The right to free movement of persons in Caribbean community (CARICOM) law: towards 'juridification'?

Abstract

The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) is one of the oldest, and arguably one of the most successful, regional organisations in the Commonwealth today. Influenced in large part by the European model of regional integration, CARICOM has, since the early 1970s, sought to progressively engage its constituent member states – for the most part English-speaking Caribbean countries – on a number of important developmental issues, such as the trade in goods and the free movement of services and capital. In more recent years, the free movement of persons has come to the fore. It is important to note that the process by which CARICOM has progressively achieved this particular (and important) goal has not been straightforward, fraught as it has been with a number of practical and institutional difficulties, many of which still continue today, notwithstanding what can be described as the recent trend towards the ‘juridification’ of the right to free movement in CARICOM law. Since this issue has not been adequately addressed in existing literature, this article provides a nuanced analysis of the extent to which the right to free movement of persons in CARICOM law has ‘juridified’, by reference to the theory of ‘juridification’, as posited by Spiros Simitis and Jon Clarke among others.