Attorney General Anil Nandlall speaking with law students at the Ministry of Legal Affairs boardroom

The Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mohabir Anil Nandlall, on Monday met with students from the University of Guyana’s Law Society (UGLS) to hear their concerns and abate their fears as to whether the current batch of top 25 graduating law students from the University of Guyana (UG) would be given automatic entry into the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS).

Their concerns stemmed from the fact that last year some difficulties were encountered in securing the established automatic entry of 25 Guyanese from the faculty of Law at the UG into the HWLS. Those difficulties were however, resolved due to the intervention of the Guyana Government.

The Attorney General told the students gathered that a decision was taken at the level of the CARICOM Heads of Government to write to the Council of Legal Education (CLE) and address the issue of continuing admission of UG law students to the Council’s law school, as well as undertake a comprehensive review of legal education in the region with specific emphasis on revising the syllabus, revising the role the Council is playing, whether the Council should continue to be the provider of legal education in the region, or if it should reassess its role as simply administering a system that will deliver legal education in the region. In addition to ascertaining whether there is adequate accommodation at the law schools in the region to house the continuous increase in the numbers of students showing an inclination to pursue studies in the area of law.

The next decision to be made, said Minister Nandlall, is the source of funding. “To undertake what the Heads of Government were recommending, which is a review of the system, is a very costly exercise and an estimation of the cost was submitted to the Heads of Government with discussions on raising the money.” Guyana, he said, signalled its commitment to contribute fairly and equitably to meeting this expenditure and that a common cost would be borne by the entire region.

According to the Minister at the level of the CLE, of which he is an executive member, they are currently addressing this issue as a fundamental matter. He told the students that he will be attending a meeting of the Council in Grenada on February 6, 2015 and it will be on the agenda again.

Nandlall articulated that there is currently an impasse between the UWI and UG in relation to a continuation of a collaborative arrangement which has been in place for the last two decades. He said that UG has put forward some proposals which are being considered by UWI and it is expected that the two universities will arrive at a solution that is mutually acceptable. That collaborative arrangement the AG is hoping would crystalise into an agreement which would be brought to the CLE for its approval. “We are hoping that, that would be done within the shortest possible time,” expressed the Minister.

He admitted though, that the review process would be a long and protracted one which is more suited as a long-term goal to rectifying the issue at hand. However, he did indicate from a short term perspective that the 25 law students will continue to gain entry at the HWLS on the basis of automatic entry, while those outside of the 25 limit will continue to have to write the entrance examinations if they want to attend the HWLS.

The AG noted that as a representative of Guyana on the CLE, his preference is and has always been a continuation of an arrangement that will continue to associate the UG, LLB programme with that of the UWI, “because I believe that it is important for the integrity of the degree programme and it is important for the quality control mechanism to continue to be in place to ensure that there is no dilution of standards at the University of Guyana.”

Issue of Space

According to the AG, there continues to be space problems at the current configuration of the CLE because of the proliferation of new institutions which are doing LLB programmes within the region. Those new facilities coupled with the existing institutions that are providing those programmes are producing many law students who are expected to be accommodated at the HWLS. “It simply cannot continue like that,” said the AG.

Nandlall also mentioned that there is a Law School in Bahamas that has the space to offset the growing number graduates wanting to acquire their LLB and practice at the Bar, but the cost of travel, living, and the tuition fees at the institution is very high, which is a significant detriment to persons wanting to go there. According to the Minister an offer was extended a while back from the AG of Bahamas for students to go there should the need arise. He said that there was an indication that an arrangement can be worked out which would result in a reduction of the tuition fees, dependent however on the number of students who would have indicated a willingness to attend that law school. -- (January 13, 2015)