Bioethics and the Law in Legal Comparative Perspective
Simona Novaretti, University of Torino

The course aims to define the complex relations among law, ethics and the body in different legal cultural settings, through a comparison among international, Euro-American (“Western”) and Asian (“Eastern”) legal patterns and attitudes.

In particular, the course analyses the impact of philosophical and religious traditions on the development of the concept of physical body and of the events related to it, such as birth, life, suffering (physical pain), and death in different area of the world. Then, it explores if and how the interplay among diverse moral principles have affected the way in which biotechnological innovations have been received and regulated by international and national legal systems. The course deals with topics such as assisted procreation, gestational surrogacy, abortion, organ transplantation, genetic engineering, cloning, medical ethics, animal testing and euthanasia. Each issue will be analysed using the tools of comparative law, to understand whether friction points in regulating the biosciences exist, both theoretically and operationally, among different legal traditions and legal systems within them, and how they look like.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (30%), Research paper (4,000 words) on a topic related to the course (70%).

ONE-PLUS OPTION:

For 1 extra credit, a limited number of students who need to fulfill a graduation requirement at their home university may write a major research paper. To obtain the extra credit, the student must (a) turn in a written outline of the paper for faculty comment relatively early in the semester, (b) turn in a complete first draft for faculty comment two-thirds of the way through the semester, and (c) write a paper of 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

Please note that this course has been approved as a WR course for Georgetown students.

Charity Law and Regulation: International Perspectives
Rosemary Langford, University of Melbourne

Charities are an essential part of the social fabric and economy in many jurisdictions and vital to social cohesion and wellbeing, as well as making significant economic contributions. Charities face challenges due to acute economic, social and technical changes, as well as increased public scrutiny, often partly due to charity scandals and failures. The international dimensions of charity law – and the insights that can be gained from the experience and perspective of other jurisdictions – cannot be underestimated. This course provides a multijurisdictional perspective on key issues in governance and regulation of charities, incorporating insights from common law and civil jurisdictions. The course looks first at the characteristics of charities, including core aspects common to a number of jurisdictions. It then appraises challenges facing charities, including the nature of charity accountability; governance of charities and the role of purpose; regulation of charities; bespoke charity legal vehicles; and reform of charity law and regulation.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation and Presentation (20%), Research Essay (4,000 words) (80%).

Citizenship and Nationality
Audrey Macklin, University of Toronto

The term “citizenship” has many legal facets. Citizenship can denote a status, a package  of rights (and, to a lesser extent, responsibilities), or a set of practices and performances. Inside the state, citizens and non-citizens are created and differentiated by citizenship law, immigration  law, constitutional law and other branches of national law. International law recognizes  the right of each state to determine who are its nationals, but also constrains the  state’s ability to do so and regulates the rights and duties that attach to nationality.  This seminar will explore theoretical and comparative perspectives on the acquisition,  enjoyment and loss of legal citizenship. It will also examine law’s role in honing citizenship’s sociological and political facets. Topics to be discussed may include birthright citizenship, naturalization, dual citizenship, denationalization, non-resident citizen and non-citizen resident voting, the rights of citizens and foreign nationals,  supranational (EU) citizenship, and statelessness.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation (20%): The instructor may assign students specific tasks (brief reaction paper, class presentation), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (80%).

Comparative and Transnational Family Law: Understanding the Global Family
Sharon Shakargy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Family law regulates one of the most significant building blocks of society. It is a dynamic and ever-evolving social framework. The way in which the law regulates the family not only profoundly influences lives but also mirrors the core values of its creators. At the same time, family laws worldwide also demonstrate similar tendencies, influenced by global mobility, international norms (such as human rights), common needs emerging worldwide, and shared histories and influences  (such as the Judeo-Christian paradigm). This course explores the ways in which different legal systems around the globe shape families and individuals’ lives through a comparative lens. The course will discuss marriage and various emerging family forms, child rights, and property distribution across multiple jurisdictions and critically examine the impact of cultural values, religious doctrines, and international human rights norms on family law.

