lawsch.dev.breilabs.com

2010 Academic Program

The following courses will be offered in the 2010 spring semester

Comparative Employment Discrimination Law (3 credits)
taught by Ohio State Professor Camille Hébert

This course explores selected topics of employment discrimination from a comparative perspective, examining the approaches taken by the United States, Canada, England and other countries. Topics to be covered will include: gender discrimination, including pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment; sexual orientation discrimination; race discrimination; and disability discrimination.

Comparative Dispute Resolution (3 credits)
taught by Ohio State Professor Camille Hébert

This course will examine methods of dispute resolution used domestically in other countries and will compare those methods with methods of dispute resolution used in the United States. The course will explore how differences in culture, religion, history and legal institutions affect the way that people resolve conflicts and how those factors influence the development of dispute resolution systems as alternatives to domestic court systems.

Legal Processes (3 credits)
taught by Oxford Professor Keith Hawkins

The purpose of this course is to give students an understanding of the law in action. Accordingly, the course will not so much teach students law as teach students about law, exploring various aspects of how legal rules operate. The substantive focus will be mostly on criminal justice and public law, although civil law will not be neglected since there are important parallels to be drawn, for example, in the handling of civil disputes and pre-trial bargaining in criminal cases. Study materials will be drawn from both U.S. and U.K. sources. The areas and questions to be covered will include: how social problems are transformed and created into potentially legal cases; how law is enforced; how cases are handled by legal bureaucracies and lawyers; how cases are disposed of, including pre-trial bargaining and settling out of court; the role of courts and adjudication; and alternative forms of handling disputes.

One student described this course as follows:

Throughout law school we study cases that are actually litigated, but this only accounts for 3 or 4 percent of the cases that are filed. Everything else gets weeded out, and we finally have a chance to see how they are weeded out in this class. It provides students with a different perspective and teaches us a different way of looking at the legal system. Rather than focus on a question for which a trial will provide a legal answer, this classes focuses on the matter in which the social dispute is transformed into a legal question. The class demonstrates that the legal answer does not necessarily provide a social resolution to the dispute. This might be evident once someone says it, but it is not something that students often think about, and we should.

In addition to the two 75-minute class meetings per week, there will be a visit to the Oxford Crown Court or to the Magistrates' Courts in the city (possibly to both). The Magistrates' Courts are important because all criminal cases (as well as some others) that arise in the Oxford area are brought in that judicial forum.

Supervised Research Tutorial (3 credits)

This course is modeled on the format of the justly renowned Oxford tutorial. Each tutor will meet periodically with a small number of students. Meetings will be devoted to planning or revising the students' individual research papers, to be completed by the end of the semester. Law students will participate in groups of three or four with their individual tutors (professors). Listed below are the six Oxford professors who are currently supervising research tutorials, their general subject areas, and some of the research and writing projects prepared under their guidance in prior years.

• Professor Nicholas Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law  

  Human Rights Violations and the Responsibilities and Liabilities of States and Multi-National Corporations

  Striking a Balance: A Comparative Analysis of Protections for Both Individuals and Police in the US, England and the EU

  Broadcasting Freedom in the United States and the UK

  Legal Rights Afforded to War on Terror Detainees in the US and UK

  The Court and Aspirational Prudence: The Law's Promise, Democracy and Rights

  Same-Sex Marriage in the United State and the United Kingdom

  Going Too Far?: Comparative Legal Frameworks on the Use of Torture in the United Kingdom and the United States
  

• Professor Anne Davies: Comparative Labor and Employment Law & Administrative Law 

  Genetic Discrimination in the Workplace

  A Comparative Study of Redundancy/Layoff Laws

  Labor Issues in Regional Trade Agreements; Comparing the EU and NAFTA/NAALC

  Privacy and the Media: A Comparison of Laws in the United States and the United Kingdom

  Protection for Freedom of Religion in the United State and the United Kingdom
  

• Professor Elizabeth Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation, Environmental Law and Regulatory Subjects

  Promotion of Collaborative Approaches Between Industry, Citizens and Government in EU and US Risk Regulation

  A Comparison of US and UK Regulatory Strategies Concerning Contaminated Land

  A Comparison of the Ability of States in the US and EU to Take Measures in Circumstances of Scientific Uncertainty When it Infringes the Dormant Commerce Clause/Article 28

  Trading Spaces: the United States and United Kingdom 's Approach to Ergonomic Injuries

  A Smoking Look at Federalism: Public Smoking Regulation in the United States and the United Kingdom
  

• Professor Helen Scott: European Community Law, Roman Law and Torts 

• Professor Stefan Talmon: International Law in International Affairs and Other International Law Topics

  Do Georgia Law Students Need to Think About International Law

  Use of Non-Native Languages in Treaty Making

  How the US Supreme Court Uses International Law

  Right to Leave - Obligation to Stay: Rights and Duties of an Occupant

  Issues of Law and Jurisdiction Related to Establishment of an International Tribunal to Prosecute Those Involved in the Murder of Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri

  Is There a Legal Obligation on States to Provide International Emergency Assistance?

  The Status of "Article 98" Agreements Seeking Exemption from International Criminal Court Jurisdiction

  The United States ' Failure to Protect Iraq 's Cultural Property: A Violation of International Law?    
  

• Professor Lucia Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice  

  Comparing Recourse to Incarceration by the Penal Systems in the US and UK

  The Role of the Jury in Criminal Trials in the US and UK

  The Comparative Effectiveness of Treatment Programs for Offenders in Reducing Recidivism in the US and UK

  Terror's Triumph Over the Right to Privacy: A Comparison Between United States and United Kingdom Government Surveillance Policy and Law

  The Death Penalty and International Law - Comparing Approaches in the United States and the United Kingdom

  International Terrorism: War or Crime? Why the "War on Terror" is Conceptually Flawed

  Comparative Issues in Insanity Defense Jurisprudence