The Law and Development course will address the function and dysfunction of legal systems in the developing world, focusing principally, but not exclusively, on Southeast Asia and Southern Africa. It will include (1) a very basic grounding in the problems facing legal systems in developing nations in addition to (2) a brief introduction to most important aspects of civil law systems, Dutch-Roman legal systems and socialist law legal systems.
The course will have two components, and students are required to enroll for both: first, for one credit, a series of five, two-and-one-half-hour classroom sessions; and second, a research project producing a paper, not necessarily due during the term in which the course is taken. The class will dovetail with the activities of the Program for International Law and Development. Students who do not pursue a practical internship in conjunction with these courses are required to write a one-credit research paper and must therefore enroll for section 001 of Law and Development Research. Those students who arrange to and carry out practical internship work in Namibia or Cambodia (or, at the discretion of the instructor, in another developing nation) must write either a one-credit research paper or an expanded paper for two-credits applying their experience to their research. Students choosing the one-credit option must enroll for section 001 of Law and Development Research; those choosing the two-credit option must enroll for section 002.