The city of Miami is now recognized as an economic center where ambitious transactions with Latin America are taking place. Accordingly, it is now necessary for lawyers in South Florida to get a better understanding of the legislation that rules the Spanish speaking countries.
To better satisfy those needs, the University of Miami School of Law offers a course titled Obligations in the Spanish Civil Code, which started January 11, 1999, and is taught in Spanish by Dr. Enrique Fernandez Barros.
The course registration surpassed all the expectations. "We were expecting 8 students and 40 registered. There is no pre-requisite for the students except a fluent knowledge in the language of Cervantes," comments Fernandez Barros.
"One of the objectives of the course is that the attorneys that practice in the United Sates get to know a very important foreign judicial system, such as Civil Law. In this case, we are going to work with the Spanish Civil Code," explains Dr. Fernandez, who adds: "Nonetheless, this will cover all of the other Latin American countries due to the fact that the techniques of all the civil codes in Ibero-America are the same; they all belong to the same judicial family called Civil Law, or Roman-Germanic Law."
For Anthony Williams, a Brazilian-American Law student, getting to know the Spanish Civil Code is almost a necessity, due to the fact that he works in Brazil with a Law firm during the summers. "My Portuguese helps me understand a great percentage of the Spanish in the class," comments Williams.
Another aim of the course is for students to become familiar with the judicial language "not like a dictionary, or a list of isolated words, but instead, in the context and tradition to which these terms belong," explains Fernandez.
According to Ibrahim Reyes, a 35 year-old Cuban-American who is taking this course, becoming acquainted with the language used in the Latin-American judicial tradition has many benefits: "I have business in Puerto Rico and Honduras. In my company we manufacture, distribute and sell furniture. In those countries, I hire law firms, but when it comes to them explaining how to solve a problem or in what way a code will support an action, I have trouble understanding them because of my narrow judicial vocabulary."
The professor explains that a third goal of the program is familiarity with the Common Law, which is the law that is presently used in the U.S. and in Latin-America, the Civil Law is the one used. He adds that there are two great judicial families in the western world: "The Common Law and the Civil Law, or of roman origins, which is practiced all over Europe, Latin America, and some other countries such as Japan".
"This class is a success," states 32 year-old Cuban law student Karyna Gonzalez. "The focus of professor Fernandez is very important for those of us who plan to practice Comparative Law because we will have the history of a Civil Code and the values and norms that helped to develop it," adds Karyna.
Dr. Fernandez Barros further explains: "Rome gave its institutions and judicial system to all those nations that constituted the great Roman Empire. One of those institutions was Latin, their own language, which is continued through the Romance languages and a great part of the Germanic languages. For example, almost 60 percent of the English vocabulary has its roots in Latin."
COMMUNICATING IN TWO LANGUAGES
Guillermo Levy, a 26 year-old Colombian law student believes that this class will be essential to his professional life: "It is a fact that you need both English and Spanish in Miami. I am going to specialize in mercantile law and I need to correctly express myself in the legal terms of both languages for a job I got in a large law firm that has offices in Brazil and Venezuela."
Professor Fernandez Barros, who is also the founder of the Institute of Comparative Law approved by the Florida Bar Association, announced that he is planning to teach a course in this discipline in the Institute.
Fernandez, an active researcher, is willing to create "courses based on the needs of the different law firms, and teach them in either English or Spanish."
THE CUBAN JUDICIAL SYSTEM
For Monica Rodriguez, a 24 year-old Cuban-American , the class provides more than just broadening her vocabulary. For example "the opportunity to get closer to the Cuban judicial system and its history. I am very interested in that because I want to be part of the project for a free Cuba. The class will be an excellent experience because as an attorney in Miami, it is very important to know the two judicial families that are present in the continent".
Both writer and professor, Dr. Fernandez is preparing three books.
The first one, a summary of his lectures, will discuss the Obligations in the Spanish Civil Code. The second one, Humanism and law, will elaborate on the philosophy of this discipline, and the last one will be a History of Cuban law.
As a professor, Fernandez Barrios emphasizes the importance of the history of law, comparative law, and the philosophy of law in the education of the lawyers. He comments: "I believe that those three disciplines are the basis of the cultural education of attorneys."
Translated from El Nuevo Herald.
English translation by Luisa Angel.
