A legal luminary, who spent part of his early life in Anguilla, Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron, is to retire as President of the Trinidad and Tobago-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). His retirement date is July 3, 2018.
Dennis, as he is affectionately called, is the son of the late Vincent F. Byron who served as a St. Kitts-appointed Warden during part of the Anguilla Revolution in 1967.
In addition to being President of the CCJ, Sir Dennis, who was born in St. Kitts in July 1943, also serves as President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute from which Anguilla and other regional islands benefitted. He is a former President of the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda and a former Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
He read law at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University. He graduated with a M.A. and LLB in 1966. He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple.
Sir Dennis distinguished himself in private practice as a Barrister-at-Law and Solicitor throughout the Leeward Islands, with Chambers in St. Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla from 1966 to 1982. His judicial career began in 1982 at the age of 38 when he was appointed High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Court.
In 1999, he was appointed Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court having acted in that position for two years. As Chief Justice, he was the supreme judicial officer of the courts of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
In 2000, Judge Byron was knighted by Queen Elizabeth ll and in 2004 he was appointed a member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council.
A Special Sitting of the Caribbean Court of Justice, to mark his retirement as President of the CCJ, was arranged for Wednesday this week, May 16, at the High Court of Antigua and Barbuda.
The ceremonial occasion was attended by speakers and representatives from the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court, the Conference of Caribbean Chief Justices and Heads of Judiciary and Bar Associations from the region, including Anguilla.
