Legal Studies

This course aims to provide students with a basic understanding of the interdisciplinary field of law and economics, as well as the ability to analyze social phenomena from a combined perspective of law and economics.  The first half of the course focuses on introducing fundamental theories in law and economics, while the second half involves a critical analysis of real-world legal cases in competition law from a law and economics standpoint. 

The first part of the course addresses the economic rationale underlying the creation and implementation of legal rules, enabling them to develop their critical thinking skills in designing efficient laws. Specifically, the study covers the economic reasoning behind areas of law such as property, tort, and contract, enhancing students' capacity to select the most efficient legal rules. 

The second part of the course examines real-world legal cases in the field of competition law, in various jurisdictions such as the US and the EU. Through these case studies, the class will observe the dynamic interaction between law and economics. Additionally, through comparative analysis, the class will gain insights into how to design laws that are best suited for specific societies by taking relevant circumstances into account.

This course covers the development of public administrations during the 18th and 19th centuries. It addresses the ways in which government impresses political will onto the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, and how, inversely, society shapes government. It is both a course in history and public law. The course draws attention to the centuries of social evolution and legal tinkering behind many habitual features of our contemporary “bureaucratic” administrations. It explores several administrative systems across the Atlantic and Europe, namely that of the United States, Britain, France, Germany, the Ottoman Empire, and Russia. Each session begins with the commentary of a visual document relating to aspects of a period's daily life containing cues to the legal and institutional context. The rest of the session consists of a brief lecture and a primary sources discussion. Sources are provided in a reader and mostly consist of historical legal documents.

Using Roman society and criminal law as an example, this course explores the impact of socio-cultural values on the concept of condemnable behaviors, judgment, and punishment.

For this advanced research seminar, students choose the topic of their research paper from the range of processes, legal innovations and socio-legal practices that took place within Germany in any period of choice from 1933 to today. The seminar will be held as a block when students will present the elaborated papers with a seminar presentation. The prerequisite for participation is the prior attendance of a lecture on “State Crime Criminology, Transitional Justice, and the Nazi Regime.” Students will write a 20-page seminar paper, give a seminar lecture, and participate in the discussion of the other students’ presentations.

This course explores the main concepts and principles of international environmental law. It looks at how international environmental law has emerged and developed, in particular by emphasizing the role and contribution of international courts and tribunals. The course also deals specifically with the legal regimes that have been shaped in order to preserve the global environment in different fields (climate change, biodiversity, desertification, water, ozone, chemical products, air pollution, genetically modified organisms, nanotechnologies). With the emergence of the concept of sustainable development, international environmental law is now at the crossroads of different regimes. In this context, the course analyzes the relationship between international environmental law and international trade (and/or investment) law as well as the relationship between international environmental law and human rights.

This course examines the relationship between crime, law, medicine and science. It focuses on criminal detection practices, death investigation systems, the coroner's office, autopsies and socio-legal management of the dead body, human tissue and organ controversies, and the role of medicine, science and psychology in criminal justice.

This course is specialized for international students. It presents French history and its political institutions and provides a general knowledge of the French political and legal system. The course covers the history of French construction until 1789; constitutional history of France since 1789; the system of the Fifth Republic; executive power (President, Government) territorial organization; legislative power (the National Assembly, the Senate); judicial power (courts of private and public law, constitutional council); the territorial system (decentralization, local authorities); the distinction between private law, public law, mixed rights; and the hierarchy of norms.

The European Union (EU) is one of the world's largest and most important economies. Those interested in doing business with the EU member states must know the rules and the practice of relevant laws. This introductory course deals with the subject from several perspectives, including a social and economic perspective. It provides the fundamental tools needed to be able to do business with the EU, whether they live in Europe or elsewhere. Students gain a broad understanding of both the practical and theoretical aspects of European business law, regardless of if they have prior legal knowledge or not. The course focuses on topics central to business law and economic analysis, such as free movement law, competition law, environmental law, trade law, and state aid law. A general understanding of the EU's legal system and an exploration of the basic constitutional foundations of the EU is gained.

This course provides an international law of armed conflict framework to the main recent and ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa regions. It focuses on the role international law plays in the realm of international and regional relations, namely inter-State relations but also State-individual relations through the growth of human rights law. The first part of the course provides an outline of the general public international law framework to key international conflicts faced by the international community. It then applies these concepts to concrete case studies that are discussed in-depth during the second part of the seminar in view of analyzing and studying international law “in motion.” The course is interactive and necessitates active participation and engagement in the class discussions. It introduces general knowledge of general public international law and of international law of armed conflicts; identifies the relevant legal questions and mobilizes the relevant legal and analytical tools to analyze situations of international conflict; highlights the limitations of international law and the reasons why international legality cannot always overcome deadlocked situations; and develops both oral and written advocacy skills.

This course provides an overview of the major debates in comparative judicial politics and an introduction to the political science of law and courts, a branch of the discipline known as judicial politics. This is not a course on constitutional adjudication law, and the focus is not on doctrinal analysis or close reading of cases (though cases are discussed to illustrate and examine the topics of the course). Instead, constitutional courts are evaluated as political institutions and judges as political actors. After theorizing judicial review by introducing students to concepts such as the government of judges, juristocracy, and political constitutionalism, specific cases are studied. Topics include: judicial review models across time and space; constraints on judicial power; conflicts between constitutional courts and the other branches of government; decision making within the judicial hierarchy; judicial appointments. The focus of this course is comparative with an emphasis on constitutional courts in advanced democracies; however, courts and legal systems in new democracies and authoritarian regimes are discussed as well.