Velma Newton is Washburn Law Visiting Scholar

Public Lecture

All students, faculty, staff, and the public are welcome.

Photograph: Velma Newton.Washburn University School of Law is pleased to host University of the West Indies (UWI) Faculty of Law Dean Velma Newton, October 18-20, 2010, as a visiting scholar. She is the ninth dean to assume leadership of the UWI Faculty of Law which started in 1970. The Cave Hill Campus of the University of the West Indies on Barbados is the host site for the Washburn Law Summer Study Abroad Program.

While at Washburn Law, Dean Newton will present to the faculty about challenges providing legal education in the Commonwealth Caribbean. She will also meet with faculty to learn about programs offered by, and observe legal education at, Washburn Law. Dean Newton will visit the State Capitol, the Kansas Judicial Center, and the Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site during her time in Topeka.

Senator The Honorable Dean Velma Newton, SCM, attorney-at-law, took office as the first female Dean of the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies on August 1, 2009. She teaches in the subject areas of Law Librarianship, Migration Studies, Legal History and Law Reporting.

Dean Newton, whose substantive position is Law Librarian of the University, was also the Deputy Executive Director of the Caribbean Law Institute from its inception in 1988 to 1993. She was in charge of the Institute's Caribbean office which was at the Faculty of Law, Cave Hill and played a crucial part in the drive for reform of commercial laws in the Commonwealth Caribbean which was the mandate of the Institute.

Dean Newton is well known as the author of The Silver Men, which has been described as the seminal work on migration from the Caribbean to Panama during construction of the Panama Canal from 1904-1914.

Dean Newton has been a Member of Parliament as an Independent Senator since 1999 and is currently a member of the Securities Commission of Barbados and the Privy Council of Barbados. In 1995, Dean Newton was awarded the Silver Crown of Merit (SCM) 29th Independence Anniversary Award for her outstanding contribution to the delivery of legal education in Barbados.

Posted October 15, 2010.