Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership & UC Hastings Law Library Release New Research Tutorial

The Hastings-to-Haiti Partnership (HHP) and the University of California Hastings College of the Law Library have created a new international and foreign law research tutorial for users in French-speaking developing nations.

The tutorial is free, as is the accompanying manual and search engines identified; it is available online through the HHP website: http://www.hastingstohaiti.org/.

“Researching law can pose significant obstacles for lawyers and law students in developing countries, where access to the Internet and print materials is limited,” says Karen Musalo, HHP faculty co-coordinator, UC Hastings clinical professor of law, and Center for Gender & Refugee Studies director. “Given a dearth of financial resources, identifying free search engines is also of concern.”

The tutorial is not specific to Haiti and can be used by French-speaking law students and attorneys worldwide. It is divided into two videos, each less than 20 minutes in length, which can be loaded using the Internet and then viewed offline.

The HHP identified a need for this resource through the organization’s 13-year long collaboration with the Catholic Law School of Jérémie (ESCDROJ), located in rural Haiti. ESCDROJ students and professors have expressed frustration at the lack of legal resources available in Haiti and the barrier this poses to students completing their memoire (or dissertation), a significant piece of legal research and writing that is required to become a licensed attorney.

The hope is that students will be able to use the tutorials to help them complete their memoires and carry the lessons into their future practice, thereby strengthening the rule of law in Haiti.

For more information, contact

Blaine Bookey, Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, bookeybl@uchastings.edu, 415.515.8956

Edris Rodriguez, JD Candidate 2012, Hastings to Haiti Partnership, rodriged@uchastings.edu, 323.337.6804