President of the Court of Appeal – Justice Anthony Fernando
Justice Anthony Francis Tissa Fernando, was sworn in on the 1st of June 2020, as the President of the Court of Appeal of Seychelles by the President of the Republic of Seychelles.
Justice Fernando is also a Visiting Justice of Appeal of the Court of Appeal of Fiji since 2015. He was appointed a Justice of the Court Appeal of Seychelles in 2009. Prior to his appointment Justice Fernando was the Attorney General of the Seychelles for 10 years, from January 1999 to 2009. He joined the Attorney General’s department of Seychelles in 1991 and was promoted as the Principal State Counsel in the year 1992. Prior to coming over to the Seychelles, he served as a State Counsel/Senior State Counsel in the Attorney General’s department of Sri Lanka for 11 years, having been admitted to the Bar in Sri Lanka in 1979.
Justice Fernando has had several of his judgments in criminal, constitutional, election, and civil law published in the Law Reports of the Commonwealth (LRC). He is also a UNODC expert on Maritime Piracy, having written widely on this subject and made several presentations in international forums and academic institutions. He is a Peer Reviewer for the Commonwealth Law Bulletin, a member of the Consultancy Pool for Rule of Law Projects in the Commonwealth Secretariat, and a member of the Steering Committee of the Africa Regional Judges’ Forum on HIV/TB, Human Rights & the Law. He has also served as an executive committee member of the International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities.
His publications include books and articles published in the Commonwealth Law Bulletin on constitutional law, election law, criminal law, maritime piracy and international arbitration. He has been a guest speaker and presented papers at several international conferences around the world, on a number of issues including international cooperation in criminal justice matters, anti-corruption, and ICSID arbitration.
In addition, Justice Fernando has been a lecturer in law on various subjects at the Open University of Sri Lanka, Sri Lanka Law College, and the University of Seychelles. He was the chairperson of the Advisory Board of the Judicial College of Seychelles and an Examiner for the admission of Attorneys at Law in Seychelles.
Justice Fernando obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of Colombo in September 1978 and was an O’Brien Fellow in Residence at the McGill Centre for Human Rights and Legal Pluralism, McGill University, Montreal in 2013. While a student at the Sri Lanka Law College he won the Hector Jayawardene Gold Medal for the Address to the Jury. He was the President of the Law Students Union in 1977.