McGILL'S FACULTY OF LAW: MAKING HISTORY - Publications ...

THE LATIN AMERICAN
INITIATIVE
L’espagnol, la
deuxième langue la
plus parlée aux États-
Unis, arrive également
au 2 e rang mondial en
terme de croissance.
Alors que les échanges
commerciaux entre
l’Amérique Latine,
le Canada et les
États-Unis croissent
chaque année, la
connaissance du droit
latino-américain
représente
un précieux
atout pour qui
veut faire des
affaires dans
les Amériques.
Assistant
Professor
Evan Fox-Decent
LA FACULTAD DE DERECHO DE MCGILL
AHORA TAMBIÉN HABLA ESPAÑOL
Assistant Professor Víctor Muñiz-Fraticelli, Beatrix Nuñez Rivas, Consul General of Uruguay, and
Dean Nicholas Kasirer celebrate the launch of the Latin American Initiative, January 22, 2008
The Faculty of Law has long been proud of its bilingual
nature, where students learn Canada’s two
legal systems in a fully bilingual environment. Some,
though, knew we could do even better.
Two years ago, a group of professors began looking
into adding Spanish to the mix. The interest was
there, since many faculty members were already working
on Latin American legal issues. A committee was
struck and the Latin American Initiative was born.
As part of its mission to study law throughout the
Americas, the Faculty has committed to teaching one
Spanish-language law class each year. This winter,
Assistant Professor Evan Fox-Decent taught a
course on the Inter-American Human Rights
System in Spanish — an historic first for legal
education in Canada.
Also this winter, in cooperation
with the Latin American Legal
Studies Association (LALSA) student
group, the Faculty hosted a
series of lunchtime workshops
in Spanish, where professors,
L E G A L E D U C A T I O N
students and invited speakers gave presentations
on subjects as varied as the Brazilian constitution’s
implications for indigenous people, the protection
of fundamental rights in Colombia and legal frameworks
to promote the use of renewable energy in
Latin America.
According to LALSA president Tanja Tolppanen,
BA’05, one of McGill’s strongest assets is that “it is
so international — especially the Faculty of Law. It’s
already bilingual and there are a lot of people who
speak Spanish as well. International law is ‘our thing.’”
The Faculty hopes to expand the initiative by
reaching out to its law journals and fully including
Spanish “as one of the languages of legal scholarship
at McGill,” according to Assistant Professor Víctor
Muñiz-Fraticelli, a native of Puerto Rico who joined
the Faculty in August 2007 (see p. 20). As well, there
are plans to expand the student exchange program to
include more Latin American institutions.
Muñiz-Fraticelli says that law firms with clients
who have interests or origins in Latin America have
also expressed interest. “We can promote this initiative
to students not only as pure legal scholarship,
but also as something very relevant to legal practice.
Once you line up faculty interest, student interest
and interest from the legal profession, you have a winning
combination.”
Graduate students Nelcy López Cuéllar, Carlos Ivàn Fuentes and Melissa Martins Casagrande
were among the presenters of the Faculty’s Spanish-language lunchtime talks.
FACULTY OF LAW FALL 2008 17