Caribbean nations including Jamaica formed their own courts

Members of the Caribbean Court of Justice

Britain’s Privy Council judges, who have ruled over overseas disputes since mediaeval times, have experienced an unprecedented dip in importance after receiving just 71 appeals from former colonies and territories last year.

According to figures in a UK government analysis on August 14, judges who previously had the final say on matters ranging from “Jamaica’s death penalty” to hydroelectric dams in a Belize rainforest are now being sidelined in favour of the local judiciary.

The numbers have dropped drastically since 2001 when 102 appeals and 58 applications for special leave to appeal were documented. In 2005, 71 appeals and 38 petitions for special leave were recorded.

Caribbean nations including Jamaica formed their own court last year after judges based in Trinidad and Tobago replaced the Privy Council’s Judicial Committee according to the Caribbean court’s web site.

Michael Beloff QC, a barrister and former president of Oxford University’s Trinity College, who recently argued a Bahamas golf development dispute before the judges, admitted: “It’s inevitable. Basically people are becoming more independent.”

In 2002 New Zealand was the biggest source of appeals comprising 14 of the 103 cases filed to the Privy Council. In 2003 New Zealand voted to abolish further Privy Council appeals and only three remain outstanding according to the report.

Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia and Malaysia have all stopped seeking guidance from the court.

The largest numbers of the Privy Council‘s cases still come from the UK where it is responsible for final rulings in ecclesiastical and veterinary disputes.

But it is thought that the Judicial Committee will continue to have influence in some nations.

Beloff added: “It is difficult to imagine the Channel Islands going their own way…Many of these societies have developed slightly different cultural and political norms, so the law has developed in different ways.”