Yvonne Ba­boolal

Fi­nal­ly, T&T is be­com­ing a com­plete­ly in­de­pen­dent na­tion, said Se­nior Coun­sel Dou­glas Mendes, as he wel­comed the an­nounce­ment yes­ter­day that the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) is to be­come this coun­try's fi­nal court of ap­peal. Not­ing that he was "pleas­ant­ly sur­prised" by the an­nounce­ment by Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar in Par­lia­ment that the CCJ is to re­place the Privy Coun­cil in the area of crim­i­mal ju­ris­dic­tion, Mendes said, "I think it is a great move.

"We are on the way to be­com­ing a com­plete­ly in­de­pen­dent na­tion. Im­por­tant ju­di­cial de­ci­sions will be made by Caribbean na­tion­als and not by for­mer colo­nial mas­ters." Mendes said he had had "quite a few" mat­ters be­fore the Eng­lish law lords at the Privy Coun­cil and won some and lost some.

Asked if he was sat­is­fied with the judg­ments, he replied, "Yes, I have al­ways been sat­is­fied with the judg­ments. "There is no doubt that the Privy Coun­cil is a first-class in­ter­na­tion­al tri­bunal. But so is the CCJ." Asked if the CCJ, in­au­gu­rat­ed in Port-of-Spain on April 16, 2005, had de­liv­ered enough judg­ments to en­able such a di­ag­no­sis, Mendes said, "Quite a few judg­ments were de­liv­ered and I've read most of them.

"I agreed with some and dis­agreed with some. But that's my per­son­al opin­ion. "The qual­i­ty of the judg­ments was quite high."