LEGAL EDUCATION IN EAST AFRICA (Hansard, 11 July 1960)

§ LORD OGMORE
My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.

§ THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR COLONIAL AFFAIRS (THE EARL OF PERTH)
My Lords, Her Majesty's Government and the East African Governments regard the provision of facilities for legal education as an important aspect of the wider problem of increasing the facilities for higher education in East Africa. A Working Party under the Chairmanship of Dr. J. F. Lockwood, the Master of Birkbeck College and then Vice Chancellor of London University, recommended, among other things, after a visit to East Africa in 1958, that plans should be made to establish an inter-territorial University College in Tanganyika, which should have a faculty of law. The outline of their recommenda- 2 tions has been accepted by the East African Governments and, although no undertaking has been given, I know of no reason to expect that they will reject a proposal by the University authorities concerned to provide facilities for training in the law.

§ LORD OGMORE
My Lords, while thanking the noble Earl for the detailed Answer which he has given, may I ask him whether he is aware that in January last the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning, and his Committee made recommendations to the Government that such training facilities should be established in East Africa, and also whether he is aware that it is most urgent that this should be proceeded with as soon as possible, and should not wait until a University is set up at some distant future? Could they, in the meantime, attach a school of law to Makerere?

§ THE EARL OF PERTH
My Lords, I think there are two questions there. On the first, the Conference which sat under the chairmanship of the noble and learned Lord, Lord Denning, at the end of 1959 and the beginning of 1960, recommended that a Committee should be set up to ensure that members of local Bars in Africa possessed the necessary legal knowledge and experience for their positions. In connection with that, I understand that the noble and learned Viscount the Lord Chancellor has agreed that such a Committee should be set up, and its composition, and so forth, is being considered at this very moment. As to the second question, whether in the meantime, before anything is done with a Univisity College in Tanganyika, something 3 similar should be set up at Makerere, I think that that proposal is a little premature. It really is for the University authorities in that area, in East Africa, to decide whether they would rather a school was set up in Tanganyika or at Makerere. All I know is that they are, in principle, anxious that something should be established.

LORD HAWKE
My Lords, could Her Majesty's Government say whether at the moment there is any shortage of lawyers in that part of the world?

§ THE EARL OF PERTH
I am afraid I do not know the answer to that question, but I do know that no fewer than 150 law students from the four East African territories are at this very moment studying law over here.