ABSTRACT
The Court of Appeal may dismiss the appeal if it finds no merit in any of the grounds of appeal argued by the appellant. Alternatively, the court may find merit in one or more grounds but decide to apply the ‘proviso’ and dismiss the appeal. The Privy Council will not normally review the application of the proviso by the Court of Appeal unless the court has misdirected itself in important respects: Stafford and Carter (1998) 53 WIR 417, PC. The proviso is one which is common to Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions in legislation relating to the grounds on which the Court of Appeal may allow an appeal. The common proviso stipulates:
Apart from grammar, the only variation to this typical proviso in Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions is the lack of qualification to ‘miscarriage of justice’ in some jurisdictions. Just as the Jamaica proviso (above), legislation34 in Barbados, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago refers to ‘a substantial miscarriage of justice’ occurring. It is debatable whether this qualification makes a difference in the approach of the courts in the region in their application of the provisos in the different jurisdictions of the Commonwealth Caribbean. In both cases the ultimate question is whether the appellant has lost a chance of acquittal that was fairly open to him.
