Hailed for his contributions towards the jurisprudence of the Caribbean and his swiftness in writing judgments, a special sitting of the Full Court was this morning convened to honour the life and works of late Chief Justice,a.g, Ian Chang C.C.H, S.C.
Justice Chang, who also served as a Justice of Appeal and State Counsel passed away on November 16, 2019 after battling cancer. He would have turned 69 on Sunday. He served in the legal fraternity for over three decades.
He retired as acting Chief Justice in 2016, and thereafter went into private practice.
Among those present at the ceremony held at the Court of Appeal in Kingston were Chancellor of the Judiciary Yonette Cummings-Edwards, Justices of Appeal Rishi Persaud and Dawn Gregory and Judges of the High Court.
Also in attendance were several Senior Counsel including Director Public Prosecutions (DPP) Shalimar Ali-Hack, former Attorney General and Justice of Appeal Charles Ramson Senior, Robin Stoby and Stephen Fraser.
During the almost two-hour long proceedings which also marked Justice Chang’s twenty fourth wedding anniversay to his lovely wife, many reflected on the life and work of this legal luminary. Justice Chang was remembered for his commitment towards legal research.
According to Chancellor Cummings-Edwards, Justice Chang was an avid reader and a keen student. She added that the late Senior Counsel had an thirsty appetite for the law.
She said, “His passion for the law caused him to go into deep thinking. He was a fountain of knowledge, his intellect was phenomenal.”
The Chancellor remembered Justice Chang as someone who loved challenging, complex and controversial issues; he presided over several controversial constitutional matters.
But despite his many accomplishments, the Chancellor said that Justice Chang remained humble and was an avid animal lover. She said Justice Chang was someone who was always willing to take law to new frontiers.
“Justice Ian Chang has left a rich legacy,” the Chancellor concluded.
DPP, Ali-Hack recounted that she has much to thank Justice Chang for as he taught her in areas in both criminal and civil practice. She cited several famous cases in which Justice Chang presided over- one of them being the case of convicted drug trafficker Barry Dataram vs the State.
In that case, Dataram was seeking to fight extradition to the United States of America to face drug related charges. According to her, Justice Chang handed down “well reasoned decisions.”
The DPP said, “Justice Chang was a hard worker. And while he was a Justice of Appeal, he would go down to the High Court to sit in the criminal assizes to ease the backlog. He loved the law. He played with the interpretation and application of the law.”
“He was especially strict in that a person’s fundamental rights are not to be breached. He knew no discrimination. He was a simple person.. not one for push pump and thrills of the legal profession. He preferred not to wear a tie or a suit…,” the DPP continued.
Justice Chang completed his secondary education at the St. Stanislaus College. From there, he travelled to the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus in Barbados from where he obtained his Bachelor’s of Law degree. He was admitted to the Bar upon completing his Legal Education Certificate (LEC) at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago.
He has written almost 400 judgments, an achievement no other past or sitting judge has accomplished to date.
