Signing of the College’s New Statutes

Posted on: 22 July 2010

The College’s new Statutes were signed by the  Chancellor of the University, Mary Robinson and the Visitor of the College, the Honourable, Dr Justice Maureen Harding Clark on July 12th last.

The Statutes are the ‘basic law’ of the College, laying the foundation of the governance of the College and the University, providing a link to the past and preserving the best of our traditions, giving the College and the University its distinct identity.

The ordinance which was signed on  July 12th last, will bring The 2010 Consolidated Statutes of Trinity College Dublin and of the University of Dublin into force on August 31st  and is the final step in an approval process that included approval by Board, Senate and Council and the assent of the Fellows.

Chancellor of the University, Mary Robinson and the Honourable, Dr Justice Maureen Harding Clark sign witnessed by Prof Juergen Barkhoff,  Provost, Dr John Hegarty &  Dr Eoin O’Dell.

The signing was witnessed by the Provost, Dr John Hegarty, the Registrar, Professor Juergen Barkhoff as Custodian of the Statutes and Dr Eoin O’Dell, the Chair of the Statutes Review Working Party. The Statutes Review Working Party had worked for three years on a complete restatement of the Statutes, the first to be undertaken since 1966. The current Statutes will be replaced by the 2010 Statutes at the beginning of the next Academic Year when they will be enacted.

 This signing sees the culmination of a long process of consultation throughout the College community. Since  the establishment of the Statutes Review Working Party over 100 meetings of the Working Party were convened, as well as  over 200 consultation meetings with all constituencies across college.

Commenting on the significance of the new College Statutes, the College Registrar, Professor Juergen Barkhoff stated:  “This restatement of the statutes is an enormous achievement: It will provide the College community with crisp, clear, up to date, accessible and workable statutes, and places the operations of the College on a sound statutory footing.”

 “Tributes need to be paid to the work of the Statutes Review Working Party and in particular its Chairman Dr O’Dell: their dedication and expertise, broad vision and attention to detail, patience and spirit of collegiality.”