University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law
by Carina Zaragoza
The University of Arizona James E. Rogers College of Law is the oldest law school in Arizona and one of the first established in the West. The College originated in 1915 as a department of law, and in 1925, it became the fifth college at the University of Arizona. In 1999, the College was named the James E. Rogers College of Law in honor of the generous support of James E. Rogers, who graduated from the College in 1962. James E. Rogers is a prominent attorney, businessman, and philanthropist. Graduates of the College hold positions of leadership in the legal, corporate, and political arenas throughout the country and internationally.
With a ratio of 13 to 1, the College has one of the most favorable student-faculty ratios of any law school in the U.S. The College offers ten outstanding dual degree programs which give students the opportunity to pursue interdisciplinary interests in several areas study. The College of Law Library is one of the best legal research facilities in the Southwest, with a collection of more than 354,000 volumes. The latest in computer-based legal research is available through LEXIS, WESTLAW, and Internet access. A student computer lab for word processing, computer-assisted legal instruction, and research plays an important role in student academic life. The curriculum is designed to guide students from a broad, general legal education at the outset to specialties in the last two years. Students begin in the Small Sections Program and also develop their writing skills. The program is then predominantly elective in the second and third years of law study. In this way, students walk away with an all-around legal education.
Community service is an integral part of the University Of Arizona James E. Rogers College Of Law. Rather than merely advocating community service, faculty and students of the College actively work in the community on legal and non-legal projects. Throughout the year, the College is engaged in one project or another. Once a month throughout the academic year, the Community Service Board sponsors a law school community service project. Past projects have included helping low-income families build homes through United Housing; volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House; organizing a team for the local AIDSWalk; helping Native Seed Search on its farm, south of Tucson; and organizing activities for children at a local hospital. Student organizations have taken this commitment to community service into their own hands and have developed programs with various community organizations.
Law students volunteer with the Pima County Volunteer Lawyers Program. Students work directly with clients under the supervision of VLP lawyers on issues ranging from domestic relations, child support, and bankruptcy. Student volunteers team up with criminal defense lawyers and work on cases where it has been determined that there has been a miscarriage of justice. The Native American Law Students' Association runs the Legal Referral Program at the Tucson Indian Center. Students provide referral services to people on a walk-in basis three days a week. The innovative Courts-R-Us program teams law students with high school students from low-income families. The purpose is to introduce the high school students to different aspects of legal education.
The University of Arizona is widely recognized as one of the world's leading academic centers of learning for the study of indigenous peoples' cultures, histories, languages, laws, and human rights. The Indigenous Peoples Law and Policy Program (IPLP) at the James E. Rogers College of Law is pioneering a model of applied research and advocacy that contributes to legal and policy reforms at both the domestic and international levels and that harnesses those reforms to address particular problems faced by indigenous peoples. The mission of the IPLP is to prepare advocates, lawyers, and scholars to meet the unique and difficult legal challenges and policy issues in the field of indigenous peoples' rights in the 21st Century. To name just one effort, the IPLP is working full force in conjuction with other organizations in Belize. The Maya people of southern Belize have suffered from a history of colonization and continue to be deprived of their human rights, especially in relation to the lands and resources that they have traditionally used and occupied. Recent and ongoing actions of the government of Belize, which have encouraged non-indigenous settlement and large-scale logging and oil development on Maya traditional lands, threaten the Maya people and the natural environment upon which their culture and subsistence depends. In response to requests from the Maya communities, the IPLP has become part of a multi-faceted advocacy effort, working in coordination with the Indian Law Resource Center, the University of Toronto Human Rights Law Clinic, and local Belizean attorneys and support groups. Although response by the government is slow, there have been victories thanks to the help of the IPLP. The IPLP served a key role in the first case in which an international tribunal with legally binding authority has found a government in violation of the collective land rights of an indigenous group, setting an important precedent for the rights of indigenous peoples in international law [Mayagna (Sumo) Community of Awas Tingni v. Nicaragua]. The IPLP is a forerunner in providing much needed legal recourse to an otherwise silenced group.
In addition to service-oriented programs, the University Of Arizona James E. Rogers College Of Law provides a traditional legal education that focuses on traditional areas of legal study. Students walk away armed with the legal knowledge to effect necessary changes in the legal arena and beyond.
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