Establishing a Law School in Guyana not a priority- Attorney General

Last Updated on Wednesday, 7 October 2015, 18:29 by GxMedia

Attorney General, Basil Williams said Wednesday that Guyana was not enthusiastic about setting up a local Law School because the coffers did not have money for such a project.

“It is not a priority in this type of economy that we have inherited,” he told a news conference.

He, however, did not have any details about the costs for setting up and running such an institution in Guyana.

Instead, he said an ad hoc committee would be established to study the pros and cons of doing so.

Sources have in the past said that major sticking points in having a Guyana-based Law School are ensuring that salaries for lecturers and library facilities are on par with those at the other schools.

The Attorney General disagreed with his predecessor, Anil Nandlall that the new coalition government had promised to set up a Law School in Guyana.

Under established agreements between the Guyana government and the Trinidad-based Hugh Wooding Law School, only 25 Guyanese are entitled to automatic entry to that institution to pursue the Certificate in Legal Education (CLE) which allows law degree holders to practice the profession.

Increasingly, each of the law schools across the Caribbean is overcrowded with an average of 500 new students per year.

The Attorney General noted that Antigua and Barbuda has been thinking about establishing a Law School.

Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders two years ago agreed to conduct a study on the future of legal education in the region. One of the options  is whether the Council of Legal Education should continue to man the law schools or merely be a regulatory and quality control body for all law schools.