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03rd
July 2010
UWI Professor
appointed to CCJ
 When
49-year-old UWI law lecturer and Justice-elect
Professor Winston Charles Anderson leaves the
classroom for the courtroom around mid-year,
he’ll be joining an elite panel of Caribbean
judges – a career move he describes as
“a single honour” and sees as “a
vote of confidence in the institutions and in
the young people of this region.”
Reacting to becoming the newest appointed judge
on the Caribbean Court of Justice, where he
replaces current CCJ Judge Duke Pollard who
retired on June 10, Anderson said: “I
am truly humbled…it is (an indication)
that with hard work and dedication, anything
is possible in this Caribbean of ours; that
for all our challenges, the Caribbean dream
lives.
“I very much look forward to working with
my distinguished colleagues in fairly and impartially
interpreting and applying the law and in upholding
the rule of law in our region,” the UWI
graduate added.
Born in Saint Ann’s Bay, Jamaica, Anderson’s
association with the legal world began 30 years
ago when he entered the UWI Faculty of Law in
1980, spending the first year at the Mona Campus.
There he topped a class which included persons
who subsequently became attorneys and attorneys-general,
ministers and prime ministers, justices and
chief justices and many others who play a critical
role in Governance in the region.
He credits many distant and immediate relatives,
particularly his parents and grandparents, as
well as members of the Brittonville Seventh
Day Adventist Church, for helping to sustain
his ambition.
He said: “Somehow, they, together with
the very austere conditions of a rural community
in 1960s Jamaica, instilled in me an insatiable
desire to succeed.” He added, “That
desire was not extinguished by my four years
spent in the often troubled August Town community
in St Andrew; rather it set me apart from much
of the indiscipline I witnessed there.”
Anderson graduated in 1983 with the Degree of
Bachelor of Laws Upper Second Class Honours.
From 1983 to 1984 he taught International Law,
among other subjects, at his alma mater, whilst
pursuing the Masters in Law degree there. “I
loved my exposure to the law. I was awestruck
by its majesty, by its validation of the dignity
of the individual and by its potential for effecting
social change. And most of all, I was deeply
impressed by the limits it placed on persons
in power. The ‘rule of law’ was
simply the most regal and alluring phrase I
had ever heard. Three decades later I remain
entirely captivated by the idea and the promise
of law.”
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In 1984, Anderson proceeded
on a commonwealth Scholarship to Cambridge
University in England and graduated with a
Doctorate in Philosophy in 1988 majoring in
International and Environmental Law. Also,
in 1988, he completed a course of training
at the Inns of Court School of Law in London
(with Honours) and was called to the Bar of
England and Wales, as a Barrister of the Honourable
Society of Lincoln’s Inn.
He rejoined the Faculty of Law of The University
of the West Indies in 1988 and was called
to the Bar of Barbados in 1989. He was awarded
indefinite tenure at The University of the
West Indies in 1994. Professor Anderson’s
major publications include, The Law of Caribbean
Marine Pollution, published by Kluwer Law
International, The Netherlands, 1997; Elements
of Private International Law (2003, Caribbean
Law Publishers); and Private International
Family Law (2005, Caribbean law Publishers).
Principles of Caribbean Environmental Law
is to be published shortly and he is pursuing
the publication of several other books on
aspects of Caribbean jurisprudence.
Reflecting on his UWI career, Anderson said:
“I have thoroughly enjoyed my twenty-two
years of service to The University of the
West Indies. I will be forever grateful that
I was able to contribute to legal education
in the region in an academic environment.
I am very pleased to have been able to produce
publications on Caribbean Law and to have
worked with colleagues of outstanding scholarship
and inventiveness. But my greatest honor has
undoubtedly been the opportunity to have influenced
the education of generations of Caribbean
lawyers. I am deeply humbled to have been
a part of the university life of so many of
our Caribbean jurists who now play critical
roles in the governance of our societies.”
Dr Anderson was appointed General Counsel
of the Caribbean Community Secretariat on
secondment from the UWI, 2003-2006, a period
which coincided with efforts to make the Caribbean
Court of Justice operational, of ushering
in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy,
and of getting the concept of the CARICOM
passport off the ground. Following his return
to the Faculty of Law in 2006 as professor
of International Law, Professor Anderson was
appointed to his current post of Executive
Director of the Caribbean Law Institute Centre.
Passionate about regional unity, Anderson
says, “I have spent quality time in
every Caribbean Member State of CARICOM (barring
Haiti) and I have always been impressed with
the unique spirit and vitality of the Caribbean
people. The CSME cannot long survive merely
as a legal construct created and administered
by public officials. To be successful it must
become a lived experience and the focus for
dialogue between and among the widest cross-section
of the Caribbean people, particularly the
private sector and the labor movement.”
The St. Lucian UWI alumni, wish Professor
Anderson success in his new appointment.
(adapted from UWI CHILL News)
Discuss
Story
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