My interest in administrative law started when I was an undergraduate at the Faculty of Law,
Cave Hill Campus, University of the West Indies. With teachers such as the now Chief Justice
the Hon Sir Hugh Rawlins and the late Professor Margaret DeMerieux, both of whose intellect
and passion for administrative law, and public law generally, I admired, it was no surprise that
I embraced the opportunity to teach administrative law at the Cave Hill Campus. At that time
substantive legitimate expectations had just raised its ugly head in ex p Hamble Fisheries only to
be rejected by the UK Court of Appeal in ex p Hargreaves . Thankfully, the law has subsequently
moved on. However, little has changed in relation to the duty to state reasons at common law.
There has been a movement to a statutory regime for judicial review with the enactment, in
2000, of the Judicial Review Act of Trinidad and Tobago. The Administrative Justice Act of
Barbados 1980 had hitherto been the only legislation relating to administrative law in the
Commonwealth Caribbean. These issues and a whole range of others are covered in the pages
of this book.
It is important that the Commonwealth Caribbean approach to judicial review and administrative
law be explored and this book, by bringing to the fore previously unknown
Commonwealth Caribbean decisions, and exploring their underpinnings, attempts to contribute
to the development of an indigenous jurisprudence. Public law practitioners, Caribbean courts,
academics and students of administrative law now have a work which explores the
Commonwealth Caribbean context of administrative law and how Caribbean courts have
examined and dealt with the issues as they arise from time to time.