LEGAL EAGLES TO LOOK AT LEGAL EDUCATION
(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) CARICOM Heads of Government have asked that an interim report on the most urgent matters affecting Legal Education in the Caribbean be submitted to them in time for consideration at their Ninth Interssesional Meeting in March 1998.
This Report will be compiled by a committee of experts to be appointed by CARICOM Chairman, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Rt. Hon. Percival Patterson. Mr Patterson is consulting with the appropriate individuals and organisations before naming the committee.
This decision came after Heads of Government at the recent XVIII Meeting of the Conference at Montego Bay, Jamaica, considered a report emanating from the Third Special Meeting of the Standing Committee of Ministers responsible for Legal Affairs relating to the Law Schools which was held in Trinidad and Tobago last June.
The leaders are seeking to ensure that the system of Legal Education in the Region is capable of delivering the expertise necessary to the continued development of the Community.
In taking note of the difficulty with respect to the admission of graduates to the Law schools and the need to examine existing arrangements relating to admissions, the Heads of Government agreed to establish the committee of experts "which shall have regard to:
(a) the integrity of the system of Legal Education;
(b) the cost of Legal Education;
(c) the demand for Legal Education and
(d) the necessity for the system of Legal Education to deliver the expertise essential to the continued development of the economies of the Member States of the Caribbean Community."
That committee of experts will take into account the conclusions of the 1996 Report of the Review Committee on Legal Education in the Caribbean and will consult with stakeholders in the development of Legal Education and the practice of Law in CARICOM in order to make recommendations to the Heads of Government at the Interssessional scheduled for March 1998 in Grenada.
The specific ambit of the recommendations includes the appropriateness of the present system of Legal Education; criteria for entry into the law schools; the operation of the quota system and the qualifications for admission to the practice of law within the Caribbean Community.
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