original) vote. There are provisions in the Constitution Order for the appointment of a Speaker to preside in place of the Governor, but a recent proposal to create the office of speaker failed to secure a majority in the Assembly;
The summary
(d) The judicial system. There are three levels of court: the summary court, the Grand Court and the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal. court is presided over by one of two magistrates. It deals with civil disputes up to CI$ 2,000 and all but serious criminal cases. The juvenile court generally sits with three justices, including a woman.
Appeals from
the summary court lie to the Grand Court, which is presided over by the Chief Justice or by one of two puisne judges. It has both civil and criminal jurisdiction and administers the common law and law of equity of England, as well as locally enacted laws and applied laws. The Cayman Islands Court of Appeal was established by amendment to the Constitution Order in 1984
(S.I. No. 126), before which appeals had been heard by the Jamaican Court of Appeal. It sits when required to hear appeals from the Grand Court and at present is presided over by the Chief Justice of Jamaica. Appeals from the Cayman Islands Court of Appeal lie to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. A copy of a paper by Elizabeth W. Davies on the courts of the Cayman Islands has been submitted with this report (see appendix).
4. In addition, there are statutory bodies established under local legislation dealing with administrative matters. These include the Central Planning Authority (with responsibility for development control, including the determination of planning applications), from which appeal lies to an appeals tribunal, and the Caymanian Protection Board (with responsibility for the granting of Caymanian status, immigration and work permits). Appointment to such bodies is by the Governor in Council.
5.
There are no fundamental rights and freedoms embodied in the Constitution Order. Instead, as in the United Kingdom, the basic norm is one of general freedom, with any limitation or restriction having to be specifically authorized by the law.
In
6. The Government has arranged for copies of the Covenant to be deposited in the Public Library and in all senior schools in the Cayman Islands. addition, the times of hearings of the Human Rights Committee and reports of the Committee are made available to the local media.
2.
Information relating to articles in parts I, II and III of the Covenant
7.
The following information is supplementary to that provided in the United Kingdom's first and second reports on the Cayman Islands and given by the United Kingdom delegation at the meetings of the Human Rights Committee which discussed these reports. Articles in relation to which no new legislative or administrative developments have occurred are not included in this report. Inclusion of particular points does not necessarily mean that the United Kingdom considers that they fall within the scope of particular articles of the Covenant.