Fourth Annual Judicial Reform Program Takes Place July 13-24
Participants from 11 countries to attend Spanish Language program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

July 10, 2015 – AUWCL is pleased to announce that the fourth annual Judicial Reform in Latin America and the United States Program will take place July 13-24, 2015. The program is co-sponsored with the Centro de Estudios de Justicia de las Américas (CEJA) with the support of our cooperating institution, the National Center for State Courts. CEJA is an international organization created in 1999 by the institutions of the Inter-American system and it is based in Santiago, Chile. CEJA is the premier training facility promoting judicial reform in the hemisphere.

This important training program is another prime example of the world-wide engagement of American University Washington College of Law, which, in 2015, held summer programs in Geneva, Switzerland, the Hague in the Netherlands, Istanbul, Turkey, and a Europe Program featuring London, Paris, Strasbourg, and Brussels, as well as a program in Chile and Argentina. In Washington, the law school hosted summer programs in International Commercial Arbitration, Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, Anti-Corruption Law, Trial Advocacy, and Legal English among others. See a full list here.

The law school’s Judicial Reform program brings lawyers, judges, and distinguished advocates from various Latin American countries and provides an overview of the reform processes taking place within Latin America's judicial systems with a special emphasis on criminal justice reforms. The program exposes participants to the challenges and skills involved in the professional practice within the various functions of judicial systems and  helps them gain an understanding of selected aspects of the U.S. judicial system which they may apply to their own work in Latin America. This year the program will welcome participants from Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, and the United States.

Carlos Acosta, inspector general for the Prince George's County Police Department, and Juan Sempertegui, director of licensing for the State of Maryland's Division of Financial Regulation, will teach in the program along with faculty experts Jaime Arellano, Rafael Blanco Suarez, and Santiago Pereira. All course content will be presented in Spanish.

  • Carlos Acosta teaches in the Trial Advocacy Program at AUWCL and will cover topics in criminal procedure.
  • Juan Sempertegui, an alumnus recently appointed as president of the Hispanic Bar Association of the District of Columbia, will focus on topics in civil procedure.
  • Jaime Arellano was appointed executive director of CEJA in January 2014 and is a partner with the law firm of Jara & Marin in Santiago, Chile. Arellano was formerly general counsel of Corporación de Fomento de la Producción de Chile (CORFO), the Chilean Economic Development Agency, and prior to that he served as deputy secretary of justice under the administration of Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.
  • Rafael Blanco is formerly the national coordinator for criminal procedure reforms in Chile and also formerly the executive secretary for issues regarding probity for the Office of the President in Chile. He is currently the director of international programs and a professor of criminal litigation at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado Law School and a visiting professor at Loyola University in Chicago.
  • Santiago Pereira is a professor of civil procedure at the Facultad de Derecho de la Universidad de Montevideo.
  • Special guest lectures will be provided by Lisa Bhansali (World Bank), Diego Rodriguez-Pinzon (AUWCL), and Rosa Celorio (Inter-American Commission on Human Rights), on anti-corruption and the rule of law, human rights, and gender, respectively.

In addition, the program will offer participants site visits throughout the region which include:

- Prince Georges County Correctional Center

- Federal District Courthouse Tour and Briefing with Judge Peter Messitte

- Supreme Court Tour and Briefing with Supreme Court Fellow Derek Webb

See more about the Judicial Reform Program on the program’s website.

 

 

 

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