Rio de Janerio Summer Program - College of Law

COURSES

SUMMER LEGAL STUDY PROGRAM IN RIO DE JANEIRO

PROGRAM COURSE SCHEDULE

May 16-June 14, 2009

FOR INFORMATION ON COURSE MATERIALS,

PLEASE CLICK ON “Travel Tips & FAQs” and then

“Books - - Courses”

Students can choose from among a wide range of offerings in areas that are substantively distinct but also distinguished by three complementary thematic areas: corporate, business and trade law, environmental and land use law, and social justice and human rights. Each course is taught by a U.S. faculty or U.S.-trained member with the participation of Brazilian faculty affiliates and speakers. Students may choose one three-credit course during each module as follows:

MODULE ONE CLASSES: May 18-May 29, 2009

Comparative Environmental Law This course examines U.S. and Brazilian legal and regulatory responses to issues such as urbanization and its threat to biodiversity of the Atlantic Rainforest, water and wastewater management in developed and less-developed countries, the use of international and national legal instruments to improve urban air quality, ecosystem conservation, and environmental education. Brazilian experience and efforts will be compared to U.S. and other legal responses. This course will be taught by Dr. Rômulo Sampaio with the participation of the Program Director, Professor Colin Crawford.

Comparative Family Law This course will explore and critically examine the intersection of law, family and society. Using various principles of jurisprudence, sociological theory, and empirical research, as well as guest speakers and site visits, to compare and contrast Brazilian and U.S. models of family formation and family dissolution. In addition, this course will examine how race, gender and class mediate relational power in whose family life is defined, regulated, and protected under the law versus whose family is created outside the shadow of the law. Topics included marriage, divorce, parent's and children's rights, “third party” rights, domestic violence, adoption, and reproductive technology. This course will be taught by Dr. Deirdre Bowen.

Comparative Corporate Law: Governance, Transactions, and Practice This course compares and contrasts the systems for regulating internal governance and corporate finance in various countries, with a primary emphasis on the United States and Brazil. The course will illustrate relevant theory and themes by focusing on the law and practice of domestic and cross-border business combinations—mergers, stock purchases (including tender offers), asset transfers, and other available transactions. Students will examine corporate governance and corporate finance laws and regulations, stock exchange rules, decisional law, and related scholarly works. Emphasis will be placed on underlying theory and policies and the ramifications of those theories and policies on corporate constituencies in and outside the core corporate governance structure (i.e., “other constituencies” as well as directors, officers, and shareholders). In this vein, the course will address managerialism and the market for corporate control, as well as evidence of board primacy or shareholder primacy in merger and acquisition regulation in various countries, and identify implications of these themes for corporate governance in particular countries and in the global marketplace. In addition, the course will involve discussions and analysis of: common and civil law traditions; the convergence/path dependence debate; overall social, political, and economic forces that determine acquisition and takeover regulation; whether law matters; and the differing roles of regulatory organizations. Whenever possible, the course also will illustrate and allow for the practice of related legal drafting skills. Recommended but not required course(s) prior to enrollment: Business Associations or Corporations. This course will be taught by Professor Joan Heminway

International and Comparative Health Law This course explores the developing field of international health law. The course will examine the legal, ethical, and political issues that arise in the context of addressing current challenges to global health, and look at the role played by governments, the private sector, and Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in meeting the health needs of the world's population. The course will focus on contemporary legal responses to issues such as global disparities in health; public health emergencies; pharmaceuticals and the balancing of trade and public health considerations; health and human rights; and infectious diseases. This course will be taught by Professor Sylvia Caley.

Social Equality and the Law: A Comparative Consideration of Race, Ethnicity and Class

This course will examine the legal response to (in)equality in the United States and Brazil with a comparative consideration of the treatment of racial, ethnic, and economic status in both nations. Both the U.S. and Brazil are among the most diverse countries in the world; they are also countries with complicated responses to equality questions. Thus, the course will ask whether legal institutions are the appropriate means to assure equality in its different dimensions, and, if so, how so. The course will examine the ways in which citizens are and have been protected (or not) on the basis of status in both countries and will also consider the efficacy of the protections that exist. Topics for comparison and discussion will include constitutional and statutory status protections, affirmative action efforts and also the cultural limits of legal enforcement. This course will be taught by Professor Angela Harris and Dr. Denise Ferreira da Silva.

