Caribbean Law Clinic

The Caribbean Law Clinic offers students the unique opportunity to collaboratively work on legal issues referred by various attorney generals. Each semester the attorney general of a Caribbean nation, Bahamas, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago to date, or of Florida or Texas refers legal problems to the Caribbean Law Clinic for students from the participating law schools to research under faculty supervision. The CLC serves as a legal resource the requesting government authority can turn to for timely research and analysis.

The Caribbean Law Clinic provides students with an opportunity to develop professional skills including problem solving, legal research and analysis, factual assessments, legal writing, and formal oral presentation. The research typically involves the law of the host country, international law, or comparative law and the memoranda address the possible ways to resolve the legal problems. Areas addressed so far in the CLC include criminal law, constitutional law, human rights, privatization, foreign investment, government ethics, family law, environmental law, maritime law, property, contracts, and international trade and business law.

The clinic includes traveling to the office of the attorney general from which the legal work originates to present completed work to the staff of the attorney general’s office, as well as to any ministry participating in the CLC. Students from participating law schools first meet to discuss their findings and recommendations and decide how to present them the following day. During the trip, time is also spent meeting with government officials to learn about the legal system, visiting courts, legislative bodies, prisons, and legal service providers such as legal aid clinics, as well as the law schools.

Legal Problems and Discussion Board   Your Name: Your school and problem you are working on: School: Problem:

Photos from past Caribbean Law Clinics hosted by: