The extracted from the Report of the Review Committee on Legal Education in The Caribbean (the Barnett Report)

1.C.1 Prior to the establishment of the Faculty of Law of the University of the West Indies there was no West Indian system of legal education. The primary means of legal training were by articleships with local solicitors culminating in the taking of the examinations of the English Law Society and by reading for the English Bar, with or without the taking of a law degree course as an internal or external student. The new system established ⁱⁿ the West Indies sought to meet the already changing nature of the legal practice. Whereas hitherto the English pattern of a bifurcated legal profession of barrister and solicitor was the norm, many Caribbean countries had both informally and formally moved towards the fusion of the two branches of the profession.

1.C.2. The scheme which was established in 1970 sought to prescribe dual qualifications for the practice of law; and a single final certification for the profession whether fused or not. First, there should be compulsory academic training in law to be provided by the Faculty of Law of the University of the West Indies. Second, there would be a two-year period of practical professional training at Law Schools administered by the Council of Legal Education. The two governing bodies would be independent but would cooperate. The objective was to ensure that there was not only a sound academic base for the training programme but a regulated period of institutional practical training.

The Strategic Plan 2004 – 2009 of the Council of Legal Education, having reviewed the fundamentals of legal education offered by the Council, states:

There is general agreement that the creation of the existing system was a major milestone in regional development and that it has served the Caribbean well. However, after more than thirty years of operation, it is also evident that the legal education system must undergo fundamental change and be refocused to ensure that it is responsive to changing social and economic conditions in the regional as well as the global environment.