Foreword

• Author: Albert Fiadjoe
• Profession: Professor of Public Law at the University of the West Indies and a former Dean of Law
• Pages: 9-12

The Tanzania Years | ix

FOREWORD

Every now and then, a society gives birth to an individual who

becomes a genius of his craft. When small societies such as ours

produce such individuals, the triumph is all the more remarkable

because the odds are heavily weighted against us. When a Caribbean

genius achieves success some often argue that the conjuncture was

just right or circumstances were fortuitous. Others, however,

understand and accept that the world we wish to create becomes real

as a result of individual effort, talent and ingenuity. Telford Georges

was one such individual, who by his actions and decisions altered the

judicial landscape of the Commonwealth.

This book explores the contribution of Telford Georges to

Caribbean law and jurisprudence. But it is much more than a legal

exposé of a remarkable jurist. It introduces Telford Georges in a

warm, intimate way, sometimes free of the judicial robes that he wore

so frequently in life.

Unquestionably, those who met him and read his judgments knew

at once that his was an extraordinary and brilliant mind. Judges

normally resist the temptation to issue judicial encomiums to other

judges, but in the case of Telford Georges, not even the Privy Council

could resist. Thus, in the Caymanian case of Bertolie, Eisenberg and

Cannistranov Malone Privy Council Appeal No. 50 of 1990 Lord

Oliver had this to say of Telford Georges, then a judge of the Court of

Appeal:

“The arguments and the authorities have been so fully and so

meticulously dispersed in the careful and instructive judgment of

the Court of Appeal delivered by Georges, Justice of Appeal, that it

would be a work of supererogation to their Lordships to repeat what

was there said in a different and probably less felicitous language.”