Dr Jewel Amoah

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UWI STA

Dr. Jewel Amoah is a Canadian-Trinidadian human rights lawyer, activist and academic She is a member of the Law Society of Ontario and is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies St. Augustine, Trinidad.  Her areas of teaching and research expertise include: Gender and the Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean, Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights, Public International Law and Advanced Constitutional Law. Jewel’s doctoral dissertation examined the impact of intersecting identities on the attainment of equality.  She developed an analytical tool, GRACE, to demonstrate how the intersection of gender, race, age and culture impact access to equality rights for girls subject to customary law in South Africa.  Her published work widely explores how aspects of identity impact access to equality. Jewel is a human rights practitioner with extensive experience in promoting fair, equitable and inclusive work environments in the Canadian public sector, and with community-based advocacy in Malawi, Namibia and Sierra Leone.  She is committed to research, advocacy and activism to inspire and produce systemic change, enhance access to justice and the full enjoyment of rights. 

Equality for All in the Administration of Justice: Lessons for Enhancing Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 8:45 a.m.

Dr Celia Blake

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UWI Mona

Celia Brown-Blake teaches Contract, Trusts and Corporate Insolvency at the Faculty of Law, The University of the West Indies, Mona.  A qualified attorney-at-law with a Master of Laws and a PhD in Linguistics, she specializes in two distinct academic streams. She is an expert in forensic linguistics, the study of the confluence of language and the law, as well as insolvency, corporate law and financial regulation. In 2017, she was an international visiting scholar at Stanford Humanities Center, Stanford University, where she developed and shared her research on the disenfranchisement of Caribbean vernacular speakers in the legal system.  In 2012, as a Commonwealth Fellow at the London School of Economics, she examined and published on the nature of judicial oversight of decisions made and actions taken by financial regulators in the Commonwealth Caribbean. Dr. Blake has spent the last 15 years developing new research on the impact of linguistic factors on the administration of justice in contexts involving speakers of Commonwealth Caribbean vernacular languages and making proposals for reform.  A key focus of her research has been the role language rights play in improving the situation of Caribbean Creole vernacular speakers in the English-dominant legal system.  She was instrumental in formulating a language rights policy charter which sets out model rights for speakers of Caribbean Creole languages. In 2019, she received the Principal’s Award for the Best Research Publication in the Faculty of Law for her recent article, “Supporting Justice Reform In Jamaica Through Language Policy Change” published in Caribbean Studies. 

Equality for All in the Administration of Justice: Lessons for Enhancing Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 8:45 a.m.

Ms Tracy Robinson

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UWI Mona

Tracy Robinson joined Mona Law in 2011 after teaching for a decade and a half at the Faculty of Law, The UWI, Cave Hill. She teaches Constitutional Law, Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights Law and Family Law. In 2016, Robinson was the Bok Visiting International Professor at University of Pennsylvania Law School. She co-authored Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law (with Bulkan and Justice Saunders) and co-edited (with D Berry), Transitions in Caribbean Law. In 2017, her jointly authored article, “”Constitutional Comparisons by A Supranational Court in Flux: The Privy Council and Caribbean Bills of Rights” was published by Modern Law Review. In 2016, she was appointed a Commissioner on the WHO/PAHO led Independent Review of Equity and Health Inequalities in the Americas. She served as a member of the Committee on Judicial Appointments established by the Law Association of Trinidad and Tobago in 2017. She was a member of the Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) from 2012-15 and served as its President in 2014-15. In 2017, she was named as an honouree on the Gender Justice Legacy Wall which celebrates persons who have made significant contributions to the field of international gender justice. This year, she was awarded the 2019 Prominent Women in International Law Award from the American Society of International Law (ASIL) achievements as a member of the IACHR in advancing human rights protection related to gender and sexuality. 

Equality for All in the Administration of Justice: Lessons for Enhancing Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 8:45 a.m.

Mr Westmin James

Lecturer, Faculty of Law, UWI Cave Hill

Westmin James is a Lecturer at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus, Faculty of Law and former Deputy Dean (Academic and Student Affairs) and Deputy Dean (Postgraduate Studies and Research). He lectures Jurisprudence, Constitutional Law and Commonwealth Caribbean Human Rights Law, International Law of Human Rights in the LL.B. He also lectures International Labour Law in the Masters Program. Mr. James obtained a Bachelor of Laws Degree with First Class Honours in 2003 from UWI and a Master of Laws with Honours in International Commercial and Trade Law from the University of Cambridge in 2005. He thereafter obtained a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad in 2006 and was admitted to the Bar of Supreme Court of Trinidad and Tobago in that year. He was subsequently called to the Bar in Belize and Barbados. Mr. James had a diverse legal practice in one of the leading Law Chambers in Trinidad and Tobago for 5 years before joining the Faculty of Law in 2011. While at the Faculty besides his teaching duties Mr. James is also part of the UWI Rights Advocacy Project (U-RAP) whose objective it is to promote human rights and social justice in the Caribbean through human rights litigation. 

Equality for All in the Administration of Justice: Lessons for Enhancing Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 8:45 a.m.

