LAC MEETING DISCUSSES CCJ PROPOSAL, LEGAL EDUCATION NEEDS

(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Attorneys General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) met over two days in Port of Spain, Trinidad, to tackle a comprehensive agenda that included a review of the various Model Legislation and Agreements seeking to effect mandates of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and Community policy.

The LAC, which is the Body established under the Revised Treaty to provide advice on all legal matters to CARICOM, as well as to promote the harmonisation of laws, met 28-29 June, 2012, in advance of the Thirty-Third Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM which began on 4 July, 2012. The LAC Meeting was preceded by a meeting of the Senior Officials of the Legal Affairs Committee.

One of the key agenda items of the meeting, held under the Chairmanship of Senator the Hon. Anand Ramlogan, SC, Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago, was the recent proposal by Trinidad and Tobago to partially implement the Appellate Jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).

The Ministers also discussed the regional needs for legal education and the requirements for admission to practice as attorneys-at-law, particularly in the common law jurisdictions of CARICOM.

The LAC was also advised that the Commonwealth Secretariat had signed two Memoranda of Understanding to provide assistance to the CARICOM and the Secretariat in the areas of Legislative Drafting and Law Revision. One MOU is a tripartite agreement with CARICOM and the Regional Law Revision Centre in Anguilla, to provide efficient and cost-effective law revision services to Members of CARICOM. The other MOU is with CARICOM and Athabasca University in Canada to provide, through an online programme, post-graduate certification in legislative drafting to legal officials of CARICOM Member governments.

Eight Attorneys-General or Ministers of Justice from the following Member States attended the meeting – Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. The Attorneys-General from Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands, Associate Members of CARICOM also attended.

It has been proposed that the LAC hold a Special Meeting in September 2012, with its next ordinary Meeting scheduled for May 2013, at which time Belize is expected to assume the Chair.