Lucky gets UN post

APPEAL Court Judge Anthony Lucky has retired from the TT Bench to take up the position of Judge of the International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea to which he was officially elected at the United Nations headquarters in New York yesterday. Justice Lucky was elected by 92 of the 96 representatives of the contracting nations who attended the session, voting by secret ballot. The 63-year-old Appeal Court judge was elected to replace TT’s Lennox Ballah who died last April and is expected to serve out Ballah’s term on the UN tribunal which ends in September 2011. The International Tribunal of the Law of the Sea comprises 21 judges who meet twice annually in New York, but the Court sits in Hamburg, Germany, at different times of the year to deal with disputes among states relating to maritime matters. The Tribunal was set up under the umbrella of the United Nations by Treaty signed by 142 high contracting parties from whom the judges are selected.

Contacted last night at his New York hotel, Justice Lucky told Newsday that it was “an honour and a privilege that the United Nations body has accepted the candidate nominated by Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the Caribbean.” He hopes to give to the court his knowledge and experience in the law in general and in the field of its particular jurisdiction. Justice Lucky, who was called to the Bar at Gray’s Inn in 1958,  joined the Bench in July 1987 and was appointed to the Appeal Court in October 2001. Before becoming a judge, he served as a magistrate for ten years and as Legal Adviser to Associated Companies of Royal Bank now RBTT Bank. Between 1972 and 1975, he obtained a Diploma in International Relations at UWI on a TT government post-graduate scholarship and his Master’s degree on the basis of his thesis “Legal Problems of the Law of the Sea in the Relationship between Trinidad and Tobago and Venezuela.” He is a guest lecturer on the Law of the Sea at the Institute of International Relations. Justice Lucky is married to the former Cintra Gopaulsingh and is the father of four daughters. A Catholic, he is active in his home parish of St Benedict, La Romaine. He is a keen cricket fan and a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the West Indies Cricket Board.