SEIZE DEM ASSETS YES …….. BUT IS WHO WRITE DIS?

Seize Barbados’ assets
Published: Monday | June 16, 2014 2 Comments
We appreciate Foreign Minister A.J. Nicholson’s statement of the Jamaican Government’s inability to force Barbados to honour the judgment by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in the Shanique Myrie case, as well as the court’s declaration of its absence of coercive powers to enforce its judgment.
We remind that the CCJ, acting in its original jurisdiction, interprets the treaty under which Caribbean Community (CARICOM), of which both Jamaica and Barbados are members, operates. Ms Myrie is a Jamaican woman who was not only denied entry to Barbados – in contravention of the presumption of the freedom of movement for Caribbean nationals within the Community – but was also locked in a cell and subjected to a cavity search. She was awarded the equivalent of J$4 million.
The Myrie case is part of the development of community law. The ruling clearly establishes minimum standards states must meet when regional citizens enter their borders and the potential consequences for failure. These obligations are binding on member states and, in that sense, become part of national law.
It might be useful for Ms Myrie to test the extent to which this supranational tribunal is deemed, by the domestic courts, to be glued to the national arrangements. In that regard, she might apply to the local courts to have a bailiff seize any property asset owned in Jamaica, or anywhere else in CARICOM, from the Barbados government.
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