Constitutional Status of The Cayman Islands as An Overseas Territory of The United Kingdom

Authors

Abstract

Based on the provisions of the UN Charter, the UK White Paper on Overseas Territories 2012, the Constitution of the Cayman Islands, the author analyzes the constitutional status of the given overseas territory, including constitutional and legal characteristics of public authorities. By applying the comparative method, the author studies the model of political and territorial organization of the UK in terms of arranging and implementing cooperation with the overseas territories. The conclusion is made that the political and territorial relations between the United Kingdom and the Cayman Islands have a unitary nature with federal elements. The author substantiates the necessity to establish at the constitutional level the manner of distribution of powers between the public authorities of the United Kingdom and those of the Cayman Islands while determining their responsibility for the execution of tasks and functions in specific areas. The author proposes to consider the possibility of ensuring the representation of the Cabinet of the Cayman Islands Government in the UK Government by inclusion of relevant ministers. The author also proposes to establish the constitutional mechanism, so that the Legislative Assembly of the Cayman Islands could send to the UK Parliament the information about its opinion on draft laws relating to the entire Kingdom, as well as the mechanism by means of which the UK Parliament could send draft legal acts affecting the interests of the Commonwealth to the overseas territories. The conclusion is made that the Cayman Islands have established a ministerial system of government within which the Cabinet plays a decisive role in forming and implementing the constitutional direction. The Prime-Minister is of special importance for the system of public authorities. The position of the said official affects the results of the Governor’s decision to dismiss the Cabinet, to dismiss the Legislative Assembly, he/she is to approve the personnel decisions. In this aspect, there are deviations from the classical Westminster governmental system within which the decision of the representative body regarding impeachment to the Government results in the latter unconditional resignation. The author points out that the constitutional powers of the Governor are limited as they are actually focused on the areas of representation and monitoring the compliance of the decisions taken on the islands with the state policy of the United Kingdom.

Keywords:

British monarch, overseas territories, Cayman Islands, Constitution of 2009, Governor, Cabinet, Legislative Assembly, partnership

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Author Biography

Igor V. Irkhin, Southern Federal University

candidate of legal sciences, doctoral candidate of the Department of State (Constitutional) Law

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Published

01.08.2016

How to Cite

Irkhin, I. V. (2016). Constitutional Status of The Cayman Islands as An Overseas Territory of The United Kingdom . Pravovedenie, 60(4), 120–144. Retrieved from https://pravovedenie.spbu.ru/article/view/6994

Issue

Section

Public law