PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, Aug 14, CMC – The Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago (LATT) Friday said it endorses the position adopted by the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) to launch an investigation into the matters regarding the administration of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
The LATT said that it had taken note of the several statements issued by various judicial bodies across the region as well as by the RJLSC, saying “we endorse the actions proposed by the RJLSC and are confident that the views and the underlying concerns of all the judges of the CCJ will be taken into consideration”.
The RJLSC announced its position following last weekend’s publication by the Sunday Express newspaper in which it said that CCJ President Justice Winston Anderson, who had become the fourth head of the Trinidad-based court on July 6, 2025, had been accused by a majority of his fellow judges of governing the regional court in an “authoritarian” and “dictatorial” manner.
The newspaper said that the complaints range from unilaterally imposing a judicial dress code to allegations of “panel fixing” and attempts to influence the outcome of cases.
The RJLSC said that it recognises the seriousness of the allegations and that it will conduct “a transparent and independent review” of the allegations made against Justice Anderson.
“As a result, the RJLSC believes that these concerns are best addressed through the established internal governance mechanisms of the Court and the Commission, and through a transparent and independent review undertaken in the best interest of the region.”
Justice Anderson in a statement Friday condemned “in the strongest possible terms” , the unauthorised disclosure and publication of confidential material relating to the internal deliberations and confidential correspondence of the Court.
He said recent press reports and publications concerning the internal affairs of the CCJ “have understandably caused concern, anxiety and profound sadness, both within the institution and across the region”.
Justice Anderson said “this has been particularly distressing because the Caribbean Court of Justice is far more than a judicial institution. It is the product of decades of blood, sweat and tears, by Caribbean people who believed that our region was capable of establishing and sustaining its own final court.”
In its statement, the LATT said it wanted to “reject the wholly opportunistic attempts by some to use the now publicised disagreements among the judges of the CCJ to support longstanding and ongoing arguments against the replacement of the Privy Council by the CCJ”.
It said while it wishes to make clear that it has no mandate from its membership either”to support or to oppose the abolition of appeals to the Privy Council, we take the view that one should be slow to treat reported concerns expressed by judges of the CCJ regarding the conduct/management style of the President of the CCJ as justification for any reservations which one may have regarding accession to the appellate jurisdiction of the Court.”
LATT said that disagreements among judges at the highest level in final appellate courts across the world “are not unusual, as the memoirs of former members of the Privy Council have revealed from time to time.
“Sometimes, in jurisdictions far more mature than our own, those disagreements are expressed in the very judgments of the Court, by way of scathing attacks on the reasoning or rationale of judges who have taken a different view of the facts and the law under consideration.”
LATT said it is important to note that in the current situation, the reports suggest that there was a near-unanimous stand by the judges of the CCJ against what they reportedly perceived to be internal encroachment upon their individual independence.
“This constitutes a confirmation, not a refutation, of the judges’ adherence to the tenets of judicial independence, which appears to us to be alive and well and secure among the judges of the CCJ
“That having been said, the Council of LATT considers it imperative that two crucial outcomes of the RJLSC’s inquiry must be the reaffirmation, by all judges of the CCJ, of the principles of judicial independence and the fleshing out of clear guidelines for the exercise of the administrative functions of the President of the court, with the former playing a pivotal role in the delineation of the latter.
“While, as head of the CCJ, the President is implicitly vested with certain administrative powers, he is, nevertheless, first among equals. Any guidelines for the exercise of the President’s powers must accordingly ensure that due regard and deference are paid to the views and concerns of his colleagues’, particularly in relation to matters which impinge upon the discharge of their judicial functions and the image and reputation of the Court as an important regional institution in which they, and we, are all invested,” the LATT added.
CMC/a/g/ir/2026