“Law is meant to produce something good,” says Professor Rose-Marie Belle Antoine.

It’s a statement that encompasses her outlook and, in some respects, her career. She’s an award-winning legal scholar, an author, an advocate for social justice, and a public intellectual. To the community that populates the St Augustine Campus however, she’s recognised as the first Dean of the Faculty of Law at UWI St Augustine, a journey she completed at the end of July.

“I was given a huge but exciting task,” she remarks in an interview by telephone.

These last few months, Prof Antoine has been writing and speaking in the media, giving her insights on the legal ramifications of compulsory vaccinations for COVID-19. Many are happy to hear from her again. For years she has shared her expertise on legal and social matters in public fora, but a serious car accident on December 31, 2020 forced her to concentrate on recovery.

“It was very scary,” she says of the experience, “but also uplifting. I received thousands of well-wishes. That really uplifted me. I had no clue that so many people knew me.”

It’s hardly surprising, as Dean she has not only ensured that the Law Faculty has become widely known in the eight years of her tenure and the nine years of its existence (the faculty officially started in 2012 under an interim dean and she was appointed the first dean in 2013), but she has also engaged its staff and students to address numerous matters of national and international importance. Migrants, sustainability, First Peoples’ rights, remand injustice, gender, marijuana decriminalisation, children’s rights, and on and on, the faculty has been a constant presence, providing its scholarship, legal expertise, and advocacy for a host of issues.

“One of our big successes is our outreach and continuing legal education,” Prof Antoine says. “When we started, people had no idea there was a law faculty. Certainly, we have made our presence felt. In the community, country and even the region in some respects. We have even ventured internationally.”

In 2019, the Faculty of Law made history in holding two coveted hearings before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, on Migrants and Refugees, and on Remand Injustice. This was the first time The UWI has presented formally to an international body.

The Faculty of Law was officially launched on April 15, 2014 (it started as a fully-fledged faculty in 2012). Culture change, along with staff shortages, were two of the main challenges the faculty faced. Another was the plan to move the faculty to The UWI South Campus in Debe/Penal. In 2017, law students and some lecturers protested against the move. Eventually, the plan was scrapped.

Prof Antoine is also proud to have overseen the addition of cutting-edge courses added to the curriculum, such as Oil and Gas Law, Banking Law, Entertainment Law and Sports Law. The self-financed LLM and PHD programmes, which she developed, are also very successful and the envy of other campuses. Important too are the tremendous developments in terms of the now well established conferences and workshops, supported by significant private sector sponsorship and an administrative staff whose expertise has been honed by these initiatives. She is also pleased to see the flourishing of research and publication in such a young faculty.

The students, led by a now vibrant Student Law Society, have also accomplished much in terms of publishing their magazine and their own community outreach.

Despite the challenges therefore, Prof Antoine feels great pride in the accomplishments of her staff and students. “When I look back, we have done so much work and we have grown so much,” she says.

In its second year of operations (Academic Year 2014/2015), the Faculty of Law had an enrollment of 309 students. In 2019/2020, that enrollment had risen to 487 students. These numbers though, don’t tell the complete story of the enormous interest students have in studying at the faculty, including increasingly, regional students. They limit intake to 150 students per year. Apart from acceptance into the faculty on academic merit, they also put in place a quota for applicants from law enforcement, as well as mature students and students with disabilities.

One of the most interesting legal education initiatives created under Prof Antoine’s leadership is the Makandal Daaga Scholarship in Law. The scholarship was created to give opportunities to students who would not normally qualify using the competitive academic criteria for Law but who do so because of an outstanding record of social activism, thereby expanding access, a UWI strategic goal. The first winner, Sea Lots community activist Kareem Marcelle, was selected in academic year 2017/2018. The second, Suana Sookdeo, was awarded the scholarship in 2020. The scholarship is an example of her vision of law as an instrument for social engineering.

“It’s one of my proudest moments as Dean,” says Prof Antoine on the creation of the scholarship.

Perhaps the most impactful example of this approach is the creation of the Faculty of Law’s International Human Rights Clinic (IHRC). Established in just the faculty’s second year of existence, and fueled by a landmark European Union funded grant the Faculty won to implement a project entitled “Growing Capacity for Elevating Trinidad and Tobago to International Human Rights Standards”, the IHRC is essentially the headquarters for their advocacy education, research, staff development, film-making and outreach activities.

Through the IHRC, the Faculty of Law has carried out an enormous amount of work. It is an innovative learning and activist tool which combines academia, legal practice and advocacy.

A course was created to support the IHRC and students work with NGOs, attorneys and even international organisations such as the UN Refugee organisation. In academic year 2018/2019, the faculty won another big grant, this time from the European Development Fund, for training, public discussions, research and litigation, on a host of social justice issues.

A third EU grant was secured to interrogate issues on Remand Injustice with Special Emphasis on Domestic Violence Female Remandees, which examines the undue delays persons on remand in Trinidad and Tobago suffer while awaiting trial – sometimes as much as 21 years. This issue is close to Prof Antoine’s heart.

Trinidad and Tobago has the unenviable record of having the largest remandee population in the Caribbean and for the longest periods. This led to another historic first – the Faculty, partnering with invited attorneys from the firm of Gregory Delzin, initiated a constitutional claim before the High Court to declare this practice a violation of human rights. Dean Antoine, together with colleague lecturer Afiya France, is also pursuing another landmark case before the Equal Opportunities Tribunal, on alleged discrimination at work due to mental disability.

Prof Antoine says she’s not sure what the future holds. She is “blessed to have options” but hasn’t made a decision yet.

“For now I need to re-centre,” she says. “I’m also going to do some writing. I also want to continue my advocacy in a more targeted way.”