Prior training in family law is not required.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Active class participation (30%), Research paper on a specific case with an oral presentation in class (70%).

Crimmigration
Audrey Macklin, University of Toronto

The term ‘crimmigration’ was coined by Juliet Stumpf in her 2006 article, The Crimmigration Crisis: Immigrants, Crime, and Sovereign Power, 56 Am. U. L. Rev. 367.  Crimmigration describes the nexus between criminal and immigration law and enforcement.  One scholar described it as ‘a new system of social control that draws from both immigration and criminal justice, but is purely neither.’  Although immigration law is a branch of administrative law (like environmental, securities, or labour law), non-citizens have long been subject to negative stereotypes and discourses that encourage a linkage of immigration with crime, as exemplified by the label ‘illegal immigrant.’  This course explores how immigration law increasingly draws on techniques and logics associated with the penal governance, and also how the criminal law has been mobilized to turn breaches of immigration law in criminal offences, thus creating crimes applicable only to non-citizens.  Topics include the production of irregular or ‘illegal’ status, race and the legacy of colonialism, migrant detention, ‘hostile environment’ policies that surveille and stigmatize non-citizens, deportation on grounds of criminaity, counter-terrorism, anti-smuggling, and denationalization.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation (20%): The instructor may assign students specific tasks (brief reaction paper, class presentation), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (80%).

Current Issues in Corporate Governance
Rosemary Langford, University of Melbourne

It is a momentous time in the area of corporate governance, with significant challenges and changes confronting governance paradigms, as well as the potential for important transformations. The focus of this course is on key topics and themes that transcend national boundaries and confront multiple jurisdictions and the international community as a whole. The course first outlines the concept of corporate governance and its core components, as well as central aspects of directors’ duties. It then focuses on key topics and themes such as corporate purpose and corporate voice; sustainability and sustainability reporting (including greenwashing); the contours of the interests of the company and the concept of social licence to operate; cybersecurity; shareholder activism; and regulatory challenges arising from the rapid rise in technology (such as decentralised autonomous organisations and crypto assets).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation and Presentation (20%), Research Essay (4,000 words) (80%).

ONE-PLUS OPTION:

For 1 extra credit, a limited number of students who need to fulfill a graduation requirement at their home university may write a major research paper. To obtain the extra credit, the student must (a) turn in a written outline of the paper for faculty comment relatively early in the semester, and (b) write a paper of 6,000 words, not including footnotes.

Please note that this course has not been approved as a WR course for Georgetown students.

Internet Law
Anupam Chander, Georgetown Law

Almost everything we do, we do at least some aspect of it online. From commerce to speech, internet companies intermediate our daily activities. In the process, internet companies are changing how we live. Is the internet a free speech zone protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, or does it heed hate speech or political speech regulations from abroad? Can copyright law survive the worldwide copying machine of the internet? Is privacy dead when corporations know where you are and what you are doing nearly 24/7? Focusing on U.S. case law and statutes, but also including some European material, this course examines the evolving law regulating internet enterprises.

Required textbook: Anupam Chander, Internet Law: Cases and Materials (5th ed., 2025).

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Attendance and Participation (20%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (80%).

Liability and Insurance
Christian Armbrüster, Free University of Berlin

Life entails liability risks, and this is in particular true for any economic activity. For instance, the user of a car who causes an accident is subject to drivers’ liability, and a car manufacturer incurs the risk of product liability for any defects. Equally a lawyer or a medical doctor who does not meet professional standards will, in principle, have to come up for the damage caused. Managers may be liable for breach of duty towards their employers or shareholders. If guarantees given in an M&A transaction turn out to be wrong this may lead to a claim for compensation by the buyer of the target company.

Nowadays all over the world liability risks are frequently transferred to an insurance company. This risk transfer enables individuals as well as companies to act without constant fear of financial losses (or even ruin) due to their liability for damages. As a side effect it fosters technological innovations.

