Sint Maarten

• The Constitution of Sint Maarten, and the Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands
• Sint Maarten codes, such as the Civil Code, based on Dutch models
• National ordinances passed by the Parliament of Sint Maarten

• The Supreme Court of the Netherlands, in cassation
• The Joint Court of Justice of Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten and of Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba
• The Court of First Instance of Sint Maarten

A law degree, often from the Netherlands, and admission as an advocate by the Joint Court.

• One island is split between two legal systems, Dutch and French.
• English is the main language of daily life, though the courts use Dutch.
• The final appeal goes to the Supreme Court in The Hague.

Netherlands, Saint Martin (French part), Aruba, Curaçao, France

The University of Ottawa’s JuriGlobe database lists Sint Maarten as: Civil law. It names the systems in order of importance. This territory is shown with the classification of the state it belongs to.

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.

Albania, Algeria, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria.

• JuriGlobe: world legal systems (University of Ottawa)

Sources last reviewed: October 2026.