Special Legal Advisor to government, Hugh Wildman of Jamaica has distanced himself from the move being made by the Keith Mitchell-led administration to embrace the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as the final appellate court in the region.

The controversial Wildman told reporters in St. George’s that he has no confidence in the CCJ which has the backing of most governments in the Caribbean. His attack on the CCJ came on the heels of a rluing handed down against him in a case presided over by local high court judge, Justice Davidson Baptiste of Dominica.

According to Wildman, who has not been enjoying good relationship with members of the local bar, Caribbean people do not have confidence in the new regional appeal court. The state-paid attorney at Law who represented the island at the CCJ’s inauguration was firm in his belief that regional states should retain the London-based Privy Council as their final court of appeal.

Wildman said he is concerned about recent High Court rulings. In one of the cases, he has been seeking judicial review for the rejection of his appointment as Attorney General of Grenada by the Judicial and Legal Services Commission of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

He said: “Any day that we remove the Privy Council from the region as the final Appellant Court that spells darkness for the people of the region - having regard to the experiences we’ve been having in the administration of justice in the region.

“And that’s why the people have no confidence in the Caribbean Court of Justice, absolutely no confidence. You see the people of Jamaica do not want it; the people of Trinidad and Tobago do not want it. Any day the Privy Council is removed you can say that is the end”, he added.

Wildman stated that a number of senior practitioners in Jamaica “have told me that anytime the Privy Council is removed they will stop practicing law”. That is (an) indication of the lack of confidence (they have) in what is being put up as the Caribbean Court of Justice”, he remarked.

The CCJ was created in 2003 under the 2001 Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The court was established to to handle trade disputes among CARICOM member states and eventually to serve as a supreme appellate court to replace the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London.

The court’s jurisdiction is so far limited to only the CARICOM states of Barbados and Guyana. The first case heard by the CCJ was in August 2005 to settle a libel court case from Barbados.