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Central American Court Of Justice - Description [2003] PICTRes 14 (17 November 2003)
Central American Court Of Justice
Since
the demise of the Spanish empire in the 1820s, the edifice of Central
America has been shaken by centrifugal
and centripetal forces. Central
America States periodically coalesce into sub-regional organizations or
federal
unions which, so far, have broken down as rapidly as they have
been built. This is the case of the Central American Federal
Republic,
created in 1824; the United States of Central America founded in 1898,
and the Central American Republic,
of 1921. A common feature of all these
endeavors is the presence of a common judicial body, a Supreme Court of
Justice, to guard and enforce the system's rules.
In a sense, Central America can be regarded as the cradle of the international
judicial system. Not only was it
the first region of the world to have
established regional international (or, even better, supra-national) judicial
fora; it was also the region in which one of the first permanent international
arbitral tribunals was created. The
Central American Court of Justice (Corte de Justicia Centroamericana)
was established in 1907 to maintain peace and resolve disagreements among
Central American states.
The Corte de Justicia Centroamericana functioned for 10 years in Costa
Rica, and was made up of five judges (one
each from Costa Rica, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua). The Corte de Justicia Centroamericana
is also notable because it was the first instance of an international
judicial forum which heard disputes not only between
states but also between
states and nationals of any of the Central American republics. Although
during its time
it was involved in 10 cases, the Court was rather ineffectual,
as only a few cases actually reached the merits phase, and
with only meager
results.
After the second World War, Central American integrationist efforts got
a new start. On October 14, 1951, the
Charter of the Organization of Central
American States was signed by Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras,
and Nicaragua, creating the Organization of Central American States (Organizacion
de Estados Centroamericanos-ODECA).
This Charter was modified on December
12, 1962 with the creation of a new Central American Court of Justice
(Corte
Centroamericana de Justicia), which had no time limitations . The
new court remained idle for the next three decades. It
was only in 1991
that the Protocol of Tegucigalpa injected new life into the ODECA by creating
the Central American
Integration System (Sistema de Integración
Centroamericana_SICA). Panama joined as a member State, and Belize as
an observer. The Central American Court of Justice (CACJ) was accordingly
reconfigured.
Today, the mission of the CACJ is to realize a closer integration between
its members and thereby establish a
free, democratic, and peaceful region.
Its jurisdiction encompasses three key areas: first, disputes between
member States or between a member State and a State which is not a member
but agrees to the Court's jurisdiction; second,
disputes between States
and any natural or legal person who is a resident of any member State;
third, disputes
about the integration process arising between Central
American Integration System's Organs and member States or natural
or legal
persons. Finally, much like its regional predecessors but unlike most
of the bodies included in this
matrix, the CACJ is characterized by strong
supra-national features. It acts as a permanent consultative organ for
Supreme Courts of the region and can, upon request of a party, hear disputes
between constitutional organs of member
States.
Data obtained from the Project on International Courts and Tribunals (PICT)
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URL: http://www.worldlii.org/int/other/PICTRes/2003/14.html
