SIR DENNIS BYRON: LAW LEGEND (2020)

Sir Dennis Byron: Law Legend (2020) biographs Kittitian born The Rt Hon Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron, Kt PC; MA LLB (Cantab); Barrister, Inner Temple; the greatest Caribbean jurist of our era.

Byron CJ(Ag), SC-Grenada, presided over the most historic Caribbean trial ever, that in 1986 in which a jury convicted 14 persons of murdering Maurice Bishop, Prime Minister of Grenada, in 1983; proceedings which, in 2019, at one of its several sequels, stood scrutiny at the Privy Council.

Sir Dennis served as Chief Justice-ECSC 1999-2004, when he first, for the Caribbean, rejected the mandatory death sentence as contravening the constitutional protection from inhuman or degrading treatment. He was President of the United Nations ICT for Rwanda, Africa, (‘UNICTR’), 2007-2011, trying genocide and crimes against humanity coming out of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda; finessing incitement.

The Caribbean Court of Justice (‘CCJ’), with Sir Dennis as President, enlivened free movement of Caribbean nationals regionally; reconciled singleness with marriage and cohabitation; gave emphatic meaning to the right to vote; and made ‘existing laws’, pre-Constitution laws, conform to the Constitution.

With technology, Sir Dennis was an awesome reformer of judicial systems; widening their accessibility.

As President-UNICTR, Sir Dennis was a UN Under-Secretary General, regularly addressing the UN General Assembly and Security Council. Sir Dennis famously told the UN that, on the presumption of innocence, if the prosecution fails to discharge its burden as to proof of guilt, justice under the rule of law entitles an accused, even if charged with genocide, to go free. He was President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, Dalhousie, Canada. He holds the Yogis and Keddy Chair in Human Rights Law, Dalhousie University, Canada. He has been notable at rowing, cricket, lawn-tennis.

Sir Dennis is married to Lady Norma; they have a family of six surviving children.

After 50 preliminary pages, the book presents 416 pages of primary text; another 64 have 12 appendices, 9 paying tributes to Sir Dennis: 6 by distinguished jurists, 3 by leading lawyers.

The book has a Foreword by The Hon Mr Justice Denys Barrow SC, of Belize, a Judge of the CCJ.

The publisher is Hansib Publications Limited, of Hertford, England, UK.

The author is Dr Francis Alexis QC, of Grenada; Director, Post-Graduate Public Law Courses, UWI, Cave Hill, Barbados. His other books include Changing Caribbean Constitutions (2nd edn Carib, Barbados 2015).