The course examines, in a comparative perspective, the basic rules of private liability and of liability insurance. As a starting point we will analyse the various scenarios in which liability may occur, along with the principles that govern liability in different legal systems. The course then focusses on the functioning of liability insurance as an instrument of risk transfer, its effectiveness and its limits. Various alternative instruments will be discussed as well, such as compensation funds, captive insurance or the different forms of ATR (alternative risk transfer).

We will benefit from London’s role as a leading centre of the global insurance and reinsurance industry by doing field trips to insurance companies and to law firms that specialise in this important and exciting area of private law.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Active class participation (20%), Visits and external activities (10%), Research paper with oral presentation in class (4,000 words) (70%). 

Miscarriages of Justice
Hannah Quirk, King’s College London

Miscarriages of justice take place in every system and the causes are broadly the same. The risks of their occurrence and the measures taken to mitigate against them vary, but scholarship and practice have been quite insular. This course uses England and Wales as a useful model, as miscarriages of justice have been the drivers of greatest systemic as well as procedural changes to the criminal justice system but some of the examples will be from other jurisdictions and students will be encouraged to reflect upon comparisons with their own legal system.

This course gives an introduction to miscarriages of justice: the contested definitions; some of the causes (such as erroneous eyewitness testimony, false confessions, faulty circumstantial evidence, and prosecutorial excesses); efforts to overturn them; and different mechanisms for dealing with them, such as journalism, individual campaigns, innocence projects and state organisations. It will also examine how miscarriages of justice are treated in popular culture so there will be a suggested programme of novels, films, podcasts and television programmes (including Atonement, Twelve Angry Men, Serial and Making a Murderer.)

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation: a 5-minute presentation to the class about a miscarriage of justice from the student’s own country (10%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (90%).

Private International Law – A Comparative Approach
Christian Armbrüster, Free University of Berlin and Sharon Shakargy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

In any private law case with a connection to more than one country, first of all, the rules of Private International Law come into the picture. These rules belong to national law and thus, while they often follow universally accepted principles, they vary from country to country, unless they have been unified, as it is the case in the EU. Our course aims at presenting and analysing the fundamental rules of Private International Law on a comparative basis. We will explore common principles as well as differences between national rules with a certain – but by no means exclusive – focus on UK and EU law. This will be done by looking at classic ‘landmark cases’ from various jurisdictions as well as modern (and sometimes very unusual) cases where Private International Law has been applied.

The course does not require any prior familiarity with Private International Law but a willingness to explore a wide range of legal areas, from family and succession law to contract, trade and company law to cultural heritage law.

Required textbook: Gilles Cuniberti, Conflict of Laws: A Comparative Approach, Text and Cases, 2nd edition. Also available as an e-book.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Active class participation (30%), Research paper on a specific case with oral presentation in class (4,000 words) (70%).

Comparative Corporate Law
Ernest Lim, National University of Singapore

The course consists of a comparative study of the major areas of corporate law in the Anglo-American, selected EU, and common law Asian jurisdictions. We will examine a series of key problems with which any system of corporate law must deal and we will analyse the solutions that have been adopted by these systems from a theoretical, doctrinal and empirical perspective. This comparative study aims to equip students to critically evaluate the corporate law system in their own jurisdictions. Students will be exposed to the key debates and cutting-edge literature. A basic understanding of corporate law is presupposed.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Class presentation (40%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (40%).

Constitutionalism and Democracy
Alon Harel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

This course examines the legitimacy of constitutionalism. We will examine the legitimacy of constitutions and in particular their interaction with majoritarian and/or democratic sentiments. We will start with the counter-majoritarian difficulty and later investigate ways to overcome it.

Among the questions we ask: can the protection of rights justify limits on the powers of the majority and if so when? Can procedural values such as the protection of majoritarianism justify constitutionalism. In addition to the normative questions, we will also examine different constitutional mechanisms in different countries such as strong and weak judicial review, common law decisions that entrench constitutional statutes, etc.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation and reflection papers (20%), Final paper (80%).

