Dear Editor,
It is a known fact that for the past six decades Guyanese have been in the forefront in providing legal and judicial services to overseas governments and organizations. Sir Alfred Crane served as Chief Justice of Belize in the 1960s and the current head of the judiciary in that Central American state is another Guyanese, Kenneth Benjamin, who served 17 years in the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC).
And speaking of the ECSC, Guyana has been the main provider of judges in that jurisdiction. It currently has 5, including a husband and wife, Gertel and Keith Thom. Two are in the appellate court.
At a function to mark the 50th anniversary of the court two Guyanese were awarded plaques in recognition of their sterling service. They are Indra Hariprashad Charles and Stanley Moore. President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Sir Denis Byron, Justice Adrian Saunders of the CCJ, Chief Justice of the ECSC Dame Janice Pereira, and Sir Brian Alleyne who acted as Chief Justice for three years were also honoured by the ECSC.
Besides his service to the ECSC, Justice Moore served as a judge in the Bahamas and the Court of Appeal in two African jurisdictions, the Republic of Botswana 2004-12 and the Kingdom of Swaziland 2010-14. In both these South African jurisdictions, the courts he served were the final or highest courts. The 82-year-old jurist has not yet decided to call it a day; he is now in private practice with the law firm of McKay and Moore in George-town, Guyana.
Justices Gonsalves Sabola, B O Adams, Maurice Churaman, worked a number of years in the Bahamas before they passed and Lawrence Ganpatsingh and Michael Hamilton also served that country for a number of years, while the late Satrohan Singh and Horace Mitchell served for a very long time dispensing justice in the ECSC.
Yours faithfully,
Oscar Ramjeet
