James Christopher Aboud (born 1956) is a

Trinidad and Tobago Trinidad and Tobago (, ), officially the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, is the southernmost island country in the Caribbean. Consisting of the main islands Trinidad and Tobago, and numerous much List of islands of Trinidad and Tobago, small ...

High Court judge and poet.

Personal life

He is the son of Jimmy Aboud and Lily Elias Aboud. He has three brothers, Gregory, Stephen and Gary Aboud, and one sister, Linda Aboud-Stephen.

Career

He attended the

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO), also known as Western University or Western, is a public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thames Ri ...

where he received a degree in English literature. He then attended the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

, receiving a

post-graduate diploma A postgraduate diploma (PgD, PgDip, PGDip, PG Dip., PGD, Dipl. PG, PDE) is a postgraduate qualification awarded after a university degree, which supplements the original degree and awards them with a graduate diploma. Countries that award postg ...

in international relations from the

St. Augustine Augustine of Hippo ( , ; la, Aurelius Augustinus Hipponensis; 13 November 354 – 28 August 430), also known as Saint Augustine, was a theologian and philosopher of Berber origin and the bishop of Hippo Regius in Numidia, Roman North Af ...

campus and an LLB from the Cave Hill campus. He was called to the bar of

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is ...

and Trinidad and Tobago in 1984.

Literary career

Aboud's

poems Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings in ...

are published under his full name "James Christopher Aboud." He has published two volumes of

poetry Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meanings ...

: ''The Stone Rose'' (1986) and'' Lagahoo Poems'' (2003). Aboud's work has been published in various literary magazines and Caribbean

anthologies In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically catego ...

. In 1994, he was awarded the James Rodway Poetry Prize.

Legal career

He served as commissioner of the

Public Utilities Commission In the United States, it is a governing body of a utility. In Canada, it is a utility, not a regulatory body. Canada In Canada, a public utilities commission (PUC) is a public utility owned and operated by a municipal or local government under t ...

from 1987-1993. In January 2006, he was appointed to the High Court where he served at the Supreme Court in San Fernando until December 2007. In 2010, he was appointed a permanent judge of the High Court. He was chairman of the committee that wrote the ''Handbook on Damages for False Imprisonment and Malicious Prosecution in Trinidad and Tobago''. As a High Court judge, Aboud heard the case of ''Kublalsingh and Others v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago'', which concerned the

construction Construction is a general term meaning the art and science to form objects, systems, or organizations,"Construction" def. 1.a. 1.b. and 1.c. ''Oxford English Dictionary'' Second Edition on CD-ROM (v. 4.0) Oxford University Press 2009 and ...

of a major

highway A highway is any public or private road or other public way on land. It is used for major roads, but also includes other public roads and public tracks. In some areas of the United States, it is used as an equivalent term to controlled-access ...

in Trinidad and Tobago. An injunction was sought to stop the construction of the multibillion-dollar highway, but the court refused it. He also heard ''Rambachan v Warner,'' where

Trinidadian Trinidadians and Tobagonians, colloquially known as Trinis or Trinbagonians, are the people who are identified with the country of Trinidad and Tobago. The country is home to people of many different national, ethnic and religious origins. As a ...

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

Surujrattan Rambachan sued Jack Warner for

defamation Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defi ...

. In July 2016, the case was settled by a TT$375,000 payment from Warner. He was also the judge for the case of ''Jack Warner v Attorney General of Trinidad and Tobago'', in which the

extradition Extradition is an action wherein one jurisdiction delivers a person accused or convicted of committing a crime in another jurisdiction, over to the other's law enforcement. It is a cooperative law enforcement procedure between the two jurisd ...

to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

of former FIFA executive Jack Warner was being contested. On 28 September 2017, Aboud issued a 50-page decision, allowing the extradition while granting Warner 28 days for an additional appeal. On 30 October 2020, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal.

References

20th-century Trinidad and Tobago lawyers Trinidad and Tobago poets Living people 1956 births Place of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Trinidad and Tobago judges {{Trinidad-writer-stub