Guyana still without final approval to set up law school, feasibility study almost complete 

Almost three decades after Guyana expressed an interest in the establishment of a regional law school here, Attorney General Anil Nandlall, SC, on Tuesday said it is closer to realization.

Nandlall said although the Council of Legal Education of the West Indies (CLE) is yet to give its final approval, permission was granted by the Council for a feasibility study and other ground work to be done.

The feasibility study is nearing completion and about five acres of land is already identified at Turkeyen, next to the University of Guyana, for the construction of the regionally accredited law school under the auspices of the Council of Legal Education

The Government of Guyana had set up a committee to deal specifically with the establishment of this school. That committee is chaired by Nandlall and during a recent engagement in Jamaica, Nandlall said he updated the Council on the progress Guyana is making towards ensuring the approval is granted.

“We have been engaging the University of Guyana and all law schools in the region that do the Bachelor of Law degree and those statistics are being compiled for the purpose of a feasibility study.

“The intent is to get the number of persons who are studying law LLB but are unable to get into any of the regional law schools,” Nandlall explained during his Tuesday night ‘Issues in the News’ Facebook commentary.

Discussions on a local law school began under the previous APNU+AFC government and were spearheaded by former AG, Basil Williams, SC.

When the government changed in 2020 and with a gap identified in a previous feasibility study, the PPP/C government proposed a new, more favourable model for the long-awaited establishment of a law school here.

Through this model, the government will provide the land and building resources to construct the facility while the Council of Legal Education would manage the institution and its students.

The Council of Legal Education of the West Indies (CLE) is the lawful authority for the administering of legal professional education in the Caribbean Region. The Council does so through its law schools, the Hugh Wooding Law School, St. Augustine in Trinidad and Tobago, Norman Manley Law School, Kingston, Jamaica, and Eugene Dupuch Law School, Nassau, Bahamas.

For nearly three decades Guyana has been trying to establish a law school within its jurisdiction.

This initiative merges with the government’s commitment to promote Guyana as an attractive offshore education destination. The proposed law school is expected to attract students from across the region and further afield and will ease the overloading which currently obtains, in particular, at Hugh Wooding and Norman Manley Law Schools.

Currently, Guyana is only allowed 25 students to enter the law programme at the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago as opposed to the twin-island republic and Jamaica churning out hundreds of students yearly.