International and Comparative | DEV-College of Law | Illinois

796: Comparative Equality Law

Krista Gaedtke — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 20:02:34 +0000

Comparative Equality Law uses a problem-based approach to examine how the law protects equality rights in different jurisdictions. The course will comparatively examine US, European, and other national, regional, and international legal systems (including those of India, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, and South Africa) and provide a global overview of legal protection from and legal responses to inequalities. The course covers 6 topic modules:

Theories and sources of contemporary equality law;
Employment discrimination law (race, sex, age, disability, LGBTQI+);
Equality and religion (secularism, human rights and the legal rights of religious minorities);
Sexual harassment/violence;
Rights of persons with disabilities; and
Affirmative action (race, caste, origin)/gender parity.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: papers/projects

796: Immigration Law Seminar

Krista Gaedtke — Wed, 07 Apr 2021 14:13:01 +0000

Immigration law is, and has long been, an important, contested, and complex field. This seminar offers an introduction to the regulation of immigration and nationality in the United States, with a focus on core questions implicating who may enter, remain, and join. Topics may include: the allocation of power over immigration (both within the federal system and between the federal and state governments); international aspects of refugee law and subsidiary protection; the integration of criminal and immigration law and systems (crimmigration); national security aspects of immigration law; Article III jurisdiction over immigration matters; and revocation of naturalization.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None, but familiarity with any of criminal law, administrative law, federal jurisdiction, federalism, international law, or international human rights law may be helpful in selecting a research topic.

Evaluation: This is a research seminar in which students will identify, research, and write about a topic related to immigration or nationality law. The topic is of the student’s choice, but must be approved by the professor in advance. The paper should be between thirty and forty double spaced pages inclusive of footnotes – about the length of a solid law review student note.

796: Counter-Terrorism Law & Policy

Krista Gaedtke — Tue, 14 Jul 2020 18:52:41 +0000

In the years since the September 11, 2001 attacks, the problem of terrorism has become one of the most important issues facing the international community. This course will consider the history and causes of terrorism, the challenges that terrorism poses for law enforcement, and the effects of anti-terrorism activities on human rights and civil liberties.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: Grades in the course will be based on your participation in class and on the final exam. Grades will be assigned based on the following: Take-home final exam: 50%; and Class Participation: 50%.

792: Laws of War

Doyle — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:47:53 +0000

This class investigates whether and how the laws of war constrain different actors. This class will provide a historical overview of the development of the laws of war as well as an exploration of its multiple and sometimes competing purposes. Questions about enforcement, compliance, and the role of law in influencing state behavior will likely predominate. We will also look at domestic implementation of the laws of war with a focus on American statutes, court cases, and military manuals.

Sequence and Prerequisites: There are no prerequisites, although familiarity with International Law is helpful.

Evaluation: Grades will be based on a combination of class participation and a final exam.

796: Comparative Constitutional Law

Doyle — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:47:53 +0000

The course will tackle three main aspects of contemporary constitutionalism in Western democracies, countries in transition to democracy and beyond, namely:

“Constitution-building”, which treats fundamental subjects such as transitions to democracy, constitution-making and implementation processes, actors and factors of the transitions, constitution v. constitutionalism. Focus will be put on the processes of transition taking place in North Africa and in the Middle East following the Arab uprisings.
“The Division of Governmental Powers”, which explores the ways in which limitations on governmental powers have been pursued in different constitutional systems (presidential v. parliamentary democracy, federalism and regionalism, secession and self-determination…). Focus will be put on institutional and territorial transformations in some Western consolidated democracies such as in Italy, Spain and United Kingdom.
“Protection of Fundamental Rights”, which examines some of the most relevant instruments of protection of fundamental rights and freedoms both in consolidated and new democracies (e.g. lustration laws/political
isolation laws; militant democracy and party banning; the unconstitutional-constitutional amendments doctrine…).

Course requirements include regular class attendance, active participation in class discussion and final examiniation. Students are expected to have read the assigned materials before each class. Class time will be divided between lectures and discussion. Each topic will be introduced by the instructor. The readings will be provided some weeks before the start of the course.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None.

Evaluation: Grades will be based on an administered final exam, class participation and discussion.

656: International Law

Doyle — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:47:53 +0000

The International Law course examines the variety of roles played by law and lawyer in ordering the relations between states and the nationals of states. The course utilizes a number of specialized contexts as a basis for exploring these roles. The contexts include, among others, the status of international law in domestic courts; the efficacy of judicial review by the International Court of Justice; the effort to subsume international economic relations under the fabric of bilateral and multilateral treaties; and the application — or misapplication — of law to political controversies that entail the threat of actual use of force. The course proceeds through an examination of problems selected to illuminate the operation of law within each of these contexts.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: Take-home exam

657: International Human Rights Law

Chris Davies — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:47:53 +0000

Based primarily on a series of contemporary “real world” problems, the course introduces the student to the established and developing legal rules and procedures governing the protection of international human rights. Its thesis is that there exists a substantial body of substantive and procedural International Human Rights Law, and that lawyers, government officials, and concerned citizens should be familiar with the policies underlying this law and its enforcement, as well as with the potential it offers for improving the basic lot of human beings everywhere. Additionally, the course presupposes that the meaning of “human rights” is undergoing fundamental expansion, and therefore explores Marxist and Third World conceptions of human rights as well as those derived from the liberal West.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: Exam

654: International Trade Policy

Doyle — Thu, 22 Dec 2016 19:47:53 +0000

The course in International Trade is an introductory level course that includes 1) a brief introduction to economic principles used to analyze international trade; 2) an analysis of national, regional and international systems of international trade regulation, focusing on the U.S., EU and the WHO/GATT; and 3) a study of the types and operation of import restraints and export controls. The latter topic takes up about 60% of the course.

The course complements the course in International Business Transactions (Law 653), which deals primarily with the structuring and financing of international business transactions, and the course in International Law, which deals primarily with non-commercial matters. An attempt will be made to coordinate the coverage of the course with that of International Business Transactions (Law 653) so as to provide a comprehensive sequence dealing with legal issues raised by international commerce.

Sequence and Prerequisites: None

Evaluation: The exam will be a take-home exam – it will be distributed at the end of classes and will be due March 15. I reserve the right to adjust grades for class performance and/or attendance.