by Ross Bachiller
Professor Dr Simon Cooper is celebrating 30 years since joining the Cayman Islands Civil Service. The Truman Bodden Law School (TBLS) Senior Lecturer was recruited to the TBLS, part of the Portfolio of Legal Affairs, in 1994, bringing his expertise in land law and property rights.
The Law School marked the 30-year milestone by presenting Dr Cooper with a certificate of appreciation. Director of Legal Studies, Mitchell Davies and Deputy Director Rhian Minty commented that Dr Cooper has made a significant contribution to the growth and academic excellence at TBLS, the wider legal community and the Cayman Islands generally:
“Professor Dr Simon Cooper played an integral part in the development of the Professional Practice Course and continues to lead on analysis of Cayman Islands law and advanced law reform. He is an invaluable asset to the Cayman Islands and the region, and his return to TBLS after a period in the UK was welcomed as he brings with him a significant research and publication portfolio.”
Dr Cooper teaches on both the LL.B. undergraduate programme and the post graduate Professional Practice Course. He is one of nine full time lecturers, who are joined by 15 volunteer Practitioner Tutors on the Professional Practice Course, and four full time administrative staff. The school’s current student enrolment is 80.
Collaboration valued
Dr Cooper has seen significant positive transformation during his time and values the cooperative working relationships across the Civil Service that have aided those developments:
“Things have changed a lot over the last 30 years and I’m grateful that I have had the opportunity to contribute to some major developments in law and practice in Cayman. I knew that I wanted to add extra value to my educational role as soon as I arrived. Straight away – after nearly being killed by a falling coconut! – I started to apply my research and analysis skills to generate ideas for helping make property law and administration more transparent, secure and efficient.
“I was delighted by the generosity of colleagues in the Civil Service in being open to conversations when I first introduced myself, and being receptive to the new ideas and proposals I wanted to share. In my own field of property law, I’m delighted to have had invitations to collaborate with former land registrars, the probate registry, the information commissioner, the ombudsman, past chief surveyors, the beach erosion committee, the Ministry of Lands, the legal portfolio, and many others.
“It is a positive reflection on the Civil Service that so many colleagues have been happy to do these impromptu two-way exchanges of knowledge and experience. They equipped me to be able to draft new technical regulations and to recommend practical policy reforms. A particular highlight was chairing three formal inquiries and seeing my recommendations accepted by government.”
Broad portfolio
Dr Cooper has built up a catalogue of 30 conference speeches and 50 published articles on law and practice in the Cayman Islands, England and the British Overseas Territories, and 3textbooks on Cayman Islands law. His works have been relied upon in judgments of the courts and are used in daily practice by Caymanian lawyers.
The expertise he has built up has been leveraged in his law reform projects and reports in the Cayman Islands and other Overseas Territories. While he was writing on the land rights problems in another Caribbean island, he explains that he was very surprised when the United Nations rang him up in the middle of the night to request an urgent briefing for the UN Secretary-General!
Dr Cooper took a break from the TBLS to work at a UK university, as Head of Research and Professor in Law, before returning to the Civil Service in 2021. During that period, he was head of the property law section of the UK Society for Legal Scholars, where he led the UK university sector’s input into the UK government’s law reform programme. He was made an Honorary Member of the UK Property Bar Association, an Honorary Member of the UK Property Litigation Association, a Fellow of the Cambridge Centre for Property Law, and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.
Looking to the future, Dr Cooper has no plans to slow down. He says: “It might be too optimistic to hope for another 30 years, but there is still a huge amount I want to do. I have just finished a textbook on Cayman inheritance law that comes out this month. It goes along with three volumes of analysis and technical proposals which I have prepared for the Law Reform Commission. And I’m already planning the next project after that for a wider review of land laws in the British Overseas Territories.”
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