The Hon. Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders, a native of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, holds a Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill) in 1975 and a Legal Education Certificate from the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad & Tobago in 1977. He began his legal career as a barrister and solicitor in private practice in his home country. In 1990, he established the firm of Saunders & Huggins before being invited to join the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC) High Court Bench in 1996. On May 1st 2003, Mr. Justice Saunders was appointed to the ECSC’s Court of Appeal and served as acting Chief Justice between 2004 and 2005.
While at the ECSC, Mr. Justice Saunders developed a passion for and was deeply involved in various judicial reform efforts. These included the introduction of court-connected mediation in the Eastern Caribbean and the development of that Court’s first Judicial Code of Ethics.
He also served as Chairman of the ECSC’s Judicial Education Institute from 2001 to 2004. His work in judicial education has continued with the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute (CJEI). He earned a Fellowship of the CJEI in 1998 and, he is currently and has been for several years the Course Director of The CJEI’s Intensive Study Programme. He is also one of the Institute’s Directors.
In 2005, Mr. Justice Saunders was among the first cohort of judges to join the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) bench. Mr. Justice Saunders has contributed greatly to regional judicial outreach and judicial education efforts. He is a founding member of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO) and has served as the organization’s Chairman since its inception in 2009.
Due to his active engagement in advancing judicial integrity, Mr. Justice Saunders has recently been appointed to serve on the Advisory Board of the Global Judicial Integrity Network by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration. Mr. Justice Saunders’ interests also extend to the area of court administration where he has adopted an active role in the CCJ’s public education and other strategic projects. He led the development of the Court’s first Strategic Plan in 2012 and currently chairs the ongoing project to develop and execute the Strategic Plan for 2018-2023.
Mr. Justice Saunders has written many legal articles and publications and is a Consulting Editor of The Caribbean Civil Court Practice and a co-author of Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law. He serves as Chairman of the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers which, in collaboration with UN Women, played a leading role in developing and promoting the adoption of Gender Sensitive Protocols for Judicial Officers for various Caribbean judiciaries. He also lectures part time at the UWI, St Augustine Faculty of Law on Constitutional Law.
At its 29th Intersessional Meeting in Port au Prince, Haiti, in February 2018, the Caribbean Community Heads of Government agreed to the recommendation of the Regional and Judicial Legal Services Commission (RJLSC) that the Honourable Mr. Justice Adrian Saunders be appointed President of the Caribbean Court of Justice. He became President of the Caribbean Court of Justice on 4 July 2018. The Honourable Mr Justice Saunders is married to Marilyn née Joslyn and the couple has two sons, Yuri and Yanek.
• Oversaw the work of various working committees at the CCJ that shaped how the Court is perceived and ensures constant improvement on how stakeholders are served. He has headed the Court’s Strategic Planning Committees for the first and second Strategic Plan for the CCJ. He has also chaired the court’s Website and Communications Committee and also other pivotal projects aimed at ensuring the smooth and efficient running of the Organization.
• In April 2018, he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Global Judicial Integrity Network by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime’s (UNODC) Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration. The Advisory Board will assist in the identification of priority challenges and emerging issues in judicial integrity and will guide the work-plan to address the priorities that have been identified.
• Deeply involved in issues of judicial reform. He assumed a leadership role in the Eastern Caribbean States in this regard. He chaired that Judiciary’s Ethics Committee which established a Judicial Code of Ethics for Judges of the Court. He also chaired the Mediation Committee that supervised the introduction to the Eastern Caribbean of court connected mediation.
• Former Chief Justice (Ag) of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and served as Chairman of the Judicial Education Institute of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court prior to being appointed a Judge of the CCJ.
• Since its inception launch in 2009 he has been elected and consistently re-elected Chairman of Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO), a regional association of judicial officers. CAJO’s objectives include the improvement of the quality of Caribbean judges, through judicial education and other initiatives, and as well the enhancement of judicial services and systems of the region.
• Contributing editor of The Caribbean Civil Court Practice, the essential guide to the Civil Procedure Rules (CPR) as they apply in the Caribbean, he is also the author of several published articles and papers on a wide range of legal subjects. He is also the co-author of the Fundamentals of Caribbean Constitutional Law, a resource for students, legal professionals and judges of Caribbean public law, that articulates, discusses, and clarifies fundamental principles of constitutional law in the region. ·
• Championed judicial education throughout his judicial career. Has specialized expertise and experience as a judicial educator. He is a faculty member of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute (CJEI) having himself been trained as a judicial educator by that body. He is currently and has been for the last 5 years the Course Director of the CJEI’s Intensive Study Programme for Commonwealth Judicial Educators in Halifax, Nova Scotia. In addition, the Hon. Mr. Justice Saunders serves on the Board of the CJEI which provides support for the creation and strengthening of national judicial education bodies, encourages regional and pan-Commonwealth networking, the exchange of human and material resources, trains judicial education faculty; develops programme modules to be used in all Commonwealth countries, and designs judicial education programmes.
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