UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS IN
GUATEMALA
The University of San Carlos of Guatemala is the only national or state university in the country, and by constitutional mandate it is "autonomous." 324 years old, it is among four Latin American universities with the longest heritage. Currently it has ten departments, and over twenty academic units (schools and regional centers) throughout the country. With an average of 7,000 professors and over 100,000 students, it has a more or less equal number of administrative and service staff.
The School of Legal and Social Sciences (Law Department or Law School) may be regarded as the oldest of its departments (324 years), and, like the university itself, it has been a major player during that time, influencing the legal, political, economic and social evolution of the country as well as development and transformation throughout its history. In its classrooms, intellectuals and politicians have been trained who have graduated and had the opportunity to lead the country. These include presidents of the country and heads of other branches of government, and even writers like Miguel Angel Asturias, the pride of our nation, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1967.
Our Law School currently has around 15,000 students attending in three shifts-- morning, afternoon, and evening-- and a successful graduate program. It has an average of 200 professors, including full-time, part-time, and hourly, and also professors working on dissertations, classroom assistants (teaching assistants), and some visiting professors. It has a small number (119 persons) of administrative and service personnel, primarily because of the very limited budgeted allocated for the university and the law school.
Currently there are five other law schools in the country, in five private universities, with a total of 5,000 students.
ACADEMIC STRUCTURE
The undergraduate education provided by faculty instruction takes place in three phases such that upon graduation the student receives not only an academic degree in legal and social sciences but also professional certificates as lawyer and notary. These are obtained after completing a minimum of fifty courses in a fixed curriculum and certification for practice in criminal, civil, and labor law at the People's Law Firm (legal clinic with pro bono assistance for low-income people who cannot afford the services of a private lawyer). After their legal practice, they must also pass a Professional Technical Examination, which includes theoretical and practical knowledge in three areas of private law and three areas of public law. Finally, they must prepare and defend a "Professional Graduation Thesis," which generally consists of a research monograph on a single topic in an area of their choice.
The curriculum is structured so that a full-time student who is doing well may complete the curriculum (the fifty courses) in five years and can graduate the sixth or seventh year after entering. However, given the nature of the university and the characteristics of students in each phase of the program, the average time for graduating as lawyer and notary is over twelve years. Moreover, dropout and repetition rates are high in all course years. Last year (1999) approximately 250 professionals graduated with the academic grade of Licenciados in Legal Sciences. Guatemala is a nation with over twelve million inhabitants with a single bar association [College of Lawyers and Notaries], made up currently of about six thousand lawyers and notaries who have graduated from the various law schools in the country.
1. IMPORTANT ASPECTS
Since this is the national university, it has maintained an open admission policy, in which entry requirements are minimal. There are no entrance exams, nor is the entry profile determined on the basis of abilities and knowledge. Consequently, all who wish to enroll may do so. Nor is there any limit on the number of openings. Enrollment and tuition fees are extremely low, a token fee more or less, inasmuch as each student pays five quetzals (Q.5.00) a month, which is equivalent to about $0.80. It should be pointed out, however, that less than one percent of the Guatemalan population pursues higher education, and about 90 percent of this group attends our National University. A reform process has begun recently in both the university and the law school which, among other things, seeks to establish an entry standard through placement examinations and pre-university courses. These are used to determine appropriate placement or level and to assess background knowledge, abilities, vocational preferences and interests of students in the career they may eventually choose.
In our department, the students on the morning shift are generally young people who have recently graduated from secondary school, study full-time and have good grades and the best chance for completing their major successfully. Unfortunately, they are the minority. Those in the afternoon are generally "students who work." Although they may have lower grades and fewer opportunities than the others, they have a good chance through their efforts of doing well in their chosen careers. Those in the night shift are generally "workers who are studying," many of whom are fathers and mothers with families, with greater family and work commitments than the others, and who have to make huge efforts to successfully complete the goals set before them. Unfortunately, they are in the majority
.
Graduate study programs ranging from a Certificate [Diplomado] to the doctorate, including Specializations and Masters, have recently been created and are currently a great success. In the current cycle there are two Certificates: one in Legal Medicine, the other in Criminal Law and Procedure. Also Specialization in Indigenous Common Law (the first class has already graduated). The first classes have also graduated as Specialists in commercial law, criminal law, scholarly research, and human rights. The masters programs are in criminal law, commercial law, human rights, intellectual property and international relations. We are about to begin our first [illegible] in the Doctorate. It should be emphasized that graduate studies are self-financed. Individuals enrolled in them are professionals performing various kinds of work in our national life, such as serving as magistrates, judges, prosecutors, public defenders, litigation lawyers, public and private attorneys, and also university professors, who are graduates from our national institutions or those abroad.
