Michael de la Bastide, KC, was much more than an em­i­nent ju­rist. He was a true Caribbean man whose con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of the re­gion’s le­gal frame­work is be­ing wide­ly ac­knowl­edged in the trib­utes be­ing paid fol­low­ing his death over the week­end.

T&T owes a par­tic­u­lar debt of grat­i­tude to this out­stand­ing son of the soil whose pub­lic ser­vice was not lim­it­ed to his time as Chief Jus­tice, or even in Par­lia­ment as an In­de­pen­dent sen­a­tor, but in­clud­ed the com­mu­ni­ty and sport­ing en­deav­ours to which he gave his tal­ent and time.

It is a source of re­gret to many that de la Bastide went to his grave with­out see­ing the coun­try of his birth ful­ly ac­cede to the Caribbean Court of Jus­tice (CCJ) in its ap­pel­late ju­ris­dic­tion.

He had long ad­vo­cat­ed dis­con­tin­u­ing ap­peals to the Privy Coun­cil, so it was deeply dis­ap­point­ing to him that many Caribbean states failed to sev­er the “apron strings” of a colo­nial sys­tem.

De la Bastide’s com­mit­ment to the de­vel­op­ment of the Caribbean’s le­gal sys­tem is with­out ques­tion. Af­ter the CCJ was in­au­gu­rat­ed in Port-of-Spain on April 16, 2005, he served as its first pres­i­dent un­til his re­tire­ment in 2011.

At present, on­ly five states ac­cess the CCJ in its ap­pel­late ju­ris­dic­tion — Bar­ba­dos, Be­lize, Do­mini­ca, Guyana, and Saint Lu­cia. Al­though T&T rat­i­fied the agree­ment es­tab­lish­ing the CCJ and serves as its head­quar­ters, it still clings to the Lon­don-based Privy Coun­cil as its fi­nal Court of Ap­peal.

In his mem­o­ry, this mon­u­men­tal blun­der, a sig­nif­i­cant gap giv­en this na­tion’s in­volve­ment in the Caribbean Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME), should be cor­rect­ed. It would be a fit­ting cel­e­bra­tion of a life ded­i­cat­ed to the law and the ad­vance­ment of T&T and the Caribbean.

Born on Char­lotte Street, Port-of-Spain, on Ju­ly 18, 1937, the last of eight chil­dren, de la Bastide’s ex­em­plary aca­d­e­m­ic ca­reer at St Mary’s Col­lege, cul­mi­nat­ed with an Open Schol­ar­ship (Lan­guages) in 1954.

At Christ Church Col­lege of Ox­ford Uni­ver­si­ty, he ob­tained a Bach­e­lor of Arts (Ju­rispru­dence) and Bach­e­lor of Civ­il Law, both with First Class Ho­n­ours and was called to the Bar on Feb­ru­ary 7, 1961.

So be­gan his dis­tinc­tive le­gal ca­reer which fea­tured nu­mer­ous high­lights, in­clud­ing serv­ing on the Wood­ing Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion from 1971 to 1974.

In 1975, he be­came a Queen’s Coun­sel at the young age of 38 and he served as an In­de­pen­dent Sen­a­tor from 1976 to 1981, then as a mem­ber of the Hy­atali Con­sti­tu­tion Com­mis­sion from 1987 to 1990.

His ser­vice to the le­gal pro­fes­sion in­clud­ed three terms as the pres­i­dent of the Law As­so­ci­a­tion of T&T from 1987 to 1990.

As Chief Jus­tice, a po­si­tion he held from May 31, 1995, to Ju­ly 18, 2002, made his mark on this coun­try’s sys­tem of jus­tice and en­cour­aged con­tin­ued ju­di­cial ed­u­ca­tion, lat­er lead­ing to the Ju­di­cial Ed­u­ca­tion In­sti­tute. Dur­ing that time, he was award­ed the coun­try’s high­est na­tion­al ho­n­our, then known as the Trin­i­ty Cross.

In look­ing back at de la Bastide’s long and il­lus­tri­ous life, many ac­co­lades should be be­stowed on him. The trib­utes be­ing paid lo­cal­ly, re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly at­test to the cal­i­bre of this out­stand­ing cit­i­zen.

T&T will, how­ev­er, pay him a well-earned ho­n­our by ful­ly em­brac­ing the CCJ.