Inter-American Program
What is the Inter-American Program?
The Inter-American program is an innovative law school educational initiative designed to graduate bilingual and intercultural lawyers who are competent to work with Latino clients in the U.S. or on Latin American matters.
The Inter-American program is an outgrowth of the University of the Pacific's historic commitment to international education and cross cultural understanding. During the 1960s through the early 1980s a unique bilingual program called Elbert Covell College was based at University of the Pacific. Students came from Latin America and the United States and all classes were taught in Spanish. The pioneering approach of Covell forms the basis for our own and the University's Inter-American program.
Why the Pacific McGeorge Inter-American Program?
The program offers students the option to pursue a domestic or a transnational track.
The domestic track exposes students to the Latino experience in the U.S. and emphasizes skills to assist lawyers in the representation of Latino clients and issues before U.S. legal institutions.
The transnational track emphasizes principally U.S.-Latin American relations and issues, including issues of trade and its implications on labor, environment, development and other human rights.
The program introduces students to Latino and Latin American issues through substantive legal instruction in both English and Spanish as part of a Latin-American or Latino-focused curriculum. In addition, students can participate in bilingual and intercultural experiential placements in the U.S. or internationally and co-enroll with Guatemalan and other Latin American students in Pacific McGeorge's uniquely bilingual and intercultural summer program in Antigua, Guatemala. As well, students will provide needed legal services in Spanish to the Latino community in the greater Sacramento area though a series of community service projects. Finally, students may take substantive law courses taught in Spanish through participation in a a Pacific McGeorge semester-abroad exchange program at Universidad Francisco de Vitoria in Madrid, Spain.
Who Participates in the Pacific McGeorge Inter-American Program?
The Inter-American program is available to any J.D. or LL.M. student at Pacific McGeorge.
The Guatemala Summer Program is open to students from any University.
Some components of the program may require Spanish proficiency. Opportunities to learn Spanish are also available through the program.
After only two years, more than 100 students from Pacific McGeorge and other law schools have participated in the different aspects of the program.
In the near future, the Inter-American Program expects to offer Pacific McGeorge students the opportunity to earn Certificates in Inter-American Studies along with their J.D. degrees.
