The Laws of St. Maarten
Dear Editor,
The Laws of St. Maarten is a five-volume English translation of the original Dutch publication of the Constitution and other laws established for governing the territory of St. Maarten within the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
These national ordinances, also called organic laws, were first published in Dutch following St. Maarten’s attainment of an autonomous status within the Kingdom of the Netherlands on October 10, 2010, and appear online in the official National Gazette.
The ordinances in The Laws of St. Maarten are not an exhaustive collection of the government laws but are those that have translated to date in English, the language of the people of the island of St. Martin which, along with Dutch, is one of the two official languages of St. Maarten.
These volumes are thus also about widening the people’s right to access – in book form – the laws of the land, laws about their rights, and legislation and information about the range of the government process relative to St. Maarten’s autonomy.
To the extent that the five volumes of The Laws of St. Maarten keep the people generally in the know about their government, and more specifically about laws passed by the St. Maarten Parliament that govern their lives, may this publication add to the development of democracy and freedom in St. Maarten in particular and the island as a whole.
For the month of February 2018 the five-volume The Laws of St. Maarten can be purchased at the reduced price of US $50 per set at Van Dorp Bookstores on Illidge Road and in Simpson Bay.
We encourage every citizen on St. Maarten to buy and READ The Laws of St. Maarten.
Infomedia Foundation
