Description

Consultation Paper in which the impact on the law of contempt by the Bill of rights and internet communications was considered.

Terms of Reference

On 10 January, 2014, the Law Reform Commission issued a Consultation Paper in which the impact on the law of contempt by the Bill of rights and internet communications was considered. The Commission also took the opportunity to consider whether any, and if so, which parts of the law of contempt merited codification, amendment or repeal.

On 16 April, 2014, the Commission received a very helpful response from the Cayman Islands Law Society. After a consideration of the response the Commission recommends partial codification of the law as well as some amendments to the Penal Code. A Penal Code (Amendment) Bill, 2016 and a Contempt of Court Bill, 2016 together with a second Consultation Paper are now submitted for public comment. This second paper broadly adopts the same treatment of the topic as in the Consultation Paper although the Commission has prefaced that treatment with some general observations on codifying the law of contempt or any part of it and included an executive summary. The Commission has also added, after the treatment of the principal topics, some discussion of its attempt to rationalise the existing statutory contempt-like offences and, finally, a brief discussion of contempt in relation to tribunals, a topic which was not covered in the initial Consultation Paper.

Outcomes