The recently published OUP title, Caribbean Integration Law, by the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Dr David Berry, represents a timely, engrossing and truly compelling piece of scholarly work, which undoubtedly advances the existing scholarship on international institutional law. Over the course of 15 captivating chapters, Berry masterfully walks his readers through the legal systems of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), two of the most successful and long-standing regional integration movements in the developing world. The book, which successfully employs doctrinal and comparative methodologies, locates these regional organizations in their historical and theoretical contexts and engages in a detailed exploration of their treaty structures, texts and legal practices, with appropriate references to the rules of international institutional law, the law of treaties as well as the law of the European Union (EU). For ease of comprehension, each chapter begins by methodically describing the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (‘RTC’, in the case of CARICOM) and the Revised Treaty of Basseterre (‘RTB’, in the case of the OECS), being careful to critically analyse their respective strengths and weaknesses, as gleaned from an examination of their regional judicial interpretations, and, where possible, similar texts and interpretive practices from the EU, though the author exercises tremendous restraint in ensuring that contextual differences are adequately taken account of when making comparisons.

The book consists of six Parts. The book's fluid narrative begins with an introduction to Caribbean integration law, exploring the geographical, economic, historical, and theoretical contexts of CARICOM and the OECS, as well as the factors that influence their institutional design, including the EU model, the law of treaties, and the rules of international institutional law. Part 2 then critically assesses the institutional frameworks of CARICOM and the OECS, starting with the status of their respective treaties, their respective structures, competences, and decision-making processes, as well as issues related to personality, legal capacity, privileges and immunities. The most nuanced argument advanced in this Part is that the inclusion of a dependent territory—Montserrat—as a full Member State of CARICOM and the RTB is unusual for regional organizations, and has the effect of removing the RTC from the scope of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT), although Berry readily admits that since many of the provisions of the VCLT have crystallized into customary international law, the rules generally associated with the VCLT will nevertheless apply in the Caribbean context. Having meticulously examined the treaty structures of CARICOM and the OECS, Berry also concludes that whereas the principles of conferral, subsidiarity and proportionality apply in the context of the OECS in largely the same manner as they do in the EU, the same cannot be said of the CARICOM regime which has arguably not achieved a comparable degree of supranationality.

Perhaps the most profound part of this book, however, is Part 3, which critically examines the bases through which legal obligations are created, implemented, and enforced in CARICOM and the OECS, as well as the vexing question as to whether, and to what extent, general principles of law, similar to those which obtain in the EU, are applicable in Caribbean Integration Law. On this important question, Berry painstakingly compares the various provisions of the RTC, RTB and the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), as well as concomitant jurisprudence in order to arrive at the nuanced conclusion that ‘direct applicability’ in the contexts of CARICOM and the OECS ‘does not at present go as far as it does in the EU’ and that it ‘is unlikely to develop, in exactly the same form’ in the Caribbean. In advancing this contention, Berry considers that dualism, which characterizes the relationship between international law and municipal law in most Caribbean States, with the exception of Haiti and Suriname which are civil law countries, is antithetical to direct applicability given that treaty obligations assumed at the regional level will continue to require transformation by national parliaments before they can be become binding on State institutions. As such, Berry predicts that while binding rights and obligations for CARICOM and OECS countries will continue to be created and enforced at the regional level, they will not, however, arise at the domestic level, which is in contradistinction to what obtains in the EU.

On the question of whether, and to what extent, the general principle of ‘direct effect’ is applicable in Caribbean integration law, Berry argues, in convincing fashion, that while direct effect is envisaged by the RTB to arise in the context of the OECS, given the express mention of the principle in that treaty, the same cannot be said of the RTC, which already has a system of ‘dual vigilance’ in place (allowing actions from Member States and CARICOM organs, on the one hand, and direct actions by natural and juridical persons, on the other) and which does not, therefore, make express reference to ‘direct effect’. Citing the European Court of Justice's (ECJ) jurisprudence on direct effect, Berry, however, contends that almost all of the ‘juridical building blocks’ relied upon by the ECJ in Van Gend en Loos are present in the context of CARICOM law, including the need for the effectiveness and uniformity of Community Law. Berry's ultimate conclusion, however, is that a principle of direct effect is neither necessary nor possible in CARICOM Law, though he surreptitiously fancies the idea of ‘triple vigilance’. Another important general principle—‘supremacy’—is also critically examined by Berry, who concludes that while the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) appears to countenance the traditional form of supremacy—that Community law has primacy at the regional, though not national, level—the inclusion of the principle of direct effect by the RTB in the context of the OECS, suggests that supremacy of OECS law might have been envisaged by the drafters of that treaty.

More generally, Berry also tackles the question of ‘State liability’, arguing that this is undoubtedly one of the few EU general principles which has been expressly transplanted by the CCJ to date. While Berry concedes that the high threshold required to establish the three conditions posited by the CCJ for a finding of State liability, which are similar to those espoused by the ECJ in its well-established jurisprudence beginning with Francovich, may impede the full utilization of the principle in practice, it is perhaps regrettable that he does not contribute to the existing debate surrounding the transplantation of foreign law, as well as the question as to what constitutes a successful transplantation. The inclusion of a small section on the views posited by some of the leading scholars on legal transplantation, such as Alan Watson, Otto Khan-Freund, Pierre Legrand and David Nelken, it is submitted, would have arguably strengthened Berry's analysis on the key question of State liability.

This notwithstanding, it is certainly commendable that Berry not only critically examines the general principles described above but also the questions of proportionality, the need for reason, and human rights, amongst others, which will undoubtedly influence the direction of the region's fledgling jurisprudence. Berry's thought-provoking analysis of the substantive rules and policies governing the movement of persons, services, and capital, the trade in goods and issues related to sectoral development (Part 4), as well as the region's unique dispute settlement mechanism (Part 5) are also important contributions to the existing literature. And, although it can be argued that Chapter 14, in particular, could have benefited from a more detailed assessment of the implications of the CCJ's adherence to a de jure doctrine of horizontal stare decisis in so far as the fragmentation of international law debate is concerned, overall, it can be argued that Caribbean integration law, with its strong analytical tone, excellent methodical insights and wholly pragmatic conclusions (Part 5), is unsurpassed in its niche; a classic work.

Berry must be heartily commended for this excellent addition to the existing literature on international and comparative law, which will undoubtedly prove to be an invaluable resource for students and scholars in Caribbean and European law, as well as judges, attorneys-at-law, and policy specialists.