Conclusion
For us to speak of Caribbean jurisprudence in any sense of the term in the near future there must be a move away from the heavy reliance on precedents and a more self-conscious exploration of the other theories of argumentation accepted by the legal culture.
Only in this way can we contribute anything of value to common law jurisprudence. My limited review of the work of Chief Justice Wooding and Justice Georges indicates not only that it can be done but also that it is the only way. There are other judges in the Caribbean who are exhibiting this kind of courage and skill and it is for the academy to provide the intense critique that would encourage as well as assist in knowing where we are and where we are going.In the meantime, the conclusion is that this at least a modified realist approach is one that must become the approach of choice at all levels of the adjudicative process, from the Supreme Court, intermediate courts of appeal through to the final court. Additionally, the way we teach the law must change to reflect this fact and instil in our students the skill to comfortably navigate their way through any source of legal argument that supports their conclusion and to be able to identify and articulate the weakness of the contrary positions. This involves moving away from a knowledge-based system of legal education in which the main skill is finding similarities and differences in facts under the umbrella of the doctrine of precedents. In going forward, the CCJ, as a critical component, but merely one component, of the move towards a Caribbean jurisprudence must release itself from past thinking and unshackle the resources of the Caribbean legal mind to assist in this endeavour. It means that the precepts of the doctrine of precedent that allow English law to flood into the jurisdiction without evaluation or reinvestigation must be modified. Most of all, we must be able to embrace the uncertainty of principles underlying legal rules with a sense of confidence that the resources of legal argument are not limited to finding cases that are on all fours. Caribbean jurisprudence? It isn’t easy, to end as we began, in answer to Dorcas White.