The heads of state in the OECS system must unanimously approve any appointments or removals of Supreme Court magistrates.
The attorney general's advice is the basis for the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda's decision-making on this court.
[2] The levels of the courts are as follows: Chapter IX of the constitution of Antigua and Barbuda regulates the judicial provisions.
A Justice of the Peace for Antigua and Barbuda may be appointed by the Governor-General by warrant under his hand, unless otherwise provided in any Act.
In a similar manner, the Governor-General may remove any Justice of the Peace from his office for any reason that may appear to him sufficient.
[6] Justices of the Peace must share full authority and jurisdiction with Magistrates in the issuance of summonses, warrants, and other court documents; in the setting of bail amounts; in the taking of recognizances; in the binding of parties and witnesses; and in the administration of oaths.
[6] Every magistrate shall have the authority to receive complaints and information regarding all offenses and to cause all persons charged with such offenses to appear before him via summons or warrant; to issue search warrants as hereinafter provided; to investigate all allegations which he is not authorized to try summarily and to dismiss the accused or to commit him for trial before the High Court; any those charged with committing offenses that he is authorized by any Act to trial summarily, convict, and sentence; To issue orders for the maintenance, education, and burial of children born into the world without legal parents, as well as for the maintenance of wives who have been abandoned by their husbands; to issue all convictions, sentences, and orders under any Act he is authorized to issue; to issue orders that may initially be carried out and enforced by fine or imprisonment; to arbitrate salvage and wreckage title issues when the total value in controversy does not exceed $240; to try any civil action based on a contract when the debt, demand, value of the thing claimed, or unpaid rent does not exceed $1500; to try any civil action based on a tort when the demand or harm claimed does not exceed $1500 with the caveat that no lawsuits involving malicious prosecution, false imprisonment, libel, slander, seduction, or breach of a marriage commitment will fall under the Magistrate's purview.