Vienna Summer Legal Studies 2008
Two – 2 week sessions:
July 7 – 19 / July 22 – August 2
The University of Vienna Law School serves as the site of Loyola University New Orleans College of Law’s Vienna Summer Legal Studies Program. Numerous courses exploring comparative and international law is taught by faculty from both law schools. Course descriptions, dates, and other highlights are set forth below, and interested students are invited to see this, as well as an additional photo gallery.
Photo Contest
Our 2006 photo gallery contains pictures submitted for our annual photo contest.
The City
Seat of the Habsburg dynasty for more than 600 years and capital of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy until 1918, Vienna provides the rich and historic site for the program. A world-renowned center for art, architecture, music, and diplomacy, Vienna also served as a political nerve center of Europe for centuries. Located at the crossroads between East and West, Vienna has long been, and continues to be, the meeting place for diplomats, merchants, kings, and presidents. Vienna provides all of the trappings one would expect in an international city: palaces, monuments, gardens, museums, theaters, opera, and the university. Vienna’s famous cafes and coffee houses offer leisurely places to socialize. A picturesque walk takes the students to the famous “Ringstrasse,” past the Parliament, City Hall, and National Theater into the old city to the law school. In summer, the sidewalk cafes, markets, and festivals bring added life to cobblestone streets. This spectacular location and international environment enable the student to experience the impressive historical and cultural flavor of this great European capital.
Visits to government institutions and related lectures complement the law curriculum. Optional after-class walking tours highlight the cultural life of Vienna. From the art at the Belvedere, Mozart at the Schönbrunn Palace, and dining in nearby vineyards, Vienna lives up to its reputation. Finally, the well-known Viennese cuisine also delights the American visitor.
Side trips to Prague, Salzburg, and Venice highlight each weekend of the program. These side trips to three of Europe’s most popular and culturally significant sights enhance the experience.
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 7, 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 a court of appeals. 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 14 years has been excellent and the ABA evaluation of the program termed it “first rate.” One of last year’s participants 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 11, 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 14, class is held in Prague. The group will return to Vienna by train that afternoon. The final exam will be given on Saturday morning, July 19.
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 22, students have the option of joining the second phase of the summer program. Six 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. Introduction to International Copyright Law; 5. Comparative Criminal Justice: Choices in Core Criminal Process Issues; 6. Comparative Human Rights; 7. Core Issues in National and Corporate Law. Each seminar class meets for 90 minutes each day.
Following the first four seminar class days, on Friday, July 25, the group travels to Venice for a three-day weekend. The seminar classes resume on Tuesday, July 29, and the exams will be given on Saturday, August 2.
Faculty and Course Descriptions
Comparative Legal Systems is taught by Professor Herbert Hausmaninger of the University of Vienna College of Law and by Professor Patrick Hugg of Loyola College of Law. Hausmaninger is a former dean of the University of Vienna College of Law and is a regular visitor to the University of Virginia Law School. His specialties include Roman law, Russian law, and comparative law. Hugg is a former associate dean at Loyola College of Law and has taught comparative law, European Union law, International Trade Law, appellate advocacy, and other courses. Professor Hugg is the director of the law school’s international programs, and has spoken or taught in Vienna, Prague, Moscow, Budapest, and Istanbul.
This course will present a comparative view of the legal traditions and institutions of the three countries as well as consideration of the common and civil law perspectives on law, legal education, and legal culture. Class instruction will be complemented by visits to the Austrian Parliament, the Austrian Constitutional Court, and the Austrian Supreme Court. This course satisfies Loyola University School of Law's Perspectives requirement.
Comparative Mental Health Law is taught by Brian Bromberger, Dean and the Judge Adrian G. Duplantier Distinguished Professor of Law at Loyola. He was educated in his native Australia where he earned a bachelor of laws degree with honors at Melbourne University. He also completed an LL.M. degree at the University of Pennsylvania. He began his teaching career in law in 1969 and has taught or served as a visiting professor at law schools in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States including the University of Pennsylvania, Syracuse University, the University of Utah, and William and Mary College. He came to Loyola from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he had been associate dean for academic affairs and professor of law since 1995.
This course will explore current issues and trends in mental health law, including state treatment of the mentally ill, execution for capital crimes, involuntary committal procedures, and others.
