Course Information
Courses and Faculty
July 2 – August 4, 2012
Law Classes 1st Period | Law Classes 2nd Period | French Language Classes | Faculty Biographies
International Contracts
Professor Herbert Lazerow
Legal, practical and tax aspects of contracts for the international sale of goods, including contract formation; choice of forum and choice of law; warranties; risk of loss; excuse; nonjudicial remedies; judicial remedies; letters of credit; and the settlement of int’l business disputes, including the enforcement of foreign judgments and arbitral awards. Emphasis on the UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods as the applicable law for most international sales contracts.
Exam: 8/3 (3 cr.) MTWThF 9:00 - 10:35 a.m.
European Union Law
Professor Dominique Carreau
Introduction to law of the European Union: examination of the institutional framework (Commission, Council, Parliament and European Court of Justice) and the legal order (supremacy, direct effect and mutual recognition); the course then addresses the core principles of EU legal system, the free movement of persons (including the right of establishment and the Schengen area with special emphasis on the harmonization of company law), goods (elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers, creation of a common customs tariff and a common external trade policy), services (completion of the internal market focusing on the liberation of financial services) and capital (liberation of capital movements and its impact on the construction of Europe); and Economic and Monetary Union.
Exam: 8/3 (3 cr) MTWThF 9:00 - 10:35 a.m.
International Internet Law
Judge Margaret McKeown and Judge Michael Hawkins
The course provides a general overview of international intellectual property through the lens of comparative judicial reasoning. The survey will include key international treaties, such as the Madrid Protocol and the Paris Convention, along with the Trade Related Intellectual Property Standards. The materials explore techniques and approaches used by judges in different countries to decide disputes, including how judges build interpretive methods, organize information, and apply legal sources to resolve cases. Applying these techniques to the burgeoning field of Internet law, the course considers such topics as the significance of a borderless Internet, personal jurisdiction over Internet participants, content regulation of the Internet under different legal systems, privacy protection, criminal law, social networking in the international context, and special problems in trademark and copyright.
Exam: 8/3 (3 cr.) MTWThF 9:00 - 10:35 a.m.
International Human Rights
Professor Henry Drummonds
This course surveys International Human Rights using real controversies from the perspectives of international law, regional law and domestic law. The global model embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights are examined focusing on: the 19th Century recognition of slavery in England and the United States, the contemporary juvenile death penalty in the U.S., the availability of medications and prevention programs for HIV/AIDS in South Africa, and the self-determination of indigenous peoples in South Belize. Emerging human rights norms such as the International Labor Organization’s 1998 Declaration of Rights and Principles at Work and its application to such divergent controversies as those concerning procurement policies for the 2012 London Olympics, and forced labor in Myanmar (Burma) are next examined. We study regional human rights law such as the European Convention on Human Rights, and its application to controversies concerning: extradition from the U.K. to the U.S. in death penalty cases, French law enforcement interrogation tactics in drug trafficking cases and U.K. interrogation tactics in Ireland, civilian deaths in Iraq (U.K. ) and the former Yugoslavia (NATO), free speech controversies in Denmark and the U.K., and abortion rights disputes in Germany and Ireland. Rights of the accused are studied in cases involving: the Nuremberg Trials following WWII, the arrest and extradition of the Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, Special Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Cambodia, and the International Criminal Court’s assertion of jurisdiction over abuses in Darfur and elsewhere. The course also reviews corporate responsibility for violations of human rights norms under voluntary corporate codes and nation-state laws like the Alien Tort Claims Act in controversies involving oil companies in Nigeria, Ecuador, and elsewhere. Finally, the course takes up the “law of war” using controversies over abuses at the Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq, the torture of suspects in the “war on terror”, and “collateral” damage to civilians in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq as focus points.
Exam: 8/4 (3 cr) MTWThF 10:45 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
Public International Law
Professor Jeffrey Dunoff
Do most countries obey international law? Where does this law come from? Who makes it and how? This course will provide an overview of public international law, with special attention to how international law is made and applied, the jurisdiction of countries over people and territory, and the powers of international organizations such as the UN. In adition, we examine legal doctrine in several cutting-edge areas, including human rights, international criminal law, international economic relations, the use of force, and efforts to combat terrorism.
