PUBLISHED:April 20, 2010

Global Law Workshop

A workshop on international and comparative law sponsored by the Center for International & Comparative Law, 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 the semester. 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.

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 the Fall 2009, Professors Bradley, Helfer, and DeMott, co-taught "Transnational Regulation of Stolen Art and Cultural Property." The workshop focused on disputes relating to the ownership and recovery of art and cultural property, ranging from Nazi era expropriations to long-standing debates about the presence of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum. Students examined in detail a set of international treaties and aspects of their implementation by statute in the United States, as well as cases in which a foreign state or its agency is the defendant in U.S. litigation. There are no prerequisites. Grades are based on a final exam and on class participation. 1 credit.

Classes were held on the following Wednesdays: Oct. 7, Oct. 21, Oct. 28, Nov. 4, Nov. 11, and Nov. 18.

The theme of the Spring 2010 Global Law Workshop, co-taught by Professors Bradley and Helfer, was "The Law and Politics of International Cooperation." The workshop centered around works in progress, presented by leading scholars of international law and international relations theory. Interested students and faculty are welcome to attend. Please contact Erin Daniel at daniel@law.duke.edu if you would like to receive a copy of the papers. The schedule for the workshop is as follows:

  • February 1 - Monica Hakimi
    Michigan Law School
    Title: "State Bystander Responsibility"
  • February 22 - Karen Alter
    Northwestern Political Science
    Title: "The New Terrain of International Law: International Courts in International Politics"
  • March 22 - Andrew Guzman
    Berkeley Law School
    Title: "Explaining Soft Law"
  • March 29 - Eric Posner
    Chicago Law School
    Title: "Foreign Affairs Legalism: A Critique"
  • April 12 - Tom Ginsburg
    Chicago Law School
    Title: "Constitutional Convergence? The Reciprocal Relationship between Constitutions and Human Rights Treaties"
  • April 19 - Barbara Koremenos
    Michigan Political Science
    Title: " An Economic Analysis of International Rulemaking"
 

Past workshops

Spring 2009 - Ralf Michaels / Deborah Demott

Theme: International Finance, Law and Development

  • Bernard Black (University of Texas at Austin School of Law)
    How Corporate Governance Affects Firm Value: Evidence on Channels from Korea
    January 26
  • Peter Gourevitch (University of California at San Diego, School of International Relations and Pacific Studies)
    Monitoring the Monitors: Evaluating Performance of NGOs’ Measurement of Ethical Standards, Transnational and Domestic
    February 25
  • Leonard Rotman (University of Windsor, Faculty of Law)
    The End of History of Corporate Law or History Repeating? A Comparative Perspective
    March 16
  • Richard Buxbaum (University of California Berkeley, School of Law)
    Will There Be a European Delaware? Comparative Constitutional Law and Corporate Mobility
    March 23
  • Christine Windbichler (Humboldt University, Berlin, Faculty of Law; CICL Scholar 2008-09)
    The Information Regime in Corporate Governance
    March 30
  • Jennifer Hill (Sydney Law School)
    Selective Regulation: Lessons from the News Corp. Waivers
    April 13

Fall 2008 - Ralf Michaels / Mitu Gulati

Theme: International Finance, Law and Development

  • W. Mark C. Weidemaier (UNC School of Law)
    Disputing Boilerplate: Arbitration Clauses in International Debt Contracts
    September 8
  • Gregory Shaffer (University of Minnesota Law School)
    International Trade and Finance
    September 15
  • J. Mark Ramseyer (Harvard Law School)
    Insurance Markets in Japan
    October 3(jointly as Faculty workshop)
  • Anna Gelpern (Rutgers School of Law, Newark)
    The Global Mortgage Finance Crisis
    October 6
  • Christine Windbichler (Humboldt University of Berlin, Faculty of Law; CICL Scholar 2008-09)
    The Structural Requirement of Independent Financial Oversight: A Comparative Analysis
    October 27
  • Amy Cohen (Ohio State University, Moritz College of Law)
    Nepal and Involvement of NGOs in Local Development and Finance
    November 3
  • Dania Thomas (Keele University School of Law)
    The Argentine Financial Crisis and the Aftermath: Focus on Gender Empowerment via Local Cooperatives
    November 10