International Courts and Tribunals is taught by Prof. Ursula Kriebaum who serves on the University of Vienna law faculty. She has taught international human rights law at the University of Vienna, the European Masters Programme in Human Rights and Democratization (Venice (Italy), Vienna (Austria)), the Austrian Federal Academy and for North West Council on Study Abroad. She has worked in the office of the legal adviser of the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was legal expert in the team of the Austrian Special Envoy for Holocaust Restitution Issues. She was delegate to the UN Preparatory Committee for an International Criminal Court. She served as expert in an EU Twinning Project on the Improvement of Statement-taking Methods and Rooms in Turkey. She was nominated by the Austrian government as one of three candidates for the election of the Austrian judge to the European Court of Human Rights in 2007. From 1999 to 2002 she was Member of the Human Rights Advisory Board of the Austrian Ministry of the Interior nominated by Amnesty International.
This course will offer an introduction to the Courts and Committees supervising human rights treaties, International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes, International Criminal courts and Tribunals, The International Court of Justice, and the GATT-WTO.
Comparative Reproductive Bioethics and the Law is taught by Kathryn Venturatos Lorio, Leon Sarpy Professor of Law and a former Associate Dean at Loyola. She is a member of the American Law Institute and the Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute, also serving as a member of the Marriage-Persons and Successions and Donations Committees of the latter. She is an Academic Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel, a member of International Association of Comparative Law, has served as chair of the Section on Women and Legal Education of the Association of American Law Schools, and is currently Vice-Chair of the Louisiana Legislative Task Force on Assisted Conception and Artificial Means of Reproduction. She is author of numerous articles on family and estate law and is also the co-author of both a textbook and a treatise on Successions and Donations (Gifts and Estates). She has lectured on family law and successions issues both in the United States and Europe.
Assisted reproductive technologies present challenges to legal systems throughout the world. This course will explore the treatment by courts and legislative bodies of those issues, examining relevant historical and cultural differences of nations and the cumulative effect of those differences on the legal approaches taken.
Introduction to International Copyright Law is taught by Dane Ciolino who is the Alvin R. Christovich Professor of Law at Loyola Law School, New Orleans, where he teaches Copyright Law, Computer Law and related courses. Professor Ciolino practiced intellectual-property litigation in New York and New Orleans prior to joining the Loyola Law School faculty.
This course will cover the protection of copyrightable works of American authors in foreign countries and, conversely, the protection of copyrightable works of foreign authors in the United States. Among other topics, the course will consider the Berne Convention and the extent to which the law protects authors moral rights in America and elsewhere.
Comparative Criminal Justice: Choices in Core Criminal Process Issues is taught by Stephen Higginson, Professor of Law at Loyola. He was educated at Harvard College, graduating with honors summa cum laude, and then at Yale Law School, where he was editor-in-chief of the Yale Law Journal. He clerked for the late Supreme Court Justice Byron White and has firsthand experience with criminal justice having been a federal prosecutor for almost twenty years. He teaches evidence, criminal justice and constitutional law courses at Loyola.
This course explores current issues in criminal justice, including plea bargaining, sentencing, pretrial release, juries and the exclusionary rule, with a focus on getting to first principles and in-class advocacy.
Comparative Human Rights is taught by Professor Richard Gamauf of The University of Vienna Law School. Gamauf serves on the University of Vienna law faculty, and has lectured on human rights in Loyola’s summer program for several years. He earned his Magister and Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. He also served as law clerk at the Austrian Constitutional Court.
This seminar is taught by an Austrian human rights expert who will lead students in comparison of American and European Union human right sources, principles, and enforcement.
Core Issues in National and European Corporate Law will taught by Fabian Krings and Christian Temmel.
Fabian Krings is a lawyer with the international law firm DLA Piper in Vienna where he specializes in corporate law. He holds a BA in philosophy from the London School of Economics and is admitted to the bar in Munich, Germany, and as a European Lawyer in Austria.
Christian Temmel is a partner with DLA Piper specializing in corporate law, in particular in capital markets and corporate finance issues. He holds a doctor degree from the University of Vienna, Austria, and an MBA from the University of Oxford, UK, and is admitted to the Vienna bar
This course will cover an introduction to Austrian, German and European corporate law and highlight the most important current legal issues that companies are facing in national and trans-national business, including relevant topics for US-corporations dealing in Europe.
