The Chairman and members of the Council, the principals, staff, students and graduates of the
three schools salute the brilliance, wisdom and eloquence of the Hon Mr. Justice C. Dennis
Morrison OJ. CD. KC on his passing.

A proud alumnus and a member of the first cohort of students at the Faculty of Law, University
of the West Indies and the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS), Justice Morrison received the
Certificate of Merit and was called to the Bar in Jamaica in 1975.

A former Rhodes Scholar, Justice Morrison impacted the lives of countless practitioners.
Immediately following his graduation from NMLS, he had a brief stint as a full- time Tutor, a credit
to his maturity and early mastery in the law. He was appointed as an Associate Tutor and Course
Director for the Law of Evidence in 1977 and remained teaching at NMLS until 2021.

Justice Morrison practised for several years, appearing as an advocate in Jamaica, elsewhere in
the Commonwealth Caribbean and in the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council. He was
appointed Queens’ Counsel in 1994 and elected Honorary Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn in 2019.

Justice Morrison was appointed as a Judge in the Court of Appeal of Jamaica in 2008 and retired
after serving as its President in 2020. He also served as a judge in the Court of Appeal in Belize,
the Eastern Caribbean, and the Cayman Islands. He was appointed as the President of the Turks
& Caicos Island Court of Appeal in 2021 and was also the Vice Chairman for the Judicial Education
Institute there. His eloquence and keen insight, as expressed through his practice and seen in his
judgments, have contributed greatly to the jurisprudence of law in the Caribbean.

Justice Morrison continually demonstrated his commitment to the delivery of a high quality of
legal education. He was a member of the Council of Legal Education and held the highest office
as Chairman of the Council of Legal Education from 1998 to 2005. In his role as Chairman he
introduced a strategic plan for the Council. He was instrumental in the reform of the curriculum
courses offered at each of the Council’s law Schools. One example of that reform which he
introduced was the transition of the course “Status Rights and Obligations of the Legal
Profession” to what is now “Ethics, Rights and Obligations of the Legal Profession”.

Justice Morrison was a frequent lecturer at local, regional and international conferences and
seminars. He published numerous academic articles on a variety of legal subjects and had a
special interest in continuing legal education and judicial training.

In 2019, one of the mock trial courts at the NMLS was named in honour of his contribution to
legal education.
Justice Morrison was the crystallization of the concept of the Caribbean Lawyer contemplated by
the founding fathers of the Council and alluded to in the preamble of the Agreement Establishing
the Council of Legal Education. He was a graduate with high ethical standards and exceptional
legal skills and techniques acquired at the Norman Manley Law School, who employed those skills
not to prove his competence, but with due regard to the impact of law as an instrument of orderly
social and economic change. He employed those skills in every sphere of endeavour in which the
same could properly be used in furtherance of the Council’s ideal; as Attorney-at Law, Teacher,
Writer, Mentor, Mediator and Judge.

The Council expresses its sincere gratitude to Justice Morrison for his service to Council not only
through his membership and Chairmanship of Council and his guidance and direction on
overarching policy with respect to legal professional and vocational training, but also for the forty
four (44) years that he willingly, graciously and without complaint engaged in teaching at the
Council’s Norman Manley Law School.

The Council of Legal Education pays homage to and gives thanks for this gentle and humble giant
who endeared himself to all. He will be greatly missed and fondly remembered.

We extend our sincere condolences to Janet, his wife, his children, and the rest of his family.