Commissioner Archibald’s numerous memberships include: member of the World Methodist Council (1976-1981); member of the Constitutional and International Arbitration Committees of the Washington-based World Association of Lawyers (now known as the World Jurist Association) (1977-2005); member of the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (1987-2005); member of Interights, the London-based International Centre for the Legal Protection of Human Rights (1987-2005); member of a three-man panel of international lawyers appointed to evaluate the Justice System in the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and Barbados under the US Aid/UWI Justice Improvement Project (1989); Member of the London Court of International Arbitrators, the only OECS Member of that international arbitration organization (2001-present) and Patron Member of the World Jurist Association (2003), there being only two other patrons.
Commissioner Archibald’s impressive record has garnered him many distinctions over the years, including a recommendation by the OECS Bar Council in December 1990 to the Heads of Government of the OECS that he be considered for appointment to the Office of Chief Justice of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court. His name stands inscribed on the Rule of Law Monument among 18 names of outstanding Members of the World Jurist Association and donors of the monument, located on the Austro-Hungarian Border in St Margarethen, Austria, marking the high point of the Nineteenth Biennial Conference of the World Jurist Association 7 October 1999. At the University of the West Indies, as of 1990 and 2004 respectively, the Joseph S. Archibald QC International Law Prize has been awarded for distinguished performance by a final year LL.B. student, and the J S Archibald QC Alternate Dispute Resolution Prize to a graduate student.
He was nominated by the Organisation of the Commonwealth Caribbean Bar Associations (OCCBA) and the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Bar Associations to complete the unexpired term of Mr. Othniel Sylvester, who resigned from the Regional Judicial & Legal Services Commission because of ill health. He was sworn in as a member of RJLSC on 7 July 2006, by the President of the CCJ and Chairman of the RJLSC, the Right Honourable Mr. Justice Michael de la Bastide, and reappointed on 20 August 2010.
In 1965, the then Mr. Archibald married the former Inez Hodge of the British Virgin Islands, Speaker of the Legislative Council of the British Virgin Islands from July 2003 to the present. There are three adult daughters of the marriage.