Belize

Legal tradition

Belize belongs to the common law tradition. The only common-law jurisdiction in Central America: a Westminster parliamentary system with English common law, statutes consolidated into numbered Chapters, and final appeal to the Caribbean Court of Justice since 2010. Belize is also the source of the leading Commonwealth authority on indigenous customary title — the Maya land rights litigation culminating in the CCJ's 2015 consent order — and its Supreme Court was renamed the High Court by the Senior Courts Act 2022.

How power is divided

Unitary, with six districts and elected town and village councils. Maya communal land rights in Toledo are recognised through the courts rather than by statute, and implementation is supervised by the CCJ.

Where law comes from

Constitution

Supreme law; inconsistent legislation is void.

Acts of the National Assembly

Consolidated as Chapters in the Substantive Laws of Belize.

English common law and equity

Received law, as modified by Belizean statute and precedent.

Judicial precedent

CCJ decisions bind; English and Commonwealth authority is persuasive.

The legal profession

A fused profession of attorneys-at-law admitted by the High Court under the Legal Profession Act, with the Bar Association of Belize exercising disciplinary functions. Commonwealth qualifications are recognised on application, which keeps a small bar workable.