Semester in Oxford Program

2010 Academic Program

Comparative Employment Discrimination Law (3 credits)
taught by Ohio State professor L. Camille Hébert

This course explores selected topics of employment discrimination from a comparative perspective, examining the approaches taken by the United States, Canada, England and other countries. Topics to be covered will include: gender discrimination, including pregnancy discrimination and sexual harassment; sexual orientation discrimination; race discrimination; and disability discrimination.

Comparative Dispute Resolution (3 credits)
taught by Ohio State professor L. Camille Hébert

This course will explore the methods by which disputes, particularly employment disputes, are resolved in the United States and in other countries, including England and other European countries. The course will focus on the advantages and disadvantages of litigation, forms of alternative dispute resolution, and administrative tribunals used extensively in other countries.

Legal Processes (3 credits)
taught by Oxford Professor Keith Hawkins

The purpose of this course is to give students an understanding of the law in action. Accordingly, the course will not so much teach students law as teach students about law, exploring various aspects of how legal rules operate. The substantive focus will be mostly on criminal justice and public law, although civil law will not be neglected since there are important parallels to be drawn, for example, in the handling of civil disputes and pre-trial bargaining in criminal cases. Study materials will be drawn from both U.S. and U.K. sources. The areas and questions to be covered will include: how social problems are transformed and created into potentially legal cases; how law is enforced; how cases are handled by legal bureaucracies and lawyers; how cases are disposed of, including pre-trial bargaining and settling out of court; the role of courts and adjudication; and alternative forms of handling disputes.

One student described this course as follows:

Throughout law school we study cases that are actually litigated, but this only accounts for 3% or 4% of the cases that are filed. Everything else gets weeded out, and we finally have a chance to see how they are weeded out in this class. It provides students with a different perspective and teaches us a different way of looking at the legal system. Rather than focus on a question for which a trial will provide a legal answer, this classes focuses on the matter in which the social dispute is transformed into a legal question. The class demonstrates that the legal answer does not necessarily provide a social resolution to the dispute. This might be evident once someone says it, but it is not something that students often think about, and we should.

In addition to the two 75-minute class meetings per week, there will be a visit to the Oxford Crown Court or to the Magistrates' Courts in the city (possibly to both). The Magistrates' Courts are important because all criminal cases (as well as some others) that arise in the Oxford area are brought in that judicial forum.

Supervised Research Tutorial (3 credits)

This course is modeled on the format of the justly renowned Oxford tutorial. Each tutor will meet periodically with a small number of students. Meetings will be devoted to planning or revising the students' individual research papers, to be completed by the end of the semester. Law students will participate in groups of 3 or 4 with their individual tutors (professors). Listed below are the six Oxford professors who are currently supervising research tutorials, their general subject areas, and some of the research and writing projects prepared under their guidance in 2006 through 2009.

Professor Nicholas Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law
(Topics from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)

• Human Rights Violations and the Responsibilities and Liabilities of States and Multi-National Corporations
• Striking a Balance: A Comparative Analysis of Protections for Both Individuals and Police in the U.S., England, and the E.U.Broadcasting Freedom in the United States and the UK
• Legal Rights Afforded to War on Terror Detainees in the US and UK
• The Court and Aspirational Prudence: The Law’s Promise, Democracy and Rights
• Same-Sex Marriage in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Going Too Far?: Comparative Legal Frameworks on the Use of Torture in the United Kingdom and the United States
• Xenuphobia: Scientology in Europe
• Veiled Parallels: A Comparison of Sex Offender Legislation in American States and Signatory States to the European Convention on Human Rights
• The Margin of Appreciation and the Principle of Subsidiarity: Transforming the Political Into Legal?
• The Right to One’s Body: UK Human Rights Law as Sexual Discourse
• The Ebb and Flow of the Right to Liberty During Times of Terrorism in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Assisted Reproductive Technology: Legal Responses to Technological Change in the UK and the US

Professor Anne Davies: Comparative Labor and Employment Law and Administrative Law (Topics from 2007, 2008, 2009)

