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“In Taylor Hall in 1981, there was a special function to mark the occasion of my receiving the Rhodes Scholarship. At the end of the function, I was thoroughly soaked with one or two buckets of water. This was planned, appropriately, to keep my head from swelling too much. I recall that my friends Alison Anderson, now of the Child Development Agency, and Leighton “Firebun” McKnight of accountancy fame, were among those who encouraged the flow of water. Brothers from KC – including Charlton Collie, now of the Faculty of Medicine – did not rush to my rescue. Returning to UWI was the fulfillment of a longstanding intellectual dream. Being here has given me the chance to take part in the debate about the future of the Caribbean and to witness the personal development of thousands of students…UWI pays me to teach; something that, if I could afford it, I would be prepared to do for nothing.”

Professor Stephen Vasciannie

PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW
DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT
FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
MONA CAMPUS, JAMAICA
Tel: (876) 977-5935 • Email: lisa.vasciannie@uwimona.edu.jm

PROFILE

Professor Stephen Vasciannie is partial to the view that the law ought not to be pursued exclusively from an academic perspective. Thus, although he has thoroughly enjoyed his time in academia, he has also been keen to keep an eye on the practical aspects of his work. Currently, he has maintained the link between theory and practice in the area of law through his participation in the work of the International Law Commission of the United Nations, and until recently, his part-time position as a Deputy Solicitor-General in Jamaica. Prior to joining the staff at Mona in 1994, Professor Vasciannie was an associate at the Wall Street law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, and before that, worked at the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations in New York. At UWI Mona, he has received the Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching, and various Principal’s Awards for research and publications. While he was away from campus as a Smuts Visiting Fellow at Cambridge University, Professor Vasciannie was appointed to a personal chair in International Law in 2002. Professor Vasciannie holds a doctorate in International Law from Oxford University, a starred first in the LLLLM from Cambridge (where he served as a Research Fellow at St. Catharine’s College), and First-Class undergraduate degrees in Jurisprudence and Economics, from Oxford and UWI, respectively.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

Professor Vasciannie’s main research interests are in Public International Law and, increasingly, in Constitutional Law. As to the former, he has conducted research on the Law of the Sea, foreign direct investment and human rights. Human rights issues also form an important part of his research on Constitutional Law, so they form a bridge between his two primary areas of research. With respect to Constitutional Law, Professor Vasciannie has a special interest in matters pertaining to the structure of government (including questions concerning the Caribbean Court of Justice), and in the methods used by courts in identifying binding rules of law.