| Mauro Arturo Rivera, PhD, Prof. Ewa Rott-Pietrzyk |
Law in the regulatory sense is one of the social phenomena that traditionally resist change. Law as a university degree programme essentially focuses on teaching national law in the official language of the country. However, the last 30 years have shown that the knowledge of foreign languages and foreign law, as a comparative element, turns out to be crucial. Therefore, lawyers (but not only) should become more and more “international”, have comprehensive competences, in particular they should know foreign law, foreign language and legal culture. With this in mind, the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia offers all students of the University of Silesia a special way to discover foreign legal orders, cultures and language (in which the Faculty already has experience, having previously organised foreign law schools).
In the summer semester of the 2021/2022 academic year, the School of Spanish and Latin-American Law will be launched at the Faculty of Law and Administration of the University of Silesia, under the supervision of Mauro Arturo Rivera, PhD, a Mexican scientist currently working at the faculty. As part of this international programme, students of the School will learn about the Spanish legal system and key issues related to Latin American legal orders.
This initiative is supported on an ongoing basis by Prof. Ewa Rott-Pietrzyk, plenipotentiary for internationalisation, and employees of the International Office at the Faculty of Law and Administration. The Dean of the Faculty of Law and Administration, Prof. Czesław Martysz also supported this idea. The opening of the School is part of the broader efforts of the faculty to provide students with a broad offer in an international research environment, including programmes such as the School of Chinese Law and Culture, and inviting visiting professors under the POWER-2 programme.
The course programme is to consist of three modules: 1) Introduction to Legal Spanish Language, 2) Introduction to Spanish law; and 3) General features of Latin-American Law. During classes with the best lecturers from Spain and Latin America, students will learn important concepts about the Spanish legal language, Spanish law and Latin-American countries. The whole course will be conducted in Spanish.
The school is to run from February to June this year, and the lecturers will include the following Professors: Aday Jiménez, Natalia Torres, Alexandre Pazos, Luis Pomed, José Antonio Estrada, Alfonso Herrera, María Ángeles García, and Mauro Arturo Rivera. In addition, the lecturers are also to provide interested students with individual consultations. School students should speak Spanish at B1/B2 level, as well as show enthusiasm and interest exceeding the average commitment to classes, which is rather obvious, as only students who do not follow the known trail enrol in non-compulsory courses.
The decision to start learning foreign law will certainly result in increased opportunities on the labour market. Getting to know a different legal culture and improving language skills can significantly contribute to a competitive advantage on the legal services market, not only in Silesia (which is becoming an increasingly international environment with many international trading partners). The course will also be useful for people planning a scientific career path. It can contribute to developing research interests related to Spanish law, as well as facilitate the use of the comparative law method. Studying law is especially exciting in a foreign language as it triggers a comparative image of legal institutions.
All interested students are invited to register. More information can be found at: www.us.edu.pl/wydzial/wpia). If you have any questions related to the School and its programme feel free to write to Mauro Arturo Rivera, PhD, the director of the School.
We cordially invite all interested students! Invitamos cordialmente a todos los interesados!
The article “New challenge – School of Spanish and Latin-American Law” was published in the February issue of “Gazeta Uniwersytecka UŚ” (University of Silesia Magazine) 5(295).
photo: Pixabay