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“[…] Justice Adrian Saunders’ judgments were measured, never strident, insistent on faithfulness to principle, penetrating in their insights, and always grounded in the law as he read it.
“[…] He was president of the CCJ when the issue of the outcome of the Guyana election exploded in 2020. This required decisiveness in the court’s intervention, but also tact in dealing with a highly charged political situation. Saunders handled the situation with aplomb and skill, with the CCJ resolving the crisis in a matter of months…”
The following Letter to the Editor honouring Justice Adrian Saunders, who has retired as president of the Caribbean Court of Justice, was submitted to Wired868 by economist, lawyer and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Trinidad and Tobago, Terrence W Farrell:
Adrian Saunders has retired from the Caribbean Court of Justice, having joined at its inception in 2005 and therefore having served for the entire 20-year history of the CCJ to date. From 2018, he served as its third president following Michael De La Bastide and Dennis Byron.
Saunders graduated from UWI Cave Hill in 1975 and the Hugh Wooding Law School in 1977. He is a ‘home-grown’ lawyer who worked in private practice before joining the judiciary in the Eastern Caribbean, rising to the Court of Appeal there.
Although it is only 20 years old, the CCJ has become, like The University of the West Indies, CARICOM, and the Caribbean Development Bank, a standard-bearer for the aspirations of Caribbean peoples for a Caribbean civilisation which has the cultural confidence to project itself on the global stage in every sphere of human endeavour.
For the CCJ, that involves the development of a Caribbean jurisprudence which reflects our unique history of struggle to assert human rights and freedoms, build and sustain democratic societies, maintain the rule of law, and uphold the values of fairness, respect, and equality in our plural societies.
The CCJ has faced two major challenges in discharging its role.
First, it does not have a blank slate but has taken responsibility for jurisdictions with a corpus of law, procedures, and precedents based mainly on English law, but also, in some jurisdictions, on European civil law.
Discerning what precedents to follow and when to depart from them, and knowing how to engage with our histories and literatures to define and delineate our values, requires wit and wisdom.
Second, the two largest territories, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, refused to honour their treaty obligations to accede to the CCJ for reasons, in both cases, which are difficult to fathom.
These jurisdictions would have provided a rich vein of cases to be adjudicated, which would have accelerated and deepened the work of the CCJ.
In the event, the fledgling CCJ met and overcame both these challenges.
It had to adjudicate difficult cases from Barbados, Guyana and Belize, which propelled the rapid articulation of an emergent Caribbean jurisprudence.
These cases include Joseph and Boyce, Nervais, McEwan, Bisram, Maya Leaders, Shanique Myrie, and the Guyana election case Ali v David.
The quality of the analysis in CCJ judgments has been discussed and critiqued with approval by eminent practitioners such as Dr. Lloyd Barnett and Douglas Mendes, and academics such as Professors Rosemarie Belle Antoine and Tracy Robinson.
Even the Privy Council itself has noted with approval some of its judgments, while of course, disagreeing with others.
Wholeheartedly committed to the project of building our Caribbean civilisation in its jurisprudential aspect, Adrian Saunders was at the centre of all of these cases.
His judgments were measured, never strident, insistent on faithfulness to principle, penetrating in their insights, and always grounded in the law as he read it.
He was president of the CCJ when the issue of the outcome of the Guyana election exploded in 2020.
This required decisiveness in the court’s intervention, but also tact in dealing with a highly charged political situation. Saunders handled the situation with aplomb and skill, with the CCJ resolving the crisis in a matter of months.
Many of the judges of the CCJ contribute papers to conferences and academic journals, or books. Adrian Saunders was exceptional in this regard as well. He co-authored with Professor Tracy Robinson and Arif Bulkan what is now the leading book on Caribbean Constitutional Law.
He readily agreed to share his views and recommendations with the Trinidad and Tobago national advisory committee on constitutional reform.
Saunders became something of an activist for the CCJ, losing no opportunity on any occasion where he could do so, to urge the delinquent territories to complete their independence and accede to the court’s appellate jurisdiction.
This public advocacy earned him criticism in some quarters. But his advocacy reflected his strong belief in and passion for the court’s place in truly independent Caribbean societies and in the integrity of its judges.
His fierce and fearless advocacy for Caribbean people and judicial integrity prompted him to openly challenge Lord Hodge’s patently jaundiced view of Caribbean judges at a recent conference in Malta.
Historically, we have been inclined to assess the quality and worth of our lawyers and judges either by the fact that they were trained abroad in England at one of the Inns of Court and practised in England for some time, or by their service in some international court such as the ICJ or ICC.
Colonised minds come to believe that real expertise is always ‘white and foreign’ and English jurisprudence and litigation are the pinnacles of the philosophy and practice of law.
Saunders is home-grown.
His distinguished career at the CCJ demonstrates that our lawyers and judges have the learning and the wisdom needed for the project of building our Caribbean civilisation in its judicial aspect.
The other ingredient which they, of course, must have, which Adrian Saunders certainly possessed, is a deep and unwavering passion for that project.
President Saunders, the Caribbean people on your retirement, salute you and celebrate your outstanding service to the region.
In my estimation, your outstanding work at the CCJ qualifies you to take your place alongside Telford Georges, Hugh Wooding, Michael De La Bastide, and Dennis Morrison in the pantheon of Caribbean jurists.
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