Guyana moves closer to establishing law school, wants prominent Jamaican jurist on committee

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana has moved a step closer to establishing a law school after the Council for Legal Education (CLE) appointed a high-level sub-committee “to move the process forward,” Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Nandlall, has announced.

Nandlall said he was appointed chair of the committee that includes Justice Liesel Weekes SC, who is the chairperson of the CLE, Trinidad and Tobago's Attorney General Reginald Armour SC, the Chief Justice of Belize, Justice Louise Blenman, and a Member of the CLE Jacqueline Samuels-Browne.

He said that the Guyana government will add prominent Jamaican jurist, Dr Lloyd Barnett, to the committee, describing him as “a very respected and experienced lawyer who has been part of the council…for nearly four of five decades.

“He has a wealth of experience and is highly respected as a lawyer and a jurist, not only at the level of the Council of Legal Education in the Caribbean, bit across the region.

“This committee will be working with the Guyana committee in moving the process of the establishment of the regional law school in Guyana forward. So a meeting will be held shortly and we will keep you informed,” Nandlall said.

Guyana has been trying to establish a law school for several years, complaining that the Hugh Wooding Law School would only accommodate the 25 top law students from Guyana annually into its programme.

Speaking on his weekly “Issues in the News” programme on Tuesday night, Nandlall said that at the CLE meeting held in Trinidad and Tobago last week, the matter was discussed, recalling that Guyana had made a request for the CLE to establish a law school along the lines of what prevails in Trinidad and Tobago, the Bahamas and Jamaica.

“Our position is that we will fund the construction and we will provide the land…and the council will run and manage the law school in the same way that it is doing in Jamaica with the Norman Manley Law School, Trinidad with Hugh Wooding Law School and the Bahamas with the Eugene Dupuch Law School,” Nandlall said.

He said Guyana had been asked by the council to undertake a feasibility study on the venture and that the government had established a committee, under his chairmanship to undertake the initiative.

“I presented a draft feasibility report to the council at its meeting last week. The council was impressed with the report. The council expressed its gratitude, congratulated Guyana for presenting an excellent preliminary report and council appointed upon my request a high-level sub-committee of the council to work with Guyana on moving the project forward.”

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