Speaking exclusively with the Virgin Islands News Online President of the OECS Bar Association Mr Ruggles Ferguson said that the establishment of the benevolent fund was the brainchild of Dr. Archibald some years ago. Photo: thenewtoday.gd

“Dr. Archibald was the single most significant contributor, on an annual basis, to the OECS Bar Association’s Benevolent Fund, which was set up several years ago to assist constituent Bars, Attorneys or deserving needy cases in times of disaster or other challenges." Photo: VINO/File

Speaking exclusively with the Virgin Islands News Online President of the OECS Bar Association Mr Ruggles Ferguson said that the establishment of the benevolent fund was the brainchild of Dr. Archibald some years ago. It had been very successful in aiding greatly the relief effort of one of the most devastating hurricanes that had hit Grenada.

“Dr. Archibald was the single most significant contributor, on an annual basis, to the OECS Bar Association’s Benevolent Fund, which was set up several years ago to assist constituent Bars, Attorneys or deserving needy cases in times of disaster or other challenges. Grenada was a beneficiary of the Benevolent Fund in 2004 shortly after the devastation of Hurricane Ivan with the OECS Bar Association sending in much-needed water and vital food supplies,” said Ferguson.

He said that at a recent executive meeting of the OECS Bar Association, by way of teleconference, a decision was taken - to be confirmed at their June 2014 Council Meeting in Dominica - to rename the Benevolent Fund, which is the result of one of Archie's several creative ideas, the Dr Joseph Archibald Benevolent Fund.

Further, the OECS Bar Association has decided to create, again in memory of Archie, the ‘Dr Joseph Archibald Scholarship Award’ to a deserving candidate, the mechanics of which will soon be worked out. The details of the scholarship are also being defined.

Mr Ferguson has also issued a challenge to the BVI Bar Association, to active consider and implement the launch of an annual public lecture named after their own legal luminary and called the ‘Dr Joseph Archibald Memorial Lecture’.

In June 2014 the OECS Bar Association will launch its new public lecture series in Dominica. Plans are afoot to hold at least one public lecture every year in a different OECS territory. “In addition, we are encouraging constituent bars to launch their own local lecture series as part of a continuing public education drive,” said Ferguson.

In 1996 Dr Archibald ably delivered the 1st Sir Archibald Nedd Memorial Lecture in Grenada - a lecture series named after a distinguished jurist of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and a former Chief Justice of the Grenada Supreme Court, established following the 1979 Grenada Revolution. Like Archie, Sir Archibald Nedd had served the region in several legal capacities.

Archie's memorable lecture on "Essentials for a West Indies Supreme Court" to replace the London-based Privy Council was an excellent guide to the establishment, years later, of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He identified certain prerequisites for establishing a regional court of appeal to win public confidence, maintain judicial independence, prevent political interference, and guarantee continued funding.

He had highlighted the need for an independent Regional Judicial and Legal Services Commission, free of political membership, to appoint judges; independent funding for the court through a trust fund model; and relatively easy access to the court by the Caribbean people it is intended to serve. The CCJ today reflects the vision of independence articulated by Archie in that 1996 historic lecture.

The Sir Archibald Nedd Memorial Lectures continues to be one of the major planks of public legal education in Grenada, with the 14th lecture being delivered last month by Mr Reginald Dumas, a former top diplomat for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

As a result of the solid foundation work of Dr Archibald and the other founding fathers, the OECS Bar is now able to bring together, in a structured and institutionalized way, the nine constituent Bars of the sub-region, while at the same time embracing individual membership.

“We have had our annual law fairs in every single OECS territory, including the BVI in 2004 and again in 2013 on Scrub Island - for our landmark 10th Anniversary of the Law Fair,” said Ferguson.

“We have had structured continuing legal education sessions in every single OECS territory in the last 5 years, the last being in Antigua in 2014 as part of our quarterly meetings. We have continued to promote the passage of a Legal Profession Act and an enforceable Code of Ethics in all the territories, a work in progress that has borne fruit over the last several years. We also continued to promote professional indemnity insurance for lawyers, for their own protection and that of the public,” stated Ferguson.

In all these important developments of the OECS Bar, Dr Archibald was not a silent onlooker, moving with the tide. He was at the centre of all activities. He attended most, if not all, of the annual law fairs, including the last on Scrub Island in September 2013; he attended the majority of council meetings and continuing legal sessions in the various islands; he led or contributed substantially to many of the debates on a rich variety of subject areas touching and concerning the development of the profession, including the passage of a single Legal Profession Act for all the OECS territories.