THE Executive Committee of the Council of Legal Education (CLE) has agreed to the establishment of two committees that will collaborate to ensure that the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas, when established in Guyana, will operate in keeping with the criteria required for Law Schools under the auspices of the CLE. During a press conference on Friday, Attorney General and Legal Affairs Minister, Basil Williams, disclosed that the Government’s committee will include representatives of its Joint Venture Partners, the Attorneys General of Guyana and Jamaica, while the CLE’s Committee will include the CLE’s Chairman, Reginald Armour, Principals of the Hugh Wooding, Norman Manley and Eugene Dupuch Law Schools, and Dr Leigton Jackson, University Dean, for the Faculty of Law, University of the West Indies (U.W.I).
“The CLE’s requirements for the establishment of its Law Schools include matters such as physical plant, staffing, library facilities and infrastructure,” the Legal Affairs Minister pointed out.
On January 26, the project for the establishment of the JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas was launched in Kingston, Jamaica. The project comes after nearly two decades of discussions and lobbying for an alternative law school to the Norman Manley Law School at the University of the West Indies.
The JOF Haynes Law School of the Americas (JHLSA) will be established through a private-public partnership between the Government of Guyana, Law School of the Americas (LCA) and the University College of the Caribbean (UCC).
JHLSA will be added to the options available to students who hold a Bachelor of Laws and have intentions to pursue their Legal Education Certificate (LEC), which upon completion will qualify them to practise law throughout Commonwealth Caribbean territories.
The law school, named after prominent Guyanese jurist, Joseph Oscar Fitzclarence Haynes, is expected to build on the legacy of the Norman Manley Law School and its counterparts – The Hugh Wooding Law School in Trinidad and Tobago and the Eugene Dupuch Law School in The Bahamas.
Jamaica’s Minister of Education, Youth and Information, Ruel Reid, who had delivered the keynote address at the official launch of the project, noted the challenges faced by qualified Caribbean nationals in their quest to enter the Norman Manley Law School.
“Let’s not be afraid of competition, but rather establish and maintain our institutions at such high standards offering quality education and training, that they will attract the best of the best locally and internationally as students and faculty,” Minister Reid had said.
Attorney General Williams, President of the Law School of the Americas, Dr Velma Brown-Hamilton, President and Executive Chairman of UCC Winston Adams and Attorney General to Jamaica, Marlene Malahoo-Forte, were among the other officials present during the prestigious ceremony.
“The courses offered will be innovative, practical and driven toward entrepreneurship, as well as the needs of the respective territories. The JOF Haynes Law School will be a catalyst for the new economy for the Region and developing countries. Importantly, it solidifies our vision to give access to legal education to a wider cross-section of people who are duly qualified,” Brown-Hamilton had pointed out.
Graduates of the LLB programmes offered by the LCA and UCC law faculties, as well as those from other law faculties across the Caribbean, will benefit from priority admission to JHLSA when it opens its doors.