Do We Still Need International Treaties? A Course on Treaty Law
Andrea Spagnolo, University of Torino

In 2016, Sir Frank Berman delivered the inaugural lecture of the Hague Academy of International Law by asking “Why do we need a law of treaties?”

Ten years later, such a question has become crucial, at least from two perspectives.

First, States have made extensive use of informal and secret agreements to regulate particularly sensitive areas of bilateral cooperation: from the economic-financial to the military or the management of migration flows. Second, States still use international treaties to sign peace agreements, to terminate or suspend armed conflicts.

Are informal and secret agreements valid under international law? What characteristics must international agreements possess to be valid and stable? How do peace agreements are negotiated between State and non-State actors? Are they admissible during an armed aggression?

Such questions demonstrate the importance of international treaty law as a factor of stability and certainty in international legal relations. The course intends to propose a study of international law of treaties in the light of the most recent trends, in particular under the two perspectives mentioned above, through the analysis of international practice, both historical and current, and by the critical analysis of the provisions of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties of 1969.

The course is suggested to students particularly interested in international law and international relations.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation, including one class presentation (25%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (75%).

Insurance Law
Özlem Gürses, King’s College London

Some define insurance as a strange product that is not purchased and consumed like a commodity. It is usually out of sight, out of mind, and is remembered only when a risk occurs and the insured suffers a financial loss. It only finds its space in the news headlines when the insurer refuses to pay for the assured’s loss. This usually leads to the perception that insurers collect the premium, but when the insured makes a claim, they do not pay.

This course does not take either the insurer’s or the assured’s side but looks into insurance contracts from an objective, informed person’s point of view. An insurance relationship is contractual and governed by insurance principles, some of which can be classified as ‘too technical.’ Only an insurance specialist can fully comprehend some particular clauses’ role in the insurance contract.  

In this course, we will be reading a number of court cases discussing whether the insurers were liable for the insured, unlike what the insurer had argued in response to the claim. The principles of insurance law are derived from such court cases. In each case, the story will be different; hence, you will learn the diverse types of insurance coverage, how disputes arise, and how courts approach and resolve the matters. By the end of the course, our aim is for you to be able to read and interpret an insurance contract expertly.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (40%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (60%).

International Trade, Investment, Finance and Development and the Institutions Behind Them
Jennifer Hillman, Georgetown Law

This course provides an introduction to the international legal and institutional frameworks that govern economic cooperation among nation states in key areas, including international trade, finance, investment and development. Considerable emphasis will be placed on the institutional dimension of cooperation, with a comparative review of the relevant international organizations (including the WTO, IMF, World Bank and OECD).  The Course will identify the current challenges faced by each of these institutions in an environment where multilateral co-operation, although increasingly urgent, is also increasingly unpopular. The Course will conclude with a focus on cross-cutting issue, including the backlash to globalization and efforts to “decouple” or restrict the flow of capital, goods or technology to certain markets, or to reconfigure global supply chains; the efficacy of “soft law” and “soft institutions,” which are increasingly relied upon in an environment where countries are less inclined to surrender legal sovereignty through the creation of treaty obligations; the impact of economic crime and corruption on economic development and financial stability; and the rise of national security concerns in the international economic law and policy spheres.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation (15%), Class presentation (15%), Final paper (70%).

Navigating Cross-Border Disputes: Jurisdiction, Enforcement, and Strategic Choices
Saloni Khanderia, Jindal Global Law School

As global interconnectedness grows, so too do the frequency and complexity of cross-border disputes. Determining where to bring a claim, how to assess liability, and whether arbitration clauses displace court jurisdiction are pressing challenges. Further complications arise when disputes involve State-owned enterprises in non-market economies like China, raising questions about sovereign immunity and its limits. These issues highlight the urgent need for clear, predictable solutions to support transnational trade and effective dispute resolution.

