Gordon Ward

Sir Frederick Gordon Roy Ward OBE is a retired British judge who has served in various countries of the Commonwealth.

For other people named Gordon Ward, see Gordon Ward (disambiguation).

Early life

He was educated in England, obtaining a BSc in botany, zoology and geology, and then taught biology in Northern Ireland.

Career

Ward studied law and was called to the bar at the Middle Temple and practiced from chambers in London for 12 years.[1]

In 1979 he went to the South Pacific, where he first worked in Fiji for six and a half years. He then served as a judge on the Court of Appeal of the Solomon Islands where, from circa 1988 to 1992, he was Chief Justice.[2] He then moved to Tonga to become Chief Justice of Tonga and a judge of the Supreme Court of Tonga.[3] In 1995 he moved to serve as a judge in Cyprus before returning in 1998 to serve a second term as Chief Justice of Tonga, resigning in 2004 in protest at attempts to ban the Times of Tonga newspaper, a paper unsympathetic to the government, a move which he considered to be unconstitutional.

On leaving this post he took up a new position as the President of the Appeal Court of Fiji.[4] In 2007, following the December 2006 military coup, Ward and five other judges resigned as judges of the courts of Fiji.[5]

He was the Chief Justice of the Turks and Caicos Islands from 2008 to 2012 and was knighted in the 2012 New Year Honours for services to the judiciary in the Turks and Caicos Islands and the Commonwealth.[6]

Ward was the Chief Justice of the High Court of Tuvalu from 2001 to 2016.[3][4] In May 2013 the Chief Justice ruled on the application of the Tuvaluan Opposition regarding the calling of a by-election for the vacant seat in Nukufetau,[7] which led to the 2013 Nukufetau by-election.[8] The Chief Justice was forced to conduct the legal proceedings by email as a consequence of being unable to travel from New Zealand to Tuvalu via Fiji as the Fijian government refused to provide Sir Gordon Ward with a visa that allowed him to travel from New Zealand to Fiji and then to transit to Tuvalu.[9][4][10][11]

gollark: Of course, in the interweb era™ "book" has become somewhat generalized, and often refers to the content itself, as this can be shipped as an "ebook".
gollark: <@213674115700097025>
gollark: Books:- mostly used to refer to objects of bound paper with covers (covers can be various materials, often card/harder paper)- paper inside the book ("pages") typically contains information about a topic encoded as patterns of ink on them- topics can include someone's notes on a subject, or something intended for wider distribution/other people such as a story/set of stories ("fiction") which did not really occur, or true information ("non-fiction")- cover generally contains art related to the contents, as well as what the book is named ("title") and who wrote it ("author")- the back will often contain a "blurb" describing the contents somewhat, as well as potentially reviews by others
gollark: The inevitability of book is inevitably inevitable.
gollark: I think I've *told* Tux1 about them a few times, so it's their fault.

References
  1. "21ST PACIFIC JUDICIAL CONFERENCE 2014". Retrieved 19 February 2016.
  2. http://pidp.eastwestcenter.org/pireport/2004/April/04-22-02.htm
  3. Susan Boyd (2003), "Australian judges at work internationally", Australian Law Journal, vol. 77, p. 303 at 305.
  4. "Tuvalu govt yet to address Fiji travel ban on Chief Justice". Radio New Zealand International. 14 August 2013. Retrieved 14 August 2013.
  5. "Two Malaysian judges appointed to Fiji Court of Appeal". Radio New Zealand International. 4 September 2007. Retrieved 26 September 2011.
  6. "No. 60009". The London Gazette (Supplement). 31 December 2011. p. 2.
  7. "Attorney General, In re Application under Section 131(1) of the Constitution of Tuvalu [2014] TVHC 15; Civil Case 1.2013 (24 May 2013)". PACLII. Retrieved 5 April 2015.
  8. Matau, Robert (June 2013). "Tuvalu's high court orders by-election to be held". Island Business. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 23 January 2014.
  9. "Tuvalu Judge unable to transit via Fiji". Cook Islands News. Retrieved 28 April 2014.
  10. "Tuvalu hopes Fiji's travel ban on chief justice sorted quickly". Radio New Zealand International. 16 August 2013. Retrieved 16 August 2013.
  11. "Visa issue between Chief Justice Ward and Fiji Government says Tuvalu PM". Island Business from FENUI NEWS/PACNEWS. 22 January 2014. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 23 January 2014.


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