Professor Stephen Vasciannie - Winston Sill /Freelance Photographer

PRINCIPAL OF the Norman Manley Law School (NMLS), professor Stephen Vasciannie, says expanding registration and getting the institution involved in national legal issues will be priorities of his tenure.

The 48-year-old Vasciannie was named to the post in July, but officially assumed duties in August. He succeeded Trinidadian Keith Sobion who died in February.

During a recent interview with The Sunday Gleaner, Vasciannie said increasing the school's roster in the next two years is inevitable, especially with the University of Technology's (UTech) law faculty opening in January.

"Those (UTech) students, under the current arrangement, will have to come to the Law School to get the legal education certificate in order to practise. That will cause an increase up to at least 100," Vasciannie said.

"The crunch in respect of UTech will begin three years from now, but it also has been considered that the University of the West Indies (UWI) will increase its enrolment by a significant margin," he added. "So, instead of having a (first year) class of 126, which we have now, we may well have a class of 326."

Persons who graduate from the UWI's Faculty of Law do so with an LLB and are guaranteed a place at the NMLS. A treaty arrangement determines the number of first-year students it can accept from Caribbean territories.

Sensitive issues

The NMLS also has a six-month conversion programme for persons qualified to practise in other common-law jurisdictions, and another for students with LLBs from overseas universities, wishing to practise in Jamaica.

A series of seminars to be conducted by the school, involving senior administrators, is in the cards. Vasciannie said each will focus on sensitive issues such as the Government's anti-crime initiative, which kicked off the mini-conferences in October.

Similar events discussing abortion, trade and the death penalty are also planned.

"What we are trying to do is reach out to the public and raise the profile of the Law School," Vasciannie said.

The Norman Manley Law School was opened in September 1973, giving prospective Caribbean lawyers the opportunity to read for the Commonwealth Bar in the region. Previously, most of the Caribbean's lawyers studied in Britain.

Selection process

A graduate of the University of the West Indies and Oxford University, Vasciannie's expertise is in international law. Prior to his appointment as principal of the NMLS, he headed the UWI's Department of Govern-ment and served as professor in international law.

Vasciannie also acted as Jamaica's deputy solicitor general, but last November, after the Public Service Commission (PSC) recommended him for the post of solicitor general, Prime Minister Bruce Golding blocked it.

Golding said he had "serious concerns" about the PSC's selection process; but some commentators believed his action was personal, as Vasciannie criticised him severely in 2001 when he left the National Democratic Movement (NDM) and returned to the Jamaica Labour Party.

Vasciannie was a spokesperson for the NDM of which Golding was founding president.

Golding subsequently fired four of the five PSC committee members, citing "misbehaviour". The members have challenged their dismissal by filing suit in the Supreme Court.

Because the case is before the courts, Vasciannie declined to comment.