This spring break, 13 students in Professors Ann England and Colene Robinson’s Comparative Criminal Law class looked at the law through a different lens in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

After spending the semester critically analyzing Argentina's criminal and juvenile laws, the trip was an opportunity for students to conduct field research and see a different system in action.

"Understanding our criminal justice system in a global context is an essential skill for lawyers,” said England. "Argentina is a culturally rich country with a constitutional legal system starkly different from that of the common law system in the United States. By studying Argentina’s legal system, the course allows students to compare and critique the American system’s strengths and weaknesses. The course also studies Argentina’s current steps toward transitioning to a more adversarial legal system."

During the weeklong trip, the class visited the courts of the City of Buenos Aires, two juvenile detention centers and an adult prison, and the University of Buenos Aires’ public law school. Students also met with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Argentina Carlos Fernando Rosenkrantz and U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Edward C. Prado, a distinguished federal jurist who most recently served on U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in San Antonio, Texas.

While visiting the adult prison, Devoto, and the law center housed inside where prisoners take classes, students noted how starkly it contrasted with a U.S. prison.

“It was really inspiring to see that prisoners in Argentina are able to get an education. It was especially powerful because that is so unlike anything we have here in the U.S. I enjoyed sitting down with the students/prisoners and we had a productive exchange,” said Andrea Savage ('20).

Students also reflected on the treatment of prisoners in both the adult and juvenile detention centers and noted how it differed from treatment in U.S. prisons.

"The way they treat people in the criminal justice system in Argentina is aspirational," said Stone MacBeth ('20). “Learning about how the system works there made me grateful for the procedures that we have here. It made we want to treat each procedural step with more attention. The Argentinian courts lack some procedure in the courtroom, and it made me realize that we are very lucky we have the rules that we do in the U.S."

"Nothing is inevitable in a system," Savage said. "There are so many things about the U.S. and Argentinian legal systems that are alike, yet we’ve diverged in many ways. We were still in a prison, but Argentina has made different choices that affected the treatment of prisoners and the ability for them to earn an education while incarcerated. That makes me wonder what choices we could make in the U.S. that could affect the system in different ways.”

The class also took advantage of the local culture, playing soccer with local children in the Villa 31 neighborhood, touring the famous street art of Buenos Aires, and attending a tango show.

Back in Boulder, the class concludes with each student writing a research paper comparing and contrasting an aspect of the Argentinian legal system with that of the U.S. Students are writing about the right to counsel and other justice reforms that have occurred in Latin America, social movements aimed at gender violence that is spawning change in Latin America, and other topics.

Robinson and England have co-taught the international comparative law class since 2012, focusing on a different country each year. They selected Argentina as the subject of this year’s class after a team of public defenders in Buenos Aires came to Colorado Law last summer for a trial skills class taught by England and Robinson. While in Argentina, students were able to meet with those public defenders and sit in on their evidentiary hearings.

Previous classes studied the laws of Ecuador and Morocco. The first international comparative law class, launched in 2011 by Robinson and Professor Clare Huntingon, compared areas of family law in the U.S. and India.

Ashlee Arcilla ('12) participated in the Ecuador trip in 2012 and now serves as deputy director of the Colorado Office of Respondent Parents’ Counsel.

“Our community of lawyers has a real obligation to explore other cultures and understand the differences in our legal systems,” she said.

“We can’t just assume that the way we have our legal system set up in the U.S. is the best way or the right way to do things. This class exposes young, budding lawyers to these types of diverse perspectives and speaks to the higher calling of our legal profession."