Law of Guernsey

The Law of Guernsey originates in Norman customary law, overlaid with principles taken from English common law and French law, as well as from statute law enacted by the competent legislature(s) – usually, but not always, the States of Guernsey.

In some circumstances a Guernsey statute will include Alderney and sometimes Sark. Alderney and Sark are separate dependencies of the Crown within the Bailiwick of Guernsey, whose legislatures—the States of Alderney (Les Etats d'Aurigny) and Chief Pleas of Sark have the power of primary legislation. Alderney and Sark have their own legal systems which, whilst very similar to Guernsey's and having the same origins, do differ in significant aspects, such as inheritances. The States of Guernsey however, may only legislate for Alderney and Sark with consent - there is no freestanding power so to do. This is normally only done when it is necessary to enact legislation for matters that are common to the Bailiwick as a whole (such as financial regulation or the transposition of UK and European legislation into the domestic law of all three jurisdictions). Examples of this are the Data Protection (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law and the Human Rights (Bailiwick of Guernsey) Law.

Guernsey has almost complete autonomy over internal affairs and certain external matters. However, the Crown – that is to say, the UK Government – retains an ill-defined reserved power to intervene in the domestic affairs of any of the Crown Dependencies 'in the interests of good government'. The UK Parliament is also a source of Guernsey law for those matters which are reserved to the UK, which are defence and foreign affairs. An example of such a law is the Immigration Act 1971.