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This article argues that although most Caribbean States have in the last 60 years ascended to statehood, colonialism continues to exist in new and variable forms. It relies upon the concept of ‘coloniality’ as advanced by Schneiderman to contend that the international investment law regime, whose history and evolution is rooted in colonialism, relentlessly pursues the economic interests of foreign investors and capital-exporting countries. It draws important connections between historic colonialism and the contemporary regime for the protection of foreign direct investment by situating the Caribbean's experience in the light of the rationales, tropes and methods arising in the past which endure in investment law's domains, as advanced by Schneiderman in his new book, Investment Law's Alibis, namely (a) profitability and privilege; (b) a discourse of improvement; (c) distrust of local self-rule; and (d) construction of legal enclaves. It is argued that each of these features of colonial rule, from a Caribbean perspective, is inscribed in the discourse and practices of the international investment law regime.

Sport is a microcosm of society. In this connection, in as much as there are reasons to celebrate individual athletic prowess and the undeniable contribution of sport to the maturation of communities, sport, like the broader society, contends with many ills, not least sexual violence. Although various sporting organizations and governments have, in the last 2 decades, adopted legislative instruments and Codes of Ethics and established various institutional mechanisms to combat the scourge of sexual violence, sport remains a hot bed for sexual violence, intimidation, reprisals and indignity in many jurisdictions. This article accordingly interrogates, from a Feminist Perspective, recently decided cases to illustrate how sexual violence committed against women and girls in the sporting context reflects a broader deeply entrenched system of patriarchy, characterized by a culture of silence, indifference, and abuse of authority. It concludes by calling on all concerned in the governance, administration, and practice of sport to redouble their efforts to address the growing problem of sexual violence in sport.

This article engages in an empirical assessment of the 55 Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) that, to date, have been concluded by 12 Caribbean countries, in order to determine the extent to which, in light of extant arbitral practice, there is a need for reform of the BIT landscape in the region. The article makes the central argument that although most Caribbean countries are capital-importing jurisdictions that are vulnerable to external shocks, including a multiplicity of claims brought by foreign investors, Caribbean governments have been slow to make changes to most regional BITs, many of which contain glaring weaknesses, and the majority of which were concluded more than two decades ago. It contends that, having regard to extant arbitral jurisprudence, which interprets various provisions of BITs in a manner that is often contradictory and even hostile to the interests of developing States, the time is ripe for reform of the regional BIT landscape. The article adopts a comparative approach to its discussion of the various provisions of regional BITs, and relies heavily on arbitral awards involving a range of countries across the globe on myriad controversial issues so as to illustrate areas in which incoherence, inconsistency and unpredictability exist, where regulatory chill is possible, and where reform is accordingly necessary.

In February 2020, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered a decision—Nevsun Resources Ltd. v. Araya, 2020 SCC 5—that can properly be described as revolutionary. In Nevsun, the court found that a Canadian corporation operating in a host state, Eretria, could be liable under Canadian domestic law for human rights abuses committed in Eritrea under customary international law, as incorporated into Canadian domestic law. The decision merits special attention because it is likely to fundamentally change the relationship between foreign investors, host states and the residents of host states adversely affected by investors’ unlawful conduct which amount to modern slavery.

Judicial review is the procedure by which municipal courts intervene in the affairs of public bodies to review the process by which they have arrived at decisions which adversely affect their constituents. In this connection, the decisions of public bodies may be challenged on the basis that they were arrived at in error of law, tainted by error of fact or bias, irrational, disproportionate or in breach of principles of natural justice. Although in some jurisdictions sporting bodies are amenable to judicial review, courts in England and Wales and, indeed, the Commonwealth Caribbean, have been largely consistent in finding that because of their private and largely contractual nature, their decisions are not susceptible to judicial review. This article argues that in light of the recent Court of Appeal decision of Trinidad and Tobago Football Association v FIFA, the death knell has effectively been sounded for the judicial review of sporting bodies, such that the view of Michael Beloff, Tim Kerr and Marie Demetriou in their 2012 book, Sports Law, that ‘it is not clear that the last word has been said on the subject’, has now been put to rest, at least in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Notwithstanding its recognition of the importance of the Court of Appeal’s decision in clarifying the scope of judicial review in sporting cases, this article nonetheless contends that FIFA’s sweeping Statutes, its increasingly frequent installation of Normalization Committees and its imposition of heavily punitive sanctions against allegedly recalcitrant constituent sporting federations represent legal imperialism and supranational exceptionalism.

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 article examines the recently decided Canadian striking out application of SCC 5, a case in which the Supreme Court of Canada held, in a 5–4 decision, that a private corporation may be liable ...

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.

