Legal Research in the Caribbean Junior S Browne Faculty of Law Library, University of the West Indies BIALL 2017

Overview The Commonwealth Caribbean as a Jurisdiction Regional Groupings (CARICOM and OECS) Overview of Caribbean Legal Systems Researching Case Law Researching Legislation Researching secondary sources of law The Future of Caribbean Legal Research Conclusion

The Commonwealth Caribbean as a Jurisdiction The Commonwealth Caribbean refers to some former British colonies and current dependencies in the Caribbean namely:- Anguilla Antigua and Barbuda The Bahamas Barbados Belize Bermuda Brit. Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Dominica Grenada Guyana Jamaica Montserrat St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Vincent and the Grenadines Turks and Caicos Islands Trinidad and Tobago

The Commonwealth Caribbean as a Jurisdiction Characteristics Former British Colonies/current Dependent Territories English as a common language Members of the Commonwealth of Nations Common law jurisdictions

The Commonwealth Caribbean as a Jurisdiction Exceptions St. Lucia law based on Code Quebecois to which English statute law has been added Guyana land law based on the Roman-Dutch system

REGIONAL GROUPINGS - CARICOM The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was originally established 4 July 1973 with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas in Trinidad & Tobago Four main pillars: economic integration; foreign policy coordination;human and social development; and security 2001 Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas including the Establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) 2005 Establishment of Caribbean Court of Justice Currently a grouping of   twenty countries: fifteen Member States  and five  Associate Members & approximately sixteen million citizens Community is multi-lingual; with English as the major language complemented by French and Dutch  and  variations of these, as well as African and Indian expressions

REGIONAL GROUPINGS - OECS The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States is the inter- governmental organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance between countries and dependencies in the Eastern Caribbean. Established June 18th 1981, under the Treaty of Basseterre The 1981 Treaty was replaced in 2010 with a Revised Treaty of Basseterre, creating an economic union, a single financial and economic space within which goods, people and capital move freely, monetary and fiscal policies are harmonized The OECS is now a ten member grouping.

Overview of Caribbean Legal System Written constitutions Based on English common law Doctrine of Stare Decisis - courts obliged to follow the decisions and rulings in previously decided cases, or precedents, where the facts and issues are substantially the same. Decisions from courts outside the country are not binding, but may also be referred to as persuasive authority if there is no local case which has settled the point in issue

Overview of Caribbean Legal System Caribbean Court of Justice is the final court for Barbados, Guyana, Belize and Dominica. Privy Council remains the final court for all other Caribbean countries The Caribbean Court of Justice interprets all matters relating to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas

Researching Legislation All countries with the exception of Barbados, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and St. Kitts-Nevis have an online presence where the laws can be searched Some sites are not searchable Some sites are not current Some sites only have current legislation while others only have revised editions. A few sites have both sets of information Impossible to research the legislation for all jurisdictions in one place

Researching Legislation – WILIP Index An alphabetical Index of all of the Laws of the individual countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean Shows the legislation in force as at 31st December of previous year Shows the references to the legislation Notes amendments, repeals etc Does not show full text Does not rank according to subjects The WILIP Index is one of the only sources of following legislative changes in some countries Provides researchers with relatively recent information on the status of the law in their jurisdiction

Researching Case Law Several Caribbean law reports series which include: West Indian Reports Eastern Caribbean Law Reports Barbados Law Reports OECS Law Reports Bahamas Law Reports Jamaica Law Reports Belize Law Reports Trinidad & Tobago Law Reports Cayman Island Law Reports Except for West Indian Reports, none of the Reporters are up to date West Indian Reports are very selective Heavy reliance on unreported decisions

Researching Case Law Most courts have unreported judgments online Some sites are not searchable Difficult to use court web sites alone to conduct research across jurisdictions

Researching Case Law - CARILAW Faculty of Library, UWI as part of its mandate collected judgments from Caribbean courts Classified and information placed on index cards Computer based index produced using folio views 2001 received funding from USAID to move to full text online database. Launched in 2003 2014 received funding from government of Canada to bring the database up to date and to improve features

Researching Case Law - CARILAW Given the poor state of law reporting in the Caribbean, CARILAW has become an authority for researchers. Decisions are no longer ‘lost’ as occurs in the standard law reports Access to information is easier Comparative analyses can be done Easy to use and understand carilaw.cavehill.uwi.edu

Researching Secondary Sources of Law Legal Encyclopedias None Legal Newspapers Legal Newsletters - Some Law firms publish newsletters or articles commenting on legal developments e.g. Myers, Fletcher and Gordon (Jamaica) http://www.myersfletcher.com/resources.html

Researching Secondary Sources of Law Books Commonwealth Caribbean Law Series https://www.routledge.com/Commonwealth-Caribbean-Law/book-series/CAV8 Faculty of Law Library, Online Catalogue Journals - Caribbean Law Review (Published infrequently by the Faculty of Law, UWI, Cave Hill Campus) - West Indian Law Journal (Published by the Council of Legal Education, Norman Manley Law School, Jamaica) http://nmls.edu.jm/publications/ - Student Law Review (Published infrequently by the Law Society, Faculty of Law, UWI, Cave Hill Campus

Future Developments - Case Law April 2017 – UWI and JUSTIS Agreement signed. CARILAW to be offered exclusively on JUSTIS platform. UWI’s commitment to collection of material + JUSTIS technology and administrative infrastructure = World Class Database!!!!

Future Developments - Case Law Researchers will be able to: See treatment of cases (Is it still good law?) Access cases cited Access legislation cited Search subject categories in a more refined way

Future Developments - Legislation Digitisation of holdings of Commonwealth Caribbean legislation – dating from 1600’s to present Creation of a searchable database Currently awaiting approval for project funding

Future Developments - Secondary Material Several books already available only in e-format Collection of unpublished papers to be digitised Collation of legal blogs and online commentaries in one space

Email: junior.browne@cavehill.uwi.edu THANK YOU!!! Email: junior.browne@cavehill.uwi.edu