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The Commonwealth Caribbean and the Westminster Model

This chapter begins by exploring the different constitutional stages that the independent countries of the Commonwealth Caribbean passed through on their journey from colonial rule to independence, the imprint of which is still visible in the post-independence constitutional landscape. It then examines the main features of the region’s independence constitutions that conform to the traditional Westminster model that each country inherited upon independence. It also examines the ways in which the model that was ‘exported’ to the Caribbean differed from the traditional British version. This will be followed by a critique of the operation of the Westminster model, which has survived virtually untouched in the post-independence era. This critique will highlight the key problems that have emerged upon the transplantation of the Westminster model to Caribbean soil and the challenges these present to the maintenance of the rule of law and representative democracy in the region.