The Government of Guyana, in collaboration with the Council of Legal Education (CLE) will be hosting a series of meetings of the CLE which will place emphasis on the Caribbean Law Schools and how they relate to the Caribbean Community.
According to press release from the Ministry of Legal Affairs, sixty participants will be attending the meetings which will run from September 6 to 8, at the Marriott Hotel. The attendees will include the Chairman of the CLE, a representative of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), Attorneys General (AGs), Chief Justices from Caricom Member States, Members of the Bar Association and Principals of the three Law Schools located in Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and The Bahamas,.
On September 6, a Special Meeting of the Executive Committee of the CLE will be held at 9:30 hours.
This committee comprises of the CLE Chairman, AGs and the Principals of the Law Schools. During the evening at 7 pm, the Dr. Lloyd Barnett OJ Lecture Series will be conducted and Justice Duke Pollard, a former Judge of the CCJ, is listed among the speakers. On September 07, President David Granger will address the opening of the Meeting of the CLE at 9:30 am. Attorney General, Basil Williams, as the host AG will deliver welcome remarks and Reginald T.A Armour, SC, Chairman of the CLE will also deliver remarks.
This is the fifth occasion Guyana will be hosting these meetings, having previously done so in 1975, 1981, 1987 and 1994.
It is likely that Guyana’s quest for the establishment of a recognized law school will be addressed at this meeting.
The agreement for the establishment of the proposed JOF Haynes Law School was signed in June by the Guyana Government and its partners and this along with the feasibility study and the business plan will be submitted to the CLE.
This announcement was made in a press release disseminated by the Ministry of Legal Affairs which stopped short of saying how soon the documents would be sent to the CLE for its consideration.
The topic of the establishment of Guyana’s own law school has been a sore issue between the CLE and Attorney General Williams SC. CLE Head, Armour of Trinidad and Tobago had previously said that Guyana had gotten no permission to build such an institution. There has been at least one meeting on the issue between the two parties but the outcome has never been made public.
