Two Week Summer Session in Costa Rica
Next Program in Summer 2011
Thank you for your interest in our two-week summer session in Costa Rica. The dates of the session this year make it particularly attractive, as students may take the program when the spring semester ends and still have almost the entire summer for work. Evening students in particular may find the possibility of a two-week session inviting. The hotel is inexpensive, has a swimming pool, and there are many one-day excursions around San Jose (rain forests, etc.) to occupy the family while the students are in class or studying. This combined law school session and family vacation is feasible for part-time as well as full time students.
Loyola University New Orleans College of Law is enthusiastic about adding Costa Rica to our Latin America Summer Session locations, along with Mexico and Brazil. There is no more effective way to study Latin America’s legal system than to be able to experience the courts, law offices, law schools, etc., at the same time that we read and discuss these topics in class. We have excellent ties with the legal community in Costa Rica and will be able to profit from that during our session. As a law school in the only civil code jurisdiction in the United States, with both a civil code and common law curriculum, Loyola is uniquely qualified to introduce American law students to the civil law tradition of Latin America.
Program Highlights
- Housing in the Villa Tournon Hotel, located one and one half blocks from San Jose’s
Entertainmaint Center. See website at www.costarica-hotelvillatournon.com for a view of the hotel. - Welcome Party at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, May 16
- Tour of San Jose, Sunday Morning, May 17
- Crafts market on Sunday afternoon, May 17
- Weekend excursion to Manuel Antonio National Park and beach or the active Arenal Volcano
Academic Component of the Program
Two two-credit hour courses and two one-credit course are offered during the session. Because of American Bar Association regulations regarding classroom hours, students may enroll for up to three credits. Students should understand that scheduled class hours will have to be changed on occasion to accommodate visits to local institutions.
Please Note: Because of A.B.A. regulations students may enroll in up to three credit hours but are allowed to enroll in less than three credit hours.
LATIN AMERICAN LEGAL SYSTEMS
(2 credit hours) (Monday to Friday, 2:00 – 4:30 p.m, May 18 –May 29 )
Professor Keith Vetter
This course focuses on all elements of the legal system, the substantive private law, the judicial method, the judiciary, the legal profession, legal education, governmental structure, and public law. Naturally, it will be taught from a comparative perspective. Our classroom instruction will be enhanced by trips to one of Costa Rica’s leading law firms, the University of Costa Rica Law School (where we will hold our classes), as well as various courts in the Costa Rican judicial system. Loyola has excellent ties with Costa Rica’s legal community; this gives us the opportunity to interact with Costa Rican attorneys, law students, and judges at the same time we read and discuss the topics in class. For example, our class in legal education in Latin America will be attended by students of the University of Costa Rica Law School, who will express their views concerning the Costa Rican system. Similarly, during our visit to a leading Costa Rica law firm, one of the partners, who studied and practiced in the U.S., will give his perspective on law practice in Latin America.
INTERNATIONAL ENVIRONMENTAL LAW
(2 credit hours) (Monday to Friday, 2:00 - 4:30 p.m., May 18 - May 29)
Professor Markus G. Puder and Dean Rafael González Ballar
This two-credit course introduces students to the vast and dynamic field of international environmental law. We will focus on selected legal issues under international and regional frameworks. Our discussion topics will include Introduction to Terminology and Themes, Sources of Law under International and Regional Frameworks, State Responsibility and Private Remedies, Environmental Study and Planning and Process in Europe and Latin America, Substantive Environmental Protection Schemes in Latin America, Global Climate Change, and Reform of International Environmental Governance.
INTERNATIONAL SALES LAW
(1 credit hour) (Monday to Friday, 9:00 – 10:15 a.m, May 18 –May 29 )
Professor Robert Garda
The course will focus on the law governing the transnational sales of goods.
The class will first cover the major sources of international commercial law with a special emphasis on the United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG), the UNIDROIT Principles of Commercial Law and public international law regarding arbitration of commercial disputes. The scope of the CISG along with its relationship to the domestic commercial laws of the United States and Costa Rica will then be examined. The class will cover issues of offer and acceptance, express and implied warranties, performance obligations and remedies under the CISG.
The CISG will be compared to the domestic sales laws of the United States and Costa Rica throughout the class.
INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION
(1 credit hour) (Monday – Friday, 11 a.m. – 12:15 p.m., May 18 –May 29 )
Professor John Rooney
The course will cover the regulation and use of international arbitration from the perspectives of International, United States and Costa Rican law.
We will discuss the application of the principle instruments of public international law in the area (The Washington Convention, the United States Model Bilateral Investment Treaty, the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards and the Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration) and the Federal Arbitration Act and Costa Rica's national arbitration law.
The first week of the course will cover the public international law sources, and discuss the regulation of investor-state arbitrations. The discussion of investor-state arbitrations will include arbitral forums (such as ICSID) and sources of cause of action under public international law.
The second week will be devoted to international commercial arbitration. We will cover national regulation of international commercial arbitration, looking at the United States, Costa Rica and the UNCITRAL Model International Commercial Arbitration Law, with emphasis on the enforceability of the agreement to arbitrate, interim measures of protection, rules for the conduct of international arbitrations (International Chamber of Commerce, London Court of International Arbitration, Inter-American Commission on International Commercial Arbitration, and UNICTRAL International Arbitration Rules);development and use of evidence in the international arbitration; and the recognition and enforcement of the international arbitral award.
Examinations
NOTE: Examinations are scheduled on Saturday, May 30, Latin American Legal
Systems and International Environmental Law from 9:00 - 11:00 a.m.; International Arbitration and International Sales Law from 12:00 - 1:00 p.m.
Students who wish to leave on Saturday should not schedule a flight leaving before 2 ½ hours after their last exam. Unfortunately, because of classroom space these times cannot be adjusted due to flight schedules.
Faculty
Professor Keith Vetter of the Loyola faculty teaches Comparative Law and Latin American Legal Systems at Loyola; he has written numerous articles and books and has lectured on comparative law topics at law schools in Japan, Yugoslavia, Slovenia, France, Holland, England ( Oxford), Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil. He has taught at the Institut de Droit Compare, Faculte de Droit, Universite-Jean Moulin, Lyon, France, the Vytatus Magnus University School of Law in Kaunas, Lithuania and the State University of Rio de Janeiro Law School in Rio, Brazil. He was the first director of Loyola’s Foreign Summer Sessions.
Professor Markus Puder serves as Associate Professor of Law at the Loyola University College of Law in New Orleans. His teaching and research interests include Comparative, Civil, and Roman Law; Environmental and Energy Law; and Public International Law and the Law of the European Union.
He has previously been employed in the Environmental Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory (a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory managed by UChicago Argonne, LLC), while holding lectureships at the Georgetown University Law Center and the George Washington University School of Law.
He has taught and spoken at the Bucerius Law School (Hamburg, Germany), Universidade Petrobras (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Bogaziçi Üniversitesi (Istanbul, Turkey).
Dr. Rafael Gonzalez Bailler is the Dean of the University of Costa Rica Law School. He is a graduate of that institution, as well as the University of Bourdeaux, France where was awarded a Diplome d' Etudes Approofondies in Economy and Environmental Law, and a Doctorat de Troisieme Cycle en Droit de L'environment. He has lectured at law schools in Europe and the United States on Environmental Law matters. He is a consultant to the National Assembly of Costa Rica on the Environmental Constitutional Reform, and to the United Nations Latin American Organization on Crime, where he deals with Environmental Projects. He has published three books on Costa Rican Environmental Law and numerous articles on Environmental Law issues. He teaches Environmental Law, Administrative Law and International Law at the Law School of the University of Costa Rica Law School.
Professor Robert Garda is an associate professor of law at Loyola University of New Orleans College of Law. He teaches Commercial Law, Contracts, Professional Responsibility, and Education Law. Immediately after law school, Professor Garda practiced with the Salt Lake City firm of Fabian & Clendenin where he concentrated in the areas of commercial litigation and education law.
Professor John Rooney is an adjunct professor at Loyola Law School and the University of Miami Law School. He has written numerous articles and has practiced extensively in Latin America as counsel to Pan American Life Insurance Company and as vice president/assistant general counsel for John Alden Life Insurance Company. Rooney is now in private practice centered almost exclusively in Latin America.