This article aims to provide a nuanced articulation of the challenges and complexities associated with the various judicial approaches countenanced across multiple jurisdictions to date toward comb...

‘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...

(2014). The Transplantation of the European Principle of ‘State Liability’ in Caribbean Community (Caricom) Law: A Normative Assessment. Oxford University Commonwealth Law Journal: Vol. 14, No. 1, pp. 73-104.

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.

The statutory framework governing the protection afforded various copyright subject matter in the UK, despite the predictability afforded by its closed list, has come under intense criticism over the last decade or so, with many scholars citing the need for urgent reform. Indeed, given the adverse range of responses in this regard, the question arises as to whether the UK should move towards a system that more closely resembles that of other Commonwealth Countries, such as Canada and Trinidad and Tobago, where a non-exhaustive or open list of protected works is provided for.

The fair and equitable treatment (FET) standard is undoubtedly a key feature of most International Investment Agreements concluded by developing countries today. In practice however, the standard raises a number of potent concerns which have not gone unnoticed. This article accordingly attempts to critically analyze the increasing intrusiveness of the FET standard in light of growing concerns expressed by developing countries following a number of large arbitral awards which have been handed down against them. In this regard, the article not only challenges the conceptual underpinnings of the standard but also the substantive elements which have become synonymous with it. It concludes by providing an approach to regulatory balancing which would reposition the FET standard in the context of other investment protection standards as well as the standing of developing countries.

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.

This paper attempts to trace the development of, and critically analyze, the evolving surveillance mandate of the IMF from both a legal and policy perspective. Specifically, the paper contends that while the Second Amendment has always been important, the global financial crisis has profoundly extended its content, use and importance much further than originally envisaged.

A 2.91-billion base pair (bp) consensus sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome was generated by the whole-genome shotgun sequencing method. The 14.8-billion bp DNA sequence was generated over 9 months from 27,271,853 high-quality sequence reads (5.11-fold coverage of the genome) from both ends of plasmid clones made from the DNA of five individuals. Two assembly strategies—a whole-genome assembly and a regional chromosome assembly—were used, each combining sequence data from Celera and the publicly funded genome effort. The public data were shredded into 550-bp segments to create a 2.9-fold coverage of those genome regions that had been sequenced, without including biases inherent in the cloning and assembly procedure used by the publicly funded group. This brought the effective coverage in the assemblies to eightfold, reducing the number and size of gaps in the final assembly over what would be obtained with 5.11-fold coverage. The two assembly strategies yielded very similar results that largely agree with independent mapping data. The assemblies effectively cover the euchromatic regions of the human chromosomes. More than 90% of the genome is in scaffold assemblies of 100,000 bp or more, and 25% of the genome is in scaffolds of 10 million bp or larger. Analysis of the genome sequence revealed 26,588 protein-encoding transcripts for which there was strong corroborating evidence and an additional ∼12,000 computationally derived genes with mouse matches or other weak supporting evidence. Although gene-dense clusters are obvious, almost half the genes are dispersed in low G+C sequence separated by large tracts of apparently noncoding sequence. Only 1.1% of the genome is spanned by exons, whereas 24% is in introns, with 75% of the genome being intergenic DNA. Duplications of segmental blocks, ranging in size up to chromosomal lengths, are abundant throughout the genome and reveal a complex evolutionary history. Comparative genomic analysis indicates vertebrate expansions of genes associated with neuronal function, with tissue-specific developmental regulation, and with the hemostasis and immune systems. DNA sequence comparisons between the consensus sequence and publicly funded genome data provided locations of 2.1 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). A random pair of human haploid genomes differed at a rate of 1 bp per 1250 on average, but there was marked heterogeneity in the level of polymorphism across the genome. Less than 1% of all SNPs resulted in variation in proteins, but the task of determining which SNPs have functional consequences remains an open challenge.

The high degree of similarity between the mouse and human genomes is demonstrated through analysis of the sequence of mouse chromosome 16 (Mmu 16), which was obtained as part of a whole-genome shotgun assembly of the mouse genome. The mouse genome is about 10% smaller than the human genome, owing to a lower repetitive DNA content. Comparison of the structure and protein-coding potential of Mmu 16 with that of the homologous segments of the human genome identifies regions of conserved synteny with human chromosomes (Hsa) 3, 8, 12, 16, 21, and 22. Gene content and order are highly conserved between Mmu 16 and the syntenic blocks of the human genome. Of the 731 predicted genes on Mmu 16, 509 align with orthologs on the corresponding portions of the human genome, 44 are likely paralogous to these genes, and 164 genes have homologs elsewhere in the human genome; there are 14 genes for which we could find no human counterpart.