Approaches to resolving cross-border civil and commercial disputes differ widely between common law and civil law traditions. Civil law jurisdictions such as Japan and South Korea follow the European model, harmonized through instruments like the Brussels I Recast, Rome I, and Rome II Regulations. Common law systems, on the other hand, rely heavily on English precedents, shaped before and after the UK’s EU membership. This divergence has created distinct schools of thought with significant impact on litigation outcomes.

In response to investor concerns and the complexities of transnational litigation, especially regarding enforceability, sovereign immunity, and forum multiplicity, many jurisdictions (e.g., China, Dubai, UK, France, Cyprus and, more recently, Germany) have established commercial courts with tailored procedures for high-value international disputes. While litigation is often less favored than arbitration, these specialized courts seek to streamline processes and build confidence in judicial resolution of international commercial claims.

Set against this evolving backdrop, this course, Navigating Cross-Border Disputes: Jurisdiction, Enforcement, and Strategic Choices offers students a comparative, practice-oriented foundation in private international law. Key topics include court jurisdiction, applicable law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments. The course aims to prepare students to strategically select between arbitration and litigation, informed by a nuanced understanding of different legal systems.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (15%), Written Submission to a Moot Problem (35%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

Populism and Law
Alon Harel, Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Populism as an ideology and practice relies on ‘the will of the people.’ It has become a constant feature of the legal and political landscape: all around the world, populist governments not only endorse populist policies but also transform the constitutional framework of their countries. In this course, we will examine legal populism in time – that is to say, the emergence and decline of populist regimes, the way they establish themselves in power, and also their demise and the long-term consequences on the legal and constitutional sphere. In particular, we focus on the relationship between populism and the legal foundations of the state. Since populist movements have significantly influenced politics over the last decades, there is by now a wealth of evidence concerning the ways populism operates, the circumstances in which it develops, the techniques it utilizes to entrench itself in power, and the legacy it leaves behind once it disappears.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class Participation and Reflection Papers (20%), Final Paper (80%).

The Institutions and Domestic Laws of the European Union
Giovanni Gruni, ESADE Law School

The European Union (EU) is a family of liberal democratic countries, acting collectively through an institutionalized system of decision-making. The EU was set up as a consequence of the negative experiences of the founding member states during and in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War. The objective of peace went hand in hand with a desire to ensure that Europe was able to get back on its feet economically after 1945. Although the EU has changed dramatically since the early days of the Community, growth and employment remain at the top of the EU’s agenda. This course will review in depth the origins, evolution and current challenges of the European integration project. The course will focus specifically on the institutional laws of the EU, its core legal concepts and principles as well as the rules on the EU internal market and other core areas of domestic EU laws.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Final presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (50%).

The Law of International Institutions in Times of Crisis
Andrea Spagnolo, University of Torino

The idea for this course stems from a research question: do States still consider the method of multilateralism as an effective tool for regulating their international affairs?

To answer this question, it is necessary to study the foundations of the law of international organizations, both in the general and in the specific part.

The course therefore intends to offer the possibility of carrying out this study through the critical analysis of the main principles of international law applicable to international organizations and an analysis of the prospects for reform of the most important international institution, the United Nations, in particular of the Security Council.

The course is suggested to students particularly interested in international law and international relations.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Attendance and class participation, including one class presentation (25%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (75%).

