Dennis Byron
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Sir Charles Michael Dennis Byron was born in 1943 in Basseterre, Saint Kitts, the first of four children to Vincent and Pearl Byron.
Having won the Leeward Islands Scholarship, Dennis, as he is usually called, went on to read law at the world-renowned Cambridge University, U.K., in 1962, before being called to the Bar at the Honourable Society of the Inner Temple as Barrister-at-Law of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales.
Sir Dennis graduated with an M.A and LL.B. from Cambridge University in 1966. In 1965 he was called to the Bar at the Hon. Society of Inner Temple as Barrister-at-Law of the High Court of Justice in England. He worked in private practice as a Barrister-at Law throughout Leeward Islands, with Chambers in Saint Kitts, Nevis and Anguilla from 1966 to 1982, before being appointed as a High Court Judge.
In 1982-1990 he served as a High Court Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court (ECSC), with special assignment as Acting Chief Justice of Grenada in relation to the Maurice Bishop murder trial. Sir Dennis Byron has attended numerous Conferences on Judicial Reform Programmes and he is particularly interested in Judicial Education Activities. He is the current President of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute (CJEI). The Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court Judicial Reform Program had its genesis with Sir Dennis Byron.
He acted as Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court from 1996 and was confirmed in April of 1999.
In the year 2000 he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II.
In 2004, he received the title "Right Honourable", when he became only the second Kittitian to be appointed to Her Majesty's Privy Council (behind Dr. the Right Honourable Sir Kennedy Simmonds, who led St. Kitts-Nevis to Independence, and then became its first Prime Minister).
Sir Dennis Byron was granted leave of absence in April 2004, by the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States Heads of Government to take up a three-year appointment in the continent of Africa, where he assumed the post of permanent judge of the United Nations War Crimes Tribunal for Rwanda, replacing Justice Lloyd George Williams, who resigned in March 2005. He will serve out the remainder of Judge Williams’ term, which expires on 24 May 2007.
