by Natasha Khairullah
Staff Writer
Sixteen members of various judicial circuits in Argentina visited Jacksonville last week as part of the United States/South America Symposium on Law and Justice 2007. Presented by Florida Coastal School of Law’s Center for Law and Public Policy, the symposium featured lectures from distinguished professors, federal and state courthouse visits and conferences with numerous judges within the fourth Judicial Circuit and the United States District Court and Magistrate Judges for the Middle District of Florida. Visitors also toured the City of Jacksonville’s Victim Services Center as well as Duval County correctional facilities.
First proposed in August 2003 during a visit to Buenos Aires and Cordoba by the Center’s Executive Director Eric Smith, the symposium’s goal was to share best practices in different countries’ legal communities.
“This is the third year we’ve done this and every year it becomes more and more successful,” said Smith.
This year’s visitors are delegation members from a number of circuits including the City and Province of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Tierra Del Fuego and Usuahia.
Buenos Aries Chief Judge and symposium coordinator Santiago Otamendi said the symposium will hopefully serve as a pilot program which could be extended in the future to other countries in Central and South America for legal education in the U.S.