Faculty of Law, University of Buenos Aires

The Faculty of Law (Spanish: Facultad de Derecho) is a faculty of the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), the largest university in Argentina. It was founded alongside the university in 1821, and has consistently remained one of its largest constituent schools, presently counting with 23,790 enrolled graduate students. At the graduate level, it offers law degrees as well as legal translation and forensic calligraphy degrees, in addition to the professorship on judicial sciences.

Faculty of Law

Facultad de Derecho
Type	Faculty
Established	1821; 203 years ago (1821)
Affiliation	University of Buenos Aires
Dean	Leandro Vergara
Students	23,790[1]
Address	Av. Figueroa Alcorta 2263 , Buenos Aires , Argentina 34.3457°S 58.2331°W / -34.3457; -58.2331
Website	derecho.uba.ar

Among its alumni, the UBA Faculty of Law counts 16 Argentine presidents, as well as one of Argentina's five Nobel Prize laureates, Carlos Saavedra Lamas.

The faculty has its seat at a Neoclassical complex on Avenida Figueroa Alcorta, in the Recoleta district of Buenos Aires. The building was inaugurated in 1949, and has become a landmark of the city. It is served by the Buenos Aires Underground through Facultad de Derecho station of Line H.

Degrees

The faculty offers four degrees at the graduate level: law degrees (Spanish: abogacía), legal translation, public (forensic) calligraphy, and the professorship of judicial sciences. Law degrees count with a Ciclo Profesional Común (CPC, "common professional cycle") and a Ciclo Profesional Orientado (CPO, "oriented professional cycle"). The CPC makes up the better part of the degree course, with 14 mandatory subjects. Once completed, a law student is given the title of "University Bachelor in Law" (Bachiller Universitario en Derecho). The CPO specializes law students in a specific field of law: public law (either administrative law or international public law, or both), private law, criminal law, corporate law, labor and social security law, tax law, and notary law.^[2]

On legal translation, the faculty offers degrees in English, German, French, Italian and Portuguese translation, in addition to "non-regular" languages of the student's choosing, granted there are available professors at the time.^[3]

In addition, the faculty offers a number of specialization degrees, as well as magister degrees, doctorates and post-doctoral degrees in diverse fields.^[4]

Political and institutional life

Like the rest of the University of Buenos Aires's faculties, the UBA Faculty of Law operates under the principle of tripartite co-governance, wherein authorities are democratically elected and professors, students and graduates are represented in the faculty's governing bodies. The faculty is headed by a dean (Spanish: decano or decana), who presides over the Directive Council (Consejo Directivo). The Directive Council is made up of eight representatives for the professors, four representatives of the student body, and four representatives of the faculty's graduates. Deans are elected by the Directive Council every four years, while elections to the council take place every two years.^[5]

Since 2022, the dean of the Faculty of Law has been Dr. Leandro Vergara, with Dr. Silvia Nonna as vice dean.^[6]

Notable alumni

Carlos Saavedra Lamas, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 1936

Out of the 17 Argentine presidents who have attended the University of Buenos Aires, 16 studied at the Faculty of Law: Carlos Pellegrini, Luis Sáenz Peña, José Evaristo Uriburu, Manuel Quintana, Roque Sáenz Peña, Victorino de la Plaza, Hipólito Yrigoyen, Marcelo T. de Alvear, Roberto Ortiz, Ramón Castillo, Arturo Frondizi, Raúl Alfonsín, Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, Eduardo Duhalde, and Alberto Fernández. Quintana also served as rector of the university,^[7] while Alberto Fernández taught courses on criminal law at the graduate level for many years before being elected to the presidency.^[8]

The Faculty of Law also educated Carlos Saavedra Lamas, a jurist, diplomat and politician who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1936 due to his efforts in ceasing hostilities during the Chaco War between Bolivia and Paraguay; Saavedra Lamas was the first Latin American Nobel Peace Prize laureate.^[9] He eventually became rector of the University of Buenos Aires in 1941.^[7]

A number of relevant jurists have earned their law degrees at the UBA Faculty of Law. Luis Moreno Ocampo, Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, earned his degree in 1978.^[10] International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda judge Inés Mónica Weinberg de Roca is also a UBA alumna and former faculty, having taught courses on International Private Law from 2001.^[11] Several ministers of the Supreme Court of Argentina are UBA alumni as well, such as Enrique S. Petracchi, Carlos Fayt, Carmen Argibay, Elena Highton de Nolasco, and Carlos Rosenkrantz. Prominent legal philosopher Eugenio Bulygin earned his law degree and his PhD at the UBA Faculty of Law, where he also taught throughout his career. Teodosio César Brea, founder of the prominent Allende & Brea law firm, graduated UBA and taught courses at the Faculty of Law as well.^[12] Valeria Vegh Weis, criminologist, criminal attorney, and university professor, was also educated at UBA.^[13]

Argentine presidents educated at the Faculty of Law

• 
  Carlos Pellegrini, 1890–1892
• 
  Luis Sáenz Peña, 1892–1895
• 
  José Evaristo Uriburu, 1895–1898
• 
  Manuel Quintana, 1904–1906
• 
  Roque Sáenz Peña, 1910–1914
• 
  Victorino de la Plaza, 1914–1916
• 
  Hipólito Yrigoyen, 1916–1922 and 1928–1930
• 
  Marcelo T. de Alvear, 1922–1928
• 
  Roberto Ortiz, 1938–1942
• 
  Ramón S. Castillo, 1942–1943
• 
  Arturo Frondizi, 1958–1962
• 
  Raúl Alfonsín, 1983–1989
• 
  Adolfo Rodríguez Saá, 2001
• 
  Eduardo Duhalde, 2002–2003
• 
  Alberto Fernández, 2019–2023

References

1. "Censo estudiantil 2011" (PDF). uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 July 2022. Retrieved 9 September 2022.
2. "Plan de Estudio de la Carrera de Abogacía - 1985". derecho.uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
3. "Carrera de Traductor Público". derecho.uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
4. "Posgrado". derecho.uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 8 June 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.
5. "Ricardo Gelpi fue electo rector de la UBA". rrhh.uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
6. "UBA: Leandro Vergara asumió como nuevo decano de la Facultad de Derecho". Ámbito Financiero (in Spanish). 2 August 2022. Archived from the original on 14 August 2022. Retrieved 19 September 2022.
7. "Historia". uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 14 June 2012.
8. "Es falso que Alberto Fernández volvió a dar clases en la UBA después de 18 años". Chequeado (in Spanish). 18 July 2019. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
9. Haberman, Frederick W. (1999). Nobel lectures in peace 1926-1950. Volume 2 of Peace 1901-. Nobel lectures, including presentation speeches and laureates' biographies. World Scientific, p. 255. ISBN 981-02-3415-5
10. Luis Moreno-Ocampo (2003)"Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 March 2009. Retrieved 17 February 2011.. Retrieved 3 February 2009.
11. "Dra. Inés M. Weinberg" (PDF). derecho.uba.ar (in Spanish). Archived (PDF) from the original on 20 June 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
12. "Teodosio César Brea (1927-2018)". UTDT (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 27 August 2022.
13. "Những điều có lẽ chúng ta phải biết ơn Marx". BBC News (in Vietnamese). 4 May 2018. Archived from the original on 27 August 2022. Retrieved 25 September 2022.

External links

• Official website (in Spanish)