Privy Council – it’s not Common Land.

The devastating decision of the Privy Council to dismiss the appeal of Barbudans in the Paradise Found case has delighted an avaricious Antiguan government and set back our fight for justice and self-determination. Here is the full Privy Council judgement and within that, the PC said this:

‘In particular, if the claimants had established, contrary to what the Board has decided, that they had a relevant “interest in or right to or over property” it would appear that they would have been entitled to fair compensation for compulsory acquisition of their property whether or not proper procedures under the 2007 Act had been complied with’.

So we have no interests or rights? Maybe the case just demonstrates the need to fight it even harder. Because ‘getting over it’, ‘moving on’ or ‘working together’ as some in Antigua are now suggesting, has never seemed more far away.