Free University of Berlin

The course provides a general overview of the U.S. legal system. It introduces students to the concept of common law and covers constitutional law (incl. the legislative process and its political implications), the U.S. court system as well as selected areas of substantive and procedural U.S. law, such as contracts, torts, criminal, and corporate law. The course is taught through a combination of lectures and in-class discussions and encourages active participation in order to acquire and practice legal terminology.

This course focuses on important moments and crucial cultural texts and performances from roughly the 1920s through the 1990s and thus aspires to come to terms with the changes and continuities of the last century in U.S. pop-cultural production. The performers, artifacts, or performances the course considers here were often popular and unpopular at the same time – not only, but often, depending on the kind of audiences they spoke to or were discussed by. Consider, for example, the 1990s boyband phenomenon, but also performers like Madonna, who are adored by some, but hated by others. It is thus the question of (un)popularity that serves as a guiding light for the seminar at hand to make sense of U.S. cultural production in the 20th century and across media.

This course is intended for students who already have some prior knowledge of German. In this class on the A1 level according to CEFR, students learn and solidify basic grammatical structures and systematically build their vocabulary. They train the four skills of listening, reading, speaking, and writing in everyday situations and do simple exercises to practice and improve their verbal and written skills. Students are introduced to independent forms of learning and studying. The class covers and reflects on civilization and culture in Germany, Berlin, and at the university as related to everyday life. Topics include personal information, living situation, institutions, traffic, traveling, health, weather, and festivities.