Legal Studies

The focus of the course is on Intellectual Property Right (in a global perspective) since they are considered a growing part of the value adding process in companies and at the same time are a more important mean of competition, but also related rights such as rules and regulations of marketing and competition, secrecy, and IT rights. Other issues regarding the commercialization of an invention will be discussed in the course, such as questions regarding license agreements. The course also deals with areas such as IPR-strategies for companies, how to search and utilize the information in patent databases, and how to interpret agreements relating to intellectual property.

This course offers a concise introduction to the legal challenges relating to the international dimension of litigating commercial disputes, both before state courts and in arbitration. London being one of the most important centers for commercial litigation and arbitration in the world, the course focuses on the relevant English and European Union law, invoking experiences from other jurisdictions where useful. 

The course looks at financial institutions, including central banks, commercial banks, broker-dealers, money market funds, and hedge funds, as well as financial markets and their infrastructures. Students analyze the underlying business models as well as the legal and regulatory environment in which these institutions and markets operate. It also focuses on financial products, with a particular emphasis on money and money-like financial instruments. This includes the basics of finance theory, monetary theory, the money creation process, but also derivatives and repurchase transaction and the role they play in the modern economy.

This course provides students with a grounding in the foundational doctrines of European Union (EU) Law. It will focus both on the institutional and constitutional law of the EU and in particular on the processes of political and administrative decision-making, legislation, and adjudication. 

The course considers how AI changes the legal landscape and how lawyers, and anyone interested in how our society is regulated, needs to adapt to this new landscape. It does so by examining how AI automates processes based upon data, a process known as datafication, and how data is used to train, and the algorithms at the heart of AI. It asks how this impacts our data privacy and whether data protection law is ready to deal with this new wave of personal data exploitation. From here it moves on to examine who controls the development and deployment of these algorithms, and how we might control their development and deployment in AI systems. It concludes by examining the current legal framework for AI regulation and asks how we should regulate AI and which approach is likely to be effective. 

This course introduces competition law, which is a basic rule for business activities and competition policy in Japan.

This course explores the right to truth from an interdisciplinary perspective. It critically engages with truth as a right in transitional justice scenarios, focusing on the exploration of the construction of truth through law and its relation to justice. Through the foundational tenets of memory, reconciliation, and punishment, the course enquires into the assumed exceptionality of the right to truth in transitions, examining if and how it operates in ordinary settings. Simultaneously, the course offers an overarching view of the consolidation of the right to truth in the framework of international human rights, and the specific obligations it entails for states. Drawing on a broad variety of cases of ongoing and past transitional justice processes in the Global South, the course fosters challenging and critical perspectives on the right to truth as a legal claim.

This is a special studies course involving an internship with a corporate, public, governmental, or private organization, arranged with the Study Center Director or Liaison Officer. Specific internships vary each term and are described on a special study project form for each student. A substantial paper or series of reports is required. Units vary depending on the contact hours and method of assessment. The internship may be taken during one or more terms but the units cannot exceed a total of 12.0 for the year.

This course examines the history of France from the Old Regime to the present day through a constitutional lens to provide a better understanding of current political events.