Rights
1978 Constitution, a mixed legal system, and the CCJ as final court
The Saint Lucia Constitution Order 1978 created a parliamentary monarchy with a Governor-General representing the King, a bicameral Parliament and an independent judiciary. Chapter I guarantees fundamental rights enforceable in the High Court. Saint Lucia is one of only five CARICOM states to have accepted the appellate jurisdiction of the Caribbean Court of Justice, which replaced the Privy Council as its final court of appeal.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Unitary state; mixed civil and common law; ECSC locally with the CCJ as final court
- Deadline — Constitutional motion: no fixed limit, subject to abuse of process
- Deadline — Appeal to the Court of Appeal: 42 days for a final judgment
- Deadline — Election petition: 21 days from the declaration of the result
Governing law
- Saint Lucia Constitution Order 1978 (ss. 1 to 16)
- Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice 2001
- Supreme Court Order 1967Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
- Civil Code of Saint Lucia
In practice
Saint Lucia's mixed system is not a historical curiosity but a live drafting problem: the Civil Code, descended from the Code Napoléon by way of Quebec, governs obligations, property and succession, while procedure, evidence, company law and public law are common law. A pleading that cites English authority on a matter the Civil Code covers, such as prescription or usufruct, will be met with the codal provision instead.