Samuel Lungole Awich is a Commonwealth jurist, whose career has taken him from his native

Uganda }), is a landlocked country in East Africa. The country is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The sou ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

, the

Solomon Islands Solomon Islands is an island country consisting of six major islands and over 900 smaller islands in Oceania, to the east of Papua New Guinea and north-west of Vanuatu. It has a land area of , and a population of approx. 700,000. Its capit ...

, and for the past decade

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

Career

Early career

Awich began his legal career as a state counsel in Botswana in 1976, and sat on the bench as a Senior Magistrate in 1980, Principal Magistrate in 1981, Acting Registrar and Master of the High Court in 1983, and Deputy Registrar in 1989. He held those positions until 1993, when he went into private practice with Kgodi and Partners. In 1994 he moved to the

, where he became the Registrar of the High Court and the Court of Appeal. In 1995 he became the Commissioner of the High Court, and was appointed a judge of the High Court in 1996.

On the Supreme Court of Belize

Awich was sworn in as a justice of the Supreme Court of Belize on 2 April 2001 by Chief Justice of Belize, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh of Sierra Leone. In September 2009, the Belize Bar Association met to discuss Awich's delays in delivering judgments in many of his cases; he had the highest number of cases with long-delayed rulings, due to the lack of civil division judges and adjustments requested, with eleven of fifteen cases pending for four to six years, which the BBA described as a breach of the litigants' constitutional right to a fair hearing in a reasonable period of time; they formally invited Awich to resign. Then-Attorney General of Belize, Attorney General Wilfred Elrington criticised the Belize Bar Association's comments, describing them as inviting political interference in the judiciary and eroding public confidence; sitting judges similarly condemned the BBA's actions as "scandalous". When Chief Justice of Belize, Chief Justice Abdulai Conteh reached the retirement age of 65 in August 2010, Prime Minister of Belize, PM Dean Barrow made the controversial decision not to extend his term. Late that month it was indicated that Awich would likely become acting CJ until a new CJ could be found. He was sworn in as acting CJ on 4 October 2010. In statements at the time, he expressed support for harsher punishments for criminals. He was originally only supposed to hold the post until January 2011, but ended up holding the post well into the 2011 session while the search for a new CJ continued. At the ceremonial opening of the Supreme Court in 2011, he also criticised opponents of the Caribbean Court of Justice, and the arrangement whereby Barristers in England and Wales, English barristers could represent clients in the courts of Belize even though there was no reciprocal arrangement for Belizean attorneys to act likewise in Courts of England and Wales, English courts. He held the position until September, when he was succeeded by Kenneth Benjamin (judge), Kenneth Benjamin. In May 2012, he was sworn in as a Justice of the Court of Appeal, serving under Court of Appeal President Manuel Sosa (judge), Manuel Sosa.

Personal life

Awich received his Bachelor of Laws, LLB with Second Class Honours at Makerere University in Kampala, and went on to earn a diploma from the nearby Law Development Centre.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Awich, Samuel Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Chief justices of Belize Makerere University alumni Ugandan judges Ugandan judges on the courts of Botswana Ugandan judges on the courts of Belize Ugandan judges on the courts of the Solomon Islands