Fundamental Rights and Democratic Governance

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has assumed a greater role in guiding and coordinating the affairs of its member states. The introduction of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) bring the quest for democratic governance into sharp relief. Using Caribbean cases, Simeon McIntosh discusses the fundamental rights and freedoms of speech and of the press, freedom of religion and freedom form inhuman and degrading punishment.

He examines the protection of these rights and freedoms in the light of changes in society, social progress and other developments in the Commonwealth Caribbean within the context of the CSME and the CCJ. Fundamental Rights and Democratic Governance is the first body of work to give serious philosophical treatment to the question of fundamental rights in the Caribbean. In this second instalment on Caribbean Constitutionalism, McIntosh builds on his earlier work, Caribbean Constitutional Reform: Rethinking the West Indian Polity, in laying the theoretical justification for the Caribbean Court of Justice.