Advice and Guidance


A Crown Land Workshop


With my experience of the law regulating Crown land, I could see that there were different agencies in the Cayman Islands that were not always on the same page.

I put together a multi-disciplinary Crown land workshop to share legal and practical knowledge on some of the issues arising.

It was attended by representatives from the roads authority, the Crown land unit, the government legal department, the land registry, the chief surveyor and others. Delegates found it a useful exercise in sharing insights.


Advising public bodies


From the 1990s to the 2020s, public authorities in the Cayman Islands have consulted me for briefings, memos and legal opinions in respect of land law issues. Through my recommendations I have been able to guide and influence decision-making in various public institutions:

 

  • Lodging of Inhibitions and Priorities (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Registration of Unincorporated Associations as Proprietors (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Stamp Duty on Mortgages and Collateral Mortgages of Land (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Cautionable Interests (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Landholding Status of Struck-Off Companies (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Compensable Takings and Planning Conditions (Beach Erosion Committee, Department of the Environment)
  • Coastal Works Licences and Grants of Seabed (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Parties to Charity Proceedings (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Stays of Registration and “In Order” Applications (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department and Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Cadastre Examinations (Cayman Islands Survey Division)
  • Official Searches and the Application Book (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Registering Constitutional Restrictions on Corporate Powers of Disposal (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Stamp Duty Collection and Instruments in Escrow (Cayman Islands Valuation Office)
  • Freedom of Information, Confidential Information & Whistleblowing (Cayman Islands Freedom of Information consultation committee)
  • Title to Crown Lands and Adverse Possession (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Registration of Short Leases (Cayman Islands Valuation Office)
  • Judicial Review of Legislative Action in an Overseas Territory (with R. Minty) (Attorney-General of the Cayman Islands)
  • Specialty Contracts and Limitation of Actions (Cayman Islands National Archive, Records Division)
  • The Registrability of Concurrent Overriding Leases (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Registrar’s Power to Order Partition of Co-Owned Land: Jurisdictional Limits and Exercise of Discretion (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Review of Procedures for Entries in the Land Register (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Compliance Checks and Rejection of Applications for Registration (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Procedures on the Registration of Lifetime Occupation Rights (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Minors and the Power to Dispose of Land (Cayman Islands Land Registry)
  • Bona Vacantia and the Crown’s Right to Letters of Administration (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Overriding Easements and the Revision of Approximate Boundaries (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Mechanics of Adverse Possession in Registered Land (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)
  • Protecting Electricity Wayleaves on the Land Register (Cayman Islands Office of Utility Regulation and Competition)
  • Public Rights of Way and the Effect of Registration (Cayman Islands Government Legal Department)


The 17th item in this list was a particularly significant legal opinion. I put forward my views on whether Cayman courts had power to strike down the laws of the Cayman Parliament. This is obviously a fundamental question for the Cayman Islands. My legal opinion "played an important part in the formulation of the Crown's arguments" in the Court of Appeal. It yielded a letter of thanks from the Attorney General and Solicitor General (see here). The outcome was new legislation to resolve the matter for the future.

Public institutions in other British Overseas Territories have also contacted me for similar types of input:

 

  • Possession and Registered Titles (Bermuda government land registration project)
  • Phased Strata Scheme Developments (Turks & Caicos Islands Land Registry)
  • Partition of Co-owned Land (Chief Justice's Chamber, Turks & Caicos Islands)


The United Nations contacted me for advice on land tenure issues in Barbuda. The island was experiencing public tension over land tenure and governmental powers. I was asked to give a briefing ahead of a visit by the UN Secretary General. The UN's conclusion was in line with the recommendation I had proposed.

 

The Chief Justice of the Turks & Caicos Islands requested a briefing from me on partition of co-owned land. The Chief Justice of Jamaica also contacted me after I delivered a webinar on wrongful disposal of Crown land by government ministers in the Caribbean region.


During my period in the UK, I was able to advise Caribbean law firms on property law matters. For example:


  • I gave guidance to a law firm acting on behalf of concerned Caymanians taking court action to hold the government to account for its closure and sale of a major beachside road (see here and here)
  • I gave guidance to a law firm dealing with an aborted land sale in the Turks & Caicos Islands
  • I gave guidance to a law firm in the British Virgin Islands on the lawfulness of a registration decision by the BVI land registrar


Two Foot Bay in Barbuda which I visited for a factfinding trip on land tenure problems