Proyecto ACCESO Celebrates Ten Years of Promoting the Rule of Law in Latin America
New film highlights work to combat Intellectual Property piracy

SAN DIEGO, March 1, 2010 - On March 3, Proyecto ACCESO will officially celebrate its tenth anniversary with a reception and film screening at the Museum of Photographic Arts in Balboa Park. This milestone for the judicial innovation program based at California Western is indicative of the need to promote the rule of law in Latin America and educate the public on legal rights.

"California Western is honored to join in celebrating Proyecto ACCESO's tenth anniversary," says Dean Steven R. Smith. "This renowned, real-world program continues to provide the skills and perspective to further the rule of law in Latin America. We are proud of Proyecto ACCESO's dedication to educating the public on legal rights."

The Rule of Law in Latin America
Proyecto ACCESO is an opportunity for California Western faculty, students, and trustees to assist in building the rule of law in the Western Hemisphere. Through partnerships with the local Bench and Bar, and the legal community along the U.S.-Mexico border, Proyecto ACCESO helps Latin American countries transition legal systems from the inquisitorial to the adversarial model.

Mexico is undergoing this transition now and Jamie Cooper, director of Proyecto ACCESO and assistant dean for Mission Development, estimates it will take another decade to increase the public's confidence in the administration of justice and provide the foundation for sustainable development.  

"We are moving legal systems from the darkness to the light, changing centuries of corrupt, opaque and inherently unfair criminal and other procedures," says Cooper. "That can take a long time.  This is the first decade of our work and we have seen successes in Chile and now Mexico and others have begun this arduous process."

Proyecto ACCESO Educates Legal Professionals
Since its inception, Proyecto ACCESO has trained thousands of legal professionals in the Americas, from judges to public defenders, private lawyers, and law enforcement agents, on ways to promote the rule of law in their countries.

"The rule of law helps everyone," says Cooper. "It helps indigenous peoples, students, workers, women's groups, multinational corporations, and governments.  With the rule of law comes the enforcement of contracts, shareholder and IP rights, and the protection of fundamental human and civil rights."

Proyecto ACCESO Educates the Public
Through public education campaigns, popular music, documentary films, children's educational programming, animation series, and reality TV shows, Proyecto ACCESO educates the public about their legal rights and instills a sense of confidence in the administration of justice.

"Our future is in recognizing that solutions do not always come from the top down, but often have an organic and natural flow to them," says Cooper. "We must work towards better integrating traditional problem-solving techniques in the legal reform process so that all the indigenous peoples of the Americas have their own cultures respected."

Celebration Reception and Film Screening
On March 3, Proyecto ACCESO will show clips of its newest film, Intellectual Property Piracy: The Challenges for Latin America, at 5:30 p.m., followed by a reception. The film was funded by the U.S. Department of Justice and explores the challenges of enforcing international Intellectual Property law across borders.

"We want to celebrate our successes because too often, we do not recognize the hard work of our community in providing access to justice and empowering a new generation of legal change activists," says Cooper.

About Proyecto ACCESO
Proyecto ACCESO, whose Spanish acronym translates to Creative Lawyers Collaborating to Find Optimal Solutions Project, works to develop an educated public, judiciary, and legal system that understand the value of a judicial system based on transparency and the pursuit of justice.

The program is housed at California Western School of Law and receives additional support from a variety of organizations, such as: the United States Departments of Justice and State, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the Organization of American States, the Inter-American Development Bank, and various Latin American justice ministries, think tanks, universities, and bar associations.