Antigua and Barbuda

• The Constitution of 1981, the highest law
• Acts of Parliament, and English common law and statutes received before independence
• Decisions of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and of the Privy Council
• On Barbuda, a communal system of land ownership set out in the Barbuda Land Act

• The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, the final court of appeal
• The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court: the Court of Appeal and the High Court, shared with other states
• Magistrates' Courts for minor cases

A law degree and a legal education certificate from a regional law school, then admission to practise by the High Court.

• The supreme court is shared among several independent states and territories, not owned by one country.
• On Barbuda, land is held in common by the people and cannot be sold like private land.
• The final appeal still goes to London, to the Privy Council.

Saint Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Jamaica

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Antigua and Barbuda as: Common law. It names the systems in order of importance.

The map colours a country by the first-named system, and shows both civil-law and common-law countries as “mixed”. It is a simplification, and real systems are rarely pure.

Australia, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya.

• Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)
• Constitute Project: constitution of Antigua and Barbuda

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.