LOOKING BACK WITH A VIEW OF MOVING FORWARD Expansion and Progress By Clay Hackett
LOOKING BACK WITH A VIEW OF MOVING FORWARD Expansion and Progress By Clay Hackett
The old building ( right ) with the recent addition to the St . Augustine Faculty of Law ( left )
With the expansion of the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies ( U . W . I ), St . Augustine , we should be very mindful of the legacy which we leave to future generations of law students . The University of the West Indies has been producing some of the region ’ s , and one might argue , the world ’ s finest judicial officers and legal practitioners . One merely has to look at the holders of the country ’ s highest judicial and executive positions , U . W . I alumni such as Chief Justice Ivor Archie and Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar to give validity to that statement . For the first time ever , undergraduates undertaking the LLB programme will have the opportunity to do so fully in Trinidad & Tobago . This article aims to give a background to an institution which has been providing regional legal education for over forty years and its incremental progression to ultimately providing a full-fledged faculty in T & T .
The Faculty of Law opened its doors in September 1970 at the Cave Hill Campus in Barbados to offer legal education at the University level . The St . Augustine and Mona campuses were Departments of the Faculty . Only the first year of the three year programme was taught here and students had to continue at the Cave Hill campus in Barbados . In these initial stages , there were thirty-four students at Mona Campus , Jamaica ; nineteen at St . Augustine , Trinidad and Tobago ; thirty-five at Cave Hill , Barbados and thirteen at the Turkeyen Campus of the University of Guyana .
The Faculty at St . Augustine has been staffed by legal luminaries ; some of whom will be familiar to all of us . Mrs . Tanya Parker was seconded from the University of Nottingham during 1970
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