Training in business law run by a British law firm is proving very popular in Rwanda, whose legal elite are trying to keep up with a rapid revival of its economy, partly on the back of foreign investment
LONDON (TrustLaw) - Training in business law run by a British law firm is proving very popular in Rwanda, whose legal elite are trying to keep up with a rapid revival of its economy, partly on the back of foreign investment.
Some 200 of Rwanda's barristers, solicitors, judges and the justice minister himself attended a recent two-week course in international banking and business laws, organised by Allen & Overy.
Since 1994 when 800,000 ethnic Tutsis and politically moderate Hutus were killed over a 100-day period, reforms, new programmes and laws have turned the tiny east African nation around.
"There is no expertise to negotiate contracts, and to know what to do with the foreign investment. It's really now when there's so much investment that there's really a need for proper legal and capacity training," Sophie Thomashausen, one of the leaders of Allen & Overy's pro bono training scheme in Rwanda, told TrustLaw.
The law firm has also launched Rwanda's first legal review journal to correct what Thomashausen says is a lack of "court reporting and critique of cases".
Allen & Overy estimates that over the course of three years, it will have put about 1 million pounds ($1.5 million) of resources into the training programme and the publication. And it is well-placed to put those funds to good use.
"There are a lot of new laws and legislation that are similar to English law or the laws that we practise in the international arena. Allen & Overy has 80 years of experience in the practice of commercial law," said Pallavi Sekhri who has recently travelled to Rwanda alongside Thomashausen.
"There is a lot of uncertainty among judges and lawyers because they just don't understand the law," she added.
The novelty of the laws is just a part of the challenge.
After the genocide in 1994, there were only eight lawyers left in Rwanda and until 2000, not every lawyer was required to have a law degree, with farmers often acting as judges, Sekhri noted.
As a result, most of Rwanda's lawyers have less than two years of experience - "kids really, who are trying to run very big and prominent institutions", she added.
The country's linguistic diversity presented another hurdle for Allen & Overy. The firm had to run classes in both English and French - two of three official languages alongside Kinyarwanda - but still, a number of students could not speak either language.
The levels of legal knowledge and experience in the classes also varied. After the genocide, many Rwandan lawyers returned to the country from Uganda, Belgium and the United States, Thomashausen said.
"People have very different experiences, depending on their age and if they've been abroad."
Despite all the difficulties, the course proved a hit.
"Every day it was full house," Thomashausen said.
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
