Privy Council to sit down in Cayman as new courts open

Cayman News Service

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Lord Reed

(CNS): The first of several new much-needed courtrooms unofficially opened last week in time to host the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, which will be sitting in Grand Cayman to hear three local cases next month, the first time it has ever sat in any British Overseas Territory. It will deal with a dispute over a winding-up petition from the financial division, a property argument from the civil courts and a human rights case of a local inmate transferred to serve a life term in the UK.

The PCJC is the highest court of appeal for many Commonwealth countries, as well as the BOTs, Crown Dependencies and British military bases, and it normally sits in London regardless of where the case is based. But Sir Anthony Smellie, Cayman’s outgoing chief justice, said it is as “much our Court as it is for the populations of the United Kingdom”.

He said the visit signifies its integral part of the Cayman Islands Justice System and the final opportunity for…

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