Jersey law and the Commonwealth (FOI)

​Request

Does Jersey fall under the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth?

Does Jersey follow Common Law, Norman Law or a combination of both?

Please furnish me with documentation on which parts of Common Law we follow, how it is implemented as well as the present and historical ties to the UK Commonwealth.

Response

We decline to supply any information in response to this request because the information requested is accessible to the applicant by other means and therefore absolutely exempt under Article 23 of the Freedom of Information (Jersey) Law 2011.

We provide below some indication where the applicant may obtain the information requested. The Commonwealth website can be found at the following link:

The Commonwealth

On the front page the first sentence states “The Commonwealth is a voluntary association of 54 independent and equal countries”.

Further information on the Commonwealth is available at the following link:

Wikipedia - Commonwealth of Nations

Documents relating to Jersey’s relationship with the Commonwealth may be found by searching for “the Commonwealth” on the Government of Jersey website at www.gov.je  and the States Assembly website at States of Jersey Assembly

The Jersey Legal Information Board website can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.jerseylaw.je/.

This site publishes all the Laws in force in Jersey and the Judgments of the courts which explain the decisions of the courts taken under the Laws in force at the time of each Judgment.

In addition, on the site there is a Publications section which includes articles from the Jersey Law Review and a range of reference books on Jersey law. Searching the site for terms such as “the Commonwealth”, “common law”, “customary law”, “Norman law” enables the site visitor to explore those aspects of Jersey law; a starting point found by such a search might be this article from the Jersey Law Review by Richard Southwell, QC entitled “The Sources of Jersey Law”:

The Sources of Jersey Law

Articles applied

Article 23 Information accessible to applicant by other means

(1) Information is absolutely exempt information if it is reasonably available to the applicant, otherwise than under this Law, whether or not free of charge.

(2) A scheduled public authority that refuses an application for information on this ground must make reasonable efforts to inform the applicant where the applicant may obtain the information.