The University of Houston Law Center has established the first independent research center in the United States dedicated to the study of Mexican law and legal aspects of U.S. – Mexico relations.
Stephen Zamora, Leonard B. Rosenberg Professor of Law at the University of Houston Law Center, will serve as the first director of the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law. Ignacio Pinto-León, a Mexican who is licensed to practice law in both Mexico and the United States, will serve as assistant director.
“The creation of an independent research center on Mexican law at a U.S. university is long overdue,” Zamora said. “Trade and investment between the United States and Mexico continues to grow as our economies become increasingly integrated… The Center for U.S. and Mexican Law will work to reduce the ignorance and misinformation about Mexican law that exists outside of Mexico, and also will undertake projects to promote U.S. – Mexican cooperation.”
In addition to independent research and analysis of the interplay between the U.S. and Mexican legal systems, the center also will promote cross-border education of law students, lawyers, judges and other professionals from both Mexico and Canada.
In addition to participating faculty at the University of Houston, the Center for U.S. and Mexican Law will sponsor residencies by visiting scholars. At present, the center boasts two affiliate scholars: Dr. José Ramón Cossío Díaz, a Justice of the Mexican Supreme Court, has agreed to serve as the center’s first Distinguished Jurist in Residence. Miriam Grunstein, a law professor at CIDE University in Mexico City, also has been named an affiliate scholar.
