Dominica

• The Constitution of 1978, the highest law
• Acts of Parliament, and English common law and equity
• Decisions of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the Caribbean Court of Justice

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

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

• It uses two regional courts: one for most cases and one for the final appeal.
• It is a republic, with a President as head of state, unlike several of its neighbours.
• The Kalinago territory is a special area of the island with its own land arrangements.

Saint Lucia, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Guyana, Barbados

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Dominica 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, Barbados, Belize, Canada, Cook Islands, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica, Kenya.

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

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.