Vanderbilt in Venice Summer 2012 Courses

Comparative Corporate Governance (2 credit hours)
This course will provide a general overview of the field of comparative corporate governance, including the United States and several other countries with a focus on the basic economic principles and theories that have been developed. Specific topics will include the theory of the firm, limited liability, share dispersion, agency costs, internal governance structures, executive compensation, shareholder activism, shareholder litigation, the market for corporate control and shareholder voting.
Taught by Randall Thomas, John S. Beasley II Professor of Law and Business

Comparative Perspectives on Counterterrorism (2 credit hours) offers a comparative analysis of the national approaches of, inter alia, the United States, Israel, the European Union, and other states. This multidisciplinary course focuses on the dual interlocking axes of legal norms [flowing from international as well as national perspective] and the accompanying political and operational imperatives. Counterterrorism is a global cooperative phenomenon, and the study of its practice entails the use of case-law, legislation, international law, and national policy directives and operational decisions. Students will be exposed to case-law from a number of jurisdictions, to include international courts and commissions, reaching occasionally contradictory results. Counterterrorism also entails discussion of human rights law, humanitarian law, and comparative statutory study. The course will also entail extended use of scenario driven exercises.
Taught by Michael A. Newton, Professor of the Practice of Law, Vanderbilt Law School

European Union Law (2 credits hours)
The European Union is the most ambitious legal, political, and economic integration among nations in the post-World War II era. This course provides a general introduction to the legal system of the European Union and to selected aspects of substantive EU law. We will examine the EU’s lawmaking and administrative processes, the relationship between EU law and the member states’ laws, the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, and the EU’s system of legal remedies. In addition, we will study aspects of substantive EU law that are central to EU market integration, including protections for the free movement of goods, persons, services, and capital.
Taught by Kevin Stack, Professor of Law

International Law: The International Arbitral Process (2 credit hours)
This course is designed to acquaint students in the understanding of both public and private international law rules from an arbitral perspective. Special emphasis will be made on international economic law. Inquiry is made into the sources of international law and will include related bodies of rules involving more than one legal and political system. Hence, particular reference will be made to new sources of global law such as the Unidroit Principles for international commercial contracts and lex mercatoria. We will focus on the understanding of doctrines, institutions and applications using historical, political and jurisprudential perspectives. The topics employed to explore these themes include:

  • Sources of international law
  • The European Community Law experience
  • The Hague Peace system for intergovernmental dispute settlement and ICJ
  • WTO and economic disputes
  • Mixed arbitration: State contracts; ICSID, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal and UNCC
  • Transnational commercial arbitration

Taught by faculty TBA