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Sep 09, 2018 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom
The institutions of the Caribbean Community were created at a particular juncture in history when the region saw the role of the state as being highly instrumental in promoting development. These institutions, products of the territories’ newly-minted independence, were therefore focused on creating space for the role of the state rather than for developing private enterprise.
It is an anachronism which has persisted onto this day. The institutions of the Caribbean Community have not adapted to the changing world order, which emphasizes a greater role for the private sector.
Nothing better illustrates this than the Council of Legal Education. The Council was established in 1970. It is operating with a Treaty which has not been revamped. The world has changed since 1970. Yet the Council still operates under a treaty which has not undergone significant revision.
Among functions, the Council of Legal Education is to establish, equip and maintain Law Schools and to appoint a Principal of each Law School and all necessary staff.
These functions are outdated. The role of the Council in establishing and appointing principals to law schools should have long been outlawed. These functions limit private sector involvement in the provision of legal education. There should be no role for the Council of Legal Education (CLE) in approving the establishment of law schools or in appointing their principals.
One of the grey areas of the CLE’s mandate concerns its relations with regional universities. The Treaty allows the CLE, in the exercise of its functions, to enter into any such agreements with the University of the West Indies, and the University of Guyana as the Council shall think fit. This provision seems to suggest that Council’s mandate is limited to establishing and certifying law programmes of campuses of UWI and UG. The Treaty does not explicitly state that the Council can enter into agreements with private providers of legal education.
This raises the question as to whether private law schools fall under the jurisdiction of the CLE, and whether the CLE sees itself as having a role in certifying the curricula of these law schools. These issues are pertinent to the discussions taking place right now for the establishment of a private law school in Guyana.
If the CLE therefore see its mandate as being only restricted to certifying law schools of the University of Guyana and the University of the West Indies, then this would mean that the permission of the CLE is not required for the establishment of the proposed JOF Haynes Law School, which is not envisaged as being a school of the University of Guyana but an independent private sector law school.
The CLE is hosting its meeting in Guyana this week. In relation to the proposed private law school in Guyana, a CLE official has said that Guyana’s application was not treaty-compliant. Does this mean that a private law school has to be an institution or arm of the University of Guyana before the CLE can grant its approval or its certification of the programmes of the law school?
It is, of course, inexcusable that the Guyana government should have submitted a feasibility study to the Council without a curriculum. That is incompetence at its highest. How can one ask the Council to examine the law programme of the proposed law school when the curriculum is not submitted?
Guyana has to get its act together. But so too does the Caribbean Community. The Treaty of the CLE should be revised to remove from it any role in the establishment of law schools and the appointment of their principals.
The CLE should be a certifying and accreditation body. This would allow for more private law schools to be established.
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