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Exchange Program Offers an International Look at Legal Education

a group of people standing on a plaza in NYC
Students from South American partner schools visited Yale Law School and New York City as part of the Owen Fiss Latin American Linkage exchange program.

Yale Law School welcomed 10 law students from partner schools in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile for the New Haven leg of the Owen Fiss Latin American Linkage exchange program. 

The overarching objectives of the exchange are improving awareness and knowledge of the legal systems and democratic institutions in the participating countries and fostering enduring relationships among the next generation of leading lawyers. 

The program was founded by Law School faculty members Owen Fiss and Robert Burt ’64 in the early 1990s following the transitions back to democracy in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile after many years of brutal military rule. 

During their three-week visit, the South American students enjoyed an intensive taste of legal education at Yale. In addition to attending classes, conferences, special events, and lectures, the visitors met with faculty members and student leaders, learning about the wide range of experiential learning opportunities at Yale Law School, student-run journals, and the many areas where YLS research is driving theory and policy. 

A group of Yale students in Yale sweatshirts pose for the camera with a basketball game in the background.
As part of their visit, students took in the Yale-Harvard men's basketball game.

Highlights for the visitors included meetings with several Law School faculty including Douglas NeJaime to discuss his forthcoming book “True Parenthood” and his successful initiative to update laws defining the legal status of non-biological parents and caregivers in Connecticut and several other states; meetings with Fiona Doherty ’99 and James Forman Jr. ’92 about reforming the U.S. criminal justice system; a discussion with Abbe R. Gluck ’00 on the Chevron doctrine and statutory interpretation; a meeting with Daniel Markovits ’00 on structural facets of the growing economic inequality in the U.S. analyzed in his book “The Meritocracy Trap”; and a related discussion with Paul Kahn ’80 about the institutions besides elections on which democracy relies. The program ended with a trip to New York City during which students observed hearings at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit and had lunch with lawyers in Latin American practice at Cleary Gottlieb.

In addition to the academic pursuits, the visitors also enjoyed outings to the Yale University Art Gallery, the Leitner Family Observatory, and ice hockey and basketball matches. Yale Law School students will spend three weeks this summer in Argentina, Brazil, or Chile, where they become the guests of the students they hosted in January and February. The South American programs offer a similarly unique opportunity to experience elite legal education and the legal profession in a foreign setting through meeting with scholars at our partnering law schools, judges and prosecutors in a variety of courts, and lawyers working in the areas that most interest the participating Yale students.