Central American Court of Justice

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The Central American Court of Justice (1907-1918, 1962-) is an international court established by five Central American states by a treaty signed December 20, 1907 at Washington, D.C., then re-created in 1962 as an action of the Organization of Central American States.

Contents

History

Founding

On November 14, 1907 five Central American nations on the proposition of Mexico and USA took part in the Central American Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., that lasted until December 20, 1907.

The Central American Court of Justice (Corte de Justicia Centroamericana) was founded as a peace treaty between Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua at the Central American Peace Conference, hosted by the United States in Washington D.C. during November and December 1907. The conference began on November 14, 1907 at the suggestion of Mexico and the United States. The involved independent nations, all previously a part of colonial Spain had sought on numerous prior occasions, with great difficulty, to form a political alliance. (The most recent of which occurred 11 years earlier, with the founding of the Republic of Central America). On December 20th an agreement was reached and the five nations ended the Conference by signing a peace treaty, one aspect of which created the Central American Court of Justice.

The signatories agreed that the convention creating the Court would remain in effect for ten years, beginning at the time of the last ratification.

All communications between the signatories were made through the government of Costa Rica. The Convention was ratified by the member states on the following dates:

  • Nicaragua, February 15, 1908
  • Costa Rica, February 28, 1908
  • El Salvador, March 4, 1908
  • Honduras, March 4, 1908
  • Guatemala, March 12, 1908.

The Court was composed of five judges, one each from each member state.

Operation of the first CACJ

For the period of its functioning the Court heard 10 cases, 5 of which were brought by private individuals and declared inadmissible, 3 of which were started by the Court's own initiative.

Dissolution of the first CACJ

The court operated for 10 years, until April 1918, from its headquarters in Costa Rica, at which point it dissolved. It's members had efforted without success from March 1917, when Nicaragua gave a notice of termination from the agreement, to continue the arrangement.

Several explanations for the treaty's failure exist:

  • The court lacked an effective system of judicial procedure
  • The judges were not free to act independent of their respective governments.
  • The court had been given a jurisdiction too broad to satisfy its member states

Creation of the second Court

Following the end of World War II, a new interest in integrating the Central American governments began. On October 14, 1951, 33 years after the dissolution of the CACJ, the governments of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua signed a new treaty creating the Organization of Central American States (Organizacion de Estados Centroamericanos, or ODECA).

The following year, December 12, 1962, ODECA's charter was altered to create a new Central American Court of Justice (this time called the Corte Centroamericana de Justicia, or CCJ), without the time limitation of its previous incarnation.

Idle for nearly 30 years thereafter, the court changed shape in 1991 when Article 12 of the Protocol of Tegucigalpa created the Central American Integration System (Sistema de Integración Centroamericana, or SICA), and the union was joined by Panama (as a member state), and Belize (as an observer).

The CCJ today

The current mission of the CCJ is to promote peace in the region and unity between its member-states. Today's Court has jurisdiction to hear cases:

  • between member States
  • between a member state and a non-member state which agrees to the Court's jurisdiction
  • between states and any natural or legal person who is a resident of any member state
  • regarding the integration process between Central American Integration System's (SICA) organs and member states or natural or legal persons

The Court may also offer consultation to the Supreme Courts of the region.

As of July 2005, the CCJ has made 70 resolutions since hearing its first case in 1994.

Notable descisions

  • In 2005, the Court ruled that Nicaraguan congressional reforms, which took control of water, energy and telecommunications services away from President Enrique Bolaños were "legally inapplicable", possibly further inciting the Nicaraguan political crisis.

See also

External references

Image:US Department of Justice Scales Of Justice.gif This law-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
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