James Hulmes, Jones's senior counsel, said that when the Trinidadian parliament repealed previous legislation and enacted the Sexual Offences Act in 1986, it went far beyond simply repealing and re-enacting.
"It was a new piece of legislation. It increased the penalties and changed the definitions in material ways.
The preserved laws went out the window when Trinidad brought in fundamentally different laws that are not captured by the savings clause," Hulmes said.
Remarkably, in a case titled Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago v Jason Jones, the country's former attorney general Anand Ramlogan will represent Jones as his lead barrister.
Ramlogan, who once represented the Trinidadian government but will now argue against it, said: "This appeal is about more than the rights of one individual or community.
It concerns a fundamental constitutional principle: that every citizen is entitled to the equal protection of the law, regardless of sexual orientation."
He pointed to the "profound historical irony" that removing these "relics of our colonial past" requires asking judges from the country that imposed the laws whether they can "continue to survive under the constitution of an independent democratic nation".
Ramlogan added: "Homosexuality remains a divisive issue within our society, and successive governments have been reluctant to embark upon reform in the face of religious and cultural opposition."
While religious opposition is evident—the Trinidad and Tobago Council of Evangelical Churches has joined the case to oppose Jones—most Trinidadians support gay rights, and the Equal Opportunity Commission, a government body, joined the case to support Jones.
