(Trinidad Guardian) Former Chief Justice and former president of the Caribbean Court of Justice Michael de la Bastide says it will be a pity if all confidence in the CCJ is allowed to slip away.
He was referring to reports of mass resignations and suspensions following a contentious restructuring at the CCJ’s headquarters in Port-of-Spain. Speaking with the T&T Guardian last week, De La Bastide said the situation had left him distressed and saddened and added while he headed the CCJ the structure of the administration there and then worked quite well.
The current president of the court is Sir Dennis Byron, of St Kitts, a former president of the Inter-national Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean. “We had some very dedicated and competent employees and I am very sorry to see for one reason or another that this is happening,” De La Bastide said in a telephone interview.
He believed the adverse publicity over what was happening at the CCJ would not be doing the court any good. He added he was concerned whether the new structure was consistent with the agreement which established the court.
“I am concerned as to the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission being given the responsibility in the management of the court’s affairs and finances… also, judges being given a role in the executive managers of the court’s administration,” he noted.
