Letter: The Council of Legal Education – where legal education and politics collide
Dear Sir,
Financial Viability
The entire Caribbean is suffering from dire economic circumstances where any financial expenditure must be carefully weighed against its benefits and any alternative methods of accomplishing its objectives.
When it comes to the Council of Legal Education, many governments who are now considering establishing their own law schools have had difficulty in meeting their financial contributions to the Council. Indeed, the governments of Guyana and Jamaica have reneged on their obligations under the agreement establishing the Council to pay the financial cost of their nationals attending the Council’s law schools and the government of Barbados has recently reduced its financial commitment to its own students.
One common justification for the reallocation of financial resources has been that there are now enough lawyers in these territories and the education of additional lawyers is not as important as the education of doctors, engineers and other professionals or investment in other areas of the national economy.
The Economics of Legal Education
For quality to be established and sustained, there is not only the physical infrastructure that has to be considered, but also the remuneration of suitable full-time and ancillary staff (which, in the case of full time staff compensates them for loss of income from private practice). It requires close supervision of clinical programmes (which are wide and varied) and internships (in-service training), which allow students to actual do the work that lawyers do.
In every case where a national government is now seeking to establish a new law school, there is one common argument in its favour – it will attract students from other jurisdictions who are being denied entrance to Council’s existing law schools. In this way, such students will help to fund the law school and be a valuable source of foreign currency for the country. Such a justification leads me to ask whether the motivation behind such moves is economic, political or in the interest of legal education.
It must be noted that the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas was established for this purpose but is now underutilized. Council must, therefore, consider this matter especially as it was accompanied by a promise that this school would be a worldwide flagship of technology-driven teaching in legal education.
Commitment to Legal Education or Politics?
If these governments were not committed to fulfilling their financial obligations to the students of their own nation while they were at Council, the following questions must be asked:
• Where is this new-founded commitment to legal education and its funding derived?
• What guarantee is there that such governments (once having satisfied the political demands of their constituents) will commit and sustain the commitments they now profess?
• Will such commitment be of sufficient length and depth to ensure that the quality of the programme is sustained?
For the passion being exhibited in the public domain by the governments, particularly of Guyana and Jamaica who are both members of the Council, the question must be asked and answered – what proposals did they advance to bring alternative and cost-effective solutions to the Council’s operations so as to mitigate the ‘damage and loss’ of which they are now complaining.
Such measures (proposed in the Brief to New Council Members 2008) would have included:
• The employment distance learning methods and appropriate technologies to reduce in-class sessions thereby allowing the physical plant to be employed for more skills-based training,
• Experiential learning and other teaching/learning techniques to make the Council’s programme more meaningful and rational.
• Curriculum reform by moving some of the academic courses to the university level and doing a general review of the Council’s curriculum to respond to modern demands.
• Financial reform to provide the Council with alternative sources of funding which can reduce reliance on regional governments.
• Governance reform of the Council to ensure that all organs of the institution operate optimally and are at least competent to implement its own decisions.
Critical Need for a Regional Approach
Financial Common Sense: While each of the governments proposing or considering the establishment of their own law school fight to advance their individual interests in this bleak economic climate, the Caribbean loses a core value which has been responsible for its survival to date – the economies of scale which makes financial collaboration a financially-sensible approach.
International Certification: As was stated in my previous article, the Legal Education Certificate is an international qualification which allows graduates of the Council’s law schools to practice in any participating territory this. This attribute is unique in a world where developments in the internationalization of law and legal education are now front-burner legal and economic issues.
As these regional governments seek to establish their own law school they threaten the international character of the LEC simply because the CLE will be unable to accede to their requests at this time without a fundamental reconstruction of its own systems. If such governments are refused, wounded egos and the passions that have been ignited by the methods employed by politicians in such countries, may drive such governments to ‘go it alone’ and establish their own law school outside the Council’s umbrella.
Condemned to Practice in Home Jurisdiction: If the latter road is taken, it means that such governments stand the risk of following the example of Trinidad and Tobago which, in 2000, breached the Treaty and (again for political reasons) allowed persons who were not graduates of the Council’s law schools to be deemed qualified to practice in that country as long as they were qualified to practice in the United Kingdom. This move condemned such nationals to practice in only one country as opposed to the breath of the Caribbean. The result has been widespread criticism by the legal profession, of the training and ability of such attorneys.
One has to imagine the consequence of such a decision (in countries which may already be complaining of too many lawyers) such as the surfeit of graduates who can only practice in that jurisdiction and its effects on the quality of service to the public as lawyers fight each other in a limited market.
Suggestions for Council
With all the political capital that has been invested by politicians from the various government in their own peeves with Council, I predict that the most of Council’s time will be spent on political grandstanding that cannot yield the desired results in the timeframe demanded. The governments of Guyana and Jamaica have signaled the intention to start classes for the academic year commencing September 2018 (Guyana has now pushed back its opening to September 2019) in circumstances when such a decision by Council is to take place in September 2018. Even writing such statements stretches the bounds of credulity.
It is not that I am opposed to additional law schools. On the contrary, I believe that there is room for additional law schools in the Caribbean in an environment where there is a core curriculum and each law school focuses on specialized areas of practice that will enable the emergence of a new bred of Caribbean lawyer who can market their skills on a regional and international market focusing on those areas of practice relevant to Caribbean development.
However, for this to happen, a more flexible and innovative culture has to be developed by the Council in terms of its funding, governance and curriculum arrangements. Many of these issues were addressed and recommended to Council in the Orientation Brief to New Council Members 2008 and is comprehensive and worthy of review.
Conclusion
Finally, at a time when there has been so much acrimony and personalization of issues, it is important that all stakeholders realise that the problems which have brought us to the present situation are more structural that personal. Consequently, instead of condemnation let us look at more effective institutional governance and management practices that can get us out of our difficulties.
I, therefore, join my voice to that of David Rudder as he warns, “… in these tiny theatres of conflict and confusion better known as the isles of the West Indies, we already know who brought us here and who created the confusion so I’m begging my people please – Rally Round the West Indies.”
Michael Theodore
Attorney-at-Law/Consultant
IMAGE: The Council of Legal Education Logo
