During the period November 11-15 2015, Charlotte School of Law hosted the latest meeting of the Caribbean Law Clinic attended by eight Caribbean and US law schools.  This was the first time that the Charlotte School of Law had hosted the event, being the latest law school to join the American Caribbean Law Initiative, the body whose flagship events are the regular law clinics.   The law schools attending the November Clinic were: the Truman Bodden Law School (TBLS) (Cayman Islands), the Charlotte School of Law, Stetson College of Law, Florida Coastal Law School, Nova Southeastern University, the Norman Manley Law School (Jamaica), Eugene Dupuch Law School (Bahamas) and the Hugh Wooding Law School (Trinidad & Tobago).

The law clinic meets biannually with the host law school alternating between the member law schools in the USA and the Caribbean.  The purpose of the clinic is to assist participating students in the development of their advocacy skills by requiring them to prepare and present legal opinions based upon the foreign law of the host jurisdiction.  Students from the member law schools are placed into teams with their peers from the other law schools and have to quickly develop their team building, negotiating and tactical skills in the process of analyzing the issues raised by the problem question assigned to the team.  The legal problems are themselves usually based on real issues that have recently been before the courts of the host jurisdiction.

At the November Clinic, TBLS was represented by Matthew Yassa a third year LL.B (Hons) student.  Accompanying Mr. Yassa was the Director of TBLS, Mr. Mitchell Davies.  Mr. Davies praised the Caribbean Law Clinic as: “Providing a unique opportunity for TBLS students to develop their legal research and advocacy skills by arguing legal points of foreign law with their peers from regional and US law schools”.

The next meeting of the Caribbean Law Clinic will be hosted by the Norman Manley Law School in Kingston, Jamaica in March 2016.