David Patrick Rowe (May 8, 1959 – January 12, 2018) was a Jamaican-American lawyer, professor, media commentator, corruption watchdog, Commonwealth Caribbean country risk analyst and pioneer in the area of transnational law.
[6] Rowe has been relied upon in US federal court as an expert witness on Jamaican political and legal issues by attorneys representing clients facing Removal.
In November 2013, the Jamaican-American Bar Association recognized Rowe as an "elder statesman" of the Jamaican legal community in the United States and for being a "singular pioneer" for the trans-Caribbean practice.
[7] In December 2013, Rowe was recognized by a group of leading Jamaican attorneys for his 30th year of membership at the Florida Bar, as reported in the Jamaica Observer[8] At the end of 2013, Rowe spearheaded the launch of a program distributing computer tablets to underprivileged youths in the Whitfield Town area of Kingston, as a tribute to his father's humble origins and academic excellence; "There is no reason why Kingston cannot be a hub of technological development", he said.
[9] In early 2014, Rowe received a special award for commitment from the board of directors of Temple Beth Ami of Boca Raton, Florida.
In 2014, Rowe was the lead defense lawyer in a prominent Florida first-degree murder case involving a "stand your ground" motion.
[10] In early April 2014, Rowe commenced his representation of Damion St Patrick Baston[11] in a landmark human trafficking case in US jurisprudence before federal Judge Cecelia Altonaga, as the US seeks extraterritorial implementation of its domestic anti-trafficking policy.
[17] He also convened a symposium, the Caribbean Law Yearbook Conference, in November 2010, that was the first formal academic discussion of the events of the crisis.
He has pioneered the development of the trans-national Caribbean law program at the university which has encouraged exchange of scholarship between West Indian and First World legal scholars.
Rowe endorses the theory of Oxford Professor A. R. Dicey and relates his principles of the rule of law to the Commonwealth Caribbean.
[21] He has also written several articles documenting the urgent need for campaign finance reform in the Commonwealth Caribbean, particularly in Jamaica.
In a later interview with Newstalk, Rowe addressed the question of whether a Senator should resign after engaging in an ultimately unsuccessful challenge for leadership of the political party nominating him.
He cited the derivative relationship of the Senate with the House of Lords and the Westminster model origin of the Jamaican constitution as a basis for his legal reasoning.
[24] In a December 2013 Op-Ed in Caribbean Journal, Rowe identified the continued increase in the murder rate in Jamaica as a national crisis which required aggressive action by Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.
[26] In April 2014, Rowe was an outspoken opponent of a controversial measure introduced by the Jamaican government that would have levied a tax on all withdrawals from banks.
[29] On Monday, October 7, 2013, Rowe appeared on the Independent Talk program on Jamaica's Power 106 to discuss the impact of the Shanique Myrie case in the Caribbean Court of Justice.
On October 8, 2013, in an interview with RJR 94 FM, Rowe emphasized the need for Commonwealth Caribbean governments to comply with the terms of the CBSI and its provisions relating to illicit drug trafficking and citizen security.
Most recently, he served as an expert witness on country conditions in Jamaica for the International Human Rights Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School.
Rowe's testimony was cited by the Immigration Judge as crucial to his that a Jamaican national was entitled to asylum, fearing political violence against his family.
In the summer of 2016, Rowe offered expert opinion in written testimony in a United Kingdom immigration tribunal involving the issue of an asylum request by a Jamaican national in England.
In addition to his legal and political commentary, his work has been published in news outlets and journals, including "Debt Equity Reduction" in the International Law Yearbook and "The Abandonment Doctrine or Is Your Green Card Safe?"
[35] It also takes the memories of those who knew him, including the Queen of the United Kingdom, who personally expressed her condolences upon his death through her Chief Clerk, Gill Middleburgh.
In 2009 he published a short novella of Jamaican life called School Days, which examines racial and social attitudes in contemporary Jamaica.
[37] In attendance were Kingston Mayor Angela Brown-Burke, constitutional scholars Abe Dabdoub and Lloyd Barnett and Ambassador Arnold Foote, current president of the World Federation of Consuls.
In his speech at the launch, Rowe called for equal access to justice for all Jamaicans and use of the law to prevent violence to women and children in society.
In January 2015, Rowe was interviewed extensively on an episode of 18 Degrees North, a Caribbean news magazine program, discussing the US-Jamaica relationship and issues relating to the synergy between US and Jamaican law enforcement.