The faculty in our law school for undergraduate studies are chosen through competition as established by university teaching track regulations, which allows for promotion by reason of knowledge, experience, training, technical and scientific participation and so forth. Unfortunately, because of the low salaries paid to professors, it is impossible to live solely on teaching and research, even when full-time (which is a minority), and so most of them are compelled to do other professional work. Graduate professors are hired outside the track, and the tendency is to select those who excel in knowledge, specialty, experience, and academic credentials, often making use of foreign professors.
Our law school, with 15,000 students, is unquestionably the one which does the most to train and prepare people to become immediately involved in the various agencies charged with administration of justice, such as the judiciary branch, the District Attorney's Office and Public Defender's Office, the Human Rights Office, and other judicial and administrative institutions in the country.
Recently (five years ago) our nation adopted the adversarial method for criminal law, which is based upon the oral, open proceedings and cross-examination, and our law school led a technical and scientific movement to promote the change. This emphasized the case study approach based on legal study and apprenticeship, making use of the Socratic method of learning through mock trials. Our institution was the first in the country to build a "courtroom" for practicing the new system. Currently a movement is underway, in keeping with the modernization of justice, to urge that ALL CASES in Guatemala BE ARGUED ORALLY, and hence we are especially interested in sharing experiences with other law departments and law schools in order to adopt the best methodology and techniques for teaching the doctrine and practice of law
STUDY CURRICULUM
|
INTRODUCTORY
CURRICULUM |
||
|
Code No. |
FOUNDED SUBJECTS |
FOUNDING SUBJECTS |
|
002 006 008 010 030 |
FIRST SEMESTER Language and Literature History of Culture in Guatemala Introduction to Sociology Introduction to Law I Study and Research Techniques |
|
|
004 012 014 018 020 |
SECOND SEMESTER Philosophy Introduction to Economics Introduction to Political Science Sociology of Guatemala Introduction to Law II |
Introduction to Sociology Introduction to Law I |
NOTE: All FIRST and SECOND SEMESTER course topics are prerequisites for the other course topics in the curriculum, from the third to the tenth Semester.
|
PROFESSIONAL
CURRICULUM |
||
|
Code No. |
FOUNDED SUBJECTS |
FOUNDING SUBJECTS |
|
022 024 026 028 088 |
THIRD SEMESTER Civil Law I Criminal Law I History of Law Legal Logic Statistics |
|
|
032 034 036 038 114 |
FOURTH SEMESTER Civil Law II Criminal Law II State Theory Procedure Theory Social Research Methods |
Civil Law I Criminal Law I Statistics |
|
040 042 044 046 116 |
FIFTH SEMESTER Guatemalan Constitutional Law Criminal Procedure Law I Civil Law III (Obligations I) Forensic Medicine Sociological Research Techniques |
|
|
048 052 054 118 |
SIXTH SEMESTER Civil Code IV (Obligations II) Administrative Law I Agrarian Law Sociology of Development |
Civil Code III Criminal Procedural Law Procedure Theory and Guatemalan Constitutional Law Guatemalan Constitutional Law Sociological Research Techniques |
|
PROFESSIONAL CURRICULUM |
||
|
Code No. |
SUBJECTS |
FOUNDING SUBJECTS |
|
056 058 060 062 084 |
SEVENTH SEMESTER Administrative
Law II Civil
Procedural Law Commercial
Law I Labor
Law Notary
Law I |
Administrative
Law I Criminal
Procedural Law I Civil
Law IV Procedure
Theory and Civil Law IV Civil
Law IV |
|
064 066 068 085 089 |
EIGHTH SEMESTER Civil
Procedural Law II Commercial
Law II Labor
Law II Notary
Law II Administrative
Procedural Law |
Civil
Procedural Law I Commercial
Law I Labor
Law I Commercial
Law I and Notary
Law Administrative
Law II |
|
070 071 073 075 086 |
NINTH SEMESTER Public
International Law Labor
Procedural Law Integration
Law Financial
Law I Notary
Law III |
Commercial
Law II & Administrative Procedural Law Civil
Procedural Law I, Labor Law II & Administrative Procedural Law Sociology
of Development Commercial
Law II & Administrative Procedural Law Commercial
Law II & Notary
Law |
|
074 077 078 081 087 |
TENTH SEMESTER Private
International law Financial
Law II Philosophy
of Law Seminars
on National Problems Notary
Law IV |
Public
International Law Financial
Law I Civil
Procedural Law II, Labor Law II & Public International Law Notary
Law III |
|
OBSERVATION: |
Under
penalty of having courses nullified, students must strictly observe the order
of prerequisites and under no circumstances pass a course outside of the
proper sequence. This
document takes into account the Curriculum of Studies of the School of Legal
and Social Sciences approved in 1971 and its modifications introduced in 1988,
1990, 1992, and 1993. |