Guyana Reiterates Pledge To Seek Amicable Solution To Impasse Involving Law Students

GEORGETOWN, Guyana CMC – The Guyana government says it is continuing its effort to seek a resolution of the impasse affecting law students at the University of Guyana (UG) from gaining access into the Trinidad-based Hugh Wooding Law School for the academic year beginning September, 2014.

“The Government remains committed to pursue, most resolutely, every possible avenue and resort to every option available, in order to protect the welfare of our students and the future of the law program at the University of Guyana,” the government said in a statement.

It said that earlier this month, the chairperson of the Council of Legal Education (CLE), Ms. Jacqueline Samuel-Brown, Q.C., had responded to a letter sent on the issue by St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, who is also chairman of the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) grouping.

In his letter, Gonsalves had informed the Council that the impasse “is of grave concern to Heads of Government, as it effectively results in Guyanese students having no access to the Law Schools, notwithstanding that they would have entered the UG Program in the expectation that at least the top 25 graduates were entitled to automatic admission.

“It is also of tremendous concern that in the current scenario, admission to the practice of Law in the CLE Member Countries is restricted to the graduates of one institution.”

Gonsalves said that the implications of the decision by the Council and the Law Schools “are far-reaching in terms of the provision of legal education services and access to the legal profession in the context of liberalization of trade in services and in a Community which has established a Single Market and free movement of service providers and Skilled Nationals”.

The letter said it was requesting that the Council “accommodate the automatic admission of the top 25 Guyanese Graduates for the academic year 2014-2015.

“I also draw to your attention that the Conference, representing the Heads of Government of the parties to the CLE Agreement, has mandated that the Council complete a thorough review of legal education in the Community before the next academic year to resolve the deeper issues concerning legal education, including access and the role and function of the Council of Legal Education.”

But in her response, Samuel-Brown said the Hugh Wooding Law School “has reiterated that until we know how many graduates of the University of the West Indies will exercise their right to seek admission to that law school, it cannot be determined how many additional students can be accommodated. As you have noted they have priority over other applicants.

“This is one of the matters which may have to be revisited, particularly as the quota system on which it was premised has been effectively abandoned,” she wrote, adding “it is however likely that for this year some University of Guyana graduates can be accommodated at the Eugene Dupuch Law School.

“We would of course have to know as soon as possible how many University of Guyana graduates would be interested in attending that law school.

“If the capacity constraints of the Hugh Wooding Law School and the Norman Manley Law School are to be addressed in a meaningful way, the law schools must receive capital injections to fund the expansion of the physical plants and the full-time staff complement, as a matter of urgency.

“We have no sources of significant funding other than from the contributing governments and I would certainly invite the governments to give immediate and positive consideration to this pressing need. As you have apprehended other broader issues also need to be reviewed,” she wrote, requesting that Gonsalves meet with a CLE delegation.

A Government statement issued here said that President Donald Ramotar has already contacted Prime Minister Gonsalves requesting that the meeting with the CLE be held next month.

The statement said that Guyana will be represented at that meeting by the Attorney-General & Minister of Legal Affairs, Anil Mohair Nandlall and personnel from the University of Guyana.