CCJ image at stake

Former Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding has expressed deep concern over internal disagreements within the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), urging an immediate probe and swift resolution.

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Disagreements are normal and healthy in a panel of judges who may offer different interpretations of the facts and points of law. That is why a panel exists. One expects that such disagreements are expressed respectfully, unlike another jurisdiction where they are sometimes punctuated with personal abuse.

Golding stated that while disagreements among judges are normal, they should be expressed respectfully. He contrasted this with other jurisdictions where disputes can involve personal abuse. His comments come in the wake of public revelations of turmoil within the CCJ, detailed in emails published by the Sunday Express newspaper in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the reports, a majority of the CCJ's six sitting judges accused President Justice Winston Anderson of governing the court in an "authoritarian" and "dictatorial" manner. Allegations include the unilateral imposition of a judicial dress code, "panel fixing," and attempts to influence case outcomes. Five of the six judges reportedly challenged Justice Anderson's leadership, with one warning of "creeping patterns of anti-democratic approaches" and another calling for an urgent meeting to address a potential crisis.

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I have never seen before the level of dictatorship in the administration of a judiciary that I have witnessed at the CCJ in recent months. There is a serious concern, not that the new trend would include an attempt to use a body like the RJLSC (Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission) as an unwitting instrument of dictatorship.

Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji, a presiding CCJ judge, described the administration as having a level of dictatorship he had "never seen before." He noted that Justice Anderson had stated early in his tenure that he did not see himself as "running a democracy" and would run the court as he deemed fit. Golding highlighted the alarming nature of accusations of autocratic behavior and manipulation of panel selection, particularly as they were made by all other sitting judges, not just one or two.

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because Winston himself told us early on in a judges’ meeting, soon after his assumption of office of president (July 2025), that he did not see himself as ‘running a democracy’ and that he would run the court in any way that he deems fit.