A History of UTDT Law
The Law School was created in 1996 following the board of trustees’ mandate to produce a major change in legal education and scholarship in Argentina. Founding Rector Gerardo della Paolera, a PhD in Economics who had witnessed the synergy of economics and law at the University of Chicago, viewed the new school as a momentous contribution to social, economic and human development in Argentina.
In accordance with the stated mission, founding Dean Horacio Spector designed a plan for a new system of legal education. This plan was discussed with Professor Jeremy Waldron and supported by a professional advisory board composed of partners of the main law firms in Buenos Aires. Building on Argentine legal philosophy and its tradition of analytical and critical thinking, the fundamental idea was to adapt to Argentina the model of interdisciplinary legal education practiced by US research-oriented law schools.
The Law School trains its law students to become leading practitioners, judges and law professors in Argentina and abroad. It teaches them how to confront complex legal problems and provide creative solutions, to approach legal issues from a comparative perspective, and to discuss their ethical, economic and social implications. In short, it gives undergraduate students a basic liberal arts education.