MODULE TWO CLASSES: June 1-June 12, 2009

Conflict Prevention and Community Improvement This course will study creative responses to community conflict in Rio and other Brazilian communities and will examine their impact on law and society. The course will offer students an opportunity to examine and discuss the dispute resolution design process with professionals and to visit Brazilian community programs to observe first-hand some active conflict prevention programs. Students will consider the Brazilian models in the context of the institutionalization of dispute resolution/conflict prevention in both legal and extra-legal settings in developed and less developed communities internationally. The course includes both broad themes, such as conflict theory and how to measure societal conflict or well being, and in-class practice in specific skills used to resolving disputes in mediation and other settings. This course will be taught by Dr. Deirdre Bowen.

Comparative Metropolitan Growth Management Law This course will explore the comparative legal aspects of metropolitan growth management and control as it affects the human, built, and physical environments. The focus will be comparative, concentrating on the U.S. and Brazil, although students will also be asked to consider growth management law questions facing mega-cities the world over. The focus will be intensely inter-disciplinary as well. One of the teachers is a law professor specializing in land use; the other is a land use planner specializing in legal responses to land use questions. Speakers will include prominent Brazilian environmental law scholars. The course will be co-taught by Professors Julian Juergensmeyer and Cláudia Dutra.

Comparative Legal Institutions and Institutional Legitimacy This course will examine, compare and contrast the Brazilian and United States legal systems, focusing in particular on the role of courts and the judiciary. Topics will include the method of judicial selection, retention, and training; and the major social, legal, and political challenges that each country’s courts currently face. In addition to a comparative overview of the U.S. and Brazilian civil and criminal justice systems and the Brazilian judiciary, the course will address how the U.S. and Brazilian systems have responded, in the civil and criminal arenas, to two specific challenges -- access to justice and decisional delay (as prompted by caseload volume) – and how those challenges have impacted the overall objective of accomplishing and maintaining institutional legitimacy. The course will, finally, consider how differences in culture and society affect different outcomes. This course will be taught by Professor Penny White and Judge Alceu Mauricio, Jr.

Human Rights Law Seminar The right to a nationality, as well as the ability to maintain one's ethnic, religious, or cultural identity, is recognized as a fundamental human right in international law. In practice, however, the protection of these rights often depends upon a state's domestic laws concerning citizenship and the treatment of those perceived as internal minorities, based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or language. Sometimes citizenship is not recognized; in other cases it is imposed at the expense of peoples' right to self-determination. This seminar will compare the legal history and contemporary practices of the United States and Brazil with respect to how each country has defined citizenship in the context of selected topics such as the treatment of indigenous peoples, the role of slavery and peonage, racial and ethnic classifications, immigration policies, voting rights and civil rights. This course will be taught by Professor Kathleen Cleaver.

International Business Transactions This course will consider selected issues pertaining to the negotiation of private international business transactions, including documentary sales and the use of letters of credit, currency issues, technology transfers, transactions and investment in developing and non-market economies, and dispute settlement. It also will examine the legal framework for the international regulation of trade, including the international trade regime represented by the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the agreements it administers, in particular the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); regional trade agreements such as Mercosur and the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA); and bilateral investment agreements. Certain aspects of U.S. trade law, such as antidumping and "escape clause" proceedings, will also be addressed. The course will place particular emphasis on the relationship between developing and developed countries on international business matters and trade policy and on Brazil's leadership among developing countries on questions relating to agriculture, intellectual property and others. In addition, the course will involve discussions and analysis of the influence of common and civil law traditions in the context of international business and the overall social, political, and economic forces that impact cross-border transactions, with a particular focus on Brazil. Whenever possible, the course also will illustrate and allow for the practice of related legal drafting skills. This course will be taught by Professor Becky Jacobs.