Courses

International Civil Dispute Resolution (Required 2-Credit Course, first session)
Professor Michael H. Graham, University of Miami School of Law.  This course will cover transnational civil litigation initiated outside of the United States; recognition and enforcements of foreign judgments in the United States; recognition and enforcement of United States judgments in foreign countries; foreign sovereign immunity; the Act of State doctrine; and mediation and arbitration.

Students Select Two Out of Four Course Offerings (second session):

Global Lawyering (2 Credits)
Professor John Flood, University of Westminster School of Law, London.  Now that commerce and financial services are twenty-four/seven activities, law has had to adapt to the new order.  This course explores a number of issues that arise from the globalization of law, especially the phenomenon of globalization itself, the growth of the global law firm, the development of multidisciplinary practice, the adaptation of legal education to globalization, and what lawyers contribute to global legal practice. Topics include “Globalization; economic and cultural principles” (including some differences in legal systems), and the growth of the large firm and the emergence of the global law firm, with special reference to the U.S. and the U.K.  We will also look at the privatization of dispute resolution through arbitration, Chinese ways of forming relationships, the globalization of bankruptcy, and from a human rights perspective, how landless and dispossessed peoples are struggling to redefine globalization in their favor.

Transnational Family Law (2 credits)
Professor Mary I. Coombs, University of Miami School of Law.  Marriages, divorces, adoptions, and other standard family law issues increasingly take place across national boundaries. Family law lawyers even in small town, Midwest America must thus increasingly be aware of comparative and international law regarding family law issues.  This course will examine the usual range of family law issues:  the formation of marriage and non-marital intimate partnerships; the obligations and rights between parties to an ongoing relationship; financial obligations at dissolution (property division and support); how legally recognized parental relationships are formed and rights and duties (both financial and personal) of adults to ‘their’ children.  It will do so through the lenses of comparative and international law:  we will consider the different rules and practices of different States, the conflict-of-law rules and treaty obligations that govern when one State must recognize the rules of another, and the effect of public international law human rights rules on (at least some) of these rules.

International Human Rights (2 credits)
Professor Andreas Philippopoulos-Mihalopoulos University of Westminster School of Law.  The course aims to introduce students to the basic mechanisms of Human Rights on a regional and international level.  While introductory, the course will be highly demanding in terms of intellectual discussion and theoretical thinking.  The course delivery will be critical both of the institutions and the mechanisms of Human Rights Law, and will encourage students to think broadly and critically.  To this effect the course will introduce extralegal considerations that inform the interpretation of Human Rights Law, such as geopolitics, religion, philosophy, and theories of legal pluralism, deconstruction, proceduralism, autopoiesis, feminism, humanism and globalization.

International Litigation: Trade Investment and Inter-State Disputes (2 Credits)
Professor Dapo Akande, Oxford University.  This course is concerned with the litigation and arbitration of international disputes. For the purposes of this course an international dispute is defined as a dispute in which at least one party is a State. The course therefore examines the litigation of disputes arising solely between States as well as the litigation and arbitration of disputes between States and private entities (individuals and corporations). The course begins with an examination of the litigation of inter-state disputes before the International Court of Justice. The second part of the course will focus on the arbitration of investment and other disputes between private parties and States. Particular attention will be paid to the procedures and problems of international commercial arbitration and the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). The third section of the course will examine the resolution of international trade disputes. In this section, we will focus on the dispute resolution processes of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Course Materials

All courses will be self-contained.  Books and other required course materials will be provided in advance of departure to London for the required course, International Civil Dispute Resolution.  Books and other required course materials for the remaining four courses will be supplied at the Organizational Meeting on Monday, July 9, in London.  All courses will be taught in English.

Law Library and Student Union

Students may frequent the law library of the Faculty of Laws, and upon request, the law library of the University of London. Students may obtain access, for a fee, to the University College London Student Union, a center of social, cultural, recreational and sports activities.

Drop/ Add Courses

Due to the structure of the Summer Abroad Programs, there will be no drop/add period on site.  This will be strictly adhered to.  Students may drop/add a course before the registration deadline of March 30th.