7 News Belize

CCJ President in Belize
posted (January 16, 2015)
The President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Sir Denis Byron is in Belize. He's here to address the Bar Association's 2015 Law Conference which was held today in Belize City. This morning before meetings with the Governor General and the Prime Minister - he held a press conference where he gave us the news that the CCJ plans to have a sitting in Belize:...

Jules Vasquez
"When will the cort sit in Belize?"

Sir Denis Byron, CCJ President
"I thought you would never ask that question. We have in fact, plans to sit in Belize during the course this year. We haven't even selected a month, if you ask they might tell you. Just recently notified our relevant counterparts here and arrangement will have to be put in place. They are not put in place yet. They have not made an official press announcement as yet, for that reason. But I can let you know that we are planning to do it in the first half of this year."

The details of where the sitting will be held is still being worked out. Events such as these are held to create awareness of the court - especially in the three territories where the CCJ is the final court of appeal; those are Guyana, Belize and Barbados. So, it's awareness, but it's also awareness raising for the court which - though ten years old - is still unfamiliar in the Caribbean:...

Sir Denis Byron, CCJ President
"Wherever I have gone, people have always said, we don't know much about the workings of the court. That's been a constant complain of the public in our region. Now, we think that we have provided information through our website, through lectures that we give, through articles that were written about the court. We have decided that we will not be involved in activities that could be describe as lobbying or marketing the court."

And while there is a fine line between promotion of the court's activities and marketing, Sir Denis told the media today that Belize's 29 cases has formed an important part of the court's body of jurisprudence:..

Sir Denis Byron, CCJ President
"A number of very important judicial and legal issues have been determined by our court and Belize as you know, I think I will be speaking about this later today, has been one of the leaders. We have had 29 cases from Belize already which have been completed and they were a wide range of important legal issues."

And one of the most decisive matters is currently before the court: the challenge to the nationalizations of BEL and BTL. While Sir Denis made it clear he could not discuss any matter that is before the court, he made it clear that they have no concern about who wins or loses:..

Sir Denis Byron, CCJ President
"When a case come before our court, our objective is to provide a just and fair result. The political consequence are irrelevant."

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