Topics in Transnational Legal Theory
Catherine Valcke, University of Toronto

The present, globalized world offers great challenges for classic legal thought. Increased awareness and understanding of legal plurality – in terms of rules, forms of reasoning, legal cultures and central actors – indeed poses challenges to both the possibility and desirability of endeavouring to explain all world law through a single model. This course explores a number of topics frequently encountered by transnational legal actors – legal harmonization, legal transplants and imperialism, legal formants and sociological jurisprudence, legal philosophy and comparative jurisprudence, indigenous and religious legal orderings, ‘soft’ or non-state governance, the role of AI in transnational encounters, transnational legal education, etc. – with a view to honing our grasp of transnational governance and giving shape to something that might deserve to be described as “transnational legal thought”. Particular attention will be placed on the discipline and methods of comparative law that have traditionally been deployed to tackle such issues as the epistemological hurdles involved in understanding foreign law and actors, the value of the concept of ‘legal systems’ and their delineation, the object of comparative law and transnational legal theory, and the role and ethos of transnational legal actors (whether citizens, lawyers or officials). The course will be based on a close reading and collective discussion of a limited number of texts pertaining to these various issues; it will not be a survey course. In addition to student presentations (see ‘Evaluation’ below), some outside speakers will be invited to present to the class on topics falling in their field of expertise.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (15%), Class Presentation (35%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

Transnational Contract Law
Saloni Khanderia, Jindal Global Law School and Catherine Valcke, University of Toronto

In an increasingly interconnected world, contracts rarely stay within borders. Whether it’s a global partnership or a one-time international deal, today’s contracts often involve parties from different countries, operating under different legal systems. But what happens when something goes wrong? Which court gets to decide the dispute? Which country’s law applies? And how can you be sure a judgment or arbitration award will actually be enforced? This course tackles those questions head-on by combining comparative contract law and private international law to give you the tools to navigate international commercial relationships with confidence.

Part I of the course dives into the fundamentals of contract law in different legal traditions, focusing on English common law and French civil law. These two systems represent opposite ends of the legal spectrum, with one rooted in precedent and pragmatism, the other in codification and principle. Understanding how they differ (and overlap) will give you a strong foundation for working with contracts across legal borders.

But comparing legal systems is only the beginning. Part II shifts focus to private international law, the set of rules that help courts decide which law applies, where cases should be heard, and how decisions can be enforced internationally. This part explores how deep differences in contract law can lead to very different outcomes in the same dispute, depending on where and how it’s litigated. Specifically, it explores the different traditions that have shaped modern conflict-of-law rules, and how efforts to harmonise them through treaties, model laws, and international conventions are building bridges between divergent systems while still respecting national sovereignty and cultural differences.

This 3-credit course on Transnational Contract Law is ideal for students interested in international commercial law, arbitration, or cross-border litigation. It offers a rigorous, practice-oriented foundation for those seeking to engage with the legal complexities of today’s global marketplace.

3 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (15%), Class Presentation (35%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (50%).

World Trade Law
Giovanni Gruni, ESADE Law School

World trade law is the body of international laws underpinning international economic exchanges between States. From an embryonic system of rules created after World War II to deal mainly with customs duties on goods, world trade law blossomed into an extensive apparatus of norms including not only free movement of goods and services but also intellectual property rights, food safety, public intervention into the economy and many other areas of regulation. Notably, world trade law is endowed with an exceptionally efficient dispute settlement mechanism, the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which distinguishes itself for its automatic jurisdiction on all matters related to WTO covered agreements. The WTO itself is a complex international organisation created in 1995 which is playing a pivotal role in shaping the rules and policies governing globalisation. In addition to the WTO a complex web of free trade agreements (FTAs) creates one of most developed bodies of norms known to public international law.

This course is an introduction to world trade law in all its substantive, procedural and institutional elements. The course starts with an overview of the history of world trade law since the end of World War II to the creation of the WTO and the emergence of FTAs. The course then delves into the details of WTO institutional design and of selected areas of WTO law and practice: the GATT and free movement of goods, the GATS and free movement of services, Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS). The courses then focuses on new challenges to world trade law created by the need to protect the environment and social rights, its institutional crisis and the utilization of FTAs as regulatory alternative to the WTO. The last part of the course will explain how the European Union and United States influence the development of world trade law via their international trade policy.

2 Credits. Evaluation: Class participation (20%), Final presentation (30%), Final take-home exam (8 hours) (2,500 words) (50%).