the PDF - Higher Education for Development

SUCCESS STORY
Development Center Empowers Mexican Lawyers to Find Their Voices
Southwestern Law School/Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey
Image courtesy of Southwestern Law School website
The Mexico-U.S. rule of law higher
education partnership offers a free online
library series and established Centro para el
Desarrollo para la Abogacía en el Litigio Oral
(CEDALIT) for legal students and
professionals. Judge Maria del Rosario Garza
Alejandro and Mtro. Manuel Caloca
González introduce CEDALIT and the
videos.
“I think we changed lives.”
- Manuel Caloca González,
Director of the Centro para el
Desarrollo para la Abogacía en el
Litigio Oral (CEDALIT)
CEDALIT’s course offerings and
involvement in national trial advocacy
competitions have catapulted the
careers of young attorneys and raised
their level of understanding about oral
trial advocacy to make rule of law
reforms a reality.
Mexico’s 2008 amendment to its Constitution called for a shift to an oral,
adversarial criminal justice system to end a slow and often arbitrary paper-based
system. This mandate for change launched the need for widespread retraining of
lawyers and judges as well as new course curricula and methodologies for the next
generation of legal professionals. The Department of Law at the Instituto
Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey partnered with Southwestern Law
School in Los Angeles to increase individual and higher education institution
capacity. This Training, Internships, Exchanges, and Scholarships (TIES)
partnership, funded under the Merida Initiative in 2009 and managed by Higher
Education for Development, created a sustainable solution: the establishment of
The Development Center for Oral Advocacy in Litigation or Centro para el
Desarrollo para la Abogacía en el Litigio Oral (CEDALIT) based in Tecnológico de
Monterrey.
CEDALIT prepares Mexican law students, lawyers, and judges for dynamic court
proceedings through law teacher workshops, oral litigation courses, and
interactive mock trial competitions. Offering onsite and video-based instruction
as well as a 12-week diploma in oral criminal litigation catered to working
professionals, the center is nearly financially self-sufficient after only three years,
receiving supplemental funds from the Mexican partner institution in 2012.
An added benefit is the significant knowledge shared by the original partnership
scholars with universities and institutes throughout Mexico. “Of the eight
students–four men and four women–all have gone back and have been teaching,”
said Southwestern professor and partnership director Jonathan Miller. Two
scholars, Paola de la Rosa of San Luis de Potosi and Cristal Gonzalez of Mexico
City, have published books. Participants Ariadna Camacho and Juan Manuel
Olvera have taken part in national trial advocacy competitions. The center also
produced 500 copies of a Spanish-language, DVD series to support distancelearning options and ensure that CEDALIT’s reach extended beyond Monterrey.
Over 320 law students from regions
across Mexico have participated in the
competitions organized by the U.S.Mexican partnership.
Higher Education for Development | One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 420, Washington DC 20036, USA
Tel. (202) 243-7680 | Fax (202) 637-2084 | www.HEDprogram.org
11-2012
Higher Education for Development | One Dupont Circle, NW, Suite 420, Washington DC 20036, USA
Tel. (202) 243-7680 | Fax (202) 637-2084 | www.HEDprogram.org