Professor Rob Wintemute gives lecture in the Cayman Islands

At the invitation of Dr Leonardo Raznovich, on behalf of the Student Society of the Truman Bodden Law School of the Cayman Islands, Professor Wintemute gave a lecture on 15 January in the Grand Court (High Court), George Town, Grand Cayman, Cayman Islands, British West Indies. 

The Lecture title was ​'LGBT Equality in the Cayman Islands: What do the European Court of Human Rights and the United Kingdom Privy Council require?​’ He told an audience of one hundred,including the Queen’s representative, Governor Helen Kilpatrick, that Cayman Islands law is fourteen years behind the case law of the European Court of Human Rights, with which it must comply. 

Professor Wintemute said: ‘The UK has extended the European Convention on Human Rights to all of its Caribbean territories. Appeals to the Privy Council in London or the Strasbourg Court are possible.  Unlike in nearby Jamaica, male-male sexual activity was decriminalised by the Caribbean Territories (Criminal Law) Order 2000 (signed at Buckingham Palace).  But the age of consent is unequal, there is no anti-discrimination legislation, and there is no civil partnership or other legal recognition of same-sex couples.  This means that the same-sex partners of the many expatriate lawyers, bankers and accountants working on Grand Cayman cannot apply for a family-member residence permit (as they can in the UK).​’   

Professor Wintemute urged the Cayman Islands to follow other offshore banking centres that have passed civil partnership laws:  the Isle of Man (2011), Jersey (2012) and Gibraltar (2014).