Govt to conduct feasibility study on establishment of law school in Guyana

The Guyana Government will soon be undertaking a feasibility study on the establishment of a law school in the country.
According to Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister
Anil Nandlall, this was a recommendation by the Council for Legal Education (CLE), which administers legal professional education in the Caribbean at law schools throughout the region under the Caricom Treaty.

Back in September, the Council agreed to receive a proposal from Guyana to set up its own law school. The CLE subsequently outlined the requirements the country needed to fulfil.
To this end, Nandlall disclosed that the Government has taken a decision to move ahead with meeting the conditions of the Council.
“Last week, Cabinet approved a decision that the Government of Guyana will proceed to satisfy the criteria and to do a feasibility study as recommended by the Council of Legal Education in respect of the establishment of a local law school or a law school within territorial Guyana to be operated under the auspices of the Council of Legal Education,” the Legal Affairs Minister noted.
Nandlall further stated that a team will soon be assembled to being the work.
At present, the CLE-operated law schools in the Caribbean are the Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine in 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 25 top law students 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, but, 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) Coalition Administration, attempts were made to establish the Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes Law School, but the CLE denied permission in late 2017.
But Nandlall had previously made it clear that Guyana will not steer away from the auspices of the Regional Council. Moreover, the Legal Affairs Minister had stated that a law school in Guyana would not only benefit the country and its students, but will also help to address overcrowding at the other institutions across the region.
He explained that, for some reason, the law schools in Trinidad and Jamaica are the most sought, thus resulting in overcrowding, with students not only from the region but beyond.
“There is serious overcrowding in those two law schools. Those two law schools cannot accommodate the hundreds and hundreds of students churned out by the University of the West Indies, University of Guyana, University of Jamaica, University of Trinidad and Tobago, University of London and other universities across North America and the United Kingdom.”
“As a result, you have in Guyana alone, possibly over 200 or 300 persons who have LLB degrees, but have not been able to go to a law school. You have a few hundred if not thousands in Trinidad, you have a few thousand in Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean, and then you have so many other people. So, this law school [in Guyana] will be able to address the backlog of existing students,” he contended.
The Attorney General further noted that with the Guyana law school adding to the region’s capacity to accommodate students then the intake in the universities is going to increase. This, he noted, aligns with Guyana’s vision of becoming a premier education destination in the region.
“We are already in the process of attracting many offshore universities of international standing and reputation to come and establish operations here. This law school will be another extension of that initiative, which we are pursuing. When we bring people to this country, they will spend money here; they will rent; they will live here, and that brings revenue to the country and that’s another stream of revenue that we are pursuing. So, from every perspective Guyana as a country and Guyanese will benefit spectacularly from this initiative,” the Nandlall had stated.