Sunday, July 1 2012

TRINIDADIAN jurist Justice Anthony Lucky, 72, a judge of the International Tribunal for Law of the Sea, has been made an editor of a major new legal publication, the International Journal of Legislative Drafting and Law Reform.

Lucky has been appointed Case Notes editor of the peer-reviewed journal, which is to be published annually by Dutch firm Wolf Legal Publishers.The journal aims to cover the highly specialised practice of legislative drafting.

Lucky will become a part of a larger editorial team. His major duties will involve contributing commentary on important new cases and judgments that have an impact on legislative drafting or law reform, all from a wide international perspective.

The members of the editorial board and advisory board of the journal include fellow Trinidadian Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine, the wife of St Lucian Prime Minister Kenny Anthony, who is a commissioner of the Inter-American Human Rights Commission at Washington, USA. Also on the boards are: Justice Julia Sebuinde, a judge from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague; Diggory Bailey, from the Office of Parliamentary Counsel, Whitehall, London, UK; Professor Rob van Gestel, School of Law, Tillburg University, Netherlands; Professor Ruth Sullinan, Canada; Justice Carles Pi-Suner Viver, a former Vice-President of the Spanish Constitutional Court, and Professor David A Marcello, executive director of The Public Law Centre, Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.

Lucky wrote the foreword for the inaugural issue of the journal. Also in the first issue, which was published last month, are articles by Professor Dr Marek Zubik, Head of the Department of Constitutional Law at the University of Warsaw, Poland and a judge of Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal, and an article on the issue of having uniform judicial practice by Virgilijus Valancius, a judge of Lithuania’s Supreme Administrative Court; Charles-Henri Montin, a senior regulatory adviser of the Ministry of Finance, Paris, and Professor of Law Juliana Laftili, of the University of Albania.

According to the editors, Dr Iylal Tam Stewart and Tonye Clinton Jaja, “the aim of the journal is to promote inter-jurisdictional dialogue, thereby building bridges across the divide in terms of legislative drafting and law reform amongst these different jurisdictions.”

In addition, “the journal aims to focus on the ever growing interaction and interconnectedness between the field of legislative drafting and law reform respectively. The drafting of legislation and regulation is the major activity and commonality performed by practitioners in both fields.

“Furthermore, the inter-relatedness between the fields of legislative drafting and law reform is evidenced by the implementation of cross-border projects.”

The appointment is the latest highlight in Lucky’s long legal career. He began crivate practice in 1961 and served as a Legal Cadet at the Attorney General’s Department, Trinidad and Tobago, from 1963-1964. Lucky was a magistrate from 1964-1974 and later became in-House Counsel and then corporate secretary for The Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago Limited from 1976-1987. He was made a Justice of Appeal in 2000 and sat until 2003.

Lucky has been a member of the Tribunal for the Law of the Sea since September 2, 2003. He is also a member of the Board of Directors, Academy of Tertiary Studies, Trinidad and Tobago and of the Commonwealth Magistrates’ and Judges’ Association.