(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is mourning the loss of University of the West Indies (UWI) Professor Ralph Carnegie who died on 7 January 2011.

In a message of condolence to UWI, Mona Campus, Jamaica, Her Excellency Lolita Applewhaite, Acting Secretary-General of CARICOM noted that its was with a “deep sense of loss” that the Community acknowledged the passing of Professor Carnegie.

Lauding his “inestimable contribution” to the Region, Ambassador Applewhaite noted that Professor Carnegie’s “formidable skills and intellect” were not confined to the University’s campuses, but were widely acclaimed as he functioned in the capacity of former Executive Director of the Caribbean Law Institute Centre (CLIC), an Associate Institution of the Caribbean Community, and as a Commissioner of the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission from September 2007 to August 2010.

Ambassador Applewhaite applauded the UWI Professor’s “consistent contribution to the furtherance of the integration process”, and noted that his passing would “leave academics, professionals and international civil servants alike with a sense of personal loss at the passing of a true gentleman and a brilliant but humble man.”

The full text of the message reads as follows:

It is with a deep sense of loss that the Caribbean Community acknowledges the passing of Professor A. Ralph Carnegie.

Professor Carnegie made an inestimable contribution to the development of legal education and the legal profession in the Caribbean. His formidable skills and intellect were not confined to the campuses of the University of the West Indies, where he became Professor Emeritus, but was also the former Executive Director of the Caribbean Law Institute Centre (CLIC), an Associate Institution of the Caribbean Community, and a Commissioner of the Regional Judicial and Legal Service Commission from September 2007 to August 2010.

A pre-eminent international lawyer, who later excelled as a constitutional scholar, Professor Carnegie also worked with numerous Member States in the latter field, as well as in several other areas of research and consultancies for the Community, including his seminal work on CARICOM institutions. He was a member of The Technical Working Group on Governance appointed by Heads of Government of CARICOM that reported to the Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government (February 2007, St. Vincent and the Grenadines).

Graduates of the UWI Faculty of Law at Cave Hill Campus are perennially indebted for the scholarship and wisdom imparted by this son of Jamaica, both in the Lecture Hall and the Tutorial Room. It is therefore a fitting testimony to his impartation to the students of the Law Faculty, that the Large Lecture Hall bears the name of Professor Carnegie. Indeed the erudite Professor’s publications on constitutional law, international law, environmental law and law of the sea form part of the reservoir of knowledge upon which practitioners in the Region continually draw.

His consistent contribution to the furtherance of the integration process, will leave academics, professionals and international civil servants alike with a sense of personal loss at the passing of a true gentleman and a brilliant but humble man.

On behalf of the Community, the Secretariat and on my own behalf, I wish to extend to the Government and people of Jamaica, the University of the West Indies and to the family of Professor Ralph Carnegie, my deepest condolences on the death of this committed citizen of the Caribbean.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org