As a means of break­ing the cur­rent re­gion­al dead­lock on the is­sue, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar has wise­ly called for the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) to pro­vide an ad­vi­so­ry opin­ion on whether the process used to reap­point Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Dr Car­la Bar­nett com­plied with the pro­ce­dures es­tab­lished and tra­di­tion­al­ly fol­lowed for se­lect­ing the ad­min­is­tra­tive head of the re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion move­ment.

Equal­ly de­serv­ing of recog­ni­tion is the will­ing­ness of her fel­low Cari­com prime min­is­ters to sup­port the pro­pos­al and al­low the CCJ to do what it was cre­at­ed to do: de­fin­i­tive­ly set­tle con­tentious is­sues with­in the in­te­gra­tion move­ment.

This is sure­ly a far bet­ter op­tion than pro­longed quar­rels among Heads of Gov­ern­ment while the re­al chal­lenges fac­ing Cari­com—eco­nom­ic in­te­gra­tion with a peo­ple-cen­tred fo­cus and the co­or­di­na­tion of for­eign pol­i­cy—re­main un­ad­dressed.

It is im­por­tant to ap­pre­ci­ate that re­fer­ring the mat­ter to the CCJ is en­tire­ly con­sis­tent with the pro­vi­sions of the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas. As the first pres­i­dent of the CCJ, Michael de la Bastide, once ob­served, the court’s orig­i­nal ju­ris­dic­tion is, broad­ly speak­ing, to de­ter­mine dis­putes be­tween con­tract­ing par­ties and Cari­com aris­ing from the in­ter­pre­ta­tion and ap­pli­ca­tion of the treaty.

Apart from al­low­ing the work of eco­nom­ic ad­vance­ment to con­tin­ue with­out the dis­trac­tion of ran­corous dis­putes that hin­der re­gion­al in­te­gra­tion, hav­ing the CCJ car­ry out its re­spon­si­bil­i­ties fur­ther strength­ens the court’s stand­ing as the le­git­i­mate ar­biter of such mat­ters.

To ful­fil that re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, the CCJ judges will un­doubt­ed­ly re­quire Heads of Gov­ern­ment with dif­fer­ing views on the le­gal­i­ty of the reap­point­ment process to present their cas­es, sup­port­ed by sub­stan­tive in­for­ma­tion and ev­i­dence to un­der­pin their claims and coun­ter­claims.

Most im­por­tant, how­ev­er, is the need for the in­te­gra­tion move­ment to heal it­self—some­thing that was not pos­si­ble dur­ing the col­lapse of the West In­dies Fed­er­a­tion in 1962, when dis­putes arose and there were no ef­fec­tive in­sti­tu­tion­al mech­a­nisms to re­solve them.

Of par­tic­u­lar sig­nif­i­cance is Prime Min­is­ter Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s state­ment to Cari­com lead­ers that, “if the court de­ter­mines that the pur­port­ed reap­point­ment was law­ful­ly ef­fect­ed, the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go shall im­me­di­ate­ly recog­nise the ap­point­ment as valid.”

That is a strong com­mit­ment, made in recog­ni­tion of the au­thor­i­ty of the CCJ and its re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to ad­ju­di­cate mat­ters of this na­ture. It al­so demon­strates re­spect for the Re­vised Treaty and its pro­vi­sions, while recog­nis­ing the vi­tal im­por­tance of Cari­com to Trinidad and To­ba­go’s econ­o­my.

Such de­ci­sions have the po­ten­tial not on­ly to re­in­force the le­gal stand­ing of the court but al­so to strength­en pub­lic con­fi­dence in both its orig­i­nal ju­ris­dic­tion and its ap­pel­late role.

The fo­cus must now shift to mem­ber states on all sides of the dis­pute. They should be­gin prepar­ing their cas­es for pre­sen­ta­tion be­fore the CCJ, so that this im­por­tant mat­ter can be ad­ju­di­cat­ed with the le­gal rigour, fair­ness and im­par­tial­i­ty ex­pect­ed of one of Cari­com’s most im­por­tant in­sti­tu­tions.

Ul­ti­mate­ly, all par­ties must be pre­pared to ac­cept the court’s rul­ing. If Cari­com is to ma­ture as a rules-based com­mu­ni­ty, its lead­ers must demon­strate that dis­putes can be re­solved through es­tab­lished in­sti­tu­tions rather than po­lit­i­cal con­fronta­tion. The de­ci­sion to seek the CCJ’s opin­ion is there­fore not mere­ly about the reap­point­ment of a Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al; it is a test of the re­gion’s com­mit­ment to the rule of law and to the in­sti­tu­tions cre­at­ed to up­hold it. The re­gion should now al­low the court to do its work and await its judg­ment.