The Caribbean has lost a legal light

LATE DR. FENTON HARCOURT RAMSAHOYE

Office of the Prime Minister, Guyana, Friday, December 28, 2018

With the death of Dr. Fenton Harcourt Ramsahoye, late Senior Counsel and former Attorney General, Guyana and the rest of the Caribbean have lost a shining legal light.

One of the authors of Guyana’s Independence Constitution, Sir Fenton has been one Guyana’s brightest sons. He was a courageous and incorruptible politician, outstanding scholar and indomitable advocate.

A former Principal of the Hugh Wooding Law School, the late Dr. Ramsahoye has been a legendary legal scholar and a foremost authority on constitutional as well as Roman-Dutch law.

He has been recognized for his extraordinary integrity, and for his sterling contribution to the development of our jurisprudence and the institutional framework for the guarantee of fundamental human rights and open, parliamentary democracy in the Caribbean.

A notable liberal democratic PPP executive, Dr. Ramsahoye resigned in 1976, and resettled in Trinidad, Barbados and England. He exposed the intrigues and manipulations within the PPP, and has been famously remembered for his remarks, “comrades, the party works in devious ways”.

Since 1968, I have enjoyed close personal and cordial relations with Dr. Ramsahoye, whom I respected as my legal guru, and political role model. He not only encouraged me to pursue higher education but he also gave me financial support while I was at law school. He returned to Guyana in 2002 specially to present my petition for admission to the Bar.

On behalf of the Government of Guyana, I salute this eminent Guyana-born jurist and scholar, and extend sympathies to his immediate and Caribbean family on his passing.