Dana Seetahal: Unbreakable

Dana Saroop Seetahal SC, was a prominent criminal lawyer and public figure, and her murder on May 4, 2014, rocked Trinidad and Tobago. Seetahal was a former president of the Law Association, an independent senator in four parliaments and a frequent commentator on law and public affairs. Also a former tutor at the Hugh Wooding Law School, she was the author of Commonwealth Caribbean on Criminal Procedure, which filled a lacuna in regional jurisprudence: there was previously no such local or regional text. She was a teacher and mentor to many students and young attorneys.

Yet she also made the time to write these weekly newspaper columns, on a wide range of legal issues and public affairs, for almost 20 years. Why? Her friend and colleague Geoffrey Henderson, now a judge of the International Criminal Court, explains in his foreword, "Dana always had a view on everything, she loved our country and she believed in public service.

Her writing reflected her personality as well as her legal expertise. She was forthright and down to earth, and one of her gifts was that she kept her finger on the national pulse. Thus, this selection of Seetahal's columns includes her comments on governance, controversies of the day and many pieces that explain complex legal issues in straightforward terms for the layman.

This book is also intended to be a lasting part of the legacy she left to the country she loved, and concrete proof that, as Justice Henderson writes, "Dana's voice has not been silenced by the cowards who killed her."