Tag: Slavery
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Francesca Jackson: Jamaica’s petition to King Charles on slavery reparations under s.4 Judicial Committee Act 1833: A constitutional analysis
On Monday 7th September 2026, Jamaica filed a petition with King Charles asking him to refer three specific questions on transatlantic slavery to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (‘JCPC’) under s.4 of the Judicial Committee Act 1833 (‘JCA’). The questions focus on whether enslavement in Jamaica was ever lawful and whether there is an obligation on…
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Francesca Jackson: What Does the Debate Over Slavery Reparations Tell Us About the Cardinal Convention, Soft Power and the Public Service Monarchy?
There is a good reason why the constitutional convention requiring the monarch to exercise his prerogative powers on the advice of his government is known as the ‘Cardinal Convention’: it is ‘the most fundamental’ constitutional convention relating to the monarchy – something King Charles is finding out when it comes to slavery reparations. At a…
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Virginia Mantouvalou: Modern Slavery? The UK Visa System and the Exploitation of Migrant Domestic Workers
Cross-posted from British Politics and Policy. Since 2012 migrant domestic workers arrive in the UK under very restrictive visa conditions. The Overseas Domestic Worker visa does not permit them to change employer and ties them to the employer with whom they arrived for a non-renewable period of six months. Domestic workers, particularly when they live…
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Christopher McCrudden: Slavery and the constitutional role of judges
How far should judges “update” our legal concepts, or should they root their interpretation in the historical understanding of the concept, leaving updating to the legislature? In the United States, disputes between “strict constructionists” who seek to base the meaning of the Constitution on a literal meaning of the text infused with an understanding of…