The President of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Justice Adrian Saunders has stated that the former acting chief justice of Guyana, Ian Chang, has made an important contribution to the development of Guyanese and Caribbean jurisprudence, according to a CMC report.
“The judicial and legal profession in Guyana has lost a true champion of the law. Justice Chang will be sadly missed,” Justice Saunders was quoted by CMC as saying in a statement of Justice Chang who died at the Balwant Singh Hospital in Guyana after losing the battle against cancer.
Justice Saunders said Chang has to his name, “several outstanding judgments that are indelibly recorded in the law reports”.
“These judgments span an impressive range of subject areas again demonstrating the breadth of his knowledge of the law and his utter devotion to it,” Justice Saunders said, adding that he had known Justice Chang for more than 50 years dating back to their years as students at the Law Faculty of the Cave Hill campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI).
“Ian’s passion for the law, for legal argument, for interrogating the most esoteric nuances of the law is legendary. It was no surprise to me that he ultimately achieved high judicial office in his native Guyana,” Justice Saunders was quoted by CMC as saying.
Justice Ian Chang was laid to rest on Tuesday. Those among the attendees included Former Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, Prime Minister (acting) Khemraj Ramjattan, Guyana Elections Commission (GECOM) Retired Justice Claudette Singh, Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Basil Williams, among others.
Justice Chang was labelled as “a man of honour who lived a life of selfless service to Guyana, who impacted the lives of many persons”.
The former Judge served in the capacity of acting Chief Justice for 15 years at the Demerara High Court.
Justice Chang went off on annual leave in December 2015 ahead of his February 2016 retirement. During his tenure as a Judge, he presided over some highly-controversial constitutional cases in Guyana.
