THE STRUCTURE OF LEGAL EDUCATION
IN ERITREA: CHALLENGES AND PROSPECTS
A. Introduction
The Educational system of the Country is closely related to its history. After many years of colonial domination Eritrea was liberated in May 1991 and became formally independent on May 24, 1993, after an internationally supervised referendum was carried out.
There is one University in Eritrea. This was founded in 1958 as the "Holy Family" University Institute by the Missionary Congregation "Piae Matres Nigritiae" (Comboni Sisters) with Italian as the medium of instruction. In 1959 this Institution was recognized by the Eritrean Government. In 1960 it was accredited by the Superior Council of the Institute of Italian Universities in accordance with the Geneva Convention governing International Academic Standards.
In 1964 it adopted English as a medium of instruction alongside Italian and changed its name from "Holy Family University Institute" to "University of Asmara".
In 1967 it became a Chartered University and begun providing legal courses leading to an LLB degree. It succeeded in graduating two batches of students not exceeding 15 in number. The law program was closed in 1974. There was no legal education in Eritrea until 1981. Students who wanted to study law had to go to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
In 1981 the Law Diploma Program was established for government employees on a part-time basis.
In 1992 after liberation, a curriculum for a five years LLB Program was designed, but the program could not be initiated due to shortage of staff. As a result, an open–ended two years' Diploma program was commenced. Accordingly, the name "Faculty of Law" was changed to "Law Program" and is currently operating under College of Arts and Social Sciences.
In 1995 the Law Program graduated its first Diploma students.
In was believed that even though students who graduated with a Diploma in law could contribute in the profession by filling the gaps, it was agreed that the need for law degree graduates was an important matter that should be addressed immediately. The need for law graduates in the government, in the private sector and the administration of justice is so high that for the coming ten years or so the supply will not satisfy the demands.
Eritrea is a new State that has just emerged from a devastating thirty year war. It has now embarked on the formidable task of the formation of a democratic government. The creation of a democratic government cannot be envisioned without qualified judges, prosecutors, and advocates. Skilled lawyers will be needed to draft Eritrea's new laws, advise and staff its legislature, and support the intensive regulatory process being carried out by government agencies. Unless the shortage of legal workers is alleviated, the task of introducing a democratic process of government, the rule of law, and respect for human rights will be almost impossible to accomplish.
B. Current Status
1.
The Program
The Law Degree program is a five years program plus one year national service. In the first year, students take the general required courses for the Social Sciences stream. After successful completion of the first year students advance into a curriculum which consists entirely of law courses and few electives.
2.
Admissions
Students who have successfully completed the first year Social Science Courses are eligible. At the end of the first year of general university education, students are required to fill a form setting their priorities of colleges and departments they would like to join. Students informally request about the colleges or departments before they make their choice. Departments and Colleges are expected to give an orientation of what to expect, such as challenges, prospects for employment, further education and satisfaction and more challenges, if they join the respective colleges and departments.
At the initial stage students with good grades joined the department with the hope that it will turn into a degree program. However, when the change could not take place as scheduled, the quality of students was greatly affected. Despite such problems there were very few exceptional students, with good grades, who joined the Law Department for the sake of pursuing legal education. Since the shift to a degree program took place the entrance to the Law Program has become very competitive.
3. Students
There are 118 students pursuing law degree this time. 30 (M 24 F 6) are Second year students, and 28 (M 24 F 4) are third year students 26 (M 24 F 2) are fourth year students and 34 (M32 F 2) are fifth year students.
A one Year certificate course was given to 61 students (48M 13 F) from the Ministry of Justice, Labour and Human Welfare, Local Government and Defense and graduated in 1999. However, this program could not continue due to lack of Teaching Staff and may recommence, if additional teaching staff are available.
4.
Faculty
The Law Program faculty is comprised of three full time lecturers with Ph.D., LL.M and J.D LLB, part – time lecturers with LL.M., one with LLB. The Law Program was greatly assisted by the linkage programes it established with the University of North Carolina (UNC) of U.S.A. University of Trento, Italy, but the current war situation with Ethiopia has made the travel restrictions for the would be professors impossible. As a consequence the expected professors were not able to join for the last three semesters. Thus the teaching load on the local staff, full time and part – times has become heavy and the quality of education has been affected.
5. Graduates
So far the Law Program has graduated 73 students and except for five of these graduates who have been recruited by the University and 17 students who have to undergo national military training the rest are employed by the Ministry of Justice.
In the Ministry of Justice graduates are given Computer training, review of old cases, lecture on traditional ways of settling disputes, the cultural set up and orientation towards the society. After completing the first phase of the training, they are assigned to different sections of the courts (registrar, chambers, Attorney General Offices, etc) for orientation and practical observation. Finally they are assigned to work either as Judges, prosecutors, researchers. In order to enhance their skill the Ministry of Justice has sent four graduates to India, two to the United States, one to South Africa, two will go shortly to the U.K. When they return these graduates are expected to become judges.
For its staff development, the University has sent four graduate assistants abroad. Three of them to MCGill University, Canada, one to George Washington University, USA and they are expected to graduate at the end of this year.
