1
A DRAFT CONCEPT NOTE
Strengthening and Expanding the Capacity
of the University of Hargeisa School of Law
and Amoud University Faculty of Sharia and Law
to More Effectively Resolve Land Disputes
Prepared by Alphonso Gaskins
During the last two quarters of 2013, the United Nations Joint Programme on Local
Governance and Decentralized Service Delivery (JPLG) undertook an initiative that
sought to identify two Somaliland law schools that possessed the capacity to
“strengthen…existing institutional arrangements to improve their ability to protect
land rights, ensure reliable, speedy, low cost transfer of land rights, provide security
of tenure, and to facilitate appropriate adjudication of land disputes.” The University
of Hargeisa School of Law and the Amoud University Faculty of Sharia and Law were
the selected and assessed law schools. The initiative’s Final Report, amongst others,
made the following recommendation:
(1) That JPLG establish a cooperative relationship with the University of Hargeisa School of
Law and the Amoud University Faculty of Sharia and Law that seeks to strengthen their
capacity to effectively undertake enrichment and expansion initiatives in their land law course
offerings that will contribute to increasing availability of legally trained individuals with a
theoretical and practical understanding of the intricacies of land policy analysis, formulation,
and effective land dispute resolution;
(3) That JPLG support increasing the availability of appropriate land law and land
administration resources for use by the relevant law school personnel and students;
(5) That JPLG support the establishment of a Land Administration Concentration and a Land
Dispute Resolution Clinical component at the University of Hargeisa School of Law and the
Amoud University Faculty of Sharia and Law Legal Clinics.
The initiative concluded by obtaining a letter of from the President of the respective
universities to collaborate with JPLG in undertaking activities directed towards realizing the
aims of the Final Report recommendations, (see attachments).
This Concept Note provides a preliminary approach to attaining the above noted
recommendations. The term “preliminary” is used as full attainment of those
recommendations will require additional JPLG programmatic follow-up. The presented
approach is offered as a less expensive start-up that has limited JPLG continued financial
engagement.
2
Establishment of Land Law Concentrations and Strengthening Legal Clinics Capacity to
More Effectively Handle Land Dispute Resolution
Land Law Concentration
Succinctly put, land law concentrations provide law students with an opportunity to gain
exposure to advanced land law theory and hands on engagement with the work of land
management and land administration professionals. The former will take the form of
classroom substantive course work, and the later by way of a short-term, well supervised
local government or central government externship.
Strengthening Legal Clinics Capacity to More Effectively Handle Land Dispute Resolution
Here, instead of establishing a comprehensive, new legal clinic department dedicated to
handling land disputes only, (as recommended in the Final Report), the existing Civil Law
departments at both university law school clinics will be provided with an intensive training
focused on heighten effectiveness in lawyer-client relationship, case theory formulation, legal
memorandum drafting, trial/tribunal hearing preparation, case management, and clinic
management.
JPLG Input


One international consultant (eight weeks)
Land law resource material