Legal System

English common law forms the basis of the Turks and Caicos Island’s law. Furthermore, the islands have implemented several laws originally ratified in Jamaica and the Bahamas

Generally speaking common law, as opposed to civil or socialist law, is a type of legal system where legislation is continually evolving. Courts refine and create laws on a case-by-case basis. When resolving a legal dispute, in the ideal world, a common law court looks to precedents set by other courts. What this means is that when a court is resolving a dispute, it must look to see if a similar dispute was resolved in the past. If one has, then the present day court is obligated to following the same reasoning used in the prior case; this principle is called stare decisis. On the other hand, if the dispute is totally unique, the court may resolve the matter itself using general guidelines. This new decision then becomes the precedent to which all future cases are bound. Over the years, the precedents created by past decisions coalesce into a complicated set of rules that apply to a wide array of case; this collection of rules is known as “common law”. Of course, common law systems are much more complex in practice, nevertheless the principle of stare decisis as described above, is the foundation of all common law systems.

Privacy

At this time the government of the Turks and Caicos Islands has not signed a Tax Information Exchange Agreement with the United States although it has signed a Mutual Assistance Treaty with the United States. Moreover, the Turks and Caicos Islands is only a transitional participant in the European Union Savings Directive and thus has not agreed to share personal information with other nations. As such, the Turks and Caicos Islands does offer a high level of privacy protection to both American and European Union citizens. The Turks and Caicos Islands’ refusal to share information with either the European Union or American government suggests a strong commitment to maintaining the privacy of their offshore investors.

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