The Curriculum
The Vienna course offerings are unique among foreign summer programs because of their flexibility. The array of offerings enables students to select the courses that satisfy their curricular and budgetary needs. Students with less available time are able to fit the shorter courses into their work schedules. Combined with the rich travel opportunities near Vienna, the program has grown in popularity every year. Beginning Monday, July 5, we offer a two-week, three-credit course entitled Comparative Legal Systems: Austria, Germany, and the United States.
Professor Herbert Hausmaninger, a leading scholar from Vienna, and Loyola Professor Patrick Hugg teach the course. The course includes visits to the Parliament, the Constitutional Court, and the Supreme Court. The introduction to the civil law and its comparison to the common law are, to many, the most interesting parts of the course. Other students particularly enjoy the European Union aspect of instruction. The students’ appraisal of the course for the past 16 years has been excellent and the ABA evaluation of the program termed it “first rate.” One of recent participant wrote, “Everything with the program was top-notch, including the class, which I found to be the most informative and stimulating class I have taken in law school.”
On Friday afternoon, July 9, the group will take the train to Prague, one of the most exciting cities in Europe, and enjoy a three-day stay. On Monday morning, July 12, class is held at Charles University Law School in Prague. The group will return to Vienna by train that afternoon. The final exam will be given on Saturday morning, July 17.
Following the first course, the group embarks on an optional three-day trip to Salzburg, with its mighty fortress nestled in the picturesque foothills to the Alps. Then on Tuesday, July 20, students have the option of joining the second phase of the summer program. Seven one-hour seminars will be presented over the following two weeks, and students may select two of their choice: 1. Comparative Mental Health Law; 2. International Courts and Tribunals; 3. Comparative Reproductive Bioethics and the Law; 4. International Environmental Law; 5. Comparative Human Rights; 6. Core Issues in International Corporate Law. Each seminar class meets for 90 minutes four days per week.
Course Materials
- First Session - Comparative Legal Systems: Austria, Germany and the United States
First, students are asked to read prior to the class the short introductory text, The Civil Law Tradition: An Introduction to the Legal Systems of Western Europe and Latin America, by John Henry Merryman. This book is provided to you as part of the Program Activities Fee. Please be careful to note however that this introductory text must be obtained in the U.S. prior to traveling to Austria. This text will not be in available in Vienna. You should pick up your text from the International Program’s Office before the end of May 2010. The book will be mailed to all visiting students.
The second text for this class will be Prof. Hausmaninger's text, entitled The Austrian Legal System, which will be available in Vienna. The costs of these texts are included in the program fee.
- Second Session - Seminars
Specially prepared materials or texts will be distributed for these classes in Vienna by the course instructors. The cost of materials is also included in the program fee.