• Summer Abroad in Salzburg, Austria
• Summer Program in Guatemala
  • Externship Placements
  • Admission Requirements
  • Courses
  • Faculty
  • Registration for Pacific McGeorge School of Law or other students
  • Tuition and Policies
• International Students

Courses

Commercial Law for Foreign Investors in Guatemala

• Two (2) units, graded
• Taught in Spanish

Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to 10:35 a.m.

Faculty: Professor José Roberto (Beto) Juárez, Jr.

This course will use the Dominican Republic-Central America-United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to examine the legal framework regulating foreign investment in Central America and Mexico. With ratification of CAFTA-DR, Guatemala opened its doors not only to trade but also to foreign investment, including from U.S. companies looking to do business in Guatemala. While the CAFTA-DR includes norms that govern the relationship between foreign investors and Member States, the domestic laws of each Member State continue to provide the central regulatory structure that governs relations among the parties, including in the areas of commerce, intellectual property, labor and the environment. This introductory course examines the principal commercial norms that apply to foreign investors in Guatemala, with special emphasis on the law of contracts. The course will examine the comparable norms applicable under NAFTA, and will also discuss how CAFTA's ratification has promoted rule of law reforms in Guatemala in the areas of commerce, intellectual property, labor and the environment.

Comparative Litigation in the Americas

• Two (2) units, graded
• Taught in English

Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 2 p.m. to 3:35 p.m.

Faculty: Professor Fred Galves

This course will compare how culture and context has yielded differing expressions of the adversarial model in U.S. and Guatemalan court systems. The course will examine rule of law reform and development in Latin America, and consider the unforeseen results of cross-border exportation of law. In the criminal law context, the course will compare such topics as prosecutorial discretion, plea bargaining, victims' rights, and the implications of burdens of proof on evidence and will explore how the availability of resources, precepts of impunity vs. overly-punitive societies, and normative perceptions of the strength of governing institutions have affected the administration of justice. In the civil law context, the course will investigate "e-discovery" and other pre-trial litigation issues in the U.S. and compare them with Guatemalan counterparts.

Legal Spanish for Lawyers

Schedule

• Spanish Immersion with Spanish School: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9 a.m. to noon</li>
• Tutorial: Tuesday and Thursday from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Faculty: Professor Luis Mogollón and Spanish Language Instructors

This course will prepare students with basic Spanish proficiency to represent Spanish-speaking clients in the U.S. legal system or to work in Spanish on transnational matters involving Latin America. It will combine one-on-one Spanish immersion instruction with a structured classroom component. The Spanish immersion component will introduce and build on each student's legal Spanish vocabulary in areas of law likely to require lawyering in Spanish or in areas identified as priorities by the student. The structured classroom component will allow students to practice skills in Spanish, such as client interviewing, intake, and client counseling, through simulations and group exercises.

International Enviornmental Law

• Two (2) units, graded
• Taught in Spanish

Schedule: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 10:50 a.m. to 12:25 p.m.

Faculty: Carmen G. González and Mara Lorena Bocaletti

This course examines the role of international law in promoting solutions to some of the most pressing environmental problems confronting the international community. The course begins with an introduction to the international law framework within which international environmental law has developed, and emphasizes the relationship between international environmental law and international human rights law. The course then uses several case studies to analyze the legal regimes that have developed to address environmental problems of particular relevance to Latin America generally and Central America in particular, including protection of biodiversity and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Optional Externships

Main Plaza in Antigua

Students who wish to enroll in the optional externships that will follow the classroom portion of the Guatemala summer program must have a high level of proficiency in reading, writing and speaking the Spanish language, and they must be willing to remain in Guatemala for an additional eight weeks following the classroom program in order to complete the externship experience.

All externships will be with highly regarded non-governmental organizations operating in Guatemala.

In order to be selected for a particular externship, students must have some familiarity with or particular interest in the work of the organization where they will be placed. Students will be asked to submit a current resume and a special application form in order to be considered for placement in an externship. During the first week of the externships, students will also take a class taught by Program Director Professor Raquel Aldana that will prepare them for the externship experience. Students will earn one unit of credit in the class and three units of credit in the externships.