UB LibGuides: Law Collection Guide: Judgements &amp; Sources of Law

Finding A Bahamian Case

Locating a Bahamian case may be dependent on whether it is reported or unreported and the level of court that the case may have been heard i.e. Supreme Court, Court of Appeal or whether it was an Industrial Tribunal Case. The Law Collection has cabinets consisting of most of the unreported Supreme Court Judgments commencing from 1962 to present and Industrial Tribunal cases from 1997 to present. It is important to note that most of the Court of Appeal decisions may be located on the Court of Appeals' website. Additionally, some of the Supreme Court unreported judgments may located on the LexisNexis legal database. Moreover, any decisions heard by the Privy Council may be located on a number of free internet sites inclusive of Bailii and subscription databases such as Carilaw, LexisNexis and Westlaw.

Access to free cases

Austlii
AustLII is Australia's most popular online free-access resource for Australian legal information, serving the needs of a multitude of users with over 700,000 hits daily. AustLII is a joint facility of the UTS and UNSW Faculties of Law.
Bailii
Provides free access to British and Irish primary legal materials. It also links to cases, legislation and journals throughout the world.
Canlii
CanLII is a non-profit organization managed by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. CanLII's goal is to make Canadian law accessible for free on the Internet. This website provides access to court judgments, tribunal decisions, statutes and regulations from all Canadian jurisdictions.
Caribbean Law Project (Commonlii)
This Project includes databases of law materials relating to the Caribbean available via CommonLII. Catalog and Websearch enables searches of Caribbean law materials on other websites as does Law on Google.
CommonLII: Commonwealth Legal Information Institute
Databases from 59 Commonwealth and common law countries and territories via the Free Access to Law Movement
EUR-Lex
EUR-Lex provides free access, in the 24 official EU languages, to: the Official Journal of the European Union
EU law (EU treaties, directives, regulations, decisions, consolidated legislation, etc.),preparatory acts (legislative proposals, reports, green and white papers, etc.), EU case-law (judgements, orders, etc.), international agreements, EFTA documents, other public documents.
Worldlii
Free, independent and non-profit public access to worldwide law by the Free Access to Law movement.

The Supreme Court

The Supreme Court
The Supreme Court was established in 1897 for the then Bahama Islands. The Constitution of an independent Bahamas further established the Supreme Court as a superior court of record with all of the powers of such a court; the Supreme Court is a court of unlimited jurisdiction. The Court sat exclusively in Nassau for the first ninety-seven years of its existence, until a Supreme Court was also established in Grand Bahama in 1994.The head of the Judiciary, the Chief Justice, is a member of both the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, where he sits at the invitation of the President of that Court. There have been thirteen (13) Chief Justices of an independent Bahamas, inclusive of the present Chief Justice the Honourable Sir Brian Moree.
Click this link to access Supreme Court judgements and other legal materials

The Bahamas Court of Appeal

Bahamas Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal is the highest Court resident in The Bahamas. It is a part of the judicial branch of the Government of The Bahamas and was
established by Article 98 of the Constitution of The Commonwealth of The Bahamas. The Court of Appeal has such jurisdiction and powers as are conferred on it by the Constitution and the Court of Appeal Act (Chapter 52 of the 2000 Revised Edition of The Statute Law of The Bahamas). The practice and procedure relating to the exercise of the court’s jurisdiction is in accordance with rules of court made by its President pursuant to section 8 of the Court of Appeal Act. The current rules of court are The Court of Appeal Rules 2005. The Court of Appeal consists of the President, the Chief Justice ex officio who sits only at the invitation of the President, and such number of other Justices as may be prescribed by Parliament. Presently, the number prescribed by Parliament is six, including the President.

The Bahamas Industrial Tribunal

The Industrial Tribunal
The purpose of the Industrial Tribunal’s website is to provide access to the public, Attorneys’, Law Students, Labour Advocates and other individuals who require information relating to the Industrial Tribunal. The website serves to promote good industrial relations between the employers and employees who file trade disputes before the Industrial Tribunal.

The Privy Council

The Privy Council
The Judicial Committee of The Privy Council (JCPC) is the court of final appeal for the UK overseas territories and Crown dependencies, and for those Commonwealth countries that have retained the appeal to Her Majesty in Council or, in the case of Republics, to the Judicial Committee. We are open on weekdays from 0930 to 1630.

For judgments handed down before 31 July 2009 please refer to BAILII

Legislation

Laws Online
The Office of the Attorney-General & Ministry of Legal Affairs is pleased to announce the upgrade of Bahamas Laws On-line. Bahamas Laws On-Line is a database of the consolidated text of the statutes and subsidiary legislation of the Commonwealth of The Bahamas as at 31st December, 2009. The site also contains most of the statutes enacted and subsidiary legislation made from January, 2010 to December, 2014. The site however does not contain Acts which are not in force.

While it is our aim to ensure accuracy of the contents of this website, errors can be made, and as information will be constantly changing, it can become outdated. Therefore, the data on this website should not be relied on as the authoritative text. The authoritative text is set out in the loose-leaf 2000 Revised Edition of the Statute and Subsidiary Legislation of The Bahamas, and in Official Gazettes printed by the Government Printing Department.

Contents of this website are provided by the Government of The Bahamas for INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY and is not a substitute for PROFESSIONAL OR LEGAL ADVICE. The Government of The Bahamas accepts no liability for actions arising from its use.

The Constitution

The Constitution of The Bahamas

Eastern Caribbean Court Cases

Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Cases
The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) is a superior court of record for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), including six independent states: Antigua and Barbuda, the Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and three British Overseas Territories (Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, and Montserrat). It has unlimited jurisdiction in each member State.

Caribbean Court of Justice Cases

Caribbean Court of Justice Cases
The guide is useful when searching for cases related to Caricom member countries who grants jurisdiction to the Caribbean Court of Justice.