Caribbean Law

The law of contracts can be rather much of a conundrum to the ordinary person who merely wishes to create a binding agreement for the purpose of enterprise or to safeguard the rights and responsibilities of parties in the ordinary course of living. They are not alone since admittedly, it can become complex and perplexing to even the most senior practitioners of the law at times. This is not merely because it is in itself a complex area, but because of the seeming propensity of human beings to create from the simplest circumstances, convolutions which would confound the gods. It is hardly surprising therefore that so many persons end up in litigation with the hope that a neutral third party or judge will unravel their problems for them. In some instances it becomes necessary for there to be enforcement of a contract as ordered by the court where a party refuses to honour his part of the agreement, or where a clause is unclear as written and needs judicial opinion to declare its meaning.

The issue of copyright infringement of written materials, music and performances is seemingly an everyday occurrence in Guyana, of which illegality ,notice is taken sporadically by the public when a specific complaint is made by a group, company or an individual seeking to protect their investment .At any other time it becomes a non issue in the face of the inadequacy of the law (both legislation and enforcement)to address the problem; this coupled with the lack of any properly organised focus group on intellectual property rights at both the legislative and the civil society levels, creates the environment most suitable for bootlegging to flourish and to expand by principle to other areas of endeavour ,as may be found in the example of the internet telephony issue which now occupies a place in the current newspapers. The issues of the infringement of patents, trademarks and passing off also regularly engage the attention of legal practitioners and the courts in which they may bec