LAW 6161 - Comparative Law: The Civil Law Tradition

(EC-LASP)

Fall or Spring. 3 credits. Student option grading.

M. Lasser.

This course introduces students to the institutional and conceptual organization of “civil law” legal systems (which govern almost all of Western and Eastern Europe and Latin America, as well as significant portions of Africa and Asia). The course will therefore provide a broad overview of “civilian” private law and procedure, criminal procedure, administrative law, and constitutional law. The course is particularly interested in the differences between common law and civil law understandings of the relationship between law-making, legal interpretation, and the judiciary.