Passing of Professor A. Ralph Carnegie
Law Society
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Regards,
Law Society Executive 2010/2011!
UWI mourns loss of Professor A. Ralph Carnegie
For Release Upon Receipt - JANUARY 11, 2011
CAVE HILL
The University of the West Indies community is deeply saddened by the loss of distinguished legal scholar and UWI Professor Emeritus A. Ralph Carnegie who died on Friday, January 7, at age 74. His death followed a brief period of hospitalization after he had suffered a heart attack.
Jamaican-born Carnegie was a History graduate of the University College of the West Indies, from which the UWI evolved. He studied law at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, earned First Class Honours in Jurisprudence and distinguished himself early as an academic. He later joined Cave Hill as one of the two founding Professors of Law when the Faculty of Law was established in 1970. He would go on to serve the UWI for well over 40 years, holding his chair for 36 years.
In 2007, UWI paid tribute to Professor Carnegie by renaming the Faculty of Law’s largest lecture theatre after him. At the ceremony Cave Hill Principal Professor Sir Hilary Beckles noted that there was no greater evidence of the remarkable esteem in which Professor Carnegie was held than the unanimous agreement by so many legal luminaries to honour him in this way. In that ceremony celebrating Professor Carnegie’s legacy of service to The UWI in various capacities - including several stints as Acting Principal of the Cave Hill Campus, six years as Deputy Principal and five terms as Dean of the Faculty of Law - he was lauded as one of the modern legal pioneers of the region who had made an indelible mark on legal scholarship, the legal profession and the university community.
He served, also, for more than a decade as Executive Director of the Caribbean Law Institute Centre, a unit of the UWI Faculty of Law which is recognised as an Associate Institution of CARICOM under Article 22 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. His public service included membership of Constitution Review Commissions in Antigua and Barbuda and Grenada, and a term as a member of the Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission.
He was also a consultant to two Constitution Review Commissions in Barbados and to a Constitution Task Force in St. Kitts/Nevis, served on a Technical Working Group established by the CARICOM Heads of Government to report on matters of Caribbean Community governance, and as a member of a Task Force on Economic Union for the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States. In addition, he has discharged various other consultancies for international organisations.
Although officially retired in 2006, Professor Carnegie remained one of the most celebrated legal minds in the region. He returned to The UWI in a post-retirement capacity teaching, among others, a number of courses in the new LL.M Public Law programme and the renowned Masters in International Trade Policy (MITP) programme to ensure their success.
He continued to exhibit his trademark gentle and gracious personality which endeared him to all.
When he delivered the feature tribute at the lecture theatre’s renaming ceremony in 2007, President of The Commonwealth of Dominica, His Excellency, Dr. Nicholas J.O. Liverpool, also a former Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Cave Hill Campus, recalled Professor Carnegie’s “magnanimous contribution” during his tenure.
“His record of distinguished service to the Faculty and to the University in general will long be remembered. His record speaks for itself. Here is an individual whose portfolio has gone way beyond the call of duty. His name and reputation straddle many departments of life in the region, and in very important areas, such as Constitutional law, Environmental law, the Law of the Sea, and the law related to Treaties.”
Dr. Liverpool recalled some of Professor Carnegie’s many admirable qualities, which he said included never losing his temper with people, no matter how unfair, unjust, annoying or unpleasant their comments may be, his helpfulness to those in difficulties, his patience to those who are slow to learn and who was the very quintessence of a good lecturer and a decent human being.
At that ceremony, another former Dean of the Faculty of Law Professor Simeon McIntosh said Professor Carnegie’s “contribution to Legal Education is unmatched; and the depth and breadth of his learning simply mind-boggling.”
In 1994, Professor Carnegie was among the first cadre of recipients of the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. He has chaired the University’s Senate Committee on Ordinances and Regulations since 1975 and was a former Chair of the now defunct Matriculation Board.
Carnegie’s published work includes contributions to the law of contract, international law (including CARICOM law) and constitutional law in a wide range of journals including British Year Book of International Law, Law Quarterly Review, CaribbeanLaw Review, West Indian Law Journal and Year Book of World Affairs. Elements of that work have attracted citations by courts in Australia and Canada, in leading textbooks and by legal scholars on an international scale. He has lectured in the Inter-American Juridical Committee’s annual Curso de Derecho Internacional in Rio de Janeiro and made numerous other scholarly presentations on legal matters in countries across the Commonwealth Caribbean and in the United States, Britain,Canada, Australia, Cyprus, Mauritius and Uruguay.
The administration of The UWI and the entire university community extend sincere condolences to Professor Carnegie’s widow Jeniphier and children Martin and David and express profound gratitude for the knowledge and guidance he has imparted to generations in this region.
- Tribute to Professor Ralph Carnegie from the U.W.I. Cave Hill HTTP://WWW.CAVEHILL.UWI.EDU/NEWS/RELEASES/RELEASE.ASP?ID=302