Day 19 - Friday, June 5, 2009: The Trip – A Summation

by Joshua Nightingale

Professor cummings promised us that the Brazil study-abroad trip would be an “amazing intellectual and cultural feast,” and the experience certainly lived up to that billing. As the other bloggers’ posts abundantly show, we did amazing things, met and interacted with great people, and forged close bonds among our group of travelers. With so much of the learning being “hands-on,” it is easy to overlook the profound educational experiences that occurred during our seminars and lecture periods. While we may have grumbled a bit at the size of our reading packets and grimaced at the 50+ page reading assignments we were sometimes given, the reading assignments and class discussions were enlightening and allowed us to better appreciate and learn from the ongoing, first-hand cultural experiences.

The environmental law readings and lectures during the Amazonas portion of the trip brought to our attention some of the difficult questions concerning deforestation and environmental justice – should preservation of the Amazon’s natural resources be pursued at the expense of Brazil’s economic development? What can the United States and the rest of the world do to help address this problem? Should the United States and rest of the world even have a say? Floating down the Rio Negro, we did not see any evidence of the slash and burn deforestation methods so prevalent elsewhere in the Amazon, and it was only through the reading assignments and engaging seminar discussions that these important issues reached our consciousness.

The reading assignments and seminars also provided fascinating comparative studies of American and Brazilian law and culture. In Vila Velha and Rio de Janeiro, we discussed differences in the countries’ court systems, civil and common law legal systems, treatment of racial and socioeconomic issues, and constitutional protection of religious liberties. Professor cummings’s discussions on the global financial crisis and Professor Taylor’s lectures on First Amendment religious liberties were also noteworthy because they demonstrated to the Brazilian students the Socratic Method of class discussion, which is not used in Brazilian legal education. The law review articles, newspaper articles, and book chapters in our reading packets provided the springboard for the engaging and often intense class discussions that took place at the University of Vila Velha and Foundation Getulio Vargas.

Throughout all of the lectures and seminars on a myriad of different topics, a common theme emerged: the world is incredibly interconnected. Just as the collapse of the United States’ housing market has had incredible effects on the global economy, so does the deforestation of the Amazon rain forest in Brazil have profound consequences on the rest of the world via global warming. Similarly, our lectures reiterated the fact that important issues, such as racial inequality, poverty, and religious freedom, are common the world over. Learning about the differences between the countries’ treatment of these issues was not merely an academic exercise but rather an opportunity to investigate and learn from each country’s unique approaches to the challenges presented.

When you’re catching rays on the beautiful beaches of Rio de Janeiro or becoming engulfed in the fascinating world of the Rocinha favela, spending a few hours hitting the books may not seem like the most appealing thing. Needless to say, however, the readings and lectures were a crucial part of the educational experience and truly pushed the trip to the next level by giving us an understanding and awareness that we would not have otherwise had.