Tuition
Tuition is $1150 for the three-credit hour course and $500 for each seminar. (Note: Financial aid is available from most law schools.) A program activity fee of $175 covers health insurance, one week transit pass, academic tours, tour book, welcome reception, tour of Vienna, and all course texts and materials. Due to the advance preparations and costs inherent in presenting a law program abroad, no refunds are possible after May 1, 2008.
Lodging
While the Vienna Summer Legal Studies Program does not provide housing, we can recommend three options that our students have enjoyed over the past years.
First, the Atlas Hotel is where program personnel stay and from where many of our activities depart. The Atlas Hotel is a privately owned dormitory with large bathrooms, a nice restaurant, a pleasant patio restaurant/bar for meeting other students and is located near the subway and the popular nightly film festival. Double rooms at the Atlas Hotel are about $30 per night/per person including free internet and breakfast.
Second, the Avis Hotel is a hostel located in close proximity to the Atlas Hotel. The rooms are without private facilities. Showers and bathrooms are on the hall. Double rooms at the Avis are about $22 per night/per person. Breakfast is included.
Specific details of all the hotel recommendations are listed in the Student Handbook which is sent after acceptance in the program. Hotel reservations are the responsibility of the student. Major credit cards are accepted.
Cultural Events
Students participate in the rich array of cultural offerings available in the imperial city of Vienna both individually and in groups. Guided group tours of such institutions as the world-famous Kunsthistorische Museum (Habsburg collection), the Schönbrunn, the Belvedere, the nearby cathedrals, and the renowned Café Central are conducted daily after class. These are informal and optional tours for which the students bear the cost of any admission fees. Many students explore Vienna with the guided tour book provided by the program. Vienna is filled with fine restaurants, unique coffee houses, and diverse evening entertainment. The summer brings lively outdoor activity to the city from nightly film festivals to classical concerts.
Application
The Vienna program employs a rolling admissions policy. Applications are considered in the order of their receipt, and applications showing potential for successful study abroad are accepted promptly, until the class is filled. After 60 students have enrolled, a waiting list is used to admit further students depending on course availability. Please note that the Vienna program has been our most popular, and some seminars have been closed early due to overenrollment.
To apply, please fill out the Secure Online Application Form or the Print Application Form (Adobe PDF) and mail or fax it to us, along with a $25 application fee (nonrefundable) and $100 nonrefundable registration deposit. Credit cards are accepted. You are required to have your law school certify that you are in good standing and confirm that the credits earned in this summer program will be accepted by your school. A second payment of $100 will be due January 30, 2008. The remainder of tuition is due June 1, 2008, and because of the advance financial preparations necessary to conduct programs abroad, tuition cannot be refunded after May 1, 2008.
Cancellation Policy
Loyola does not anticipate the need to cancel the Vienna program. However, ABA regulations require a disclosure that certain events such as war, natural disaster, or insufficient enrollment could cause cancellation. Should this occur, all deposits and funds paid for the program would be refunded. Furthermore, Loyola would make every effort to find you a comparable program sponsored by another law school.
Also, should any changes occur in the course offerings or other significant aspects of the program, applicants who have paid a deposit for the program will be given the opportunity to obtain a full refund of all fees paid.
Disabilities
Persons with disabilities are encouraged to attend as the law school and hotels are modern, but interested students who request special accommodations should contact program coordinator Judy Corcoran to discuss availability. This measure is taken to ensure that facilities comparable to those in the United States are available in Austria for the disabled.
Academic Policies
Loyola’s general academic policies apply to foreign programs. Thus, students must attend 80 percent of all classes and final examinations will be graded on the traditional A through F scale. Students must check with their law schools to determine that the credit and grade will be accepted toward graduation requirements at their institutions.
Any student currently enrolled and in good standing at an ABA-accredited law school may register for the Vienna program. Last year’s program was enrolled to capacity (more than 107 students from Loyola and other law schools). As foreign students are invited, a few students from Austria and other foreign countries may participate.
Applicants should be aware that participation in foreign programs cannot always be used to accelerate graduation. Students interested in acceleration of graduation should consult an appropriate official at their own law school in light of ABA Accreditation Standard 305, Interpretation 4.
For more information contact:
Judy Corcoran
International Programs Coordinator
Loyola University College of Law
7214 St. Charles Avenue - Box 901
New Orleans, LA 70118
Tel. (504) 861-5563, Fax (504) 861-5480
E-mail address: corcoran@loyno.edu