2012 Course Descriptions

Globalization of the Family

The modern family is globalized. More and more, spouses come from different countries, have children in different countries, and have property in different countries. At the same time, family law remains an area with strong substantive and normative differences among countries and cultures. Moreover, globalization leads to the creation of communities of cultural minorities within nation states that demand legal autonomy over their family matters. Taken together, these phenomena pose unique challenges to the law. This course will address a number of issues in which globalization plays a role, such as marriage tourism, polygamous marriage, marriage and acquisition of citizenship, religious family law tribunals, and custody disputes across borders. It will address questions of comparative law, conflict of laws, and substantive family law. Students need no background in any of these disciplines, however, as the relevant doctrinal questions will be explained. The course thus serves as an introduction both to family law and to law and globalization.

TAUGHT BY MICHAELS AND HACKER
(2 semester-hours of credit)

International Insolvency: Countries and Companies

The first term of this course will focus on the insolvency of sovereign states and quasi sovereigns (like state owned entities or regions). This is a particularly timely issue given the sovereign debt crisis in the Eurozone that is ongoing. The second half of term one will be spent examining the cross-border issues that have arisen in that context. The first half of term one will provide some historical background by examining state insolvencies and the mechanisms used to solve them (or prevent them) starting in the early 1800s and going up the 1990s. The second term of the course will address cross-border aspects of insolvency law and Chinese bankruptcy law and its operation in practice. Basic characteristics, the principles, and the practice of cross-border insolvency will be presented in a comparative perspective. Recent developments to unify the proceedings of international insolvencies, including but not limited to the UNCITRAL Model Law on Cross-Border Insolvency, the European Union Insolvency Convention, and the American Law Institute and International Insolvency Institute Global Principles for Cooperation in International Insolvency Cases will be discussed. Also highlighted will be how China has been dealing with cross-border insolvency issues.

TAUGHT BY GULATI AND SHI
(2 semester-hours of credit)

Introduction to American Law

This course will provide a broad introduction to key elements of American law. The first term will introduce students to some of the building blocks of the law governing American business transactions, particularly the law of contracts and business associations. Written materials, in-class simulations and exercises, video, and other sources will be used to explore these concepts. We will also examine the depiction in popular culture (for example, movies and television) of American business and the law governing it. The second term will examine distinctive aspects of the U.S. court system and the rules and procedures governing the resolution of civil lawsuits. We will consider the division of authority between federal and state systems, the process through which litigants acquire information, the civil jury, and alternative dispute resolution systems. The second term will also explore landmark decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court and will offer a brief introduction to U.S. constitutional and statutory law with particular focus on anti-discrimination law. Topics will include racial equality (Brown v. Board of Education); affirmative action (Grutter v. Bollinger); the death penalty (McCleskey v. Kemp and Furman v. Georgia); and laws prohibiting employment discrimination (Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964).

TAUGHT BY KRAWIEC AND JONES
(2 semester-hours of credit)

Police, Prosecutors, and Organized Crime

The first term of this course will examine organized crime from the perspective of it being a social and legal construct and how it is studied and responded to by various governments. The understanding of what is or is not organized crime has evolved over the years and each change has resulted in varying government and policing responses. The course will trace the evolving approaches to both our understanding of what organized crime is, and the legislative and policing strategies that attempt to target what was seen to be organized crime at each period. Four key transformations in how societies have viewed organized crime will be examined: 1) when the Mafia families in the U.S. were seen as the only groups that qualified under the organized crime heading (the US RICO model of legislation and enforcement strategies flowed from this view); 2) when the existence of many other organized crime groups were acknowledged, even though there remained a belief in rigid, structured operations (i.e., organized crime groups in China, Japan, Jamaica, etc.); 3) when an awareness arose that many operations are far less structured - loose, fluid networks rather than strict membership operations; and 4)when “enablers” became involved in transnational organized crime operations (i.e., the role of technology, global markets, and the global focus on money laundering and terrorist financing). The second term of the course will examine how public perceptions of crime increasingly involve the illegal activities of corporations. An interesting feature of corporate scandals – at least in the Asian context – has been the close links that have often been revealed between corporate wrongdoing and organized crime. The class will, therefore, focus on how the influence of organized crime has extended into various areas of Japanese business culture, as well as some of the regulatory challenges posed by this phenomenon. Although this term of the course will focus on the Japanese experience, the issues raised are of universal importance. In particular, the class will explore the suggestion that the activities of organized crime groups within Japanese corporate culture represent an – albeit illicit – entrepreneurial response to inefficiencies in the regulatory framework supplied by the state. As such, the class will explore some of the limits of a crime control approach to organized crime and consider alternative approaches that advocate institutional building and the development of more effective rights-enforcement regimes.

TAUGHT BY BEARE AND FENWICK
(2 semester-hours of credit)

Trade Law Behind Borders: The Relationship of Domestic Law to WTO Law

The first term of this course will discuss how domestic laws and regulations of a Member are implicated in the interpretation of the WTO Agreements and in the implementation of the obligation as a Member of the WTO. Class discussions will include a study of how domestic laws and regulations are addressed, interpreted, and applied in the WTO dispute settlement proceeding, based on relevant jurisprudence established by the WTO precedents. The interaction between national sovereignty and the obligation as a Member of the WTO will also be examined. Case studies will be conducted to illustrate the entire cycle of a domestic law in the WTO regime – i.e., enactment of a law, complaint by another Member, review by the WTO panel and the Appellate Body, implementation, compliance dispute, and retaliation. The second term of the course is designed to help students gain a critical understanding of the interaction between international trade rules and domestic legislation through a study of selected behind-borders trade issues. Issues to be discussed will include WTO rules governing domestic regulations for trade in goods (especially the National Treatment obligation under the GATT); room for regulatory autonomy (general exceptions clause); and domestic regulation issues in trade in services. Illustrations will be provided using actual cases from the region.

TAUGHT BY LEE AND GAO
(2 semester-hours of credit)

Wrongdoing and the Recovery and Distribution of Assets

This course will explore the processes for individuals, corporations, and states to obtain and distribute assets from solvent wrongdoers. Examples of compensable wrongdoing include mass torts, criminal activity by states, corporations, or individuals, and acts of war. The mechanisms for recovering assets include tort law, the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC), domestic legislation, and varieties of mutual legal assistance. Various forms of alternative dispute resolution and aggregate litigation as well as national and international political processes will be discussed. There will also be an emphasis on the theory and mechanisms for the distribution of assets via private, public, and international entities such as the United Nations Compensation Commission, claims resolution facilities, bankruptcy trusts, class action settlements, and informal group resolution.

TAUGHT BY McGOVERN AND YOUNG
(2 semester-hours of credit)

"Being in Hong Kong was an extremely stimulating experience. With the Asian economy still going strong amidst the Global Financial Crisis, it was hard not to get excited just by the dynamic environment of the city, where so many major international deals of the region are executed. The Institute itself was a great experience and in many ways helped me recognize the link between law school and the practice of law. My classes were both timely and practical. However, what I most valued was the opportunity to get to know both my classmates and my professors in a way that is not possible during the regular school year. Living in Robert Black College, which is small enough to create a very familial atmosphere, lent itself to forming genuine bonds with classmates and professors that I will continue to value for a very long time." — Vivian Chow, participant from Duke Law School