KINGSTON, Jamaica — Government Senator and attorney-at-law Christian Tavares-Finson has described as “grossly premature and disingenuous” Opposition Leader and People’s National Party (PNP) president Mark Golding’s call for Jamaica to proceed with making the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) its final appellate court despite recent controversies surrounding the regional institution.

According to a statement, Tavares-Finson was responding to comments attributed to Golding in an article entitled “PNP not swayed by CCJ leaks”, published on August 11, in which Golding said the PNP remained of the view that Jamaica should move ahead with making the CCJ its final appellate court despite allegations by judges of interference in case deliberations, inappropriate panel selection and interpersonal conflicts.

Golding was also quoted as saying the leaked exchanges showed an internal environment in which judges felt free to express their independent and opposing views to the president of the court, arguing that “such healthy openness in expressing contested opinions is a sound basis upon which a strong judicial institution has been built”.

Tavares-Finson, however, rejected that position, saying Golding’s attempt to construe and minimise the allegations was “at best, disingenuous”.

“His comments are both premature and immature because a sober perspective to adopt would be to support calls for a public enquiry into the very serious allegations made by the judges themselves who are members of the CCJ,” he said.

He argued that the allegations should be taken seriously because they came from within the court itself.

“It must be noted that these allegations are not extraneous to the Court but are coming from within. That the Opposition leader has not, at minimum, called for wider ventilation of the issues and an enquiry to ensure that the Court functions as a proper judicial entity should is, at best, disappointing,” Tavares-Finson said.

He said the controversy reinforced the Jamaica Labour Party’s position that if Jamaica is to move away from the United Kingdom-based Judicial Committee of the Privy Council and adopt the CCJ as its final court, the decision should only be made after the people are consulted through a referendum.

Tavares-Finson also accused Golding and the PNP of employing “obvious delay tactics” and urged them to return to their earlier position that the Government and Opposition should advance constitutional reform measures on which there is consensus and allow Jamaica to become a republic.

He said this could take place while allowing further discussion on areas of disagreement, including which institution should serve as Jamaica’s final appellate court.