Idriss Fofana
Fall 2024-Spring 2025
1 Credit
This writing group focuses on non-western legal traditions in historical or contemporary perspective. Non-western here includes legal systems strongly influenced by traditions other than the common law and the civil law. …
Idriss Fofana
Spring 2025
4 Credits
This is an introductory course to international law, with a focus on public international law. The first part of the course examines the nature, sources, and methods of international law. Topics covered include the doctrine of sources, international responsibility, the resolution of international disputes, subjects of international law, international institutions, and the interaction between domestic and international law. …
William P. Alford
Fall 2024 – Spring 2025; Fall 2023 – Spring 2024; Fall 2022 – Spring 2023
1 credit
Students interested in this writing group are encouraged to inform Professor Alford of their interest at their earliest convenience (ideally, in advance of the October deadline) so as to facilitate planning. …
Mark Wu
Spring 2025; Spring 2024; Fall 2022
4 Credits
This course focuses on the law governing international trade as established by the World Trade Organization. It engages in an in-depth analysis of WTO rules and case law. The class will examine the strengths and weaknesses of the existing regime and discuss the difficulties in reforming the system. Besides focusing on the basic principles governing trade in goods and services, the course will also examine specialized areas such as technical standards, agriculture, food safety, subsidies, trade remedy measures, and intellectual property. In addition, the course will focus on the geopolitical tensions between major trading powers as well as on the new issues being addressed through regional trade agreements. …
William P. Alford
Spring 2025; Spring 2024; Spring 2023; Spring 2022
4 credits
This course uses the example of China as a springboard for asking fundamental questions about the nature of law, and the ways in which it may (or may not) differ in different societies. Historically, China is said to have developed one of the world’s great civilizations while according law a far less prominent role than in virtually any other. This course will test that assertion by commencing with an examination of classic Chinese thinking about the role of law in a well-ordered society and a consideration of the nature of legal institutions, formal and informal, in pre-20th century China-all in a richly comparative setting. It will then examine the history of Sino-Western interaction through law, intriguing and important both in itself and for the broader inquiry into which it opens concerning the transmission of ideas of law cross culturally. …
Mark Wu
Spring 2025; Spring 2024; Spring 2022
2 credits
In the Xi era, China has started to cast aside the long-standing maxim of “keeping a low profile and biding one’s time” in international affairs. What does China’s rise portend for the international legal order? In what ways is China seeking to reshape global norms versus uphold a status quo order exhibiting increasing fragility? This seminar examines this question for various domains of international law, including climate change, economics, sovereignty, human rights, and development. It will consider the ways in which history, geostrategic competition, as well as domestic economic and political interests impact these questions. …
Lobsang Sangay
Spring 2025; Fall 2023; Fall 2022
1 credit
This Reading Group will focus on the question of and solutions for Tibet. It will look at the historical status of Tibet and the current situation of the Tibetan people. The class will examine the guarantees and practices of national minority rights under the Constitution of the People’s Republic of China in light of international human rights standards. Do China’s guarantees respecting national minority rights meet international standards regarding the right to self-determination or the protection of minorities. Might reference to the rights of indigenous people be helpful? The approach of the seminar will be to interrogate the best ways to address these issues and find solutions. We will look at the evolution and major changes in the stand of the Dalai Lama from seeking independence, to what he has described as a zone of peace for …
