Jamaican CCJ president faces reported revolt from own judges

The Gist

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) — the regional tribunal established in 2001 and headquartered in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, which serves as the final appellate court for five Caricom states — faces scrutiny after the Sunday Express reported internal disputes among judges, citing emails that allegedly describe what one judge reportedly called an increasingly 'toxic' environment under President Justice Winston Anderson, a Jamaican, who assumed the role on 6 July 2025.

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What Happened

The dispute reportedly began on 22 June 2026, when a proposed judicial dress code email triggered a wave of broader grievances from five of the CCJ's six sitting judges.

According to the Sunday Express, internal correspondence shows five judges — Justices Chile Eboe-Osuji, Chantal Ononaiwu, Arif Bulkan, Maureen Rajnauth-Lee and Peter Jamadar — raised concerns about Justice Anderson's leadership, including allegations of 'panel fixing' and what one judge reportedly described as 'creeping patterns of anti-democratic approaches.'
Justice Jamadar's correspondence, as reported by the Sunday Express, cited two cases as affecting core judicial decision-making: the Jeremy Enriquez and Anand Ramlogan trilogy, and the Mohamed vs Minister of Home Affairs extradition matter.
The CCJ dismissed the extradition appeal of Azruddin Mohamed and his father Nazar Mohamed on 29 July 2026, allowing US extradition proceedings to resume before the Georgetown Magistrates' Court; the US seeks their extradition on an 11-count indictment alleging conspiracy, mail and wire fraud, and money laundering.
Despite the reported internal disagreements, all judges agreed with the announced result in the Mohamed case, and four of the five judges who reportedly raised concerns with the President sat in for the reading of the unanimous judgement.
The CCJ issued a statement affirming its independence, impartiality and integrity, warning that 'questions and allegations presented without the benefit of context, background, or an appreciation of the nature of judicial deliberations... may lend themselves to misunderstanding or mischaracterisation,' but did not directly address the 15 questions the Sunday Express sent to Justice Anderson.
Under the CCJ's governing agreement, disciplinary matters are handled through the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission (RJLSC), formal tribunal processes, and Caricom heads of government; Justice Anderson also chairs the RJLSC by virtue of his presidency.

The Impact

If the reported allegations gain traction without a credible institutional response, the fallout could be significant on two fronts.

First, the CCJ's ongoing push to expand its appellate jurisdiction — with Jamaica Trinidad and Tobago and other Caricom states still retaining the Privy Council — could stall, as the controversy gives opponents a ready-made argument against the court's independence.

Separately, one expert has warned that even a perception of instability at the CCJ could reinforce concerns among foreign investors about legal certainty in jurisdictions that use the court as their final arbiter.

The Guyana dimension adds particular urgency: the CCJ is already that country's final appellate court, and reported allegations of Justice Anderson's engagement with political figures over judicial appointments have compounded calls for accountability.

What to watch: • Whether the RJLSC or Caricom heads of government initiate any formal inquiry or disciplinary process in response to the reported allegations • Whether Justice Anderson responds publicly to the Sunday Express's 15 questions or addresses the allegations directly, and how the CCJ communicates with the region going forward • How the controversy affects active debates in Jamaica and other non-appellate CCJ member states about joining the court's appellate jurisdiction

"Five of the CCJ's six sitting judges reportedly raised concerns about Justice Anderson's leadership, according to internal correspondence cited by the Sunday Express."
— Sunday Express, as reported across multiple regional outlets

CCJ Under Scrutiny - Regional Court By The Numbers

The Pulse

Social Conversation: mixed

Posts reflect mixed views on CCJ allegations, with some welcoming judicial pushback against leadership.

