Honduras may appeal to London courts Inmates at San Pedro Sula central corrections facility in Honduras. The country's government hopes improved governance will attract investment and create employment. Photograph: Rodrigo Abd/AP Tricky legal dispute in Central America? Sort it out in the London courts. Honduras, the state with the highest homicide rate in the world, is preparing to send appeal cases to the judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC) in Westminster. The extraordinary expansion of UK legal jurisdiction is being negotiated in an effort to support the development of a pioneering enterprise zone in the crime-scarred republic. The Honduran government is establishing what amounts to semi-independent city states, hoping that improved governance backed by international partners will attract business investment and create employment. The complex constitutional agreement under discussion involves Mauritius - an island 10,000 miles away in the Indian Ocean - guaranteeing the legal framework of the courts in the development zones, known locally as La Región Especial de Desarrollo (RED). Mauritius, a member of the Commonwealth, still uses the privy council in Westminster as a final court of appeal. Consequently any cases originating in Honduras could progress to the appeal courts in Mauritius and eventually reach the judicial committee of the privy council in London. For decades, critics have dismissed the judicial committee of the privy council (JCPC) as a curious relic of empire. Several Caribbean states have recently indicated a desire to leave, following political rows over enforcing the death penalty. But the committee, whose judges are UK supreme court justices, has proved remarkably enduring and gained an international reputation for the independence of its decisions. In March, five UK supreme justices travelled to Mauritius and spent four days hearing appeals to the JCPC. It is understood they discussed the arrangement regarding Honduras then. The cost of bringing court claims from Honduras to the JCPC is likely to be borne by the claimants through payment of court fees. But any influx of central American cases will increase the caseload pressure on the 12 justices who sit on both the UK's supreme court and the JCPC. In the past there have been hints that some consider the additional workload imposed by privy council work to be a distraction from cases coming up through British and Northern Irish courts. The deal has focused on commercial cases. Neither the Honduran nor Mauritian embassies in London responded to inquiries about whether criminal cases might also be sent to London. A JCPC spokesman said: "We are aware of the potential for an increase in appeals from Mauritius, if and when the special development regions are established and if cases are referred by the Mauritian courts. It is of course far too early to tell how many cases might arise from these areas, but the judicial committee stands ready as the final court of appeal, as it does for a wide range of jurisdictions. The high reputation of British justice as an impartial arbiter of business differences has recently encouraged scores of Russian oligarchs and Middle Eastern businessmen to bring their disputes to company courts in London for resolution. In May, the justice secretary, Ken Clarke, spent a week in Russia urging local firms to use British arbitration and mediation services, promoting the "UK as a centre of legal excellence." A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: "Our legal system is one of our proudest and most successful exports, recognised the world over as a system built on fairness and equality under the law." According to the United Nations Office on Crime and Drugs (UNODC), Honduras, plagued by drug-trafficking, had the highest murder rate in the world last year, with 86 people killed for every 100,000 inhabitants. The National Investment Promotion Agency of Mauritius explains on its website that the country has "been requested by the Honduran government to establish Mauritian legislation in a new special development region that is currently being developed in Honduras. [The central American republic] has requested that the Supreme Court of Mauritius acts as the court of appeal for the judicial system that is being established in the development region... to attract foreign direct investment and substantially boost employment. The Honduran congress has already amended its constitution and passed enabling legislations for this new zone. The law permits the judiciary in the development region to use the supreme court of another country as its court of appeal. The president of Honduras has formally requested that the Supreme Court of Mauritius serves this role. Chief Justice YKJ Yeung Sik Yuen, in consultation with other members of government, has agreed. Expanding the reach of the privy council goes against the recent trend of former colonies leaving its jurisdiction. Following Belize's recent departure, Lord Dyson, who sits on the court, told the Guardian last year he was under the impression the "jurisdiction was diminishing." In recent months, both Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago have pledged to stop sending its appeals to the court in favour of the Caribbean court of justice in Trinidad's capital. It is thought that many smaller islands will follow their lead to end what Jamaica's prime minister, Portia Simpson Miller, has described as "judicial surveillance from London." It hears appeals from 31 countries.