Program Expenses
We are able to offer a relatively inexpensive package. Our tuition is $1,200 for the session. An application fee of $25 and a program fee of $175 covers the welcome reception, insurance, and all transportation in Costa Rica, and all printed materials. We have been able to obtain double rooms for approximately $32 per person, at the beautiful Villa Tournon Hotel. Visit the website at www.costarica-hotelvillatournon.com for a view of the facility and information on the location. We will coordinate the reservations. We estimate that living expenses should be about $48 a day including both food and lodging for the time we are in San Jose. If you add $150 in expenses for an optional weekend excursion (and no trip to Costa Rica is complete without a trip to a volcano and rain forest or one of Costa Rica’s beautiful beaches), the total living expenses should be approximately $800 for the session (double occupancy). Of course, cost of transportation is a factor, but with judicious searching one can obtain a very reasonable fare.
Students should note that our package reserves the hotel room from Saturday, May 16 to Sunday, May 31, so anyone leaving on Saturday will be responsible for Saturday night’s room charge.
The Host Country and Accomodations
The main feature of our program of course is the opportunity to be exposed to the fascinating foreign experience of Costa Rica. The oldest democracy in Latin America and the only country in the region without a standing army, Costa Rica is a place of economic dynamism and enormous natural beauty. San Jose itself has cultural centers, theaters that are historic monuments, and museums that highlight the country’s colorful past.
The main attraction of Costa Rica, however, lies in its exceptional natural beauty, manifested in the extraordinary variety of ecosystems, all fairly accessible, because of the small size of the country. From volcanic rain forests to sunny Atlantic and Pacific coast beaches, Costa Rica has it all. We take advantage of this by offering an optional weekend trip to a rain forest and volcano or Costa Rica’s most beautiful beach resort. By experiencing the busy tempo of San Jose as well as some of the natural beauty of the countryside, we will sample the diversity of this compact, fascinating land.
The site of our program will be San Jose, the economic heart of Costa Rica. San Jose is home to the largest industries, law firms, and universities. We’ll be lodging at the Villa Tournon Hotel, near the heart of San Jose and a few steps away from one of the main shopping districts with numerous restaurants, movie theaters, and clubs.
Registration Procedures
To apply, please fill out the Secure Online Application Form or the Printable Application Form and return it us along with a $25 application fee (nonrefundable) and $100 (nonrefundable) registration deposit. Credit cards are accepted. You are required to have your law school to certify that you are in good standing so the credit earned in this summer program will be accepted by your school. A second payment of $100 will be due January 30, 2009. The remainder of tuition is due April 1, 2009, and because of the advance financial preparations necessary to conduct programs abroad, tuition cannot be refunded after April 1, 2009.
It is unlikely that participation in foreign summer programs may be used to accelerate graduation. Students interested in acceleration should be referred to their home schools to review this issue in light of Standard 305, Interpretation 4.
In the unlikely event of insufficient enrollment or civil unrest which would make it dangerous for students in Costa Rica, our program could be cancelled. In such a case, students registered in the program will be notified by letter or telephone and all money will be refunded.
* If you do not have the free Adobe Acrobat Reader it is available as a download from the Adobe web site.
Cancellation Policies
Loyola does not anticipate the need to cancel the program. However, ABA regulations require a disclosure that certain events such as war, natural disaster, or insufficient enrollment could cause cancellation. Should this occur, all deposits and funds paid for the program would be refunded. Furthermore, Loyola would make every effort to find you a comparable program sponsored by another law school.
Also, should any changes occur in the course offerings or other significant aspects of the program, applicants who have paid a deposit for the program will be given the opportunity to obtain a full refund of all fees paid.
Disabilities
Persons with disabilities are encouraged to attend as the law school and hotels are modern, but interested students who request special accommodations should contact program coordinator Judy Corcoran to discuss availability. This measure is taken to ensure that facilities comparable to those in the United States are available for the disabled.
For more information please contact:
Victoria Luwisch
International Programs Coordinator
Loyola University College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue - Box 901
New Orleans, LA 70118
Tel. (504) 861-5563, Fax (504) 861-5480
E-mail address: valuwisc@loyno.edu
Photo Gallery
Our photo gallery contains pictures taken on past trips.