European Legal Systems in Comparison with the United States
The course introduces students to the civil law systems and cultures
of Europe, using primarily France and Germany as examples. It focuses
not so much on substantive law but on the law machinery, i.e., legal
actors (and their training), institutions (especially courts),
procedures (especially civil procedure), and the constitutional
framework, including the impact of European law. We will discuss the
vices and virtues of such salient features as tuition-free legal
training on an undergraduate level, a highly regulated bar, a strictly
merit-based career judiciary, and civil procedure without juries,
discovery, contingency fees or punitive damages - all in constant
comparison with common law approaches and especially the US legal
system. The course will introduce students to the way European lawyers
think and thus enable them better to communicate with colleagues on
the other side of the Atlantic. All materials will be in English.