| Norman Manley Law School | |
|---|---|
| Parent school | Council of Legal Education |
| Established | 1973 |
| Dean | O. A. Carol Aina (Principal) |
| Location | Mona, Jamaica |
| Website | nmls.edu.jm |
The Norman Manley Law School is a law school in Jamaica.
The Norman Manley Law School is located on the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies, yet it is a distinct and separate institution. [1] Its building, designed by architect firm Rutkowski, Bradford & Partners, is noted as an example of Caribbean modernist architecture. [2] It is a 700 square metres (7,500 sq ft), two-storey reinforced concrete block masonry building; construction was finished in 1975. It was badly damaged by Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988; a clerestory window broke and let the wind into the building, placing significant uplift pressure on the roof deck. [3]
Named for Jamaican statesman Norman Manley, NMLS is one of three law schools empowered by the (Caribbean) Council of Legal Education to award Legal Education Certificates, along with the Eugene Dupuch Law School in the Bahamas and the Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago. It opened its doors to students in September 1973. [4] In July 2008, former Deputy Solicitor General Stephen Vasciannie was appointed principal of NMLS, succeeding Keith Sobion who had died some months before. [5] In November 2012, Carol Aina was appointed principal following Vasciannie's departure to take up the post of Jamaica's ambassador to the United States.
NMLS students are required to perform several hours of field work to graduate. One way they obtain these hours is by participating in legal clinics, through which the needy can obtain legal consultations at a price of J$1,000, far less than the usual tens of thousands of dollars required to meet with a private lawyer. [1] In November 2008, NMLS signed a memorandum of understanding with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to form a partnership and hold seminars on human rights issues, including capital punishment. [6]
The Caribbean Court of Justice is the judicial institution of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). Established in 2005, it is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The Hon. Ira De Cordova Rowe, QC, OJ was one of the jurists of the Commonwealth Caribbean. His decisions on Jamaican, Belizan and Bahamian Constitution Law created a new Commonwealth jurisprudence based on the Westminster Model with a strong reliance on the wording of the new Commonwealth Caribbean Constitutions. Judge Rowe's fearless support for the Caribbean Court of Justice swayed many of the Court's initial critics. His belief that Caribbean students were as good as any law students in the world inspired many young lawyers of Caribbean heritage. Always a scholar, Judge Rowe thought that judges ought not to usurp the role of the legislator and based most of his more than five hundred published Opinions on principles of English and Caribbean Law as laid down in precedents and statutes. He believed that the newly independent Caribbean nations needed efficient, practical legal systems based on certainty and stability. He considered The Most Hon. Norman Washington Manley Q.C. a professional mentor.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Belize face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT citizens. Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalized in Belize in 2016, when the Supreme Court declared Belize's anti-sodomy law unconstitutional. Belize's constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, which Belizean courts have interpreted to include sexual orientation.
Louise Esther Blenman is a former Appellate Judge of the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court and the current Chief Justice of Belize. She was the first woman to ever be appointed to the post. On 22nd November 2022, she was sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the High Court and the Court of Appeal after the successful passage of the Senior Courts Act.
Troadio John Gonzalez is a justice of the Supreme Court of Belize.
Sir Manuel Sosa CBE is a former president of the Belize Court of Appeal, a position he held from 3 January 2011 to 24 December 2020, the longest term of any holder of that office.
George Bawa Singh was a Belizean judge who served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1998 and as a Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court from 1991 to 1998. He previously served as Solicitor General and Director of Public Prosecutions.
Sir George Noel Brown was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Belize from 1991 to 1998, the second native-born Belizean to sit in that position.
The Hugh Wooding Law School (HWLS) is a law school in Trinidad and Tobago.
Cheryl Krusen is a Caribbean lawyer. A dual national of Jamaica and Belize, she has served in legal positions in various countries for three decades.
Oscar D. Ramjeet is a Guyanese journalist and lawyer. He has served in a variety of positions throughout the Caribbean, including as Belize's Solicitor-General from 2009 to 2011.
Sir Denis Eustace Gilbert Malone was a British jurist in the Caribbean.
Vivian O. Blake QC was a Jamaican lawyer and politician. He served as president of the Jamaican Bar Association and chairman of the Bar Council's Disciplinary Committee, and became chief justice of the Bahamas.
Rodwell Roosevelt Adlai Williams is a Belizean lawyer. He is a name partner, along with Prime Minister of Belize and United Democratic Party leader Dean Barrow, in the Belize City law firm Barrow & Williams.
Kirk Brian Anderson is a Caribbean jurist. A dual national of Jamaica and Belize, he has experience both before the bench and behind it, in Belize as Director of Public Prosecutions and in Jamaica as a justice of the Supreme Court, and in both countries as a lawyer in private practice.
Stephen Charles Vasciannie is a Jamaican law professor. Formerly Deputy Solicitor-General and principal of the Norman Manley Law School, Vasciannie served as Jamaica's Ambassador Extraordinary Plenipotentiary to the United States from 2012 up to July 17, 2015, when he stepped down to return to academic life.
Sir Anthony Stafford Smellie is the Chief Justice of the Cayman Islands.
Sylvia Judith Bertrand was a Dominican civil servant who went on to earn a law degree in Dominica and serve as the Director of Public Prosecution. She served as Solicitor General for Dominica and later as High Court Judge for Antigua and Barbuda, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and the British Virgin Islands on the Eastern Caribbean Supreme Court.
Hilary Ann Phillips CD, QC is a Jamaican attorney-at-law and magistrate. She has served as a judge of the Court of Appeal since 2009.
Coordinates: 18°00′26″N76°44′49″W / 18.007116°N 76.746883°W
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