Preface

• Pages: 28-28

PREFACE

My decision to write a text book on family law of spouses of the Commonwealth Caribbean

was quickly arrived at when I began teaching the family law courses at the Faculty of Law,

Cavehill campus, University of the West Indies. As a Caribbean regional institution and at the

time the only faculty of law offering the full three year law program, I had the challenge and

privilege of teaching students the family law of over fifteen Commonwealth Caribbean coun-

tries. I say challenge because there was no text book written for the Caribbean law student or

legal practitioner, and certainly none which addressed the wide variety of matrimonial laws of

the region which include in the case of divorce, the matrimonial offence model, a hybrid

version of the matrimonial offence model, the current English-based mixed fact model and the

Australian-based no fault model; the statutory recognition for prescribed purposes of the

common law spouse in the jurisdictions of Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad

and Tobago; the enactment of Hindu and Muslim marriage legislation specific to the jurisdic-

tions of Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago; and the Orissa marriage legislation and

Muslim divorce legislation applicable to Trinidad and Tobago.

Accordingly this book, in covering the main areas of matrimonial law of spouses, includ-

ing marriage, divorce, property and maintenance applications and domestic violence, has

examined these laws as they apply to fifteen Commonwealth Caribbean jurisdictions. In so

doing, rather than adopting a case study approach which I must admit would have been a far

easier route to take, the book examines and treats with the family law, both statutory and case

law, applicable to each of these fifteen jurisdictions with equal weight and level of detail.

Readers will note on that score that while leading English matrimonialcases are cited and

applied, the focus has been on using Caribbean cases, partly because this is the first family law

text of husband and wife written for the Commonwealth Caribbean, andpartly because of my

own passion for and commitment to contributing, in whatever way, to the development of a

regional jurisprudence.

In that regard, the Carilaw search engine, an initiative of the Faculty of Law Library,

Cavehill campus under the indefatigable stewardship of Professor Velma Newton, without

question has facilitated not only my ability to rely on and utilise regional case law to far greater

extent than would otherwise have been possible, but overall has contributed, in no small meas-

ure, to the writing of a Caribbean regional family law text.

I trust the reader, whether, law student, legal practitioner, or a lay person or professional

with an interest in family law, will find this book helpful in deepening his or her knowledge and

appreciation of the family law of spouses as it pertains to the Commonwealth Caribbean

region.