University of Guyana Law Professor Justice (Ret'd) Courtney A. Abel has earned a second major regional honour this year, receiving the 2026 Organisation of Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA) Award for Distinguished Service to the Legal Profession and the Judiciary.
Head of the Department of Law, Faculty of Social Sciences, Abel was presented with the award virtually during the OCCBA Retreat on July 25, following his selection by the organisation's 16 member bar associations and its Executive Council. It recognises his contributions to the legal profession across the Commonwealth Caribbean, including his service to the Judiciary of Belize and his work with OCCBA and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Bar Association.
The recognition follows an inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award presented to Abel by the Society of Caribbean Lawyers earlier this year. Abel said the OCCBA award was especially meaningful, coming from "what I regard as my professional family: the organised Bars of the Commonwealth Caribbean."
He described his regional work over the years as part of a "broader movement towards Caribbean self-authorship," focused on strengthening bar associations, protecting judicial independence and giving Caribbean lawyers a collective voice.
Abel's career has spanned legal practice, judicial service as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Belize, and leadership roles within regional bodies including the OECS Bar Association and the Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Association. He said these experiences have shaped his belief that "law cannot properly be understood apart from the society whose life it orders."
At the University of Guyana, Abel said he wants students to grasp not just legal rules but "the society in which those rules operate, the histories which produced them, and the responsibility they inherit for improving them" — a philosophy that continues to guide him in his role as Head of the Department of Law.