Course Name: POL 40995 Comparative Legal Systems
Course Description: Through the lens of Italian law, history and culture, this course introduces students to global legal systems and the specific courts that use their interpretative powers to shape and bind the political world order. In comparing the U.S. legal system with foreign courts that govern international or domestic legal disputes and policy issues, it uses on-site visits to historic legal venues, cultural sites and practicing lawyers or judges to explain whether the rule of law, and justice, is afforded to citizens that are entitled to basic due process or equal rights in criminal or civil cases that capture world attention. Why, for example, is WNBA star Britney Griner serving a nine-year jail sentence in Russia for illegal drug possession? Why, in Saudi Arabia, do women not enjoy the same legal rights as men?; or, in the Sudan, how can it be that female adulterers may be stoned to death for breaking the law? Why is it that Chinese and Russian leaders appear to escape responsibility for committing war crimes against Muslim Uyghurs and innocent Ukrainian civilians? Such cases are the baseline for analyzing the role of international courts, such as the Court of Justice of the European Union or the European Court of Human Rights, which are critical in establishing the rule of law in deciding European post-Brexit legal conflicts or, in other cases, administering justice to Americans like Amanda Knox who was awarded damages against Italian officials for not properly safeguarding her rights during a widely sensationalized murder prosecution. After generally surveying world legal systems, this course uses specific experiential learning exercises to address the reasons why justice is similar, or meted out differently, across world borders, legal systems and courts. By exploring foreign and domestic courts within an international law framework, it gives students the analytical tools to understand a comparative perspective about how the law is politically applied and functions within, and between, nations to produce equitable and just policy outcomes.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: None