Clearing of 8-acre land for Guyana’s 1st law school within days – AG at site visit

Less than two weeks after it was announced that Guyana has gotten the green light to establish its own Council of Legal Education (CLE)-accredited law school, works will soon commence to clear the plot of land within the University of Guyana (UG) Turkeyen Campus that will house the building.
On Thursday afternoon, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, SC, accompanied by Vice-Chancellor of the University of Guyana Professor Paloma Mohamed, Christopher Ram and other officials of the University of Guyana, visited the site earmarked for the building.

In a post on his social media page following the site visit, AG Nandlall said the eight-acre plot of land will house the edifice and other facilities relating to the Caribbean’s newest addition to its current complement of law schools.
“The clearing of the lands will commence in the next few days. It is the Government’s hope to have the law school up and running in the shortest possible time,” the Attorney General said in the Facebook post.
With the site heavily vegetated, Nandlall told Guyana Times after the visit that they are clearly preparing the land for the actual construction of the building.
The plan and architectural design of the new law school, he explained, are already drawn up and were part of the proposal that was presented to the West Indies’ CLE and approved.
Funding for the law school will be included in the next budgetary cycle, and thereafter, the procurement process to select a contractor will commence.
At his September 7 inauguration ceremony following the recent General and Regional Elections, President Dr Irfaan Ali disclosed that Guyana got approval to pursue this highly anticipated project.
“Based on the recent approval granted by the Council for Legal Education, we will commence work immediately on the establishment of Guyana’s very own law school,” Dr Ali declared after being sworn in earlier this month to serve a second term in office.
Over the last two years, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration has been working to get permission from the CLE to establish a much-needed law school here. The CLE is a regional organisation which operates the Hugh Wooding Law School in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas.
Guyana had previously conducted a feasibility study for the establishment of a local law school, and the findings were handed over to the CLE last September. Additionally, a high-level subcommittee, which included AG Nandlall and other prominent officials across the Caribbean region, was appointed to review Guyana’s application.
According to President Ali, this law school will “…enable hundreds of persons to qualify as Attorneys-at-Law right here in Guyana, with full rights to practice in CARICOM (Caribbean Community) countries.”
For nearly three decades, Guyana has been trying to establish a law school within its jurisdiction since law students are forced to attend the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. However, only the 25 top law students from Guyana are allowed each year into the programme. UG’s Law Degree programme usually has about 40 students per year.
Moreover, the high cost of living in Trinidad has deterred many persons from further pursuing a legal career, but in response, the Guyana Government now offers limited fully funded scholarships to Hugh Wooding Law School.
The journey to getting a local law school set up here started some three years ago when Guyana’s proposal to set up its own law school was accepted by the CLE in September 2022.
The CLE subsequently outlined the requirements that the country needed to fulfil, including the conduct of a comprehensive feasibility study in which Guyana has to illustrate the number of students the school will attract and accommodate as well as the Government’s capacity to fund the construction of the facility and its initial operation cost.
Under the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition Administration, attempts were made to establish the Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes Law School. However, the CLE was not approached about the project initially, and when permission was eventually sought, it was denied in late 2017.
However, the PPP/C Government had previously declared that any law school that is established in Guyana will be done under the ambit of the CLE – something that will also allow the country to capitalise on the overcrowding at the other institutions across the region.