Each year, the American Bar Association Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) hosts two types of trial competitions as part of its Mexico program, New Advocates for Mexican Justice, a National Mock Trial Competition and a National Mediation Competition. However, because of the COVID-19 pandemic certain programmatic activities, such as the fellowship and study tour initiatives, were postponed during the 2020 competitions. Despite this setback, ABA ROLI was able to invite the winning teams of the 2020 competitions to participate in the fellowship and study tour initiatives with the winning teams of the 2021 competitions– the 8th Annual National Mock Trial Competition and the 6th Annual National Mediation Competition– as a joint effort to give participating students an equal opportunity to learn about the criminal justice system in the United States (U.S.).
Funded by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, the program works with Mexican law schools to prepare the next generation of Mexican attorneys for practice in the accusatorial trial context. To build the capacity of the students and faculty in Mexico’s law schools, ABA ROLI works with the institutions to develop the student’s litigation, mediation, and restorative justice skills, as well as tailor the instructors’ legal education teaching methods to mirror the accusatorial trial system. Since the project’s inception, ABA ROLI has reached more than 6,000 law students representing all thirty-two Mexican states, 935 law school professors, and 237 law schools through technical skills training sessions and the administration of nationwide mock trial and mediation competitions.
Fellowships for 7th and 8th Annual National Mock Trial Competition Teams
The fellowship program for the winning teams of the 7th and 8th Annual National Mock Trial Competitions took place from August 2 to 13, during which the participants engaged with international experts from Peru and the U.S. on the implementation of the accusatorial systems in their respective countries. These national experts focused on different specialized topics related to oral litigation and the Mexican criminal justice system, including Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) rights in Mexico. Additionally, the students participated in interactive virtual conferences and roundtable discussion sessions for knowledge sharing opportunities on the comparison analysis of the foreign accusatorial systems and the Mexican system.
A total of 15 law students completed the Fellowship, of which 6 were female-identifying participants and 9 male-identifying participants, representing 02 universities from 2 states.