Global Law Workshop
A year-round workshop on international and comparative law sponsored by the Center for International & Comparative Law and convened by Professor Ralf Michaels along with other Duke faculty, the Global Law Workshop offers an exciting opportunity for the Duke Law School community to engage in current issues in international and comparative law. Law and the legal process can no longer be contained within national borders. As much as today's challenges cross national boundaries--be they environmental, security-related, or economic issues--so do law and the study of law, by becoming increasingly global.
The workshop meets seven or eight times during both semesters. Prominent legal scholars present their latest work in the field of international or comparative law. Although there is always a variety of topics, each semester is held together by a loose theme. In the fall of 2007, that theme was "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Comparative Law." In the spring of 2008, the theme was "Comparing Institutions." In the fall of 2008, it was "International Finance, Law, and Development," and in the spring semester of 2009, it is "Comparative Corporate Law & Governance." Professor Deborah DeMott is the co-convener of the workshop in the spring of 2009.
The workshop is unique in that it is run, and regularly attended, by Duke and UNC faculty active in the field. This offers students a great opportunity to meet and hear a number of faculty, and fascinating guest speakers, in one single class.
In addition, the workshop is open to Duke's burgeoning SJD and visiting scholars community, most of whom have an international focus. For both JDs and LLMs this offers a unique venue to interact with more advanced students and professionals.
Schedule
Spring Semester 2009
Comparative Corporate Law & Governance
Monday, 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Room 4042
(Unless otherwise noted below.)
| Date | Speaker | Title/Topic |
|---|---|---|
| January 12 | Introductory Session | |
| January 26 | Bernard S. Black University of Texas at Austin School of Law |
How Corporate Governance Affects Firm Value: Evidence on Channels from Korea |
| February 25 Wednesday 12:00-1:15pm Room 4055 |
Peter Gourevitch University of California, San Diego School of International Relations and Pacific Studies |
Monitoring the Monitors: Evaluating Performance of NGOs' Measurement of Ethical Standards, Transnational and Domestic |
| March 16 | Leonard Rotman University of Windsor, Canada Faculty of Law |
The End of History of Corporate Law or History Repeating? A Comparative Perspective |
| March 23 | Richard M. Buxbaum University of California, Berkeley School of Law / Boalt Hall |
Will There Be a European Delaware? Comparative Constitutional Law and Corporate Mobility |
| March 30 | Christine Windbichler Humboldt University Berlin School of Law |
The Information Regime in Corporate Governance |
| April 13 | Jennifer Hill University of Sydney Law School, Australia Visiting Spring 2009, Vanderbilt University Law School |
The Structural Requirement of Independent Financial Oversight: A Comparative Analysis |
| April 20 | Wrap-up Session |
Attendance
There are 8 sessions this semester. The first session is designed to introduce students to the theme of the semester, and to review techniques for writing reaction papers. The last meeting is a wrap-up session. Please take note that one of the speakers (Peter Gourevitch) will present at noon on a Wednesday. All other sessions are at the regular day and time (Monday, 4:30 - 6:00).
Workshop attendance is mandatory. In an exceptional case when you cannot attend, please send an email to the workshop conveners Professor Michaels and Professor DeMott the day before class with an explanation. A reaction paper must be written for a workshop that you have had to miss.
Laptops will be banned from all speaker sessions, but will be allowed in the two sessions without speakers.
Paper Submission, Presentation, and Questions
The paper upon which the speaker will base his/her talk will be sent out one week in advance. In the workshop, the speaker will introduce the paper for approximately 30 minutes; the remaining time is reserved for a Q and A session. Attendees are encouraged to bring questions to the workshop, including those they raise in their reaction papers.
Evaluation
Evaluation is based on class participation (20%) and reaction papers (80%). There is no final examination.
Reaction Papers
Each student must submit a reaction paper for each of the six speaker sessions. You must submit a paper even if you have had to miss a session. Your reaction papers should be about 3-5 pages in length. You should not summarize the paper. Nor should you feel you have to react to everything in the paper. Instead, pick one or several points that strike you as especially interesting, and write about them. This is not a research paper, so you should not have to engage in research, nor should you use any footnotes or references (except, where necessary, to the paper). Instead, you should engage with the argument of the paper. Possible questions include these: Is the argument successful? Are the assumptions plausible? Are alternative explanations conceivable? What are implications of this research or these findings? How does this relate to other papers we have seen? What other research could be inspired by this paper? Etc. Please note you do not have to criticize the author--you should feel free to do so, but you should not feel obliged. What is most important is that you make your arguments as close to the paper as you can. Do not start discussing things only loosely related to the paper--address the argument the author him/herself makes.
Reaction papers should be forwarded, as word documents, to Neylân Gürel with cc to Professor Michaels and Professor DeMott no later than 11:00 pm on Sunday, the day before the workshop. (We will deduct points for papers that are late.) Please put your name on the paper. Please name the document with the speaker's name followed by an underscore and your name. For example, if your name is Miller and you comment on a paper by Black, your document should be named Black_Miller.doc. Please use, as subject line for the e-mail, the following model: "Black reaction paper Miller"
Reaction papers will be returned to students with a preliminary grade after the workshop. This ensures some feedback on your work. Papers will be graded either as "check plus," "check," or "check-minus." Once submitted, papers are final and cannot be corrected / improved.
We look forward to an exciting class. We have what we think is an excellent list of speakers lined up, and we are sure we all will learn a lot.
Deborah DeMott
Ralf Michaels