Exam: 8/4 (3 cr) MTWThF 10:45 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
International Business Transactions
Professor Michael Van Alstine
This course deals with the legal problems arising out of international commercial and business transactions. The course will first review the principal institutions involved in international transactions as well as the principal forms of international commercial activity. We will then cover the following substantive matters: international trading of goods, with a special focus on contract formation, the growing force of electronic commerce, and issues arising out of the transportation of goods; foreign direct investment, including the choice of the appropriate business form; project financing; an introduction to international trade matters governed by the various World Trade Organization agreements; and the regulation of international bribery and similar corrupt practices. We will also cover the special issues that arise in dispute resolution in international transactions, including jurisdiction and choice of forum; choice of law; international arbitration; extraterritorial jurisdiction and discovery; and enforcement of international judgments and arbitral awards.
Exam: 8/4 (3 cr) MTWThF 10:45 a.m. - 12:20 p.m.
International Business Internship (We are no longer accepting applications for this Internship)
Judge David Laro
Students participate in practicing law related to international business transactions, including contract, financial, commercial, tax, European Union Law, labor, securities, etc. After being prepared to function in the legal environment, each student will work for a law firm in Paris. The experience depends on the work in the office in which s)he is placed. (S)he may participate in client interviews, negotiating sessions, meetings with government representatives, strategy sessions, and arbitration or litigation. The student may gather facts, and may draft, review, or translate contracts, opinion letters, trial or arbitration documents, and the like. Seminars integrate the work experience. Internships with international organizations are possible.
(Graded HP, P, LP, F). No exam (3 cr) MTWThF 9 a.m. - 6:00+ p.m.
French Language Classes
Two French courses are offered MTWThF 1:30 -2:20 p.m.: a beginning conversation course, Survival French, and for those with a year of college French, Intermediate Conversational French. Both are open to accompanying persons; neither is for college credit. Cost: $85 per person. Advanced French courses are given by the Alliance Française, Institut Catholique, or the Sorbonne Cours de Civilisation Française. If interested in their advanced courses, please contact them directly.
Faculty Biographies
Dominique Carreau, Professor Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne Emeritus & former Counsel, Shearman & Sterling; former faculty Paris X Nanterre (and Dean there), Michigan, Fordham, USD. International Arbitrator. Author: Le Marché Unique Européen; Le Fonds Monétaire International; Souveraineté et Coopération Monétaire Internationale; Le Système Monétaire International; Droit International Economique; La Dette Extérieur. Docteur en droit Paris; Agrégé de Droit Public; MCL Michigan.
Henry Drummonds, Professor Lewis & Clark. Formerly partner, Kulonguski Heid Durham & Drummonds, and law clerk, California Supreme Court. Author of numerous law journal articles. BA OR, JD Harvard.
Jeffrey Dunoff, Temple; former visiting faculty Harvard and Princeton.Author: International Law. BA Haverford, JD NYU, LLM Georgetown.
Michael Hawkins, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Former faculty Seton Hall, Virginia. Formerly U.S. Attorney for Arizona; Independent Prosecutor-Special Counsel for the Navajo Nation; Uniform Law Commissioner. Author of numerous law journal articles. B.A., JD Arizona State University; LLM University of Virginia School of Law.
David Laro, Judge, U.S. Tax Court, and Adjunct Professor Georgetown & USD. Former CEO, Durakon Ind. Author of law journal articles. B.A. University of Michigan, JD University of Illinois, LLM Tax NYU School of Law.
Herbert Lazerow , Professor USD, co-founder of the Institute and 2011 Paris Institute Director. Former faculty Louisville, Paris X Nanterre. Author: OECD Draft Influence on U.S. Income Tax Treaties. Former editor-in-chief, International Tax Journal. AB Pennsylvania, JD Harvard, LLM George Washington, DESS Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.
Margaret McKeown, Judge, United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit. Formerly White House Fellow & partner, Perkins Coie, Seattle. Author of numerous law journal articles. B.A. University of Wyoming; JD Georgetown University Law Center.
Michael Van Alstine, Professor Maryland. Former faculty Cincinnati, St. Mary’s, Vanderbilt. Author: Absence of Agreement Upon Contract Formation under the United Nations Convention on International Sales Law; United States Commercial and Economic Law; International Business Transactions. BA St Norbert; JD George Washington; MJC, Doctor Juris Bonn.
