Courses

Provides in-depth exposure to the most useful research strategies and resources for researching international, comparative and foreign law competently.  The goal of the seminar is to produce a research guide on an international, foreign, or comparative law topic.

This is an advanced international human rights law course in which students engage in research on cutting-edge issues in human rights law and policy for non-governmental organizations and inter-governmental organizations under the supervision of the professor.  

A research and writing seminar that provides a framework and faculty supervision for students to engage in comparative environmental law research. While the seminar is designed primarily to support VLS students participating in the US-China joint student research projects and will focus generally on China, the seminar is sufficiently broad to accommodate students interested in researching the environmental law systems of other countries.

Explores how different countries within the Western Legal Tradition understand sources of law, the relationship between codes and cases, and constitutional design, including questions of federalism, judicial review and balance of powers.  The course will study selected aspects of legal systems, focusing on France and Germany, with some discussion of "mixed" common/civil law jurisdictions (e.g. Louisiana, South Africa), as well as some aspects of the European Union.

An overview of the environmental challenges for China's 1.3 billion people and the efforts to address them through law and regulation. Includes an introduction to the political and legal system and cultural background of the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter, and surveys the basic regulatory schemes managing air quality, water resources and quality, natural resources, environmental impact assessments, and pending legislation concerning waste management and energy conservation. 

Considers the principles used to resolve legal problems when the conflicting laws of two or more jurisdictions might reasonably be applied. The course initially focuses upon the different rules and methodologies used to determine the appropriate choice of law. Constitutional limits on the use of such rules and methodologies are explored in some detail.

This seminar will provide a vehicle for exploring "hot topics" in international law, with the specific focus shifting from year to year.

An examination of environmental justice from an environmental law and a civil rights law perspective, including how environmental justice issues are framed, addressed, and resolved through litigation and mediation in the U.S.  Also a study of how developing countries and countries with economies in transition face numerous challenges in their efforts to achieve sustainable development.

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The principles of European environmental law and techniques for environmental management with particular emphasis on nature conservation law, environmental impact assessment, integrated pollution control, waste management, climate change, and the enforcement of environmental law at EU and Member State levels.

Provides a basic introduction to European Union law, with a focus on the foundational treaties, the key institutions and their interrelationships, and important cases decided by the European Court of Justice.  Students will be given an opportunity to attend lectures by leading EU legal scholars at the University of Trento in Italy.  Special fees and conditions may apply. 

Taught by a French law professor (in English), this course addresses the substantive law and underlying policies of the law of French business corporations and the ways in which the law differs from U.S. corporate law.  

Taught by a French law professor (in English), this course provides an introduction the French law and legal system, and French legal methodology. 

Considers genocide from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing legal, cultural, political, economic, and moral issues surrounding this phenomenon. These issues are studied in the context of broader international human rights concepts. 

Explores the links in theory and in law between the enjoyment of internationally recognized human rights and protection of the environment through the study of case law finding environmental degradation to constitute a breach of established human rights, and through the analysis of the value and limits of procedural rights and remedies in environmental law.

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Covers the basics of immigration law; family and employment-based immigration categories; citizenship issues, grounds of inadmissibility/deportability; detention; removal and relief from removal. Special emphasisis placed on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and humanitarian relief under asylum law and under the Violence Against Women Act

Research and writing seminar about the doctrines, principles, and rules of law designed to ensure or facilitate the rights of present and future generations to protection from harms resulting or likely to result from global warming.

In the international arena, students study treaties that may provide remedies for harm caused to humans and to natural resources by activities such as transporting oil in tankers, burning fossil fuels, and exporting hazardous substances. They also study many efforts to prevent harm rather than to remedy it. Comparative law issues range from how similar, environmentally based disputes between private parties might be resolved in a wide variety of legal and social systems, to a detailed comparison of environmental legislation in two federal systems and their member states—the U.S. and the European Community.

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Using a problem-solving method, this course provides a practice-based introduction to private cross-border transactions, such as purchase/sale of goods; licensing of intellectual properties; and investment of capital in foreign countries in a service business.  

Explores International Criminal Law, broadly defined to include criminal issues that arise in the international setting and international issues that arise in the context of national criminal law.  This broad definition encompasses the prosecution of crimes in international tribunals as well as transnational crimes such as terrorism, organized crime, trafficking in drugs and persons, and cybercrimes, which will be prosecuted in domestic/national courts.

Provides an overview of the structure and basic principles of international environmental law and policy. The course considers the challenge of addressing global environmental problems; the regulatory limitations of U.S. law; and the basic structure and principles of international environmental law. The course examines in detail the structure of the Montreal Protocol regime  and covers other areas, including treaties related to climate change, biodiversity and wildlife protection, and the intersection of international trade and the environment.