Legal Studies

This course examines several of the most important issues of international legal theory and the philosophical approaches to international law. 

The course's main objective is to allow the student to acquire a panoramic view of different legal systems, enriching the notion of law and demonstrating that the ways of conceiving and solving legal problems vary throughout the different legal systems, which allows visualizing the contingent nature of law and its understanding as a social and changing phenomenon. The study of Comparative Law, together with the habits of research and reading of various materials, prepares the student for a better understanding of the legal culture and legal systems of other countries. Consequently, it facilitates study abroad and international legal practice.

This course offers a comparative study of the institutional law of international organizations. While it is acknowledged that each organization has its own legal structure and functioning, institutional challenges and rules of different organizations resemble each other in some way, and a great deal of body of institutional rules and principles has been developed. International organizations have much in common, such as the law on membership, competence, structures, decision-making and implementation, financing, and legal personality. The course discusses the practice of a number of international organizations, including the United Nations and regional as well as subregional organizations. The course explores the law, life, and functioning of these organizations.

This course examines the interactions between aesthetics, art theory, and art law. It discusses legal notions of originality, authorship, plagiarism, copying, and transformation. Contemporary art case studies include: Marina Abramović, Robert Mapplethorpe, Richard Prince, and Joseph Beuys. 

The course aims to acquire skills in the management of the fundamental contents of Public International Law in Spanish. It develops the main topics of this matter, such as concept, international treaties and other sources, subjects of international law -especially the State in the international legal order and international organizations (United Nations Organization)-, law of the sea, human rights, the the international responsibility of the State and the individual, the use of force in international law and humanitarian law, among others.
 

This course introduces the issue of differentiation within the European Union. The first part of the course examines the various forms that differentiation takes within the European Union as well as outside of it. The second part of the course focuses on the Economic and Monetary Union as the most advanced examples of differentiated integration. It considers its various components and includes debates on ongoing reform discussions and open legal debates including the innovative NextGenerationEU program deployed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

This course provides an examination of the modern theories upon which criminal punishments are based, and how such purposes are met in the criminal justice system. It also examines the major forms and structures of punishment and why we punish individuals, how we do so, and how the punishment process can be viewed in a wider social context. The first part of this course considers the justifications for punishment. The second part briefly reviews the historical development of punishment philosophies and techniques, including the emergence of the modern prison, the joining of medical and legal treatment, and rationales for alternative forms of punishment. The third part examines the work of major writers who have provided a theoretical critique of punishment and the role it plays.

This course considers how personal autonomy, the idea that persons should be in control over their own lives, underlies virtually every aspect of law, from private law institutions like property and contract to the basic rules of constitutional law. To navigate this complex relationship, it discusses questions such as what cognitive capacities are needed for personal autonomy; what does it mean to exercise autonomous control over a given decision, action, or event; what role does causation play in such control; and what is meant by a person's “own life.” In addition, the course discusses how these questions figure in Canadian and American criminal law, tort law, and law on socio-economic rights.

This course provides an introduction to the enterprise of comparative constitutional law as a judicial practice and as a field of academic study. It compares, across different constitutional systems, issues of constitutional structure, judicial review, separation of powers, constitutional interpretation, constitutional amendments, and individual rights, among others. Additionally, the course considers the various approaches that have been used to solve similar constitutional problems, with special attention given to equality, freedom of expression, religious freedom, and the recognition and adjudication of social and economic rights.

This course is designed to provide students with a comprehensive overview of the American legal system. It examines the U.S constitution and the relationships it creates between federal and state governments; the separation of powers, and how basic rights are guaranteed and protected under the federal constitution. it also reviews several areas of US law, including constitutional law, contracts, torts, and criminal law.