Delaware Law School sending class to Cuba

Widener University announced Tuesday it will be sending students to Cuba as part of a new class being offered by the Delaware Law School.

The one-week trip will be part of the three-credit course Business Transactions in Emerging Economies taught by Professor Christine D. Allie.

The class of about 30 students will meet on three Saturday mornings, starting this week, before traveling to Cuba during spring break the week of Feb. 29.

The course marks the first time the Talleyville law school will offer a class that includes foreign travel as part of the curriculum.

“Students will become much better acquainted with the intricacies of providing legal counsel to businesses that want to take advantage of the changes in U.S. foreign policy,” Allie said in a release. “This is a good fit for us and the law school in Delaware, given the state’s prominence with corporate law.”

The class trip also is being made possible by recent changes in U.S. foreign policy.

Americans are technically forbidden from traveling to Cuba for tourism, but last year President Barack Obama expanded the categories of authorized travel to include family visits, research, educational activities, humanitarian efforts or a handful of other purposes.

The regulations have become so relaxed that travel companies are arranging trips that meet the new requirements. Last summer, California-based charter air carrier JFI Jets announced it had federal clearance to conduct flights to Havana from multiple U.S. locations, including New Castle Airport.

Delaware Law School’s students, however, will be flying out of New York, a school official said.

Students enrolled in the course are paying an extra $3,500 on top of class tuition to cover travel and related expenses, including lodging, meals and guides.

The class will stay in Havana. Visits are planned to the U.S. Embassy for a briefing, the United Nations’ biosphere reserve Las Terrazas and an urban organic farm. Students also will have meetings with the city’s Integral Development Group, the Cuban National Union of Lawyers, Cuba’s National Organization of Collective Law and a University of Havana professor, who will discuss the Cuban education system. Finally, they will look at the heart of Cuba’s economy – tourism.

Contact business reporter Scott Goss at (302) 324-2281, sgoss@delawareonline.com or on Twitter @ScottGossDel.