Professor Christian L. Gonzalez-Rivera Participates in U.S. Speaker Program in Panama for “America 250”
Christian L. Gonzalez-Rivera, Associate Professor of Law at St. Thomas University College of Law, was honored to be selected by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for its U.S. Speaker Program to give a number of lectures and make press appearances in Panama celebrating the U.S. semiquincentennial (“America 250”). The events were organized by the U.S. Embassy in Panama in collaboration with Panama’s Presidential Secretariat for State Reorganization and Constitutional Matters (SEPRESAC).
Professor Gonzalez-Rivera spoke to a wide variety of audiences, ranging from college to law students, the general public, high level government officials at both the national and local levels, and the press, about what has made our country a successful and enduring constitutional democracy, stressing the importance of constitutional design that enhances rational decision-making processes and fosters an order of human dignity and flourishing. Panama is currently in the course of a 4-year process to draft a new constitution. Professor Gonzalez-Rivera stressed that federalism and subsidiarity have been essential to American self-government and that any new system to emerge in Panama should allow for the political minorities of the day to become the majorities of tomorrow. His appearances have already been highlighted by several Panama newspapers and other outlets.
As described by the State Department, “[t]he U.S. Speaker Program is a nimble, rapid response public diplomacy tool that advances national interests by recruiting prominent American experts to interact in-person or virtually with foreign decision-makers and other professional interlocutors to explain and further key policy priorities that protect, strengthen, and benefit the United States.”
STU College of Law is most proud of Professor Gonzalez-Rivera’s outstanding work that helps to turn the goal of law as the flourishing of all into the practice of the apex of a legal system, i.e. the constitution. His contributions, enthusiastically acclaimed by his hosts, make him a most effective ambassador of our country at the 250th anniversary of its Declaration of Independence and of our University and College of Law.