Commonwealth Lawyers must ‘Build on grand achievements of the past’ – Ramphal
Dec 2009
Former Secretary-General calls for reform of Caribbean legal system during anniversary law lecture
Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, used a lecture hosted by the Commonwealth Legal Forum last week to urge reform of Caribbean judicial structures.
Sir Shridath, offering his support to the newly-established Caribbean Court of Justice, called on Commonwealth countries with links to the British Empire to drop their right of appeal to the UK’s Privy Council, a centuries-old judicial and political body, warning that failure to do so would leave them “loitering on the doorstep of colonialism”.
He said: “Now that we have created our own Caribbean Court of Justice and done so in a manner that has won the respect and admiration of the common law world, it is an act of abysmal contrariety that we have withheld so substantially its appellate jurisdiction in favour of that of the Privy Council.”
'Click the Play Button' to to listen to an extract of speech by, Shridath ‘Sonny’ Ramphal, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
