Guyana is currently in the process of conducting a feasibility study on the establishment of a law school here in the country and according to Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, further work will commence in the new year.
During his weekly programme – Issues In the News, Nandlall disclosed that once that study is completed, the findings would be sent to the Council for Legal Education (CLE), which administers legal professional education in the Caribbean at law schools throughout the region under the Caricom Treaty, for further action.
“We’ve gotten the greenlight from the Council of Legal Education to begin the preparatory work. A feasibility study is being worked on. It will be completed early next year and a report would be submitted to the Council of Legal Education,” the Attorney General stated.
Back in September, the Council for Legal Education in the Caribbean region agreed to accept a proposal from Guyana to set up its own law school. The Council subsequently outlined the requirements the country needed to fulfil including the conduct of a feasibility study, which Cabinet agreed to do.
At present, the Council-operated laws schools in the Caribbean are the Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago; Norman Manley Law School, Kingston, Jamaica; and Eugene Dupuch Law School, Nassau, Bahamas.
For nearly three decades, Guyana has been trying to establish a law school within its jurisdiction as law students are forced to attend the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. However, only the top 25 law students from Guyana are allowed each year into the programme.
Moreover, the high cost of living in Trinidad has deterred many persons from further pursuing a legal career; in response, the Guyana Government now offers limited fully-funded scholarships to Hugh Wooding Law School.
Under the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Administration, attempts were made to establish the Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes Law School. However, the Council was not approached about the project initially and when permission was eventually sought, it was denied in late 2017.
AG Nandlall reiterated during his programme that any law school that is established in Guyana will be done under the ambit of the Council. This, he explained, will also enable the country to capitalise on the overcrowding at the other institutions across the Region.
“The Government of Guyana will work in tandem with the Council of Legal Education and this law school that will be accommodated in Guyana will be a law school of the Council of Legal Education, it’s not going to be a Guyana law school. It will be a regional institution within the framework of the Council of Legal Education legislation that is in all the territories.
“It’s going to be like the Hugh Wooding Law School, like the Normal Manley Law School and it will be zoned to accommodate, of course, Guyanese students but more importantly, students from across the Caribbean. It will be a West Indian regional educational institution. Work will begin earnestly on that in the year 2023,” the Attorney General posited.
