Saint Kitts and Nevis

• The Constitution of 1983, the highest law, which also sets out the powers of the Nevis Island Administration
• Acts of Parliament and laws made by the Nevis Island Assembly
• English common law and equity
• Decisions of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the Privy Council

• 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
• Magistrates' Courts

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

• A tiny country is a federation, with a right for one of its two islands to secede by referendum.
• Nevis has its own legislature that makes laws on some matters.
• It shares a supreme court with its Eastern Caribbean neighbours.

Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Jamaica

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Saint Kitts and Nevis 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, Dominica, Fiji, Ghana, Grenada, India, Ireland, Jamaica.

• Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court
• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)
• Constitute Project: constitution of Saint Kitts and Nevis

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.