University of West Indies defends Law Program against criticism

After receiving criticism from Sir Patterson Cheltenham, the Chief Justice of Barbados, the University of the West Indies (UWI) Cave Hill Campus, came out to defend its Law Programme vehemently, highlighting the quality of the programme and the lawyers it has produced.

The Chief Justice of Barbados is of the opinion that the university’s LLB program is quite limited and “populated with a lot of super soft options to get people over the bar.”

In response to this, the University of the West Indies (UWI), stated that to consider any of the courses on offer to students of law as “soft”, would be tantamount to perpetuating a misnomer. The University also stated the following, by way of an official response to Sir Patterson Cheltenham, “The Faculty of Law at Cave Hill, the region’s longest serving, boasts a rich tradition of excellence. It has a solid tradition of legal research and has the most extensive repository of legal resources in the region.”

Sir Patterson Cheltenham spoke of the matter on Friday, as he heard the government’s appeal against a ruling which stipulates that an amendment to the country’s Bail Act was to be considered unconstitutional. He stated that he was troubled by the course options on offer and said that many students select “soft” courses, avoiding harder options which would make them far more effective at the Bar.

In Sir Patterson Cheltenham’s opinion, this is a major hurdle in the development and the future of the nation. He added, “The bar for entry does not exist. You walk in…. It is a place that suffers from intellectual attrition. What I will tell you is that LLB programme is populated with a lot of super soft options to get people over the bar, to say they have an LLB. The programme lacks analytical rigour which people like myself had to go through to make it.”

Much has been made of this statement, especially considering the fact that Sir Patterson Cheltenham is stepping down from the position of Chief Justice in May.

He has also asked the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago to assess and audit incoming LLBs and send back the applications of candidates who present with “soft options”, to get them to complete other courses.

The University of the West Indies on the other hand, issued a statement on Saturday, in which it made it very clear that there is no marked change in the quality of its graduates, especially due to “soft courses”.

It was also said that in the initial stages of the university’s 54-year existence, the courses on offer to students pursuing a degree in law, presented with a meagre curriculum, especially in comparison to today’s global standards for legal education.

The university said with conviction that it offers a broader array of options to students today, which is inline with the requirements of the profession in today’s time.

Additionally, the statement said, “While a core curriculum of compulsory or mandatory courses remains in place for two-thirds of their three years of study, students’ choices nowadays include a range of modern law topics befitting study by a 21st century law graduate. These include, but are not to limited to, Alternative Dispute Resolution, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property Law, International Law, Global Health Law, Competition Law and Policy, Public Law, Caribbean Integration Law, and International Commercial Arbitration, among others.”

“It is our considered opinion that these are rigorous areas of study which are in keeping with modern legal education. None can be considered a soft option and none of these options were available to graduates who entered and exited law school decades ago.”

The Chief Justice is perturbed by the fact that important topics of study in the field of law, such as the Law of Trust, amongst others, have been side lined, which he believes, impacts he quality and efficacy of law practitioners.

He used himself as an example to clarify his stance on the matter, stating the following, “Everyone had to do Trust, or at least elected to do Trust, because it was a foundational course. We passed the test because of the rigorous testing that we were given.”

In response to this, the University of the West Indies stated the following, “With respect to the now optional Law of Trust course, work has started on rebranding and renaming this for mandatory taking on account of its significance to legal practice.”

The University added that it pursues the dissemination of knowledge and education to its students of law on the basis of a mandate which is subjected to stringent evaluations and assessments to ensure that the process is regulated and concurs with international standards, thus cementing the quality of the education provided.

The Cave Hill Campus’s degree programmes function in accordance with a Quality Assurance Unit, which is responsible for conducting Quality Assurance Reviews at regular intervals to ensure that the programmes maintain preset standards of quality and efficacy.

These reviews are externally controlled by a senior employer’s representative and at the last Quality Assurance Review of the LLB programme now Chief Justice Sir Patterson Cheltenham was in fact the senior employer’s representative. This in itself has raised questions about the validity of his statements with regards to the legal courses on offer at the University of the West Indies.

The university has revealed that a fifth review process is slated to begin next month, while also stating the following, “To date, there have been four quality assessment reviews of the Faculty of Law, the last of which took place in 2015 with the three-member review team comprising Professor William Flanagan, (then) Dean, Faculty of Law, Queens’s University, Canada; Professor Gilbert Kodilinye, Professor of Property Law, UWI, Mona; and the current Chief Justice who was, at the time, a practising attorney.”

The university is adamant that it takes the quality of its general pedagogical practices and the courses on offer very seriously, adding that, “In this regard, it welcomes input from various stakeholders under appropriate circumstances, including professional bodies which benefit from its educational output.”