AMDC Law attorneys are licensed to practice law in the Dutch Caribbean islands of Aruba, Curaçao, St Maarten, Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba. As such our attorneys may file requests and claims with and argue before the various Courts of First Instance and the Joint Court of Justice on these islands.
The Kingdom of the Netherlands consists of four constituent countries, namely The Netherlands, Aruba, Curaçao and Sint Maarten. The islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba are public bodies (comparable with municipalities) within the country of The Netherlands. Each of the constituent countries is considered a separate, self-governing jurisdiction with their own laws, rules and regulations.
The Charter for the Kingdom of the Netherlands (in Dutch: Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden) governs the political relationship between the countries. The Charter regulates which matters are autonomous affaires and which matters are Kingdom affaires. For instance, defense and foreign affairs are considered Kingdom matters.
The Dutch Caribbean is a collection of islands in the Caribbean Sea, namely Aruba, Curaçao, St Maarten, Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba. Each of these islands forms part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in some way. The term Dutch Caribbean however, does not have any legal meaning and the islands do not jointly form a political entity. The islands of Bonaire, St Eustatius and Saba, being public bodies within the country The Netherlands, are also referred to as the BES-islands or as the Caribbean Netherlands.
All of the aforementioned islands at one point were part of The Netherlands Antilles. Aruba seceded from The Netherlands Antilles in 1986 to become an autonomous country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. On 10 October 2010 the Netherlands Antilles was dissolved and ceased to exist. At that point Curaçao and St Maarten obtained a status within the Kingdom similar to that of Aruba, whereas the BES-islands became part of the Netherlands as public bodies.