UG allocates 10 acres for Guyana law school

The University of Guyana has allocated 10 acres of land to serve as the site for the proposed JOF Haynes Law School, Vice Chancellor Ivelaw Griffith announced yesterday.

Chancellor E Nigel Harris, during a press briefing held at the Education Lecture Theatre yesterday, stated that the land is already available for construction to begin.

In November, Attorney General Basil Williams SC had said that construction of the proposed local law school would commence once the University of Guyana identified the spot at the Turkeyen Campus, where it will be located.

The location of the land is still to be revealed and will be provided in a subsequent update.

In January 2017, government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the University College of the Caribbean and the Law College of the Americas for the construction of the JOF Haynes Law School. The approximately US$75 million investment, it was said would end years of problems that local students have had entering regional law schools to complete their studies.

However, Williams last year indicated that the establishment of the law school was in limbo as the Council of Legal Education (CLE) was now saying that no permission was ever given to Guyana. However, he is yet to provide an update on a CLE meeting that was supposed to discuss the situation last month.

The CLE is responsible for legal education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and without its approval graduates of a local school would not gain accreditation in the region.