ABSTRACT
In Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines—the independent states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS)—the constitution, "the supreme law", guarantees individuals certain fundamental human rights and freedoms, in provisions called the Bill of Rights. This chapter shows that human rights in the Eastern Caribbean are vigorously asserted by a populace holding the independent judiciary to their vow that as bastions and guardians of the constitution, they "will not ration justice". The doctrine of the separation of powers is so fundamental to Caribbean constitutions that it is woven into their fabric, amounting to what OECS Chief Justice Sir Vincent Floissac calls "a basic principle implicit in the Constitution. The OECS court would have struck down the Acts, but the Privy Council saw nothing to displace the presumption of constitutionality. The presumption has on other occasions been rebutted, with statutory provisions being struck down for being unconstitutional.
