1000

The course aims at attaining the following general objectives: (1) Introducing the student to the study of three general problems in Law: its definition, or answering the question: What is Law?, second, its structure and functions, or the question: How is the Law? and finally, the relation between Law and justice, (2) Developing critical thinking regarding different definitions of Law and the different functions attributed to it, and (3) Studying thoroughly certain key concepts in understanding the expressions of the legal phenomenon and those who reflect or operate upon it, as well as incorporating and structuring elements that allow students to evaluate, legally, the general problems in Law. Additionally, the purpose of the course is to develop writing skills, since it is deemed fundamental in academic life and in the professional career of an attorney.

One of the essential elements in training of any professional is the consolidation of a mental structure that allows him to abstract, put forward and elaborate on arguments with clarity and precision. The first step in reaching this goal is gaining knowledge and practical tools from formal logic and Argumentation Theory (especially legal argumentation). These basic elements are offered to students in this course. Thus, the course aims at providing students with theoretical and methodological tools that allow them to abstract and develop sound and correct arguments according to the principles of classical logic and the argumentation theory. Similarly, students will familiarize themselves with strategies to identify errors in argumentation and ways to correct them. The course is developed based on active methodologies where student participation is crucial. Students will have the opportunity to prepare both oral and written arguments on specific issues, but emphasizing the development of oral expression.

This course places Law in a social context. To that end, it dwells on how "the law in books", (codes and laws, legal doctrine handbooks, etc.) is effectively practiced (or ignored) by citizens, attorneys, judges, civil servants and other social actors. In a nutshell, the course studies "law in action". After a brief introduction to the perspective of legal sociology, the practice of Law is placed in the specific context where we live, i.e. Colombia and Latin America.

The course develops knowledge on the environmental issue from the perspective of ethics and relation of humans with their environment. Thus, students will learn about the main ethical trends in environmental thinking, in order to understand the different legal notions that have dominated legal criteria, internationally in the creation of international agreements and conventions, and nationally, in the drafting of environmental legislation in Colombia.

Specialized agencies of the United Nations and contemporary thinkers such as Amartya Sen insist on the need to articulate strategies of fight against poverty and inequality in complying with constitutional and international obligations of states regarding human rights. Any discussion on such social issues from the perspective of human rights, far from being a rhetoric issue, requires from the states the designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of public development policies that have a positive impact on the respect, protection and guarantee of human rights of the entire population, and in particular, vulnerable groups and victims of violence and discrimination. In line with this argument, the seminar dwells upon three issues: (a) It introduces a brief reflection on the nature of social rights, their scope, content and main obligations of the states in this regard, (b) It presents a conceptual framework that integrates the concepts of human needs, poverty, development, vulnerability and social exclusion with the constitutional and international obligations of the state regarding social rights, and (c) It analyzes the possibilities of integrating issues (a) and (b) in a cycle of public development policies in order promote respect, protection and guarantee of human rights.

The field of conflict resolution has boomed recently due to a greater understanding of the high cost conflicts entail for individuals and social groups or organization. The course is designed as an interactive seminar that explores the theories of causes and management of conflicts. Students learn to assess and identify the conflict and become familiarized with the different resolution techniques available, such as negotiation, mediation, arbitration, facilitation and reaching consensus.

The role of the lawyer and the role of the actor are strikingly similar: Their job is basically demonstrating that a certain situation is real. They both resort to their knowledge, instincts, senses, body and voice to convince an audience, to demonstrate that they hold the truth. The study of Law requires knowledge and self-control, at physical, psychic and emotional level. Bearing this in mind, relaxation, self-confidence, coordination, vocalization, enunciation and stage confidence, which are typical theatric skills, but are directly related to the training of a good lawyer. Thus, this course aims at promoting imagination to develop improvisation skills, in any situation of work and daily life, to improve speaking and body language abilities when addressing an audience, in order to convey confidence and credibility, to develop memory and improvisation skills and self-control when working with a recently-learned text, to strengthen the ability to command over a topic presented to an audience, to analyze and interpret theatrical scenes related to Law, create scenes and characters, to simulate audiences and/or trials, based on renowned cases, in short, to make theater a fundamental and representative part of the School of Law in the University.

The course focuses on students becoming familiarized with the fundamentals of contemporary private law. At the same time, students will: (1) understand legal techniques to analyze a legal system and its institutions, (2) be able to assess facts and identify correctly a legal problem, and design a solution based on legal rules and principles, (3) get acquainted with legal vocabulary and start expressing themselves orally and in writing, using this vocabulary correctly, and (4) understand that a major part of solutions offered by Law respond to a historical context.

This course deals with knowing and understanding the principles and institutions pertaining to the legal framework of commercial activities, traders and companies. It is intended to sensitize the students to the importance of considering the regulatory element in the business decision-making process and the consequences of disregarding such consideration. Legal aspects are also contextualized both in business administration and business execution. Finally, the course is targeted to raise awareness of the incidence and effects of regulations in business, especially for professions other than lawyers.

The Constitution and Democracy course has been developed in order to respond to the University commitment of introducing and promoting the Colombian Constitution within all students. This mandatory course aims to provide fundamental knowledge of the Constitution including its fundamental principles and focuses on instructing students as critical citizens. Since the second semester of 2005 the course has been restructured around the new system of rights proposed in the Constitution of 1991, that states the importance of the integration between constitutional rights and human rights. Based on this premise the University encourages students to achieve professional excellence throughout respect of all human rights and active participation in democracy as citizens.

The objective of the course is to enable a historical and theoretical approach to the concept of state and all necessary elements to understand its relation with Law. In this sense, students learn the core elements, power-related tensions and the problem of legitimacy, forms of organization, its crises and hermeneutical versions. Topics covered in the course include: origin of state, sources of power, characteristics and relation between political power, state and Law, legal foundations of the state, analysis of state functions, forms and systems of government.

The objective of this test is to evaluate the capacity of students to understand Law in different contexts, as well as to evaluate writing and argumentation skills. Eligible to take the test are students who have passed all subjects of the first cycle. This test is divided in two sections: a) Research. On the first day, at 8 a.m., at the Academic Secretariat, students receive research topics with the respective instruction, so they can prepare to solve the problem to be presented to them two days later. b) Problem. On the third day at 8 a.m. at the Academic Secretariat, students receive the questions of the test with the respective instructions. On that same day they must hand in their essays before 4 p.m.