Guyana Law School to be built on UG’s Turkeyen campus – AG

…says ongoing feasibility study to be completed by year-end

The Guyana Government has decided to construct the much-need law school on the Turkeyen Campus of the University of Guyana (UG).
This was revealed by Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister Anil Nandlall, S.C., during the recent edition of his weekly programme Issues in the News.
“It has already been decided at level of Committee, and of course the Government of Guyana, that the law school will be located at the Turkeyen Campus of the University of Guyana on a five-acre plot of land that will be dedicated to that purpose,” he noted.
The committee which was set up to oversee establishment of the law school in Guyana is chaired by AG Nandlall, and comprises representatives from the Finance Ministry, the University of Guyana Law Programme, and a Chartered Accountant.
Back in September 2022, Guyana’s proposal to set up its own law school was accepted by the Council of Legal Education (CLE), which administers legal professional education in the Caribbean at law schools throughout the region, under the CARICOM Treaty.
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 would attract and accommodate, as well as Government’s capacity to fund the construction of the facility and its initial operating cost.
According to the Attorney General, work has already begun to demonstrate the viability of such an institution in the country.
“Information has been requested from the University of Guyana and all the law schools in the Caribbean, as well as all the universities in the Caribbean and learning centres that do the Bachelors of Law Degree. And those statistics are being compiled for the purpose of the feasibility study. I believe the intent is to get the number of persons who are studying law, who have LLB degrees but have been unable to get into one of the regional law schools. So [to know] how many persons are out there and what is the market like etc., all of that information is being gathered,” he posited.
As part of their work, members of the Committee have been travelling to law schools in the region to gather information for this study. Only last month, while in Jamaica for a CLE event, AG Nandlall used the opportunity to update the Council on the progress of the feasibility study.
On Wednesday, Nandlall told Guyana Times that he anticipates the study would be wrapped up before the end of this year.
“It should be completed before year-end the latest,” the AG indicated to this newspaper.
At present, the CLE-operated laws schools in the Caribbean are: the Hugh Wooding Law School, St Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago; Norman Manley Law School, Kingston in Jamaica; and Eugene Dupuch Law School, Nassau in the 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 25 top law students from Guyana are allowed each year into the programme. UG’s Law Degree programme usually sits 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.
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.
AG Nandlall had previously declared that any law school that is established in Guyana would be done under the ambit of the CLE. This, he explained, would also allow the country to capitalise on the overcrowding at the other institutions across the region.
During his programme this week, the Attorney General reiterated, “We are getting closer to the realization of that dream to make Guyana the home of a regional law school. In fact, the broader vision is to make Guyana an education destination – bringing the law school here is only one step in that direction.” (G8)