WILJ Vol. 40 Nos. 1 & 2 Art. 7

This article traces how the courts have addressed torts which are committed in one state but which involve persons from other states with particular reference to the Caribbean either as the place where the tort was committed or the place where the court is located. The most interesting finding is the evident loss of influence of the once important common law double actionability rule. 

Millions of tourists and other categories of persons visit the Caribbean each year. In 2015, Jamaica alone welcomed 3.69 million visitors who generated business of approximately US$2.4 billion. Barbados received approximately 1.3 million visitors that same year. When these visitors arrive, they are encouraged to participate in the activities the islands have to offer. Included in these activities are water sports and tours which can result in harm being sustained by the visitors. Harm can be sustained not only by their active participation in visitor activities but also by virtue of their occupancy of their accommodation, which may result in slip and fall and other accidents on the property. Thomas A. Dickerson has documented the harm occasioned by the hundreds of accidents that occurred in the Caribbean in 2013. When the harm is sustained, the visitor may seek recourse to tort law, defined as the law of civil wrongs “involving a breach of duty fixed by the law, such duty being owed to persons generally and its breach being redressable primarily by an action for damages.” Obtaining such redress in tort law may be complicated where the issue to be resolved is closely connected to more than one country.7 It may be surprising to many that torts which impact more than one country, that is, torts with a foreign element, received recognition very late in the development of the law.