Overview

The Organization of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA) is an organisation of the Bar Associations in the Commonwealth Caribbean and neighbouring Commonwealth countries.

History

OCCBA is an organisation of the bar and law associations in the Commonwealth Caribbean, specifically Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Belize, British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Individual lawyers may also be members.

It is the successor of an organisation known as the West Indies Bar Association which was established in 1957 in Barbados after a conference in Trinidad in 1952. As far as can presently be determined, there were meetings in Barbados on the 27th April, 1968, in St Lucia on the 22nd September, 1971, in Grenada on the 13th September, 1975, in Jamaica on the 4th March, 1976, in Jamaica on the 6th September, 1986, and subsequently in Barbados.

OCCBA is governed by a Council of which each bar association has two members.

Aims and Objectives

The aims and objects of OCCBA include being concerned with questions of human rights, justice and the rule of law, the independence of the judiciary, the improvement of the administration of justice, legal education, study of jurisprudence, legal literature and law reporting, and the establishment of legal aid.

OCCBA aims to contact and encourage the participation of all regional bar and law associations and attorneys, and maintain a close relationship with other regional and international organizations (e.g.CLE., IBA, UIA., IABA), and a close relationship with the OECS bar.

It is also OCCBA’s goal to provide services and programmes which improve professional development, the quality of the bar, the administration of justice and access to legal services, including: Continuing Professional Education, Discipline, Funding for pro bono constitutional cases, Case law reporting, Law reform, Caribbean Court of Justice, Email address, Listserv, Newsletters, Lawyer referral system, Web site, Database, Legal Aid, Independence of the Judiciary, Playing political football with Judges, Contractual appointments of Magistrates, Finance, Control of foreign legal practitioners, and Directory of lawyers.

Objectives

• To be concerned with questions of Human Rights, Justice, and the Rule of Law and to undertake any action that in its judgment may contribute to the protection and preservation of these and other, fundamental conditions for a well-ordered society.
• To deal with all matters affecting the Legal Profession and to lake such action thereon as may be deemed expedient so as to promote, preserve, regulate, and protect its interests and the interest of its Members;
• To act as a representative of its Membership and to answer, question, and recommend rules relating to professional conduct;
• To maintain the honor and independence of the Bar and to defend the Bar in its relations with the Judiciary and the Executive;
• To support the Independence of the Judiciary and to maintain cordial relations among members of the Bar and between the Bar and the Bench;
• To promote the improvement of the Administration of Justice;
• To examine and report on legislation;
• To promote uniformity in appropriate field where practicable and to promote and support desirable measures of law reform;
• To declare the collective opinion of the Bar in such quarters as it is deemed from time to time to be desirable and to make or support representations to governments, the Judiciary and other appropriate bodies on questions affecting the Legal Profession;
• To cooperate with and promote coordination among legal societies and organisations having similar objects;
• To encourage good relations and understanding between the Bar and the Public;
• To protect the public right of access to the Courts, the representation by Counsel before Courts and tribunals, and the privileges of the Bar in relation thereto;
• To promote encourage and improve legal education, the study of jurisprudence, legal literature, and law reporting;
• To encourage the establishment of schemes of legal aid;
  To encourage the establishment of benevolent funds for indigent Members.