Moot Court Guyana, an organisation under the Faculty of Law of the University of Guyana (UG) has invited several key players of Guyana’s judiciary to a symposium next Tuesday in an attempt to flesh out short, medium and long-term solutions to Guyana’s legal education conundrum.
Plans for the symposium, which will be held under the theme: “The Future of Legal Education in the Caribbean Com-munity (Caricom)” got underway after it became apparent earlier this year that the current mechanism which facilitates Guyanese students being able to complete their legal studies in Trinidad and Tobago is not ironclad.
Mistress of Moot and second-year student-at-law Carmilita Jamieson yesterday told Stabroek News that the symposium will feature a panel discussion as its highlight.
The panel, if all those invited to sit on it accept, will comprise several notable stakeholders in Guyana’s judiciary, and the Council of Legal Education (CLE), the body which oversees the provision of legal education in the Caribbean.
CLE Chairman Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, Legal Affairs Minister and Attorney General Anil Nandlall, Chancellor of the Judiciary Carl Singh, President of the Guyana Bar Associa-tion Ronald Burch-Smith and Christopher Ram of the Department of Law have all been invited to constitute the panel.
To date though, only Ram and Burch-Smith have confirmed their attendance. Jamieson said Samuels-Brown was sent an invitation about a week ago and is yet to respond.
The CLE Chairman is scheduled to be in Guyana from next Monday for the re-commencement of the Commission of Inquiry (COI) into the death of Walter Rodney, and Jamieson said members of Moot Court Guyana will approach her if she does not reply to the invitation by next week.
The symposium will be open to the general public, although Moot Court has specifically requested the presence of particular groups of people, including CAPE students studying law, and all of UG’s students-at-law.
In addition, special invitations have been extended specifically to other persons considered key to the issue. These persons include Vice Chancellor Jacob Opadeyi, UG Registrar Vincent Alexander, Deputy Vice Chancellor Phillip DaSilva, Minister of Education Priya Manickchand, Opposition leader David Granger, Alliance for Change (AFC) leader Khemraj Ramjattan, AFC Executive Moses Nagamootoo, and Solicitor General Sita Ramlall. House Speaker Raphael Trotman, Presidential Advisor on Governance Gail Teixeira, attorney-at-law James Bond and Senior Counsel Bryn Pollard are also special invitees.
In February the CLE decided to discontinue an agreement which allowed the top 25 law graduates from UG automatic access into the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) to study for their Legal Education Certificates (LECs).
For months Guyana’s law students, particularly those hoping to be part of the top 25 going to HWLS for the 2014/2015 semester festered in uncertainty as it seemed they would not be able to go to HWLS this year.
However, a meeting was held on Monday, during which CLE officials, representatives from Guyana, and Caricom Chairman Ralph Gonsalves decided that this year’s top 25 graduating law students would be guaranteed places at HWLS. This arrangement however, will be temporary as stakeholders seeks to address the issue of capacity at HWLS.
Jamieson noted that varying solutions have been floated, but said the symposium is not intended to have discussions on any one suggestion. Instead, she hopes the opinions offered at the symposium will lend to the forging or plans, short, medium, and long-term, to ensure that future students graduating from UG’s law faculty are guaranteed the ability to read for their LECs.
