Constitutional damages, procedural due process and the Maharaj legacy: A comparative review of recent Commonwealth decisions (part 1)

Abstract

The concept of constitutional damages in Commonwealth constitutional jurisprudence owes its origin to the Privy Council judgment in Maharaj v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago (2) which established that damages could be recovered as ‘appropriate relief’ to enforce a right in the Bill of Rights. The right implicated in Maharaj was the right to due process of law which, like the right to the protection of the law, were guaranteed in the 1962 independence Constitution and later the 1976 Republican Constitution of Trinidad and Tobago. Neither Constitution defined these expressions nor have they been subjected to distinct meanings by the courts.