Pitcairn: A Contemporary Comment

Abstract

Pitcairn is in the news, and for all the wrong reasons. Allegations of widespread sexual offending have triggered a long-running criminal investigation with, at the time of writing, no clear end in sight. These developments raise a number of significant domestic and international public law issues for Pitcairn. It is the purpose of this paper to comment on a few of those issues in the hope of stimulating further consideration of the matters of law that confront the people of this small South Pacific territory.

Keywords: Pitcairn, sexual offending, sexual assault, sexual offending, criminal, trial, investigation, domestic law, international law, small nation, sex crime

JEL Classification: K00, K1, K10, K14, K19, K2, K20, K29, K3, K30, K33, K32, K4, K40, K41, K42, K49