CHAIRMAN of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, has written to the Chairperson of the Council of Legal Education, Ms Jacqueline Samuels-Browne, QC, regarding the decision not to automatically place 25 University of Guyana (UG) Bachelor of Law (LLB) students at the Hugh Wooding Law School.

And the Government of Guyana is presently awaiting a response from the Chairperson of the Council of Legal Education, according to Attorney-General and Minister of Legal Affairs, Mr Anil Nandlall.
In a statement released to the media yesterday, Nandlall said, “We expect that the response will be favourable to the Guyanese graduands. The Government remains ready, able and willing to work with the University of Guyana, the University of the West Indies, the Council of Legal Education, and any other stakeholder to bring a speedy and long-term resolution to this matter.”

According to Minister Nandlall, the decision of the Council will jeopardise the automatic admission of LLB graduands from the University of Guyana into the Hugh Wooding Law School.

The Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM recently concluded its 25th Inter-Sessional Meeting, held on March 10th and 11th, in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, where President Donald Ramotar raised the matter.

Discussion on the issue resulted in Gonsalves’ letter to the Chairman of the Council of Legal Education, which said, “This matter 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 Programme 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.

“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 liberalisation of trade in services and in a Community which has established a single market and free movement of service providers and skilled nationals.

“…I write, as Chair of the Conference, to request that the Council accommodates 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 completes 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.”

The automatic admission was an arrangement that existed under a collaborative agreement between the University of the West Indies, the Council of Legal Education and UG. The agreement has expired, and has not been renewed for the year 2014.

(By Vanessa Narine)