The Caribbean Chicken and Egg: Applying Lessons from the European Court of Justice to the Caribbean Court of Justice. Jean Monnet/Robert Schuman Paper Series Vol. 5 No. 10, April 2008

摘要

[From the Introduction] There is much scholarship on the institutional and political problems faced by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and CARICOM. Much of it is excellent scholarship, especially the enlightening perspective and analysis offered by Wendy Grenade. However, there is very little analysis that places the CCJ as a case of a much larger phenomenon – legal integration. The following analysis seeks to do just that, by employing the theories of legal analyses and the lessons of the ECJ to the CCJ. However, before beginning, one caveat is needed: the idea that the ECJ is an exceptional model and the only such example of a certain ideal in existence does not imply that Latin America (or the world in general) should try to replicate it. However, there is no more perfect example of supranational legal integration in existence. As such, when one does wish to consider this ideal, the ECJ is the only reasonable point of reference. The following analysis assumes a goal of integration (general and legal) within CARICOM. Since the EU and ECJ are the greatest examples of these forms of integration, it also assumes that the model to replicate can be found in the ECJ and the political environment that the ECJ evolved in. If this seems Eurocentric, it is, because it aims to be so.