All should join in call for law school in Guyana- Legal Affairs Minister

DPI, GUYANA, Friday, December 07, 2018

Minister of Legal Affairs Basil Williams SC said the government of Guyana will continue pressing the Council for Legal Education (CLE) and other agencies to support the establishment of the Joseph Haynes Law School in Guyana. He also said all of Guyana should join in the call.

Addressing the National Assembly this morning, the Minister cited the continued hardships faced by Guyanese students in the Twin Island Republic at the Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS). Support for the establishment of the school he said, will remove the discriminatory admittance of only 25 Guyanese law students annually to the HWLS.

“They (HWLS) are allotting to us, Guyana, a founding member of CARICOM, a signatory to the CLE (it was signed here by no other persons than Sir Shridath Ramphal), and they are reducing us to 25 students while they are churning out students there.” He continued “This nation must call for this law school to be built,”.

Guyana has been seeking support for the establishment the JOF Haynes Law School for some time now, however, Minister Williams said the call was subjected to another shifting of the CLE’s position to deny the country its rights to establish a law school.

Speaking on the sidelines of the recent CLE meetings held in Guyana in September this year, Chairman of the CLE, Reginald Armour, SC., said the study did not meet the requirements of quality assurance and curriculum as specified in the Treaty.

The Government of Guyana and the Council of Legal Education (CLE) had however agreed that Guyana will relook at the feasibility study and business plan for the establishment of the Law School.

On January 11, 2017, the Attorney General signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the University of the Caribbean (UCC) and Law College of the Americas (LCA) for the establishment of the JOF Haynes law school in Guyana.

Alexis Rodney.

Image: Keno George.