Dr Haynes obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree with First Class Honours from the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus, Barbados on a National Scholarship from the State of St Vincent and the Grenadines. He completed his Master of Laws in International Economic Law with Distinction at the University of Nottingham on a British Chevening Scholarship, a Master of Science in International Human Rights Law with Distinction from the University of Oxford, and a PhD in International Law at Durham University on a Commonwealth Scholarship. He completed the Legal Education Certificate at the Norman Manley Law School in Jamaica, and called to the Bars as a Barrister and Solicitor in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados.
In addition to teaching at the University of the West Indies (Cave Hill and Mona Campuses), Durham University, and Birmingham Law School, he has guest lectured at Cornell Law School, McGill University, and the University of Glasgow.
He has served as a Legal Consultant to several governments and international organisations, including the Governments of Canada, Jamaica, Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines, the American Bar Association (Rule of Law Initiative), the British Institute of International and Comparative Law (BIICL), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Council of Legal Education, and European Union (EDF Programme), the World Bank and the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees (CANOC). He has also provided expert advice to various governments and international organisations, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), USAID, and INTERPOL.
He drafted the Protection of Persons with Disability Bills for Barbados and St Vincent and the Grenadines; as well as the IOM’s Model Legislation on Migrant Smuggling; and the American Bar Association’s Guide for Judges and Prosecutors on Human Trafficking. In his capacity as National Rapporteur on Contemporary Slavery for the International Academy of Comparative Law, he drafted the Report on the continuities and discontinuities between historic and contemporary forms of exploitation in the Caribbean.
His research has been cited with approval by, inter alia, the Council of Europe Group of Experts on Trafficking in Human Beings (GRETA), the Caribbean Association of Judicial Officers (CAJO), and the Irish Council for Civil Liberties. His book, Caribbean Anti-Trafficking Law and Practice (Hart: Oxford, 2019) is widely used by law enforcement, judicial officers, prosecutors, and policy makers, while his co-authored book, Commonwealth Caribbean Sports Law (Routledge, 2020), has informed the operational policies of several sporting federations in the Caribbean, and is a key point of reference in the resolution of sporting disputes between athletes and sporting federations.
His research on human trafficking won the UNESCO/Juan Bosch Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Social Science Research in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2022.
He retains an active interest in sport, having played cricket as an opening batsman for the Oxford University Club Cricket Club (OUCCC), and Ustinov College Cricket Club while at Durham University. He presently serves as a Commissioner on the Commonwealth Games Ethics Commission; a member of Cricket West Indies Dispute Resolution Committee; and is a member of the Disciplinary Committee of the Windward Islands Cricket Board.