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FG moves to include Admiralty Law in Universities curriculum
News & Trends •
also chief justice of the gambia justice hassan jallow said that admiralty law had not been included in the university curriculum of his country noting the impact of these on the timely resolution of maritime cases1 the federal government on wednesday said it had taken appropriate steps to ensure that admiralty law maritime law was included in the curriculum of universities in the country for speedy resolutions of maritime cases1 he said that the ministry of transportation had set up a steering committee to work collaboratively with the national universities commission nuc to see how admiralty law could be taken as a course in the tertiary institutions1 the national universities commission has been approached to look into making admiralty law a compulsory subject in the universities1 in fact there is no hiding from that it must be done1 we have to have sanctity of contract we have to respect and effect international treaties and then we have to boost our export profile for example1 and we need legal officers lawyers and judges to be conversant with it and if we are conversant with it it must start right at the university1 so we are pushing with that committee very soon you will hear what the committee is doing1 and i hope that they will establish the teaching of admiralty law in our universities1 he said that the inclusion of admiralty law in the curriculum would serve as the bedrock for future lawyers and judges to resolve maritime cases1 alhaji hassan bello the executive secretary of nigerian shippers council nsc disclosed this at the 15th international maritime seminar for judges organised by the council in collaboration with the national judicial institute nji in abuja1 he said that the seminar had impacted participants from his country as they were now abreast of the importance of admiralty law which was alien to most judges in the gambia1 we dont have admiralty law being studied in our university unfortunately we dont have it as a course in the faculty of law or at the law school1 many of us have gone through the university without studying it1 its a very important subject incredible lawyers now recognise the essence of this field and more students will subscribe to it because you need the understanding of the law to be able to regulate the sector1 if lawyers and judges are not familiar with the law things cannot work well1 so the familiarisation programme is important1 justice abdulahamid charm chief justice of sierra leone said that although his country gets limited maritime cases legal practitioners were making efforts to familiarise themselves with the law1 he admitted that maritime law was part of the curriculum of schools in the country adding that efforts would be made to equip legal practitioners with the law1 we dont have maritime law in the curriculum of our universities and we are ready to discuss with the authorities to introduce it1 because that will really help to fully equip our judges and lawyers when they have such cases in court1