C. The Curriculum
The curriculum for the degree program has already been prepared and approved. The Curriculum for the Diploma program is in the process of being prepared whereas, curriculum for the certificate program has already been approved and various experienced fighters from the Ministries of Labour Justice Local government and Defence have pursued a one year Certificate Program in law. The Department proposes the curriculum and circulates it to the members of the Senate, Colleges, Departments that have an inter-disciplinary connection. After rigorous discussions and exchange of ideas the curriculum is approved. Any subsequent changes in the curriculum have to pass through the same approval procedure.
For the first year, students take 34 credit hours as part of the first year Social Science Stream. In the second year students take a total of 36 credit hours, including 6 hours of Sophomore English and 30 hours of required law courses. In the Third year and Fourth year the students will take 36 hours of mandatory law courses. For the final class, 36 hours of mandatory upper division courses will be required in addition 27-30 hours of elective courses.
The total credits required for graduation is 170-180 including elective courses.
The Law Program is expected to offer law courses of about 6 credit hours per Semester for students of other colleges.
The core areas are as follows:
· Legal Philosophy
· Constitutional Law
· Civil Law
· Criminal Law
· Commercial Law
· Law of Procedure
· International law (Public and Private)
· Labour
· Traditional law
· Professional ethics
· Legal Research
· Legal Writing
Outside of the main library which is available to all students and faculty, there is only a small reading room set aside for the law students. Moreover, this law related holdings in both the library and reading room are extremely limited.
In general, legal reference books and law text books at the university are almost non-existent. Students are commonly forced to rely on photocopied hand-outs for most of their written information.
Eritrea has, with some changes, inherited most of Ethiopian laws. As students are being taught these laws, textbooks written on Ethiopian laws are at the moment, considered to be relevant. But these books are old since they were written in the sixties and early seventies, and most of them are unavailable and they are out of print.
Reference books and journals are in short supply. The books found in the University Library are only common law books, and many of them are outdated. As Eritrea is a civil law country, books concerning the Civil Law system written in English are important for Eritrean students.
Clearly, without a proper law library containing sufficient legal books and materials, the law program is not able to adequately carry out its mandate of teaching and research.
The estimated student enrolment is about 25-30 students. The present enrolment for law is about 118 for all years (about 24 by year). Since the commencement of the degree program the quality and caliber of the students who enroll in the program has shown great improvement. Students with better GPA have applied to the Law Program and the attrition rate has been very negligible. The expected total student enrolment for all years is expected to remain between 100-120. The Eritrean economy and politics seems not to allow more than the suggested number. This is based on rough estimate for the legal manpower requirement of the country.
Students don’t pay tuition. It is government financed as well as foreign assistance. After completion, students are expected to work for the government at least two years before they could do other works.
1.
Internal Linkages
Internal linkages have been established in the form of a steering committee organized by the University which consists of members from the Ministry of Justice, the Judiciary, Ministry of Local Government and the University. Its membership may be expanded to include other government institutions and the private sector.
The main tasks of the Steering Committee are as follows:
· define problem areas;
· define desired skills;
· assist the university in developing appropriate curricula to be based on international standards and Eritrean development needs;
· provide a forum for the regular exchange and discussion of ideas and relevant information.
2.
External Linkages:
The University of Asmara has established several linkages with external universities. A four year Social Science linkage which started during the 1995/96 academic year is about to end this year (2,000). During the 1995/96 academic year, two members of the Law Faculty of the University of North Carolina taught in the Law Program as part of the Linkage. During the 1996/97 academic year one member of the Law Faculty came and taught for one academic year. During the 1997/1998 academic year one member of the Law Faculty came for a year and another one for a semester.
The other meaningful linkage has been forged between the University of Trento, Italy Law Faculty and the Law Program.
The University of Trento has been providing the Law Program with two professors for a year (One at a semester).
The two linkages having different legal systems and teaching methodology mentioned above have contributed to the development of the Law Program. The UNC, having a Common Law background, and the University of Trento the Civil Law or Continental System was an ideal one for the program. The University of Asmara, in its Law Program utilizes the Socratic method of teaching and the Italian professors were made to somehow combine the lecture method and the Socratic method. They found it more beneficial and better gauge student's thinking and analysis, rather than reproducing what the professor has taught them.
G. Obstacles and Prospective Solutions
Law as a profession and discipline is often conservative and follows the development of society rather than pre-empting it. In many instances law attempts to address issues when they arise. Law by its nature is conservative and wants to maintain the status quo.
Law could be a very good examples of what sociologist Kurt Levin called "Force Field Analysis" According to him there is a current level of performance or being as a state of equilibrium between the driving forces that encourage upward movement and the restraining forces, that discourage it.
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RESTRAINING FORCES (often
negative, emotional, illogical
unconscious) |
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EQUILIBRUIM |
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DRIVING |
FORCES |
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(Generally positive, reasonable, logical, conscious and economic)
The primary obstacles in legal education can be classified as:
· high student faculty ratio
· staffing problem
· Failure to identify the Core courses conception that re cur to reflect the variety of laws.
· Lack of incorporating areas of law that are of growing importance to the profession.
· Lack of feed back from society and the ministries
· The conservative nature of law.
· Lack of identifying critical and theoretical dimensions and setting them at the right stage.
· Lack of combination of academics with practical training.
Assistance and Co-operation from Linkages
· Continous innovative curriculum development work
· Identifying the core elements and values to be addressed in schools.
· Practical skills development.
· Interpersonal skills
· Economic and management issues (affordability to society).
· Professional Ethics.
· Plan to recognise good teaching in promotion and advancement.
· Research
· Development of teaching materials.