Search

The Covid-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on Caribbean countries. These countries have lost billions of dollars in foreign capital. Although the region's peoples are currently being vaccinated, the damage already caused by Covid-19 remains immeasurable and will likely continue for many years. Irrespective of whether vaccination results in herd immunity, Caribbean countries not only face the unenviable challenge of recalibrating their economies post-Covid-19, but also the prospect of being hauled before arbitral tribunals in respect of claims brought by investors alleging breaches of investor protection standards as a result of measures taken in response to the pandemic. To the extent that there is a real risk of claims of this nature arising in future, this article contends that Covid-19, as an unprecedented event, exposes the asymmetrical nature of the international investment regime, and its inability to fully countenance the domestic realities of developing countries that are confronted with existential threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This chapter aims to provide an authoritative account of Guyana’s intriguing constitutional history and modern constitutional landscape. It provides a unique analysis of Guyana’s constitutional antecedents, and presents a critical narrative of the nuanced features of its socialist constitution. More particularly, the chapter demonstrates how the exceptional powers of the Executive President and the uneasy relationship between the Legislature and the Executive have dominated Guyana’s recent constitutional affairs, and the impact that these developments have had on democratic accountability in that country. It also critically addresses the human rights dimensions of Guyana’s constitutional landscape, and, argues that there exists a piecemeal approach to the protection of some of the more contested constitutional rights in Guyana. Ultimately, the chapter contends that the while Guyana holds a unique place in regional constitutionalism, given its distinct constitutional antecedents and existing normative prescriptions, constitutional reform is long overdue.

‘Modern slavery’ has increasingly been recognised by policy-makers across the globe as a serious affront to the human rights of its victims, and an encroachment on the security of the international community. It typically, though not exclusively, thrives in conditions of poverty, economic and political instability and social disenfranchisement, and has a deleterious impact on the health and well-being of its victims, families and wider communities. The United Kingdom, and, more particularly, Northern Ireland, though relatively affluent, has not escaped the grasp of what can aptly be described as the ‘scourge’ of the twenty-first century. In view of the evolving dynamics of modern slavery, as well as both international and regional commitments calling for action to prevent the phenomenon, prosecute perpetrators and protect victims, Northern Ireland recently enacted its Human Trafficking and Exploitation Act (2015). Given that the Act has to date not been examined in the existing literature, this article ai...

While the doctrine of stare decisis has in general received a great deal of scholarly attention over the years, one aspect of the norm which has been the subject of little, if any, doctrinal inquiry, however, is the emergence of a doctrine of de jure horizontal stare decisis at the international level, most notably by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), in the exercise of its original jurisdiction. By reference to the CCJs rapidly evolving jurisprudence, this article argues that, at the conceptual level, this development is unique to international law to the extent that the court’s reliance on precedents is pursuant to a treaty-mandate as opposed to a judicial strategy, but not at all very different in practice from the de facto approach to precedent which characterizes the jurisprudence of other international courts and tribunals. The question of whether the CCJs de jure approach to the treatment of precedents contributes in any way to the fragmentation or pluralism of international law is also addressed by this article.