Above: the existing UNIFA medical school

By the Caribbean Journal staff

Haiti will soon have a new law school, with the University of the Aristide Foundation set to debut a new Faculty of Law and Political Science.

The Aristide Foundation for Democracy broke ground on its medical school in 2001, which was shut down when former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide was exiled following a coup. It relaunched in 2011.

Nicole Phillips, an adjunct professor at the school and at the Aristide Foundation’s existing medical school, announced the new faculty, which will begin accepting entries for its new faculty beginning July 16.

“The UNIFA team is delighted with the opening of the Faculty of Law and Political Science,” she said at a press conference on Monday. “The team for the new faculty reflects the same kind of diversity and international partnerships as the faculty of medicine.”

Phillips has been a professor of law and health at the faculty of medicine since February, in partnership with the University of San Francisco.

The school will include a group of Haitian and American law professors, including USF’s Dolores Donovan, former USF Dean Jeffrey Brand, Serges Henri of the Faculty of Law of the Universite Quisqueya and Dr Paul Antoine, former dean of the Faculty of Ethnology of the University of Haiti.

Phillips said the faculty wanted its partnerships with American schools to “allow us to create an advanced faculty of law and political science to train Haitian lawyers with the highest possible standards.” She said she expected around 150 students for the inaugural class.

Classes are set to begin in the autumn.