The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council unanimously allowed Jason Jones’s appeal on November 10, 2026, ruling that Trinidad and Tobago’s restrictions on private, consensual sexual relations between adults of the same sex could not be justified under the Constitution. The five-member panel dismissed the Attorney General’s cross-appeal and will hear further submissions before issuing its final order.
What the judges decided
The case concerned sections 13 and 16 of the 1986 Sexual Offences Act, which created offences known in the statute as “buggery” and “serious indecency.” Jones challenged how those provisions applied to him under the constitutional protection for private and family life.
Trinidad and Tobago’s High Court upheld his claim in 2018. In 2025, the Court of Appeal found that part of the law was shielded from the challenge because it reflected rules that existed before the country’s 1976 Constitution. The Privy Council found that the 1986 Act established a new legal framework and that the restrictions on consensual adult relationships could not be justified under the Constitution.
What remains before the court
The judges said they were provisionally inclined to uphold the High Court’s remedy. They invited the parties to make further written submissions about how sections 13 and 16 should be modified to protect Jones’s constitutional rights. The ruling addresses Trinidad and Tobago’s law.
Sources: Judicial Committee of the Privy Council judgment, [2026] UKPC 38, November 10, 2026 and the court’s press summary.