Handbook of Dominican Law

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This Handbook is published with a view largely to filling a void in the national conversation of the Commonwealth of Dominica. A fundamental principle of the law, here and elsewhere, is that Ignorance of the law is no excuse . Such ignorance is rooted in the elitist character of the legal profession which has been inherited virtually wholesale from the Colonial Power. In the beginning, the domain of the litigant was knowledge of the facts. The prerogative of the Solicitor was knowledge of the relevant law. It was not intended that the litigant come to an appreciation, however small, of the law. Hence, the language in which Statutes are couched. Very little has changed. In the present, neither civil society nor the State has regarded as desirable that the client community be educated as to the law. As to the State such education, like conscientizing education on the whole, would pose a threat to the political status quo which thrives on the ignorance of the electorate. Thus, no programme of mass legal education has historically and in the recent past been put into effect. The population on the whole remains ignorant of the laws which govern their lives. And, because of such ignorance, scores of the nation s citizenry are known to have suffered indignities such as imprisonment or loss of property. The thoughts presented in the Handbook represent a small, long-overdue attempt to reduce the level of such ignorance of the law. The narrative first appeared as a series of articles published in the Independent newspaper in 1999-2000 in a column headed Law Notes, and repeated with slight amendment in The Sun newspaper in 2012-2014. For purposes of publication as a Handbook, further amendment to some articles have been made. Our approach to unraveling the law was to present a substantial proportion of the subject matter in a hypothetical case format to enable readers to grasp the contents without difficulty. The intention has not been to treat all aspects of the law but, rather, to summarize subject-matters thereof which are most frequently brought before the Courts of the island. The Handbook is not a textbook on the laws of Dominica. Neither is it conceived as a substitute for the practicing Solicitor, by converting readers into instant lawyers. Its sole purpose is to raise the awareness of nationals of the laws which govern their lives. It is a mere beginning.