Right now, the final appellate court in Belize is the Caribbean Court of Justice, the highest court in the land.
But, it might be easy to forget that up until a few years ago, the CCJ's role in Belize's judiciary was filled by the Privy Council.
Well, today, we spoke to an Ambassador from Antigua and Barbuda, where all final appeals still go to the Privy Council. He told us that he's at the CARICOM meeting to tell the leaders that his country is about to embark on a referendum campaign to change their final appellate court from the Privy Council to the CCJ:
H.E. Dr. Clarence Henry, Antigua & Barbuda's Amb. To CARICOM
"I am just appointed a month ago to head the national coordinating committee responsible for preparation of the campaign towards the adoption of the CCJ as Antigua & Barbuda's final court of appeal. In deed so far, the campaign has been going very well. We launched in earnest on 10th March and it will be followed on the 11th by youth forum and a business breakfast to bring together the private sector on Antigua & Barbuda and there will be a number of town hall meetings, focus group meetings. This particular campaign hopefully will lead up to a national referendum sometime later this year. As you are aware Antigua & Barbuda is one of those Caribbean countries that must undertake a referendum in order to migrate from judicial committee of the Privy Council as part of our constitutional requirement."
Belize started sending cases to the CCJ back in May of 2010, and was the third Caribbean nation to do so.
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