The University Of Fiji’s School Of Law will unveil its ‘Bema’ at the Samabula Campus at a ceremony to be held at the Campus on Friday 3rd February at 4 pm.
Former Fiji High Court Judge and current Commissioner of the Fiji Independent Services Commission (ILSC), Dr Thomas V. Hickie, will officially unveil the Bema.
The Dean of School of Law, Professor Shaista Shameem, said that the Law School’s Bema, which is an Oratory Platform, was constructed in memory of lawyers and public speakers in Ancient Greece who used the platform to express their views and argue their cases before a critical and discerning audience.
‘At the time of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, the Bema was the central speaking platform where philosophers, lawyers and political figures would argue their philosophical perspectives without referring to notes’. Professor Shameem said that the Ancient Greek speakers expected to be criticised, heckled and argued against, so they had to be prepared to fire back with knowledge of the subject and be witty at the same time.
‘We are training our law students at the University of Fiji to be great orators, whether as lawyers, or parliamentarians, or public speakers on any occasion; the Bema will be our training ground for that’ she said.
Professor Shameem said the Law School was fortunate in that one of the great judicial orators in Fiji, Dr Thomas Hickie, had agreed to unveil the Bema. Dr Hickie was renowned for his public speaking skills and charismatic personality. Professor Shameem expected the legal community and others interested in legal education to attend the Unveiling at the Samabula Campus.
