Spring Break in Santiago, anyone? Comparative Law in Chile
In recent years, Chile has possibly been best known for it’s natural beauty and those lucky miners. For students looking to learn more about how another system functions, Chile offers a magnificent opportunity to delve into Comparative Law.
The Comparative Law Class – Chile is founded on a longstanding relationship with our sister school in Santiago – Alberto Hurtado University Law School – significantly enhancing students’ access to professionals and practitioners working in their chosen areas of study. As Professor Bruce Boyer explains, “comparative law classes offer important opportunities for students to gain perspective about the structures of legal systems, and to explore the varying foundations on which different systems are built. Students have also found the opportunity to travel to other countries and engage in hands on field research to be an invaluable way to enhance their legal education.”
Loyola alumna Lizzy Ullman (’11), who participated in the program in spring 2011, described a tour of the Chileans Criminal Court and Jail and Supreme Court arranged by the host university when asked about the highlights of her trip. She also spoke highly of the interviews students engage in as part of their semester research topic: “I was enrolled in Loyola’s Childlaw clinic where I was a child representative on a few messy divorce cases. I was not feeling pleased with our own legal system and was curious how other legal systems address the issue of child custody in divorce. This was the perfect opportunity to do that. I found the research interesting, and learned that Chile handles divorce and child custody very different than how most states address it. One of the highlights of the trip for me was interviewing a Chilean family law judge.” As an avid traveler who spent her first law school summer interning in South Africa, Ms. Ullman also enjoyed the valued opportunities to get to know Santiago, visit several other areas of Chile – including Vina del Mar, Valparaiso and San Pedro de Atacama (the desert!) – after the trip and getting to know the people her group met.
It is easy to understand how this Chilean law experience might enrich students’ law school experience and expand options for students looking for an international career in our ever-shrinking-global-community. What some people might not realize is that the program has also provided opportunities for faculty and Chile as well. Professor James Carey described the excitement that he and Professors Bill Elward, Rick Hutt, Tom Moore and Patti Sudendorf have experienced through assisting the Chilean transformation to an adversarial system: “As part of our exchange program with Alberto Hurtado University in Santiago, several of our trial practice faculty, with expertise as well in criminal law and procedure, have visited Santiago to teach Chilean lawyers and lawyers from other Latin American countries, notably from Mexico, about techniques of persuasion in the adversarial system, and about American criminal procedure, especially the role of the exclusionary rule as a guarantor of individual rights. Observing their efforts first hand has given us fresh insight into our own system, and has been inspiring as well, reminding us of the critical role which lawyers and the rule of law play in preserving individual rights.”
Furthermore, for students who are interested in International work, the Chile program offers valuable and very practical experience. One Loyola student who attended the 2011 Equal Justice Works Conference and Career Fair in D.C. noted that one high-level Department of State official speaking on a panel about international careers explicitly listed study abroad experience during law school as one of the things that “stands out” on a resume. As many American attorneys represent clients with interests in other countries, gaining such intimate exposure to how a different system operates – including how lawyers in the civil law tradition are trained – is also an asset. In fact, Andrew Burkavage, a 3L student who participated in the program last spring, explained that – in addition to the joys of sunshine and pisco in March– the program is impressive in that students are able to meet with some of Chile’s most prominent legal scholars.
For further questions about this three-credit spring course, interested students may contact Professors Tom Haney (thaney@luc.edu), Anne-Marie Rhodes (arhodes@luc.edu), or Bruce Boyer (bboyer@luc.edu). Additional information and a course description may also be found at: http://www.luc.edu/law/courses/200s.html#237 and http://www.luc.edu/law/academics/special/studyabroad/chile.html.
For more information about Public Interest careers or how to get involved with upcoming events, and volunteer opportunities today, please contact Associate Director of Career Services Maureen Kieffer (mkieffer1@luc.edu), and/or Mary Bird (mbird1@luc.edu), Director of Public Interest Programs.
