and concerns about funding and more on demands that domestic courts systems to first upgraded, as well as the need for the CCJ to be entrenched in national constitutions, similar to existing appeal courts.

In Jamaica, the ruling People’s National Party (PNP) made the implementation of the court one of its platform issues for re-election last October, against the JLP’s opposition to the court and promise to withdraw from it and return Jamaica to the Privy Council if it won the Government.

However, this week both the Jamaican Bar Association and the think-tank, the Faquarhson Institute for Public Affairs, renewed calls for a referendum on the court.

It was not clear whether there has been any shifts in the Opposition’s position since last October’s general election which it narrowly lost, as yesterday its Senate members, despite the best efforts of Whiteman, were not about to be cajoled into the debate.

“Can we debate an agreement which has not been put on the table?” asked Golding. “You’ve got to be crazy!”