Legal Studies

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.

In this course, undergraduates need to be proficient in the typical analytical model of crime and its variants, to be able to apply the criminological system to analyze teaching cases involving typical crimes, to be proficient in identifying the sentencing factors involved in teaching cases and simple real-world cases, and then to convict and sentence appropriately. In addition, undergraduates need to be able to skillfully identify the fundamental theoretical debates in criminology, grasp the academic controversies on the core issues and their unfolding, and be able to comment on these core academic controversies.

Given that this course is a required course for undergraduate majors, its primary goal is to strengthen the foundation of criminal law for students taking the course. Criminal law is a departmental jurisprudence with crime and punishment as its object, and is a normative discipline based on existing law. The study of crime and punishment can be divided into the study of general issues of crime and punishment and the study of specific crimes and their penalties according to the differences in the objects, which are respectively classified as Criminal Law I and Criminal Law II, corresponding to the General Provisions and Sub-Principles of the Criminal Law as legislation. Criminal Law I is mainly devoted to the study of criminal law, including the foundations of criminal law, the basic principles of criminal law, the interpretation of criminal law, the typical analytical model of crime (the system of criminology of the individual offender) and its variants (joint criminality, attempt, suspension, preparation, and competition).

This course provides an introduction to basic European Union (EU) law for non-law students, including the core elements of the EU legal system, EU institutions, decision-making procedures, and sources of law. It covers the concept of sovereignty, the relationship between EU law and national law, as well as the relationship between EU law and international law; necessary for working with the substantive areas of EU law, including the internal market, the free movement of goods, food and agricultural production, and environment and nature protection. Examples are drawn from areas such as environment and nature protection, agriculture, and food production, including ways the EU seeks to promote sustainable development. 

This course provides an overview of the Japanese legal system, enabling students to research, analyze and understand the basic structure of Japanese law. Students will examine various legal problems, expanding their critical thinking skills.

This course examines the main regulatory implications of technology, as well as the EU ethical and legal framework applicable to information technologies, with a focus on the data-driven technologies. It discusses issues such as ethical and legal governance, ethical and legal principles and requirements, risk assessment approaches to the design, development, deployment, and use of data-driven technologies.  

The institution and the development of international organizations constitutes a major phenomenon of contemporary international society. This course introduces the law of international organizations including their constituent treaties; the role of states within them; the functioning of their components; and the methods of production and implementation of the law they offer. The course also reflects on the functions of international organizations within contemporary international society to discuss if they are places of governance, regulation of the international community, or simple mechanisms structured by coordination of the interstate relations.