As a controversy involving leadership, dress codes and emails rages at the region’s highest court, the Caribbean Court of Justice, Political Scientist Professor Hamid Ghany notes that the matter needs to be resolved because trust is being eroded.
Over the last few weeks, controversy has arisen over a proposal by the President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Winston Anderson, that the court’s judges wear Western-style formal attire during court sittings.
The proposal sparked a public dispute among the judges. The disagreement intensified after internal emails between members of the court were leaked, exposing a war of words and bringing the conflict into the public domain.
Professor Ghany said the dispute is further undermining confidence in the organisation and raising concerns about its governance and public credibility.
“We need to have some sort of resolution of it because it is something that goes to the heart of having trust in the CCJ, and the issue of trust is what has been the main issue as to why it has not had that kind of wider support.”
Although Trinidad and Tobago has not adopted the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as its final appellate court, Professor Ghany notes that it is not alone, as several other Caribbean jurisdictions have likewise remained holdouts.
“The adoption of the CCJ failed in Grenada, and in Antigua and Barbuda when there was a referendum specifically for it to be adopted, and the electorate said no. In St Vincent and the Grenadines it was part of a wider omnibus bill on constitutional reform that was not successful in a referendum in 2009. So 2009, 2016 and 2018 we’ve had rejections of it by electorates in the region, and it’s something that the CCJ is very much aware of.”
The Political Scientist pointed to one reason why the dress code issue might not be resolved quickly.
“In the case of judges, these are lifetime appointments. These judges serve until the age of 72, I think, and you have some issues that are coming up that are cross-cultural. The issue of the dress code of someone who is from a country that is outside of the region and has a different sort of lifestyle habit and dress code and so on. Whether some of the things that are being said should apply or whether they should come to some kind of agreement among themselves.”
Professor Ghany added that regional bar associations and other professional bodies are closely monitoring the situation and have indicated that it is a serious matter.
“The extent to which the region is viewing this, I mean, you’ve had recently the heads of judiciary in a number of countries in the region as well as the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court coming out and saying that they have confidence in the CCJ, but I think that that statement is really trying to express hope that, ‘Look, you know, can you guys sort this out?'”
The internal dispute over the dress code began in June 2026, when CCJ President Justice Winston Anderson proposed that judges wear Western-style formal attire during court sittings.
The matter quickly evolved from a disagreement over judicial dress into a broader issue of court governance and leadership after Justice Chile Eboe-Osuji, a Nigerian-born judge of Canadian nationality, was removed from a judicial panel.