Caribbean Court of Justice

The Caribbean Court of Justice is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community, established on April 16, 2005, and headquartered in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. It holds two distinct jurisdictions: an original jurisdiction, exercised on behalf of the whole Caribbean Community, to interpret the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and an appellate jurisdiction as a final court of appeal for member states that have chosen to end appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. As of April 2023 five states, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and Saint Lucia, had adopted the court's appellate jurisdiction in place of the Privy Council, while referendums in Antigua and Barbuda and in Grenada in 2018 rejected making the same change. The court is often described as a hybrid institution, combining the roles of a domestic final court of appeal and an international tribunal, in a manner comparable to the European Court of Justice.