Spring 2008 - Ralf Michaels

Theme: Comparing Institutions

  • Martin Shapiro (University of California Berkeley School of Law)
    Independent Agencies in the EU and Globally
    February 1
  • Gregory S. Alexander (Cornell Law School)
    Can Constitutions be Transformative? The Role of Background Traditions and Culture
    February 15
  • Amalia D. Kessler (Stanford Law School)
    The Adversarial Principle of US Procedure: Why did Antebellum America Not Adopt European Conciliation Courts?
    February 22
  • Russell A. Miller (Washington & Lee University School of Law)
    Comparative Law in the Era of Global Terrorism: A Case Study of Germany's Militant Democracy
    February 29
  • Eric A. Feldman (University of Pennsylvania Law School)
    Suing Doctors in Japan: Structure, Culture, and the Rise of Malpractice Litigation
    March 21

Fall 2007 - Ralf Michaels / Francesca Bignami

  • Susan Rose-Ackerman (Yale Law School)
    Treaties & National Security
    October 5
  • Ceren Belge (University of Washington, Department of Political Science)
    Between Kinship & the Law: Honor Killings in Eastern Turkey
    October 19
  • Antony Anghie (University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law)
    The League of Nations Mandate System, Imperialism, & International Law
    October 26
  • Lisa Hilbink (University of Minnesota, Department of Political Science)
    Judges Beyond Politics in Democracy & Dictatorship: Lessons from Chile
    November 2
  • Lawrence Rosen (Princeton University, Department of Anthropology)
    Defending Culture: The Cultural Defense Plea & the Law’s Concept of Culture
    November 16

Spring 2007 - Ralf Michaels / Curtis Bradley

  • James Q. Whitman (Yale Law School)
    Consumerism versus Producerism: On the Global Threat of "Consumerism" and the Mission of Comparative Law
    January 19
  • Benedict Kingsbury (New York University School of Law)
    Global Environmental Governance as Administration
    February 2
  • Hannah Buxbaum (Indiana University Bloomington, Maurer School of Law)
    Global Class Actions Under U.S. Securities Law
    March 2
  • Dan Bodansky (University of Georgia School of Law)
    Non-Treaty Sources of International Environmental Law
    March 9
  • Tim Wu (Columbia Law School)
    China's Network Justice
    March 23
  • Benjamin Liebman (Columbia University Law School)
    China's Courts: Restricted Reform
    April 13

Fall 2006 - Joost Pauwelyn / Curtis Bradley

  • Carlos Vázquez (Georgetown University Law Center)
    The Story of Foster v. Nielson
    September 8
  • Alan Sykes (Stanford Law School)
    September 22
  • Mark Tushnet (Harvard Law School)
    October 27
  • Zhu Suli (Peking University Law School)
    November 3
  • Rosa Brooks (Georgetown University Law Center)
    November 17
  • Luc Thévenoz (University of Geneva Faculty of Law)
    December 1

Spring 2006 - Joost Pauwelyn / Curtis Bradley

  • Gregory Fox (Wayne State University Law School)
    The Occupation of Iraq
    January 13
  • Fernando Teson (Florida State Univerity College of Law)
    Global Justice, Socio Economic Rights and Trade: A Case of Discourse Failure
    January 27
  • Carol Harlow (London School of Economics, Department of Law)
    EU Governance and Global Administrative Law
    February 10
  • Jack Goldsmith (Harvard Law School)
    Author of: The Limits of International Law
    February 17
  • Andrew Guzman (University of California Berkeley School of Law)
    Working on, inter alia, Compliance and International Law and the determinants of child labor
    March 3
  • William Alford (Harvard)
    Chinese law expert
    March 28

Fall 2005 – Joost Pauwelyn

  • Laurence Helfer (Vanderbilt University Law School)
    Exiting Treaties
    September 2
  • David Caron (University of California Berkeley School of Law)
    A Political Theory of International Courts and Tribunals
    September 30
  • Charles Norchi (Harvard Law School)
    Human Rights
    October 21
  • Simon Chesterman (New York University School of Law)
    Intelligence and International Law
    November 4
  • Eric Posner (University of Chicago Law School)
    Microfoundations of International Law
    November 11
  • Hans Ullrich (European University Institute, Florence)
    National Intellectual Property Protection and Regional Economic Integration
    November 18