Semester in Oxford Program

Academic Program Archive

Courses and professors change from year-to-year. The following is an archive of the courses that have been offered, along with the professors who taught them. An asterisk (*) denotes the program director for each year.

2009 Academic Program

International Intellectual Property (3 credits)
taught by Georgia professor Paul Heald

This course will explore the principles and policies supporting the international protection of intellectual property rights, as well as the sources of these rights. We will focus on the international treaty arrangements for copyright, patent, and trademark protection, as well as on questions of enforcement, jurisdiction, and choice of law. The course will also examine the function of international intellectual property organizations, recent developments in the European Union, and issues relating to establishing and enforcing intellectual property rights in less developed nations. No background in science, engineering, or international law is required for this course.

International Trade Laws (3 credits)
taught by Georgia professor Paul Heald

Study of international institutions (WTO, EU, WIPO, ICC, etc.), treaties (GATT, NAFTA, Warsaw Convention, COGSA, etc.), and statutes (CISG, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, various implementation acts, etc.) relevant to the movement of goods, services, capital, and technology around the world.

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.

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 and 2007.

• Professor Nicholas Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law
• Professor Anne Davies: Comparative Labor and Employment Law & Administrative Law
• Professor James Edelman: Contract Law, Torts, Equity and Remedies
• Professor Elizabeth Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation, Environmental Law and Regulatory Subjects
• Professor Stefan Talmon: International Law in International Affairs and Other International Law Topics
• Professor Lucia Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice

2008 Academic Program

International Arbitration (3 credits)
taught by Moritz professor Ellen Deason *

This course will explore arbitration as a means to resolve international and transnational disputes. We will focus primarily on commercial arbitration, but will also consider state-to-state arbitration. The course will examine arbitral procedures and the governing law, which is developing through the interaction of private contractual ordering, national law, and international treaties. Specific topics will include considerations in designing a contractual arbitration clause, arbitrability, arbitrators' obligations and powers, enforcement of arbitral awards, and the influence of national litigation systems on the conduct of arbitration. The course will also include the function of international arbitral institutions such as the London Court of International Arbitration. No background in alternative dispute resolution is required for this course.

Comparative Law of Privacy (3 credits)
taught by Moritz professor Ellen Deason *

Privacy is a topic that cuts across many different areas of law and policy. The course will examine concepts of privacy and the legal frameworks for protecting it in a variety of contexts, including government surveillance, genetic information, employment, and consumer data. It will explore the balance between privacy and other rights and interests, such as freedom of expression and security. The course will provide an opportunity to compare the approaches of several different legal systems, and also to observe the relationship between the development of law and the rapidly changing world of information technology. Along with the law of selected nations, we will also consider the influence of transnational agreements such as the European Convention on Human Rights.

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.

There will be two 75-minute class meetings per week. In addition, 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 small numbers 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). Options for subject areas and professors for the research tutorial are as follows:

• Prof. Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law
• Prof. Davies: Comparative Labor/Employment Law
• Prof. Edelman: Contract Law, Tort Law, Equity, Trusts & Unjust Enrichment
• Prof. Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation
• Prof. Talmon: International Law in International Affairs
• Prof. Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice

2007

International Intellectual Property (3 credits)
taught by UGA Professor David Shipley *

This course will explore the principles and policies supporting the international protection of intellectual property rights as well as the sources of those rights. We will focus on the international treaty arrangements for copyright, patent and trademark protection as well as on questions of enforcement, jurisdiction and choice of law. The course will also examine the function of international intellectual property organizations, recent developments in the European Union, and issues relating to establishing and enforcing intellectual property rights in less developed nations. No background in science, engineering,international law or intellectual property is required for this course.

Comparative Administrative Law (3 credits)
taught by UGA Professor David Shipley *

This course will focus on the law controlling administrative agencies and their actions in the United States and the European Union. Along with constitutional and statutory restraints we will consider judicially formulated policies for the administrative process, and how the established national administrative practices in European countries like Germany, Italy, France and England have come to coexist with EU requirements. Control over administrative discretion and enforced accountability are themes along with the development of administrative law in national ( U.S. ) and supernational (EU) settings.

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.

There will be two 75-minute class meetings per week. In addition, 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 small numbers 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). Options for subject areas and professors for the research tutorial are as follows:

• Prof. Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law
• Prof. Davies: Comparative Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Prof. Edelman: Contract Law
• Prof. Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation
• Prof. Talmon: International Law in International Affairs
• Prof. Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice

2006

Comparative Labor and Employment Law (3 credits)
taught by Moritz Professor James J. Brudney *

This course examined American and British workplace law from a comparative perspective, including the impact of EU law on the development of statutes and court decisions in the U.K. Doctrinal readings focused primarily on issues of status discrimination (especially, though not limited to, various aspects of gender discrimination), labor-management relations (including union organizing, collective bargaining, strikes, and economic self-help), and job termination (unfair individual dismissals and group termination events such as plant closings and mass layoffs).

Comparative Legislation (3 credits)
taught by Moritz Professor James J. Brudney *

This course introduced students to certain problems of statutory interpretation and the separation of powers, principally as they are framed by legislatures, courts, and scholars from the U.S. and the U.K., but with additional focus on the same problems as they arise under the new government of South Africa. A sample of topics covered include the tensions between formally enacted text and purpose-related legislative context in understanding statutory meaning, the importance of maxims such as canons of construction (both linguistic and substantive) in the interpretive process, the role of courts in correcting legislative mistakes or filling statutory gaps, and differences between interpretation in a parliamentary versus a constitutional regime.

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

The purpose of this course was to give students an understanding of the law in action. Accordingly, the course did not so much teach students law as teach students about law, exploring various aspects of how legal rules operate. The substantive focus was mostly on criminal justice and public law, although civil law was not neglected since there were important parallels to be drawn, for example, in the handling of civil disputes and pre-trial bargaining in criminal cases. Study materials were drawn from both U.S. and U.K. sources. The areas and questions covered 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.

Supervised Research Tutorial (3 credits)

This course was modeled on the format of the justly renowned Oxford tutorial. Each tutor met periodically with small numbers of students. Meetings were devoted to planning or revising the students' individual research papers, which were completed by the end of the semester. Law students participated in groups of 3 or 4 with their individual tutors (professors). Options for subject areas and professors for the research tutorial were as follows:

• Prof. Bamforth: Comparative Constitutional and Human Rights Law
• Prof. Chen-Wishart: Contract Law
• Prof. Davies: Comparative Constitutional and Administrative Law
• Prof. Fisher: Comparative Risk Regulation
• Prof. Talmon: International Law in International Affairs
• Prof. Zedner: Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice