Legal Studies

This is a special topics course in the field of law. It provides practical and theoretical knowledge through the exploration of a variety of legal topics and issues.

This course offers an introduction to the legal requirements for creating, protecting, and financing innovative companies. The course is divided into three blocks: commercial law; industrial property law; and business finance law.

This course examines the main issues in the struggle for equal rights for persons with disabilities. Topics include: disability in human rights discourse; models of treatment of disability and human rights; disability in the International Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; equality, non-discrimination, and disability; universal accessibility and reasonable accommodation; autonomy, independent living, and social participation; legal capacity issues; inclusive education; inclusive workplace.

This law course provides a study of the origins, evolution, and legal organization of the European Union. It examines the law of the European Union, law adopted by the institutions, and the integration of the European laws with the Spanish legal system. It looks at reciprocal state laws of EU nation-states, EU laws of application and control, and the objectives of the EU integration process.

This course provides a historical analysis of legal concepts within the framework of various political models. It examines the evolution of the legal system, its institutions, and legal-political doctrine. Topics covered include: the culture of European Common Law; the Enlightenment and law; the Liberal Revolution and the rule of law; legal monism (legalism) and codification in Europe; constitutionalism and constitution; American constitutionalism; the emergence of administrative law; new branches of the legal system; authoritarianism and the constitutional state; the birth of labor law; decodification and the deregulation of law.

This course is a compulsory course for law school undergraduates and one of the basic courses for the law major. Through the study of this course, students can understand the basic theories and basic categories of Chinese civil procedure law, systematically master the knowledge system and framework of civil procedure law, and understand the basic content included in various procedures. At the same time, it improves the logic and agility of students' thinking, and cultivates students' ability to discover, analyze and solve problems.

The content of this course mainly includes the overview of civil litigation (basic theory, basic principles, supervisor and jurisdiction of civil litigation), litigant, evidence and proof, civil litigation guarantee mechanism, litigation procedure, non-litigation procedure, special procedures for foreign-related maritime and public interest litigation, and execution procedures.

This course introduces students to a range of high-profile controversies by viewing them through the prism of the law. It enables the students to transcend the culture wars by critically engaging with the moral, political, and legal issues at stake and by becoming skilled participants in the respective debates. Students engage with some of the most important and controversial political issues of our time, and these issues will be approached by studying and comparing landmark judgments from the world’s most influential and powerful courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, the Canadian Supreme Court, the South African Constitutional Court, the European Court of Human Rights, the U.K. Supreme Court, and the German Federal Constitutional Court. 

This course examines the historical, social and political forces shaping contemporary relationships between the criminal justice system and racialized populations. It uses criminological theory and research to explore the common and distinct factors contributing to the disproportionate criminal justice contact experienced by a range of racialized populations across the world, from the Aboriginal and African communities of Australia, to African Americans and Latinos in the United States, and foreign nationals in European countries. The course further evaluates some of the key attempts criminal justice agencies have made to improve their relationship with certain racialized populations, identifying and analyzing the conditions under which practices such as police-community building initiatives, specialist Indigenous courts, and culturally-specific prison programs have emerged, and asking students to consider the tensions that remain within these responsive racialized practices.

This course covers Japanese Constitutional Law from political and social perspectives. It comprises four parts: 

1) “Invitation to Japanese Constitutional Law” introduces the basics of Japanese Constitutional Law and constitutional law in general; 

2) “Basic Principles of Japanese Constitutional Law” covers basic principles of Japanese Constitutional Law such as pacifism, popular/national sovereignty and fundamental human rights; 

3) “Human Rights and Governance” explores some crucial provisions in human rights and governance; and 

4) “Current Topics in the Japanese Constitutional Law” covers recent topics to discuss the role of Japanese Constitutional Law today and in the future.

Each class is composed of student presentations, lectures and discussion. 

This course examines the nature of environmental law; the merits and disadvantages of statutory and common law approaches to environmental issues; the evolution of environmental concern; particular legal problems arising out of the nature of environmental issues; the precautionary principle; philosophies of human relations with the natural world; possible implications of environmental necessity for political, social, constitutional and economic organization; environmental economics and issues of public and private property and historical and present-day case studies.