Legal Studies

European Union (EU) competition law, along with US antitrust law, are two main streams in the world's competition law, each having their own unique features influenced by various economic theories. This course analyzes the basic framework of global competition law and the leading principles and cases of EU competition law.

In practice, economic evidence submitted by economic consultants is facilitated before the EU courts. The class examines real case experience throughout the term. 

In an era of technology, health crisis, and transnational thinking, this course covers cutting edge issues such as gender discrimination through algorithms, sexual harassment after #metoo, reproductive rights and strategic litigation, and how feminist legal theory questions the way the law is constructed and applied according to stereotypical views of identity and systemic discrimination. The course investigates how queer theory influences the legal field by rejecting a binary view of identity and encompassing issues challenging LGBTQI groups. It explores what is learned from these various legal standpoints while encountering changes in family, criminal, and employment law; whether queer theory influences gender law; and whether there are new ways to consider legal concepts such as consent, personal autonomy, and intersectionality.

This course provides a study of the principal characteristics of present-day international society and the effects of its structure and inner tensions in the creation and application of public international law. It critically examines the foundations of the international legal system, as well as the interactions between the international and national regulatory spheres and the legal consequences of including public international law in the Spanish legal system.

This course explores the meanings and functions of human dignity in a comparative and inter-disciplinary perspective. The course provides a critical and complex understanding of how the concept has developed, has been used, and should be used in constitutional and legal contexts. The course begins by identifying the intellectual origins of human dignity and mapping its meanings in philosophical discourse. Students explore developments in the uses and functions of human dignity in national constitutions from the 20th century to present day. The course examines the logic of drafting constitutional articles, and practices those principles on articles containing the concept of dignity in multiple functions. The course also gives tools to understand how justices employ the concept in various ways. The course also discusses topics including a psychological approach to human dignity as self-worth, dignity in medical ethics, dignity in prisons, and the uses of dignity by the Israeli Supreme Court.

This course covers the basic principles and methods of intellectual property law. Topics include China's legal system of intellectual property; systems of patent, trademark, copyright, and the context of Internet plus the intellectual property rights of new territory; creation, management, application, and protection; and building a platform under the support of intellectual property framework system.

With an emphasis on Italy, this course focuses on the looting, destruction, and reselling of antiquities, from classical antiquity to today. Together students consider issues such as what constitutes an art/cultural heritage crime, how ideas of value (both real and symbolic) have emerged historically and how have they changed over time, what constitutes "ownership" in the eyes of different entities, and how this has changed over the past fifty years, resulting in the current difficult and controversial issue of the repatriation of cultural artifacts which have crossed international borders. Themes considered include the history of collecting, illegal excavation and the illicit trade in antiquities, the role of auction houses, the Church, museums and galleries, ownership and patrimony issues, international laws and agreements, recovery and repatriation, and ongoing problems with the protection and conservation of antiquities. The course concludes with a review of cultural heritage laws and the current international situation, as well as a discussion identifying challenges and providing suggestions for regulating the market of antiquities in the future. The course includes visits to relevant sites and museums in and around Rome and includes the close investigation of actual case studies throughout.