by Jayne Huckerby and Misha Plagis

The course will focus on assessing both the opportunities and challenges of the international and regional human rights frameworks and human rights lawyering and advocacy. This will be done by engaging with a range of human rights issues, strategies, tactics, institutions, and law as well as through thematic case studies. The first half of the course will focus on the international human rights legal framework, including core instruments and legal institutions. It will address, among other topics, economic, social and cultural rights; gender; and the role of social movements. The second half of the course will then pivot to legal mobilization before the regional human rights systems. It will provide an opportunity to focus on some of the many specificities of the three major regional human rights systems found in Africa, the Americas, and Europe.

by Jason Rudall and Casey Thomson

The first half of this course takes aim at the legal framework that seeks to govern foreign direct investment, mapping its fundamental principles, understanding the content of key rules, and placing an emphasis on how this field intersects with non-investment concerns like the environment and human rights. After exploring whether the promotion of foreign direct investment promotes development in host countries, we will evaluate some of the criticism that has been levelled at investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS). Indeed, foreign direct investment and its accompanying legal framework have been touted as both a cause and a cure for a range of human rights issues, social injustices and environmental degradation, particularly in developing countries. We will critically appraise how sustainable development and non-investment concerns more generally are being addressed by new generation investment treaties and the recent awards of ISDS tribunals, as well as reform that is currently underway in this field.

The second half of this course will focus on alternative methods of international dispute resolution, including negotiation, mediation, and arbitration. Using case studies, we will explore the unique challenges that arise when negotiating and enforcing international agreements, including the impact that culture can have on reaching agreement. We will examine The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (the New York Convention), including its utility in connection with the enforcement of international agreements and best practices for designing arbitration provisions that will require the parties to rely on the Convention for enforcement. Finally, we will engage in a comparative analysis of the practice of mediation in different regions, and the challenges this has created for the adoption and implementation of the more recent United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements resulting from Mediation (the Singapore Convention on Mediation).

by Narin Idriz and Tim Meyer

This course will consider some of the legal issues common to constitutional democracies, including the European Union (EU) as a supranational entity, in allocating authority in the conduct of foreign affairs, as illustrated by contemporary examples. These issues include the distribution of powers between the legislative and executive branches relating to topics such as the making and unmaking of treaties, the conduct of diplomatic relations, and the use of military force. They also concern the constitutional and other questions that can arise when nations delegate sovereign authority to international institutions. One half of the course will compare and contrast how various constitutional democracies address common legal issues relating to foreign affairs. The other half will focus on how these issues are addressed within the system of external relations of the European Union and its Member States.

by Rachel Brewster and Anna Marhold

This course will explore how trade relations between states are negotiated and governed in regional and multilateral institutions.  The course highlights the pluralistic and overlapping structure of modern international trade law where dozens of preferential trade agreements supplement and compete with the WTO's multilateral trade rules.  The course will focus on two specific challenges to the international trade system: resolving disputes over trade agreements and sustainable development, climate change and energy concerns. 

The first half of the course will focus on the regulation of the interlinked thematic issues sustainable development, climate change and energy regulation and assess their role in the multilateral trading system. It will explore whether the WTO legal framework facilitates or constrains the advancement of sustainable development and higher environmental standards by, inter alia, looking at the phase-out of environmentally harmful fossil fuel subsidies and discussing the role of labeling schemes. It will also look at developments at the plurilateral level, by, amongst others, studying the Trade and Sustainable Development Chapters in EU Free Trade Agreements.

The second half of the course focuses on how states resolve disputes once agreements have been negotiated.  Topics include who has standing to bring claims, the remedies available when breaches occur, and how to manage similar and competing claims in different institutional fora.  It will also examine a range of possible mechanisms to enforce agreements, including retaliation, monetary penalties, voluntary financial compensation, and renegotiation.

by Christopher Buccafusco and David Schwartz

This course will address contemporary issues in international and comparative intellectual property law, including copyrights, patents, trademarks, and design rights. Students will learn about the various treaties that govern international IP law, including the Berne Convention, the TRIPS Agreement, and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. They will also explore how the law in these areas regulate innovation and international trade. Other aspects of the course will focus on comparative IP law, exploring how the US’s treatment of IP doctrines differs from other countries’.   

Topics in the course may include:

• Treatment of artificial intelligence
• Fair use, fair dealing, and users’ rights
• Rights in industrial and fashion design
• Geographic indications of origin for wine, food, and other products
• Antitrust, competition, and innovation
• Patents and access to medicines
• Software patents & patentable subject matter
• Unified Patent Court