THE Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), of which Jamaica is to be the second largest financial backer, is projecting to start with 10 judges when it is launched in November, a government document has indicated.

The court’s overall staff will be around 40, a ministry paper tabled last week by Justice Minister A J Nicholson, indicated.

The CCJ is to replace the UK-based Privy Council as the court of last resort for several English-speaking Caribbean countries, as well as have originating jurisdiction in interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, through which Caribbean Community (Caricom) members are moving towards a single market and economy.

Faced with critics who had claimed that the CCJ would not have the resources to adequately do its job — a complaint often made against the judicial systems in national territories — regional governments asked the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) to raise US$100 million for a Trust Fund to finance the court in perpetuity.

While the CDB will raise the bulk of the money on the international capital markets, the court’s participating members will have separate, and individual loan agreements with the bank for their portion of the cost of the project.

In Jamaica’s case, that will be a debt of US$28.7 million, a portion calculated on the basis of Caricom’s scale of assessment for its 11 members who are borrowing members of the CDB. Jamaica follows Trinidad and Tobago, whose assessment is US$31.6 million. Barbados will make the third highest contribution with US$13.5 million, followed by Guyana with US$8.8 million

Haiti and Suriname, which are not borrowing members of the CDB, will have 1.68 per cent and 3.92 per cent share of the Trust Fund, respectively. Their contributions will be paid to those Caricom countries that have the highest percentage contribution.

Of the US$100 million, US$12 million is to be the CCJ’s start-up capital for its first two years. This is in addition to US$5 million to be contributed by Trinidad and Tobago — the proposed seat of the court — for a headquarters for the CCJ and the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission, which will select its judges.

The remaining US$88 million to be raised by the CDB for the Trust Fund, is to be invested by a board of trustees made up mostly of the heads of regional private sector bodies.

Nicholson said in his ministry paper that the CDB had, on the assessed needs of the CCJ, done a 10-year cash flow projection, based on the assumption that from its inauguration the court would have:

* 10 judges;

* one court administrator;

* one deputy court administrator;

* one court registrar;

* an information technology manager;

* a network administrator;

* network assistants and two support staff;

* a court librarian;

* a junior librarian

* a library assistant;

* one court financial administrator and account assistants;

* one court records manager, a filing clerk and vault administrator;

* one director of legal research and five research assistants;

* a secretary to the president of the court, an administrative assistant and an usher;

* four judges’ secretaries and two ushers; and

* one hearings’ coordinator.

According to Nicholson, the cash flow projection was done on a conservative basis, with outflows projected at the higher end of the scale and inflows based on low-risk investment.

“The true cash flow, however, will depend on the investment profile, market conditions and how the court manages its expenses,” Nicholson said. “The board of trustees will have to determine the manner in which funds will be disbursed to the court to pay its expenses.”