Introduction

The Member States of the Community created a special court, i.e. the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which was inaugurated in April 2005 and has its headquarters in Port-of-Spain, the capital of Trinidad and Tobago. Under Article 221 Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas judgments of the CCJ are legally binding precedents, so not only the referring court but also all courts of all Member States are obliged to comply with the referral judgment and thus interpret and apply a particular provision of Caribbean Community Single Market and Economy (CSME) law in accord with the CCJ’s preliminary judgment. The main objective of the referral procedure is to foster uniform interpretation and application of CSME law throughout the Member States in order to ensure effective protection of the rights conferred by CSME law on nationals of the Member States. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.