(CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9)
Educated internationally
to create change at home
A South African activist working to secure
the rights of indigenous peoples in Namibia,
a Cambodian lawyer seeking to curb human
trafficking, a Mexican lawyer helping to retrain
prosecutors following major legal reform, an Iraqi
judge helping with justice sector reforms after
the war, an Ugandan lawyer striving to eliminate
the practice of female genital mutilation…with
all their differences, these legal professionals have
something in common. They’re determined to
help make the rule of law the rule in the countries
where they live and work, so they’ve enrolled
in Loyola’s LLM in Rule of Law for Development
(PROLAW®) program.
PROLAW is an especially timely response
as many countries are recovering from war,
experiencing civil uprising, and reforming their
legal systems for transparency and protection
of human rights. The program focuses on
practical, practice-oriented education for lawyers
committed to building rule of law in their own
countries. Housed at Loyola’s John Felice Rome
Center in Italy, the one-year curriculum builds
high-level legal advisory skills in its graduates,
who can then help their countries drive and
sustain legal reforms from within, without the
need to resort to foreign experts.
“Our curriculum began taking shape
through an analysis of what rule of law advisors
actually do,” says William Loris, PROLAW director.
“The curriculum was designed to include the
knowledge and skills students will need to
be able to meet the learning outcomes. This
approach has resulted in a program whose every
aspect is designed to prepare students for rule of
law practice.”
Practice-oriented courses range from Theory
and Practice of Needs Assessment in Rule of Law
Advising, to Legal Writing and Research for Rule of
Law, to Project Management, to Design of Rule of
Law Programs and Proposal Preparation.
While the learning outcomes of all courses
are aimed at enabling graduates to perform tasks
which rule of law work entails, each subject is
approached through case studies examining a
range of substantive areas of change. Topics such
as judicial reform, achievement of gender equality,
civil and penal law reform, commercial law reform,
legal empowerment of the poor, aid for trade,
climate change preparedness, human rights,
and financing of justice reform contextualize the
curriculum, address students’ individual areas of
Ammar Jasim, Iraq (PROLAW 2, left); Vakhtang Janezashvili,
Georgia (PROLAW Class of 2012); Chukwunonso Igboeli,
Nigeria (PROLAW 2); and Program Director William Loris pose
at PROLAW’s orientation in September. Students rang the bell
in the garden at Loyola’s John Felice Rome Center two times
to inaugurate the program’s second class of students.
“The curriculumwas
designed to include the
knowledge and skills
students will need to be
able to meet the learning
outcomes...
every aspect
is designed to prepare
students for rule of
law practice.”
--PROLAWDirector William Loris
(CONTINUED ON PAGE 12)
LEARNING IN A CHANGINGWORLD
SPRING 2013
11
10
LOYOLA LAW