• Genetic Discrimination in the Workplace
• A Comparative Study of Redundancy/Layoff Laws
• Labor Issues in Regional Trade Agreements: Comparing the EU and NAFTA/NAALC
  Privacy and the Media: A Comparison of Laws in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Protection for Freedom of Religion in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Who Wins? Freedom of Political Expression in the Workplace: Determining the Scope of Such a Right in the United States and the United Kingdom
• I’d Rather Be Gay in the UK: A Comparative Look at the Treatment of Sexual Orientation in the American Workplace
• A Return to Reason: The Duty to Make Reasonable Accommodation in the United States
• The Public Interest Disclosure Act v. the Notification and Federal Employee Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002: Comparing Whistleblower Protections for American and English Government Workers
• Who is in Charge of Your Genetic Information?  Is it You or Your Employer? A Comparative Study of Employment Genetic Discrimination in the U.S. and the U.K.

Professor Elizabeth Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation, Environmental Law and Regulatory Subjects
(Topics from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009)

• Promotion of Collaborative Approaches Between Industry, Citizens, and Government in EU and US Risk Regulation
• A Comparison of US and UK Regulatory Strategies Concerning Contaminated Land
• A Comparison of the Ability of States in the US and EU to Take Measures in Circumstances of Scientific Uncertainty When it Infringes the Dormant Commerce Clause/Article 28
• Trading Spaces: the United States and United Kingdom’s Approaches to Ergonomic Injuries
• A Smoking Look at Federalism: Public Smoking Regulation in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Anti-Money Laundering Regimes: A Functional Approach to the Rise of Money Laundering in the United States and the U.K.
• The Proposed GE/Honeywell Merger: Explanations for the Disparate U.S. and EU Decisions Despite Similar Substantive Law
• Regulating a Toxic Legacy: How Perceived Risk Influences the Regulatory Framework of PCB Regulation: An Historical Comparison of the U.S. and Canada
• A Tall Order: A Sensible Approach to Short Selling Regulation in the United States and the United Kingdom
• What are the Challenges Involved in Comparing Risk Regulation Between the United States and the European Union?
• The Effect of Differences in Government Structure and Legal Cultures on the Use of Regulatory Impact Assessments in the United States and the United Kingdom
• The Evolving Treatment of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures in the World Trade Organization: Moving from Nondiscrimination Norms to Scientific Justifications

Professor Lucia Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice
(Topics from 2006, 2007, 2008. 2009)

• Comparing Recourse to Incarceration by the Penal Systems in the US and UK
• The Role of the Jury in Criminal Trials in the US and UK
• The Comparative Effectiveness of Treatment Programs for Offenders in Reducing Recidivism in the US and UK
• Terror’s Triumph Over the Right to Privacy: A Comparison Between United States and United Kingdom Government Surveillance Policy and Law
• The Death Penalty and International Law–Comparing Approaches in the United States and the United Kingdom
• International Terrorism: War or Crime?  Why the “War on Terror” is Conceptually Flawed
• Comparison Issues in Insanity Defense Jurisprudence
• Influence of Penal Philosophy on Prison Architecture: A US/UK Comparison
• Suicide in Prisons: A US/UK Comparison
• Forensic Science and the Criminal Defendant
• Preemption and Punishment: A Comparative Study of White Collar Crime Prosecution in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Anti-Terrorism Legilation in the United Kingdom and United States: The Expansion of Inchoate Offenses and the Repression of Civil Liberties
• Nothing to Hide, Nothing to Fear: A Comparative Study of the Development and Operation of CCTV Systems in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany

Professor James Edelman: Contract Law, Torts, Equity, and Remedies
(Topics from 2007 and 2008)

• Exemption Clauses for Breach of Trust from a Comparative Perspective
• Conflicting Libel Laws and the Problems Created by Forum-Shopping by Plaintiffs Choosing to Sue in the Most Favorable Jurisdiction
• The Treatment of the Business Judgment Rule From a Comparative Perspective
• Ending Judicial Abuse of Substantive Unconscionability: An Argument for U.S. Legislation Tracking U.K. Legislation
• A Comparative Study of Trademark Law in the United States and England
• The Special Case of Severability

Professor Cathryn Costello: European Union Law
(new to program in 2010)