Study

This course provides an overview of comparative law. We will learn about the differences and similarities, both real and perceived, between different legal orders. We will compare both civil law and common law systems, and authoritarian and liberal legal systems. This course also features guest lectures given via Zoom by professors from Yale, Virginia, and other institutions.

Evaluation: class participation: 20%, students will be on call roughly every three sessions; paper(s): 80%. Students can choose to write six response papers (five pages each), or a research paper alone or together (30 pages minimum for sole-authored papers). For co-authored papers, each co-author will receive the same grade for the same paper.  A research paper can focus on one country or compare different legal systems. Students should submit their research paper proposal by Sept. 23, which explains their research question, methods and plan including distribution of labor among co-authors for co-authored papers. Finalized paper is due on December 16. The instructor keeps the discretion of approving or not approving a research paper proposal. Sole-authored research papers are also qualified to satisfy JD students’ writing requirements, if they so choose. 

This course provides an overview of comparative law. We will learn about the differences and similarities, both real and perceived, between different legal orders. We will compare both civil law and common law systems, and authoritarian and liberal legal systems. We will also investigate the rise and fall of foreign legal studies in the U.S., from soviet law in the 1960s-1970s, Japanese law in the 1980s-1990s, European Union law in the early 2000s, and Chinese law in the recent decade. We will investigate the impact of American law on foreign countries and international law, and foreign law in American courts. On a theoretical level, we will try to understand what it means to "compare", and how it can help us both to understand other legal systems as well as our own.

Class participation: 10%; 4 response papers (1 page per paper): 20%; final paper (26 pages minimum): 70%. JD students have an option to write a longer paper (30 pages minimum) to satisfy their writing requirements. Please seek the instructor's approval for this writing credit by the end of October. 

This course has two aims. On a practical level, we will learn about the differences and similarities, both real and perceived, between different legal orders. We will focus on legal orders within the "civil" and "common" law and try to find out in which way it makes sense to conceive of them as "the Western Legal Tradition". On a theoretical level, we will try to understand what it means to "compare", and how it can help us both to understand other legal systems as well as our own.

This course has two aims. On a practical level, we will learn about the differences and similarities, both real and perceived, between different legal orders. We will focus on legal orders within the "civil" and "common" law and try to find out in which way it makes sense to conceive of them as "the Western Legal Tradition". On a theoretical level, we will try to understand what it means to "compare", and how it can help us both to understand other legal systems as well as our own.

This course has two aims. On a practical level, we will learn about the differences and similarities, both real and perceived, between different legal orders. We will focus on legal orders within the "civil" and "common" law and try to find out in which way it makes sense to conceive of them as "the Western Legal Tradition". On a theoretical level, we will try to understand what it means to "compare", and how it can help us both to understand other legal systems as well as our own.