Doleance

The inhabitants of Guernsey, Jersey and the Isle of Man have certain very particular remedies each of which is named a Doleance. Both the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man have in the past considered the remedy peculiar to themselves, without apparent knowledge of the existence of a remedy similarly named in the other jurisdiction. Thus the Deemster in the Isle of Man case referred to below considered that it was unique to the Isle of Man, and there is one reference to it having been said that it is peculiar to the Channel Islands (see Bentwich - Practice of the Privy Council in Judicial matters 3rd ed (1937), at p.54). The nature of the remedy and the means by which it is employed may differ. In the Isle of Man and Jersey it is already well established that the local Courts have jurisdiction to hear a Doleance. In Guernsey the position is much less clear. There are instances of Doleances being addressed to Her Majesty in Council; however the advocates appearing before us had no knowledge of such a remedy being addressed to the Royal Court in Guernsey or indeed to this Court. Mr Barnes however referred us to a passage from Thomas Le Marchant's Remarques et Animadversions sur l'Approbation des Lois et Coustumier de Normandie usitees es Jurisdictions de Guerneze (1826 edn) Volume 2 Livre XI at p.163, where under the heading