JESSAMAE V.

DOCDOC

1. Discuss the Admission Procedure to the Practice of Law of your chosen country

“MAURITIUS”
The Procedure for Admission to Law in Mauritius is quite different from what we are
used to in the Philippines. The Mauritian Bar Course is called the Law Practitioners
Vocational Course (LPVC) and is delivered by the University of Mauritius. The University of
Mauritius only delivers the course and you have to apply to the Council for Vocational and
Legal Education to sit for exams (generally in the Supreme Court). The admission process is
made by the University of Mauritius (Reduit) between November and December of each year.
An advertisement will be both published in the newspapers and on the UOM website. The
application is made online through the UOM Enrollment System. You will then have to pay for
the relevant fees, print your application form and post it via registered mail. The minimum
requirement to apply is a Bachelor of Laws, LL.B (Hons) with at least a Second Class
Second Division degree.

The course generally starts in January (or February) and ends around July of each
year. The two first weeks of the course starts with the Introduction to the Mauritian Legal
System. The two weeks though exhausting are very important to former British students as
the MLS is very different from the Common Law system of the UK. You should be prepared
as some modules are delivered EXCLUSIVELY in French namely: Family Law and Code de
Commerce. The modules are generally delivered in the afternoon around 1pm or 2pm and
can end up to 6.45pm! Near the end of the course you may find that most of your time will be
spent on campus. Example: If you have two modules in a day then one may start as from
9.30 to 12.30 and then you have another one from 3pm till 6pm.

There are 3 streams for the Mauritian Law namely (a) Attorney/Avoué (b) Barrister (c)
Notary. The Attorney and Barrister streams generally have to sit for the same papers and
have more or less the same modules. Attorneys are more focused on Drafting (Legal Writing)
rather than Advocacy skills for Barristers. Most of the guidelines from this guide were written
for both Attorneys and Barristers. Most former British students have the tendency to choose
the Attorney stream. Some choose Barrister or Notary at first but then ask for enrollment as
Attorney. So for instance, If you want to become Attorney or Notary then you will have to take
the LPVC in Mauritius.

2. Does Mauritius have Bar Exam? Answer: Yes, they have Bar Exams

For the fees and examination, you will have to pay Rs 120,000.00 (price changes
each year) to the University of Mauritius for the LPVC Course. You will then receive a
Certificate of Attendance if you have more than 80% of Attendance around mid-July. You will
then have to pay another Rs 10,000.00 to the CVLE alongside with your Certificate of
Attendance to be able to secure a seat for the exams which shall then take place at a
prescribed location. The exams are generally scheduled for September and consist of 7
papers.

The exams run consecutively (no day off between exams). The last exams are
generally the Advocacy exams which are made in the Supreme Court. You will need to
secure at least a ‘B’ in each subject to be able to ‘pass the bar’. If you get a ‘C’ then you may
ask the CVLE for exemptions (not to take the LPVC course again). If you get lower than C
then you will have to retake the LPVC course (Rs 120k) + retake the whole bar exams
(Rs10k). It is important to understand that each time you fail you will have to take the course
again and resit for exams (starting afresh). If you fail two modules there is no resit
(conditional standing) thus you will have to take the whole exams again. Laslty, you should
take into consideration that the pass rate is very low. Most of the students who make it have
good knowledge of the MLS and therefore students with a Mauritian LLB.

You should understand that the Mauritian Legal System in its entirety is different from
the Common Law. So you will have to learn (a) Civil Code (b) Practical Aspects of Common
Law (c) Mauritian Legal System. So even if you go for a Master of Laws or GDL or any other
courses that does not mean that you will know and understand the hybrid legal system in
Mauritius.