Barbados

• The Constitution of 1966, as amended, the highest law
• Acts of Parliament, and English common law and equity
• Decisions of the Barbadian courts and of the Caribbean Court of Justice

• The Caribbean Court of Justice, the final court of appeal
• The Court of Appeal and the High Court
• Magistrates' Courts

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

• Barbados replaced the Privy Council with the Caribbean Court of Justice as its final court in 2005.
• The Caribbean Court of Justice also has its own separate role in interpreting the treaty of the Caribbean Community.
• Law reports and statutes follow English style, but the final decisions are made by a regional court in Trinidad.

Guyana, Belize, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Barbados 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.

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

• Caribbean Court of Justice
• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)
• Constitute Project: constitution of Barbados

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.