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GENERAL INFORMATION · 13. January 2018

Access to the Law in Mauritius

The Legal Profession

The legal profession of the Republic of Mauritius consists of attorneys, barristers and notaries. No person
shall be entitled to provide legal services in the jurisdiction of the Republic of Mauritius unless his/her
name has been entered on the Roll as a barrister, an attorney or notary and that he/she is a member: -

in the case of the barrister, of the Mauritius Bar Council;

in the case of an attorney, of the Mauritius Law Society;

in the case of a notary, of the Association of Notaries; or

if he/she is a foreign lawyer duly registered in his/her home jurisdiction and practicing as such in either a
law firm, foreign firm or a joint law venture.

Note: It is an offence for someone to hold himself/herself as a legal practitioner when he/she is not a
member of the bodies listed above.

Requirements to be admitted as a Legal Practitioner in Mauritius

Any citizen of the Republic of Mauritius may apply for admission to practice law in Mauritius provided
that he/she: -

in the case of a prospective barrister educated in a State other than Mauritius to hold a professional
qualification entitling him/her to be admitted to practice law in any of the following countries: - England
and Wales, France, Australia, Canada or New Zealand;

in the case of any other prospective barrister or attorney, to have been awarded a law degree and having
successfully completed the vocational course conducted by the Council of Legal Education;

in the case of a prospective notary, to have been awarded a law degree, having successfully completed
the vocational course conducted by the Council of Legal Education and been authorised by the Prime
Minister, after consultation with the Attorney General to apply for admission;

the prospective barrister, attorney and notary should also undergo pupillage (legal training). The
prospective barrister additionally needs to follow a prescribed course delivered by the Institute for
Judicial and Legal Studies (IJLS); and

the prospective barrister, attorney and notary should be of good character (a clean judicial record).

Note

The prospective barrister has the option to educate himself/herself either in the Republic of Mauritius or
abroad but however for the prospective attorney and the notary it is compulsory for him/her to sit for
the examinations of the Council of Legal Education of Mauritius. (professional exams)

Foreign Lawyer in Mauritius

Foreign Lawyers are also entitled to work in Mauritius if he/she is duly registered with the office of the
Attorney General. The foreign lawyer’s scope of practice is limited in as much as he/she: -

can only provide legal services within a domestic law firm, foreign law firm or a joint law venture;
the legal services are limited only in relation to International law and Alternative Dispute Resolution and
on the possible impact of Mauritian Law in an International context but not on Mauritian Law in itself;
and

the foreign lawyer does not have have rights of audience in the Mauritian Courts, but a foreign lawyer
can be granted rights of audience if the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Mauritius accedes to
his/her request.

The Mauritian Bar Course is called the Law Practitioners Vocational Course (LPVC) and is delivered by the
University of Mauritius. This article is the most comprehensive guide regarding the LPVC for people who
graduated from a British University.

Before we start

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).

Admissions

The admission process is made by the University of Mauritius (Reduit) between November or 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
As mentioned earlier, the LPVC is delivered by the University of Mauritius (Reduit Campus). 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.

The Streams

There are 3 streams namely (i) Attorney/Avoué (ii) Barrister (iii) Notary.

The Attorney and Barrister streams generally have to sit for the same papers and have more or less the
same modules. Attorney 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.

N.B: If you want to become Attorney or Notary then you will have to take the LPVC in Mauritius.
Fees and Exams

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 consists 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 thus you will have to take the whole
exams again*.

Tuitions and Other Relevant Factors

You should understand that the Mauritian Legal System in its entirety is different from the Common Law.
So you will have to learn (i) Civil Code (ii) Practical Aspects of Common Law (iii) 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.

The only thing that will help you from your British degree is sound knowledge of the Law of Evidence.
Some students take tuitions (which I encourage) before the start of the LPVC to be able to understand
the concepts of Civil Code and the MLS itself. You should also understand that taking tuitions from well
known lawyers does not mean that you will be ‘better-off’ than someone who is taking tuitions from a
freshly called barrister.

The idea is learning how to answer examination questions and not to learn 3 years of a Mauritian LL.B in
6 months. You will have time to learn the MLS during your pupillage. I shall reiterate that it is VERY
important that you get someone with good teaching skills and that can help you to write the answers
from former past exams papers.

There is a fine line between knowing how to litigate and knowing how to teach. You will find that some
judges do not even know how to teach properly. This was one of the major issue that was raised in a
recent recommendation to ammend the LPVC examinations.

Conclusions

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.

If you want to be an attorney/avoué or notary then you have no choices than to take the course and
then sit for the exams here. If you have enough funding then you may either opt for the UK or New
Zealand which is I believe the fastest route to become a barrister. The pass rate is generally good.
Barristers that are called at the bar each year are generally those who had their bar course in the UK.

A Master of Laws will definitely not help you in this endeavour as it does not implement concepts of Civil
law. So it is better that you save your money and get called in an other jurisdiction and come back to
Mauritius for pupillage.