Construction of Regional law school to begin in 2026 – AG Nandlall

Construction of a regional law school at the University of Guyana’s Turkeyen Campus is set to commence in 2026, Attorney General and Minister of Legal Affairs Mohabir Anil Nandlall announced on Friday evening during his contribution to the Budget 2026 debates at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.

The Attorney General said Guyana secured permission in September 2025 from the Council of Legal Education to establish the institution, marking a major milestone after decades of efforts by successive administrations.

“In this budget, we have the first capital injection, and during the year 2026, we will begin the construction of a law school in Guyana,” Nandlall said.

He explained that the law school will serve not only Guyanese students but the wider Caribbean, providing more affordable and accessible legal education while generating economic activity through student housing, services and other spending.

“It is going to be a regional law school. It will attract students from across the Caribbean… and of course, it will provide cheap and accessible legal education to our own Guyanese,” he said.

Over the last two years, the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Administration has been working to get permission from the CLE to establish a much-needed law school here. The CLE is a regional organisation which operates the Hugh Wooding Law School in the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago, the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas.

Guyana had previously conducted a feasibility study for the establishment of a local law school, and the findings were handed over to the CLE last September. Additionally, a high-level subcommittee, which included AG Nandlall and other prominent officials across the Caribbean region, was appointed to review Guyana’s application.

For nearly three decades, Guyana has been trying to establish a law school within its jurisdiction since Guyanese law students are forced to attend the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad. However, only the 25 top law students from Guyana are allowed each year into the programme. UG’s Law Degree programme usually has about 40 students per year.

Moreover, the high cost of living in Trinidad has deterred many persons from further pursuing a legal career, but in response, the Guyana Government now offers limited fully funded scholarships to Hugh Wooding Law School. The journey to getting a local law school set up here started some three years ago when Guyana’s proposal to set up its own law school was accepted by the CLE in September 2022.

The CLE subsequently outlined the requirements that the country needed to fulfil, including the conduct of a comprehensive feasibility study in which Guyana has to illustrate the number of students the school will attract and accommodate as well as the Government’s capacity to fund the construction of the facility and its initial operation cost.

Under the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Coalition Administration, attempts were made to establish the Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes Law School. However, the CLE was not approached about the project initially, and when permission was eventually sought, it was denied in late 2017.

But the PPP/C Government, from the inception, had declared that any law school that is established in Guyana will be done under the ambit of the CLE – something that will also allow the country to capitalise on the overcrowding at the other institutions across the region.