THE Supreme Court of Judicature on Wednesday, March 13, 2019, held a special full-court sitting to pay tribute to the memory of the late former Attorney General (AG), Sir Fenton Ramsahoye, SC.

Queen’s Counsel, Senior Counsel and Guyana’s first attorney general, Sir Fenton died last December at the age of 89, at the Bayview Hospital in Barbados.

His judgments in criminal and civil law were celebrated as important decisions in local jurisprudence during a full-court sitting of the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Paying glowing tributes to the late former attorney general were Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr. Basil Williams, SC; Ralph Ramkarran, SC; Chandraprakesh Satram; President of the Guyana Bar Association, Kamal Ramkarran; Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Shalimar Ali-Hack; Chief Justice (Ag) Roxane George-Wiltshire; and Chancellor of the Judiciary (Ag), Yonette Cummings-Edwards.

Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, enlightened the gathering, which comprised members of the judiciary, about the life and works of the late Sir Fenton.
Williams explained that Dr. Ramsahoye was a Guyanese lawyer and politician who served for over 20 years in Antigua and Barbuda.

Ramsahoye studied at the University of London, where he was awarded his Bachelor of Laws in 1949 and LLB and LLM in 1953 and 1956, respectively.
He was called to the Bar at Lincoln’s Inn on February 10, 1953 and was awarded a PhD in Comparative Land Law from the London School of Economics and Political Science in 1959.
Ramsahoye was appointed Senior Counsel in Guyana in 1971 and was Deputy Director of Legal Education for the Council of Legal Education in the West Indies and head of the Hugh Wooding Law School as a professor from 1972 to 1975.
“He was the son of the nation’s soil,” Williams said

Meanwhile, Ralph Ramkarran reflected that Ramsahoye was at the forefront of the independence movement. In 1961, he was elected a member of the Legislative Assembly—as Parliament was then known– and remained in Parliament until 1973.
Ramkarran noted that Sir Fenton was the Attorney General of Guyana from 1961 to 1964 under the Cheddi Jagan-led People’s Progressive Party administration, and a member of the Board of Governors of the University of Guyana from 1962 to 1964.

The DPP, Shalimar Ali-Hack, reflected that Ramsahoye appeared for the state in many criminal appeals at the Caribbean Court of Justice, the most recent being the Lusignan Massacre case of Mark Royden Williams and James Anthony Hyles.
“Some people have passed away, but their character has kept them alive; others are alive, but their character has killed them… Sir Fenton’s character will keep him alive,” the director said.