COURSES

All classes will be conducted in English. Knowledge of the Russian language is not required.

All students are expected to register for Russian Legal System in Transition, and for one of the other courses.

Russian Legal System in Transition (2 credits)
Professor Christopher Osakwe, Program Director, graduate of Moscow State University School of Law; former Eason Weinmann Professor of Comparative Law at Tulane University School of Law.

The course will examine the phenomenal transformation of the Russian legal system from its pre-Soviet and Soviet past into a modern continental European civil law system. Special attention will be given to reforms of the infrastructure of the legal system, core elements of private and public law, judicial and quasi-judicial processes. Classroom discussions will be enriched with guest lectures by lawyers, judges and academics as well as supplemented with clinical visits to legal institutions directly involved in the efforts to reform the legal system.

Law and Literature (2 credits)
Associate Professor Sharon Pocock, Touro Law Center.

This course explores the treatment of the theme of law in various literary genres, in particular, the ways in which literature reflects the developing state of the law and attendant societal attitudes toward the law, comparing shifting trends over time and contrasting law in the literature of different cultures.
This version of the course will focus on the theme of law in different genres of Russian literature (in English translation) from different periods of the country’s history. (No prerequisite)

Comparative Constitutional Law and Human Rights (2 credits)
Professor and Associate Director M. Isabel Medina, Loyola New Orleans School of Law.

This course engages students in the comparative study of various constitutional systems. The course focuses on comparative approaches to human rights, including abortion and reproductive rights, free speech rights, religious rights, and social and economic rights. Grades are determined by a final examination.