| Boyce v R | |
| Court: | Judicial Committee of the Privy Council |
| Date Decided: | 7 July 2004 |
| Full Name: | Lennox Ricardo Boyce and Jeffrey Joseph, Appellants v The Queen, Respondent |
| Citations: | [2004] UKPC 32, [2005] 1 AC 400, [2004] 3 WLR 786 |
| Prior Actions: | Court of Appeal of Barbados |
| Opinions: | Lord Hoffman |
| Keywords: | Capital punishment; inhuman or degrading punishment |
Boyce v R is a 2004 Judicial Committee of the Privy Council (JCPC) case which upheld the law that sets out a mandatory sentence of death for murder in Barbados.
The JCPC held in some cases, the law that makes capital punishment mandatory for murder will violate the prohibition on "inhuman or degrading punishment" in the Constitution of Barbados. (This principle is consistent with the 2002 JCPC cases of Hughes, Fox, and Reyes.) However, because (1) the Constitution of Barbados disallows itself to act to invalidate laws that existed prior to the enactment of the constitution, and (2) the law in question pre-dated the constitution, the mandatory death provisions of the law could not be invalidated and must be upheld.
In Matthew v S, which was released on the same day, the JCPC applied the same principles to a similar law in Trinidad and Tobago.