CHICAGO-KENT COLLEGE OF LAW AND TEC DE MONTERREY ESTABLISH CRIMINAL LAW AND ADVOCACY PROGRAM

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) August 27, 2009 -- Chicago-Kent and Technològico de Monterrey (Tec), one of Mexico's leading private universities, have established a special program to provide training in criminal procedure, curriculum development, criminal law and trial advocacy designed to help Mexico’s legal community practice more effectively. Funding for the three-year program is provided by a grant from the United States Agency for International Development and the Higher Education for Development Office.

In an effort to fight corruption and instill public confidence in Mexico’s legal system, sweeping changes have been implemented to make criminal proceedings more transparent. An adversarial oral system will replace the closed, rigid Mexican legal bureaucracy which relied heavily on an inquisitorial written structure. Mexican authorities hope to have the new system in place within the next eight years.

Lawyers in Baja California, Morelos, and Nuevo León can take a series of courses spanning six months that feature training in oral advocacy skills and reformed criminal procedure, with lawyers who complete the series receiving a legal education certificate. A “train-the-trainers” program in substantive and procedural law and in pedagogical techniques will enable Mexican law professors to teach the advocacy curriculum and legal education certificate program.

In the final stage of the program, a criminal law clinic will be established at Tec de Monterrey to give law students a comprehensive and balanced professional education that will prepare them adequately for criminal law practice. Students will receive hands-on training as they work with experienced criminal attorneys on actual cases and learn advocacy techniques and principles of court administration.

A scholarship program will be established to provide 15 Mexican attorneys with funding to attend the legal education certificate courses. Scholarships to attend a one-year Master of Laws degree program at Chicago-Kent in international law with an emphasis on criminal litigation will also be awarded to four Tec de Monterrey law school graduates. Two Tec students already have been accepted into the program and will begin classes at Chicago-Kent in the fall of 2009.

The program will be directed by David A. Erickson, associate director of Chicago-Kent’s nationally ranked Trial Advocacy Program and director of the law school’s Program in Criminal Litigation. Erickson has a distinguished career as a prosecutor, felony court judge, appellate court justice, and supervising judge. Other Chicago-Kent faculty and students will participate in various stages of the program.

Chicago-Kent College of Law is the law school of Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT), a private, Ph.D.-granting institution. IIT and Technològico de Monterrey have a longstanding relationship that includes collaborative academic programs and research in engineering, food safety, environmental management, business and law.

Chicago-Kent     corruption     legal system     mexico     rights of the accused     Tec de Monterrey     USAID