History

The Turks and Caicos Islands are believed to have been visited by Columbus on his first voyage in 1492 but credit for their discovery by Europeans is generally accorded to the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon in 1512. At that time the islands were inhabited by Arawak Indians.

The name 'Turks' is derived from the scarlet flower head of a local cactus which resembles a Turkish fez; that of Caicos comes from a corruption of the Spanish 'cayos' or cays.

Later in the 17th century Bermudians regularly visited some of the islands to rake salt from the salt pans and established the basis for the present population.

The Caicos Islands were settled after the War of Independence by Loyalist planters from the southern states of America. With the abolition of slavery in 1838 however, these planters left the islands to their erstwhile slaves.
During this period the territory was administered by the Bahamas but in 1848 a charter was granted to establish a separate legislature. This system proved unwieldy and the islands were then annexed as a Jamaican dependency.

On the withdrawal of Jamaica from the Federation of the West Indies, local inhabitants decided to remain a British Crown colony, which position remains today.

Legal System

The legal system in the islands is based on English Common Law supplemented and modified by local ordinances (unless disapproved by the British Government) passed into law by the Islands Legislative Council, certain applied laws of the United Kingdom and a small number of laws from Jamaica and the Bahamas.

The administration of justice in the islands is in the hands of a resident Magistrate who presides over the Magistrate's Court; Chief Justice, appointed as judge in the Supreme Court of the islands whose powers are equivalent to an English High Court Judge of all divisions. There is also a Court of Appeal that sits in the Islands with itinerant registered justices appointed by the Crown. The appeal structure leads ultimately to the Privy Council in London.