04/09/2023

CCJ statement on the passing of Caribbean jurist Alix Boyd Knights

By CCJ

Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. The Caribbean Court of Justice and the CCJ Academy for Law are saddened to learn of the passing of Alix Boyd Knights, the former Speaker of the Dominican Parliament. Boyd Knights reportedly died at her home in Trafalgar, Dominica on Tuesday, 29 August 2023.

Boyd Knights was the longest-serving speaker in Dominica’s history having performed the role from 2000 to 2020 and was designated as Speaker Emerita in February 2020.

This signal honour was bedecked by a lifetime of firsts. She was the first student to complete first year of law studies in a non-campus territory of The University of the West Indies (UWI). While she attended The UWI, Cave Hill, her daughters were at Cave Hill and St Augustine campuses pursuing their tertiary education as well. After the passing of her mother, she took her eight-year-old daughter with her to Barbados to continue her studies and thereafter, to the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. In 2010, she was elected Chairperson of the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians.

For her outstanding contribution to Caribbean law, Speaker Boyd Knights was recognised by the CCJ Academy for Law as a Pioneering Caribbean Woman Jurist in 2021. In composing her profile for this award, Dr Lennox Honychurch wrote:

“Quite apart from her illustrious career in law and Parliamentary affairs in Dominica and the wider Commonwealth for over 30 years, Boyd Knights has been sharing her love for culinary arts with people all over the world. She has used radio, television, Facebook, YouTube, as well as face-to-face sessions, to teach women to cook, preserve, and process food to generate income and to lift themselves from poverty.”

Speaker Boyd Knights repeatedly endorsed her gratitude to have been recognised as a Pioneering Jurist. In truth, her recognition was to the honour of the Academy.

Rest in peace, Speaker Alix Boyd Knights, Pioneering Caribbean Woman Jurist.

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