CCJ leadership criticismjudicial division and hope for changeregional vs national court comparisons

Voices on X

"Happy the fellow judges of governing the regional CCJ spoke up against Anderson. That is great hope imo.
The minority is becoming the majority."
@DaRealBigDon · ÜT: 42.288522,-71.0994 · 16h ago · View on X

"DOES THIS SURPRISE U? JAMAICAN ENUH Caribbean Court of Justice president Justice Winston Charles Anderson has been accused by a majority of his fellow judges of governing the regional court in an “authoritarian” and “dictatorial” manner
DEEP DIVIDE AT CCJ https://t.co/T92enk7I80"
@lizzielevy · 16h ago · 26 engagements · View on X

"@kenyatta_pow Yet we fail to mention or study Trinidad's experience in our discourse as if it does not exist. How many of them have gone to a national vs a regional final court. Any move to a CCJ should be "passing thru", not entrenched."
@dishxpert · Kingston · 2d ago · 2 engagements · View on X

"Study design:
🔸 81 pediatric and adult patients with Chiari I malformation 🔸 Low-b diffusion MRI: Quantification of CSF effective motility (MΨ) 🔸 Ultra-high-resolution CISS MRI: CCJ crowding & tonsil position 🔸 Voxel-wise and data-driven regional analyses https://t.co/S2"
@HosseiniHelia · St Louis, MO · 6d ago · 3 engagements · View on X

Based on 4 posts from X · Aug 10, 2026

Perspectives

Viewpoint: APNU's Dr Terrence Campbell frames Anderson's resignation not as punishment but as a precondition for institutional renewal — arguing the CCJ cannot credibly court Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago or any other Privy Council-retaining state while a reported majority of its own bench has documented grievances in writing. For a court whose legitimacy rests entirely on perceived impartiality, the optics of a president who also chairs the body responsible for judicial discipline — the RJLSC — represent a structural conflict that no statement of reassurance can dissolve.

Viewpoint: Ambassador Byron Blake draws a deliberate distinction between the institution and the individual, cautioning that allegations spanning barely a year of Anderson's presidency should not be weaponised to relitigate the CCJ's two-decade record. His call to 'cauterise the situation' reflects a view shared by many regional jurists: that internal collegiate friction, however serious, is qualitatively different from systemic corruption — and that conflating the two serves neither justice nor the region.

Viewpoint: Azruddin Mohamed's opposition office — itself a conflicted voice given the extradition stakes — nonetheless surfaces a procedural point that transcends partisan interest: a court that deflects 15 specific press questions with a general defence of its integrity invites precisely the speculation it says it wishes to prevent. The CCJ's communication strategy, as much as Anderson's conduct, is now on trial.

C360 View

Regional courts don't collapse overnight — they erode. Reported internal divisions at the CCJ arrive at the worst possible moment: when the court most needs to project confidence to the nations still deciding whether to trust it with their final appeals.

Five of the CCJ's six sitting judges reportedly raised concerns about President Anderson's leadership — allegations of "panel fixing" and "creeping patterns of anti-democratic approaches" — tied specifically to the Mohamed extradition case and the Enriquez/Ramlogan matters.

All judges still agreed on the Mohamed result, and four of the five who reportedly raised concerns sat for the unanimous reading. The CCJ's own response — warning that allegations "without context" can be "mischaracterised" — is legally fair but institutionally weak. A court that demands transparency from governments can't fall back on studied ambiguity when a reported majority of its own bench has raised concerns in writing.

There's also a structural problem worth naming: the CCJ presidency isn't elected by fellow judges — it's appointed through the RJLSC, which Anderson now chairs by virtue of holding the job the complaints are about. That's an accountability gap at exactly the point independent oversight matters most.

Here's what deserves more credit than it usually gets, especially inside the legal profession itself: the Privy Council isn't simply a colonial relic waiting to be replaced. It's free to Caribbean taxpayers, was guaranteed as a right at independence, and remains one of the most respected appellate courts in the world — its judges hear cases from across the Commonwealth and bring a depth of precedent and independence smaller regional courts can't easily match.

Vybz Kartel's murder conviction being quashed in 2024, after the Privy Council found a corrupt juror had compromised his 65-day trial, is exactly the kind of outcome that keeps ordinary Jamaicans skeptical of trading it away — not blind loyalty to Britain, but a real, remembered case of the court getting it right when it mattered. Reports like this one only add weight to that skepticism, whatever the CCJ ultimately proves about itself.

Verdict: The CCJ's credibility won't be saved by institutional silence — only transparent, independent accountability can restore the confidence Caribbean justice requires, and give the Privy Council's defenders less ammunition in the process.