The Chief Pleas approved the reforms in October

The Chief Pleas governing body agreed last year to give up guaranteed rights of landowners to seats after an opinion poll showed islanders backed reforms.

Sark needs constitutional reforms to comply with European human rights laws.

But the Chief Pleas said it was looking at reports from London lawyers saying aspects of feudal laws could remain.

European influence

Owners of the island's 40 tenements (divisions of land) currently have an automatic seat in the Chief Pleas, and islanders chose 12 people's deputies.

The Chief Pleas approved the move to a fully democratic system last October after the opinion poll of the island's 450-strong population showed that 56% wanted to move to a system of 28 elected deputies.

The four-hour meeting on Thursday night heard that some landowners had asked two QCs in London to look at how much binding influence European laws had on the island, which is not a member of the European Union.

BBC Radio Guernsey's Hannah Bayman said: "The meeting decided to look again at new legal advice that members of Chief Pleas have been given from the two lawyers.

"They suggest that Sark might have much more leeway to be independent from European Convention of Human Rights and the UK Department of Constitutional Affairs than had previously been thought.

"The lawyers reckon that if Sark wanted to retain some elements of its feudal system that guarantees seats for landowners, it might be in its legal right to do so."

The Chief Pleas said it might commission its own official legal advice to investigate the advice raised in the reports.