A T&T na­tion­al has been short­list­ed by the Re­gion­al Ju­di­cial and Le­gal Ser­vices Com­mis­sion (RJLSC) in its bid to re­place for­mer long-serv­ing Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) judge Ja­cob Wit.

In a me­dia re­lease is­sued yes­ter­day, the RJLSC an­nounced that its short­list­ing ex­er­cise was suc­cess­ful­ly con­clud­ed on March 1.

It stat­ed that it had re­ceived ap­pli­ca­tions from high­ly qual­i­fied le­gal pro­fes­sion­als from across the Com­mon­wealth, in­clud­ing na­tion­als of the Ba­hamas, Great Britain, Cana­da, Nige­ria, Do­mini­ca, Ja­maica, Sri Lan­ka, Suri­name and T&T.

“Of the twelve ap­pli­ca­tions re­ceived, four can­di­dates (three fe­males and one male) were short­list­ed for fur­ther con­sid­er­a­tion,” it said, as it re­vealed that the short­list­ed can­di­dates are from T&T, Ja­maica, Suri­name, and Cana­da.

It said that the short­list­ed can­di­dates were asked to pro­vide writ­ten sub­mis­sions with in­ter­views sched­uled to take place this Sat­ur­day.

The RJLSC said it hoped that the re­cruit­ment process could be com­plet­ed soon for a new judge to be sworn in be­fore the Court em­barks on its new law term in Oc­to­ber.

Wit, who was among the judges who were sworn in when the CCJ was in­au­gu­rat­ed in June 2005, re­tired due to health is­sues in De­cem­ber, last year.

On Jan­u­ary 16, the 71-year-old na­tive of the Nether­lands passed away.

Be­fore join­ing the CCJ, he ad­ju­di­cat­ed over cas­es in Cu­ra­cao, the Nether­land An­tilles, and the Dutch Wind­ward Is­lands of Saint Maarten, Saint Eu­sta­tius and Sa­ba.

The CCJ, whose first pres­i­dent was for­mer Chief Jus­tice Michael de la Bastide, who al­so passed away ear­li­er this year, cur­rent­ly has two judges from this coun­try.

Jus­tice Mau­reen Ra­j­nauth-Lee was ap­point­ed in 2015, while Jus­tice Pe­ter Ja­madar re­ceived his ap­point­ment al­most four years lat­er. Both judges served on the lo­cal Court of Ap­peal pri­or to the CCJ ap­point­ments.

Al­though the CCJ’s head­quar­ters is lo­cat­ed at Hen­ry Street in Port-of-Spain, this coun­try has not signed on to its ap­pel­late ju­ris­dic­tion leav­ing the Unit­ed King­dom-based Privy Coun­cil as the coun­try’s high­est ap­pel­late court.

The coun­try is still sub­ject to the CCJ’s orig­i­nal ju­ris­dic­tion to hear trade and im­mi­gra­tion dis­putes un­der the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas, which es­tab­lished the Caribbean Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME).

Cur­rent­ly, Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca, Guyana and St Lu­cia are the on­ly Cari­com mem­bers to have made the CCJ their fi­nal ap­pel­late court.