“Sui Iuris”, an Ibero-American Association of School and Faculties of Law, is established
From 12 to 14 of April, a meeting of 25 Deans and representatives of Law Faculties from 20 Spanish and Latin American leading universities took place in Mexico City and in Guadalajara. The event was attended by four universities from Spain (A-4U: Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, and Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona), four universities from Mexico (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad de Guadalajara, Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, and Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey), three universities from Argentina (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad de San Andrés, and Universidad Torcuato di Tella de Buenos Aires), three universities from Chile (Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad de Valparaíso, and Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso), two universities from Brasil (Fundaçao Getulio Vargas de Sao Paolo, Pontificia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), two universities from Peru (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Universidad del Pacífico de Lima), one from Colombia (Universidad Nacional de Colombia), and one university from Venezuela (Universidad Metropolitana de Caracas).
This is the third meeting in the series that promotes international cooperation between the network members, with the first two meetings held in Barcelona in 2010 and in Santiago de Chile in 2011. In this meeting, hosted by UNAM and Universidad de Guadalajara, the participating universities agreed to establish “Sui Iuris”, an Ibero-American Association of Schools and Faculties of Law.
The aim of “Sui Iuris” association is to provide space for an open and independent dialogue on questions related to the teaching of Law and legal practice, to encourage continuous improvement of Law Faculties and Scholls in the Ibero-American space, and to stimulate staff and student exchange between participating universities. At the meeting proposals were were made to establish a future accreditation system of Law Faculties and Schools, and to formulate syllabus recommendations for undergraduate programmes in Law and teaching methodology. To achieve this, two working groups have been set up to prepare proposals that will be discussed at the next meeting of the association. Also, a session dedicated to staff and student mobility was held, where potential was identified for signing an exchange agreement involving all participating universities.
For the next two years, the association will be presided by José Joan Moreso, rector of Universitat Pompeu Fabra de Barcelona. The Executive Committee will be formed by the Law Faculty of Pontifícia Universidad Católica do Rio de Janeiro (taking on the Vice-President role), Universidad Diego Portales de Chile, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Universidad Pontificia Católica de Perú and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. In the future, the association might include other universities of recognised excellence from Latin American countries and Portugal.