Students Arrive to Participate in Latin American Linkage Program
Ten students selected to represent seven leading law schools in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile began their three-week residence at Yale Law School on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 by touring the campus and the libraries. During the tour, they where given instruction on using the digital resources and the opportunity to examine some of the rare documents and books in Yale’s collection that represent determinant moments in their countries’ histories.
The United States leg of the Yale Law School Latin American Linkage program includes meetings with faculty, student leaders, and alumni practitioners in a variety of fields as well as observing classes and giving presentations on their own research and current legal concerns in their home countries. The students stay with Yale law students who will in turn be hosted by the Latin American students when the 13 Yale law students selected in November travel to Argentina, Brazil, and Chile during the summer of 2016. The Yale law students will engage in similar meetings and give presentations, although they generally spend less time observing classes in favor of individual research projects. The goals of the program are to increase mutual understanding of the legal frameworks in all the countries represented and the way the different approaches to legal education fits in with and reflects the larger legal and political systems. The program also examines the issues perceived as the most in need of legal solutions, the nature of the solutions envisioned, and helps foster durable friendships among an incredibly promising group of young scholars and future leaders.
This year’s South American cohort features two doctoral students in law, one of whom is also currently clerking on the Brazilian Supreme Court, six students completing master’s programs in various specializations, and two students finishing the five-year undergraduate law degree. The subjects of their presentations range from the importance of Black Awareness Day in Brazil to the use of injunctions and the “public interest” movement in Argentina very much influenced by Yale, especially by the work and ideas of Dean Robert C. Post ’77, Professor Reva Siegel, and Professor Owen Fiss. Another project looks at the problems arising from the quasi-constitutional status of international treaties in domestic law and antitrust issues in Pinochet’s “economic Constitution” in Chile. The students from Argentina are Karina Carpintero, Sebastián Guidi, and Guillermo Holsman. Gabriela Durán and Domingo Larrain come from Santiago de Chile. And this year’s Brazilian cohort consists of Anna Binotto, Olívia Bonan, Ana Carolina Bracarense, Anna Joppert, and Irapuã Santana do Nascimento da Silva.
The interests, backgrounds, and achievements of the Yale law students participating in the program are equally diverse. The students selected to represent Yale Law School on the basis of their interests, skills, and proficiency in Spanish or Portuguese are Rebecca Chan '18, Ama Francis '18, Michael Gale '18, Alexandra Gutierrez '18, Ted Lee '18, Adán Martínez '17, Richard Medina '18, Lizzie Pierson '18, Alexandra Schluntz '18, Sophia Wang '17, Andrew Whinery '18, Callie Wilson '18, and Patrick Woolsey '18. The faculty directors of the program are Professors Owen Fiss, Daniel Markovits '00, and Claire Priest ’00. For more information, visit the Linkage Program website.
