Legal Studies

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. Globalization has led to a broad transfer of policy making authority from the domestic to the global sphere. This power shift has facilitated review by global authorities of domestic decisions, but it has also shielded many global policy making processes from domestic monitoring and reviewing mechanisms. The course examines the roles of domestic courts and institutions, global tribunals and arbitration panels, global monitoring bodies and other global organizations, private organizations and NGOs in responding to the accountability gaps and opportunities created by globalization. Topics include: presentation and discussion of the different theories on the opposite trends described as internationalization of Constitutional law and “constitutionalization” of International Law; presentation and discussion of four national Constitutional law categories which have changed due to the globalization of political and judicial decisions: popular sovereignty; rule of law; the role of the Parliament; the role of the Constitutional court.

This course introduces current issues relating to decision-making within corporations, increasingly important actors in global matters. The course includes an exploration of the basic corporate governance structure provided by corporate law, with a focus primarily on U.S. corporate law. The course also examines the effects on corporate governance dynamics of various real-world factors. The course begins with an introduction to the various sources of U.S. corporate law, including discussion of the question “what is a corporation” as distinct from other forms of business organization. Following this introductory discussion, the second part of the course includes a deeper exploration of the corporate governance structure: the rights of shareholders and the respective powers and duties of boards of directors and of officers. The discussion focuses on the relationships, both formal and informal, between these three primary actors in corporate governance. Using this understanding of corporate law and governance, the course then focuses on recent debates concerning corporate “personhood,” including whether corporations should be subject to criminal liability and prosecution and whether corporations should be required to operate in a socially responsible manner.

This course is part of the Laurea Magistrale program. The course is intended for advanced level students only. Enrollment is by consent of the instructor. The course focuses on the basic concepts of Criminology as they apply to the relationships between migration, deviance, and social control; the “new” prevention of crime in urban settings; and the sociology of social control and punishment. The course highlights the sociological theory of crime and punishment and in particular the relationship between such theories and the broader framework of migration in the European Union. What is the connection between processes of European unification (legal, political, economic and social) and migrants' criminalization -- in the two aspects of criminalization, i.e. migrants' participation in criminal behavior, and the construction of migrants as criminal subjects? Theories discussed include the ecological theory of the Chicago School, differential association theory, the theory of anomie, labelling theory, and the theories of “everyday life.”

This course examines the economic principles underlying various areas of the law and which are relevant to legal practice. It covers competition law and consumer protection; property rights, including intellectual property; and issues of damages and compensation. The course will develop economic tools to analyze these legal issues including incomplete contracting, oligopoly analysis and incomplete information.