The Bar Association of Guyana’s Bar Council has expressed grave concern over the unauthorised leak of internal correspondence among judges of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), warning it risks bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
The Bar Council said the CCJ, as Guyana’s final appellate court and the only court vested with jurisdiction to interpret and apply the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, must remain a bastion of justice in the Caribbean, and that its institutional integrity must therefore be respected, protected and preserved. The Council in a statement said central to that integrity, the Bar Council said, is confidentiality: internal correspondence and deliberations within the court are, and must remain, confidential, with the mere act of disclosing such correspondence—regardless of its content—risking damage to the administration of justice.
While the legal profession expects and respects robust discussion among members of the Court, the Bar Council described the unauthorised disclosure of internal correspondence to the media as a gross breach of confidence and a serious dereliction of duty by whoever was responsible.
The Bar Council added that the President of the CCJ, as leader of the Court, should be afforded sufficient latitude to articulate and implement a vision for the court and the principles governing its administration, with due regard to the Court’s Code of Judicial Conduct.
It expressed no view on the substance of the matters raised in the correspondence.