The Hon Mr Justice Ivor Archie

Chief Justice, Trinidad and Tobago

The Honourable the Chief Justice, Mr Justice Ivor Archie O.R.T.T., graduated from the University of the West Indies in 1980 with a degree in mechanical engineering. He later studied law at the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) degree. Mr Justice Archie returned to Trinidad and Tobago in 1984 received his Legal Education Certificate (LEC) in 1986 and was admitted to the Bar. He has had appointments with the Government of Trinidad and Tobago and also with the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Cayman Islands as State Counsel and Senior Crown Counsel, respectively. He served as Solicitor General of the Cayman Islands, and acted as the territory’s Attorney General. On March 1, 1998 he was appointed a Puisne Judge of the Supreme of the Trinidad and Tobago Court of Judicature and became a Judge Court of Appeal on April 2, 2004 and was sworn in as Trinidad and Tobago’s eight Chief Justice on January 24, 2008. Mr Justice Archie also heads the Court of Appeal of Trinidad and Tobago. The Chief Justice has spearheaded many initiatives on the improvement of the administration of justice in Trinidad and Tobago. He is Chairman of the Judicial and Legal Services Commission, President of the Trinidad and Tobago Judicial Education Institute and a Fellow of the Board of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute.

Using Social Media in ways that Promote or Undermine Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 10:15 a.m.

Prof Dr HC Rudolf Mellinghoff

President, Federal Supreme Finance Court of Germany

Prof. Dr. h.c. Rudolf Mellinghoff (Honorary Professor and Chief Justice) is since 1. Nov. 2011 President of the Federal Supreme Finance Court of Germany. He started his judicial career 1987 as Judge at the Finance Court of Duesseldorf (North Rhine-Westphalia), served from 1992 to 1996 as Judge in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania. 1997 he was appointed as Judge at the Federal Supreme Finance Court of Germany. From 2001 to 2011 he was Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany (Second Senate). He is in several legal and tax associations in leading roles, e.g. Vice-President of the German Tax Jurist Society, Vice-President of the German Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Member of the Judicial Integrity Group (JIG). 

Role of the Judicial Officer as a Leader: Friday @ 11:30 a.m.

Using Social Media in ways that Promote or Undermine Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 10:15 a.m.

The Hon Judge Virgina Kendall

Judge, United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois

Judge Kendall was appointed to the federal bench in January 2006.  She is a member of the UNODC’s Judicial Integrity Network and is currently serving on an Expert Committee working on drafting a model social media ethics code for judges.  She served six years on the Judicial Conference of the United States’ Codes of Conduct Committee where she drafted the Advisory Opinion for the US judiciary on its use of social media.  In 2019, she was appointed by Chief Justice Roberts to serve on the Judicial Conference of the United States Committee on International Judicial Relations.   She is the co-author of Child Exploitation and Trafficking:  Examining Global Enforcement and Supply Chain Challenges and U.S. Responses (Rowman & Littlefield 2016) and Child Exploitation and Trafficking: Examining the Global Challenges and the U.S. Responses (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers 2012), with T. Markus Funk.  Judge Kendall teaches human trafficking and supply chain law at University of Chicago Law School, Northwestern University School of Law and Loyola University Chicago School of Law.  She was the Peter and Patricia Gruber Fellow in Women’s Rights at Yale Law School in 2018. She has authored numerous articles on a variety of topics including international human rights, human trafficking, public corruption, and transnational investigations.  Aside from her work in human trafficking and international human rights, Judge Kendall serves as a multi-district litigation judge and as a Patent Pilot Program judge in her district. Prior to her judicial appointment, she served over ten years as a federal prosecutor in Chicago in both the Public Corruption Unit and as the Child Exploitation Coordinator where she tried dozens of jury trials.  While a federal prosecutor, she was appointed to the U.S. Attorney General’s Advisory Panel that reviewed all multi-jurisdictional child exploitation and trafficking cases and served as Project Safe Neighborhoods Coordinator. 

Using Social Media in ways that Promote or Undermine Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 10:15 a.m.

The Hon Mr Justice Kashim Hannah

Chief Judge, Borno State, Nigeria

Justice Zannah was appointed Judge of the High Court of Borno State, Nigeria in 1997 and Chief Judge in the year 2006. Currently a member of the National Judicial Council (NJC) and of its Performance Evaluation Committee, among others. He sits on the boards of several international bodies in the field of law and justice, like the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL), International Institute for Justice Excellence (IIJE), The Hague and as Vice President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute (CJEI) and Deputy President of the International Organisation for Judicial Training (IOJT). He was recently appointed into the Advisory Board of the United Nations Global Judicial Integrity Network (GJIN). Justice Zannah is a regular speaker, presenter and trainer at numerous national and international fora. He is regularly invited to Expert Group Meetings (EGM) of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), responsible for developing guidelines and programs for the justice sector. For the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a resource person recently in Abidjan, Cote de Ivoire and San Jose, Costa Rica. He is a recipient of the Medal of the International Society for the Reform of Criminal Law (ISRCL) in 2012 and the United States National Centre for State Courts (NCSC) Distinguished Service Award in 2013. He is currently Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) Judicial Information Technology Policy Committee (JITPO-COM) that is in the process of automating court processes in Nigeria. A Nigerian Case Management System (NCMS) is currently being rolled out for the three tiers of superior courts. The Nigerian Legal Email has also been designed and rolled out for service of court processes and other communication in the judicial ecosystem.

Developments in the Rule of Law in Africa and the Caribbean: Thursday @ 11:10 a.m.

Using Social Media in ways that Promote or Undermine Judicial Integrity: Saturday @ 10:15 a.m.