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| Antigua and Barbuda |
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| The islands of Antigua and Barbuda have a population of 68,4872 inhabitants[2],
only 36.8%3 of whom live in cities[3]. Twenty percent of the nation’s 23,000
adults (18 years and older) are illiterate[4]. Antigua and Barbuda is the second
least populated country in the Americas and has the second highest ratio of
rural-dwellers. Regionally, the nation claims one of the five highest per capita
incomes –along with Canada and the United States- reporting US $9,070 (current
dollars)[5] for 2001, almost three times the average for the rest of Latin
America and the Caribbean.[6] Since it declared its independence from the United
Kingdom in 1981, the country has remained a member of the British Commonwealth.
Antigua and Barbuda is a parliamentary democracy with a common law-based
judicial system. |
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| Highlights of the Judicial System |
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The judicial system
serving Antigua and Barbuda’s inhabitants is based on the British common law tradition. Criminal
and civil disputes are resolved through oral, public debate between parties.
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Both civil and criminal
procedures are oral and adversarial. Civil cases can last four or five years
(in the High Court), while criminal cases last one-quarter of this time,
generally not more than one year.
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Antigua and Barbuda does not currently have an institutionalized legal aid system, though
an effort is being made to implement one.
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In 2000, there were 16
judges, 117 attorneys, and 1003 police officers for every 100 thousand
in habitants in Antigua and Barbuda[7]
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According to statistics posted by Interpol for 1996, there were 5 homicides, 85 rapes, 479 serious
assaults, 2072 breaking and entering offenses, 75 frauds, and 465 drug offenses
for every 100 thousand inhabitants in Antigua and Barbuda[8];
and
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Figures from 1998 report a total prison population of 186, or a rate
of 278
per 100 thousand inhabitants.[9]
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