Two committees are to be set up to work on Guyana’s proposal to establish a law school next year in keeping with a requirement of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), Attorney General Basil Williams SC said last Friday.
Williams, during a press conference, said one day before a CLE meeting in Jamaica, he launched the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas with an “impressive ceremony.”
He said that those present included AG of Jamaica Marlene Malahoo-Forte and Minister of Education Ruel Reid. Both officials, Williams said, “conveyed the support of the Jamaican government for the collaborative agreement.”
The CLE meeting was held in Kingston from January 27 to January 28. According to Williams, the Executive Committee agreed that two committees would be set up to collaborate on the proposal to establish the law school here, in keeping with the criteria required for law schools under the auspices of the CLE.
Williams informed that the Guyana government’s committee will include representatives of its joint venture partners and the Attorneys General of Jamaica and Guyana while the CLE’s committee will include the Chairman of the CLE Reginald Armour SC, the principals of the Hugh Wooding, Norman Manley and Eugene Dupuch law schools and Dr Leighton Jackson, University Dean for the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies (UWI).
He said that the CLE’s requirements for the establishment of its law schools included matters such as physical plant, staffing, library facilities and infrastructure.
The feasibility study to be undertaken pursuant to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Guyana Government and the University College of the Caribbean Law College of the Americas (LCA) will encompass those criteria, he said.
The investment to be made to get the law school up and running could be in the region of US$75 million. The setting up of the school could end years of problems that local students have had entering regional law schools.
At the signing of the MOU on January 11, Williams had said that the law school will be built somewhere in the Turkeyen area and is expected to cater for between 200 and 400 students at a time, mainly from Guyana and Jamaica. Other Caricom nationals and persons from other Commonwealth countries will also be accepted.
