Cooperation Ruperto Carola Strengthens Existing Partnership with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile
12 September 2024
Memorandum of understanding is signed to boost scholarly and academic cooperation in the field of law
Heidelberg University and the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile intend to deepen their longstanding relations and intensify their scholarly and academic cooperation in the field of law. Plans include greater research collaboration, expansion of continuing education programs and a lively exchange of academic staff and students. A memorandum of understanding to promote this cooperation was signed in Heidelberg on Tuesday, 10 September 2024. The Heidelberg Center Latin America (HCLA) in Santiago de Chile, one of Ruperto Carola’s four representations abroad, is the contact point and coordination center of this partnership.
“Heidelberg University has a longstanding, close partnership with Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, which we now want to strengthen even more,” underlined Prof. Dr Marc-Philippe Weller, legal scholar and Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Diversity at Heidelberg University, during the signing of the memorandum of understanding. “This cooperation intends to remove the obstacles connected with going abroad for students and doctoral candidates and, at the same time, to foster international exchange,” added Prof. Dr Christoph Kern, Director of the Institute for Comparative Law, Conflict of Laws and International Business Law. “With this agreement we subscribe to forward-looking collaboration in the fields of sustainability and legal history that can contribute to strengthening law and justice in our countries,” said Prof. Dr Gabriel Bocksang Hola, Dean of the Law Faculty of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.
Besides exchanges between academic and administrative staff and visiting scholars, the extensive cooperation includes sharing information and materials, and making resources for research available to one another. A key element of the partnership is to facilitate the admission of graduates of the Chilean university to the Legum Magister (LL.M.) program in German and European law in Heidelberg, which is a two-semester post-graduate course for jurists with foreign degrees. In addition, the cooperation is designed to support joint research projects producing innovative findings in different areas of law, as well as continuing education programs in the context of life-long learning. The main focus will be on legal areas such as procedural law, historical and philosophical foundations of law, Roman law, comparative law, business law with the emphasis on human rights, and corporate law.
The agreement supplements the already close cooperation in the field of legal studies between Heidelberg University and Universidad de Chile. In the context of this cooperation, the Heidelberg Center Latin America offers the transnational Master of Laws in International Law (LL.M.), which has been implemented since 2004 together with Heidelberg University and Universidad de Chile. This program is also supported by the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law and by the Institute for International Studies of Universidad de Chile.
The memorandum of understanding that has just been signed between Heidelberg und der Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile represents an extension of the strategic partnership that has existed between the two universities since 2006. Significant projects have already been carried out in the course of this cooperation, including an international master’s course with a double degree in technical translation and translation technologies, financed by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and a transnational master’s program in risk and resource management. As a result of the partnership, various research projects have come into being and doctoral candidates have qualified in fields like astronomy and psychotherapy. In addition, it has set up binational doctoral networks and initiated many publications and projects that were largely financed by third-party funding.
Most of the projects recorded in the memorandum of understanding will be supported by the Heidelberg Center Latin America. As the international branch office of Heidelberg University in Santiago de Chile, this center offers a platform for academic cooperation and networking in Latin America, and develops continuing education programs in the context of life-long learning. Opened in 2002, the HCLA is the first post-graduate center of a German university to be located in Latin America and plays a central role in promoting academic exchange, as well as in identifying and initiating possible projects in the Latin American research and educational region. Its main activities include the organizing and monitoring of post-graduate programs in cooperation with Latin American universities, as well as conducting seminars, symposia and summer and winter schools.
