On October 21, 1976, the Congress of the United States passed Public Law 94-584 to authorize the people of the Virgin Islands to adopt their own Constitution as a framework for self-government. A constitution for the territory would have to comply with other provisions of this federal law. The provisions of the public law are applicable to the people of the Virgin Islands and of Guam, a United States Territory in the Pacific.
Public Law 94-584 provides as follows:
Section 2.
(a) The Legislatures of the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, are authorized to call constitutional conventions to draft, within the existing territorial-Federal relationship, constitutions for the local self-government of the people of the Virgin Islands and Guam.
(b) Such constitutions shall
1. recognize, and be consistent with, the sovereignty of the United States over the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, and the supremacy of the provisions of the Constitution, treaties, and laws of the United States applicable to the Virgin Islands and Guam, respectively, including, but not limited to, those provisions of the Organic Act and Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands and the Organic Act of Guam which do not relate to local self-government.
2. provide for a republican form of government, consisting of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial;
3. contain a bill of rights;
4. deal with the subject matter of those provisions of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands of 1954, as amended, and the Organic Act of Guam, as amended, respectively, which relate to local self-government;
5. with reference to Guam, provide that the voting franchise may be vested only in residents of Guam who are citizens of the United States;
6. provide for a system of local courts consistent with the provisions of the Revised Organic Act of the Virgin Islands, as amended; and
7. provide for the establishment of a system of local courts the provisions of which shall become effective no sooner than upon the enactment of legislation regulating the relationship between the local courts of Guam with the Federal judicial system.
Virgin Islands Law
Pursuant to the Federal Law, Public Law 94-584, the 25th Legislature of the United States Virgin Islands passed Bill 25-0016 which was signed into law by Governor Charles W. Turnbull on October 29, 2004. This local law is designated as Act 6688 in the Virgin Islands Session Laws.