Because Colombia recently set up a new constitution which went into effect this past summer, McGillis says now is a prime time for developing reforms for the legal system in that country. McGillis says the joint team wants to have concrete recommendations about reshaping the criminal code by next month, when the Colombian Congress will next meet.

Student Involvement

Though the Center's work is undertaken primarily by Law School faculty members, some students have made contributions to the programs.

David B. Pointer, a second-year law student, has worked in Cambridge examining how Soviet laws contrast with those of England, Germany, France, Sweden and the United States. He lauds the accessibility of legal experts as one of the strengths of the center's programs.

"We had access to great experts on a moment's notice," Pointer says. "The context mobilized a lot of extremely good people. I don't think the government could get that access."

Pointer adds that the foreign delegates were much more open knowing that "they didn't have to worry about us having to further our own position."

Natasha Tsarkova '92 spent the summer translating legal documents as well as escorting Soviet visitors on rides with the Cambridge police.

The Soviet visitors, she says, "were very excited about the whole program."

A Lasting Impact?

McGillis says that the full effects of the program are not fully known, nor can they be easily assessed.

In South Africa, Heymann says, some effects have in fact already been seen. Immediately after the three-day conference, government officials announced that the officer ranks of the police force would have to have many more Blacks than before.

Some past projects have not had such a lasting impact, however, Heymann says.

In Guatemala, the target of the center's largest project to date, "some things stuck and some didn't," he says. The center's work was never really implemented, officials say, because of dramatic changes in the country's political climate.

And in 1986 and 1987, Heymann says, the center conducted a project involving Mexican-American drug trafficking, which turned out to be largely ineffectual. Heymann says the Mexican president moved in so quickly and firmly that the center's discussions had almost no effect.

"You hope that you'll have a permanent effect, McGillis says. "But you can't tell."