Caribbean Court of Justice: The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)) on Wednesday last, provided its first advisory opinion concerning the interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC). The CARICOM Heads had requested the Court’s advice on two specific questions relating to freedom of movement within the Community.
The questions concerned a decision by the Heads a) to enlarge the list of CARICOM workers who were entitled to seek employment in each other’s country by including agricultural workers and security guards (“the enlargement decision”) and b) to agree to the requests made by the states of Antigua and Barbuda and St Kitts and Nevis to opt out of that decision for a period of five years.
The Court was asked to give its opinion on two issues:
Firstly, whether a Member State could lawfully opt out of that decision of the Conference and
Secondly, whether the principle of non-reciprocity would allow nationals of any such Member State opting out to gain the benefits of the decision.
Read the full media release here.