Dublin Study Abroad Program
June 10 to June 29, 2013
Ireland's membership in the European Union has transformed Dublin from a quaint, provincial capital to a vibrant, sophisticated center. Unique provisions in the Irish Constitution have given the Irish people a direct voice in the development of the European Union. This is an important time to understand the Irish perspective on EU membership.
The University of San Francisco summer law program takes place on the picturesque campus of Trinity College. All classes are held at the Aras, a Phiarsaigh Building. Irish faculty teach two of the four courses. Trinity College, which is more than 400 years old, is located on a 35-acre campus in the heart of Dublin. Much of Ireland's history has transpired within or immediately outside the college walls. Trinity's famous library includes The Book of Kells. The campus is within a five-minute walk to the House of Parliament, Dublin Castle, the Abbey Theatre, James Joyce's favorite pubs, and a vast variety of restaurants. Trinity College is ranked among the world's top 50 universities by Times Higher Education world university rankings. Trinity is the only Irish university to be placed within the top 100 world universities.
Courses
| Available Courses |
Instructor |
Units |
| International Criminal Law |
Professor Honigsberg |
2 |
| EU Law and Institutions |
Professor Schuster |
2 |
| EU Intellectual Property Law |
Professor Higgins |
1 |
| European Media and Entertainment Law |
Professor O'Neill |
1 |
International Criminal Law (Prof. Honigsberg) A study of the evolution of international criminal law from the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. The course will also provide an overview of the statutes and main judgments of the U.N. International Criminal Courts for Yugoslavia and Rwanda, and analysis of other serious human rights violations before national courts through territorial or universal jurisdiction.
EU Law and Institutions (Prof. Schuster) The European Union ('EU') is
comprised of 500 million people based in 27 countries. The legal system
governing the European Union is both intricate and fascinating. This course is
designed to explain the functioning of the EU institutions and their law-making
processes. It will also examine the history, constitutional basis and new
architecture of the EU, together with the hierarchy of sources of EU law.
Students will gain an understanding of the political institutions of the
EU, as well as the nature and effect of the EU legal system (with a focus on
the respective jurisdictions and methods of the General Court and the Court of
Justice of the EU). In addition, this course will explore the
ever-changing dynamic of the protection of human rights at EU level. It will
also analyze the legal and practical consequences of European Citizenship.
EU Intellectual Property Law (Prof. Higgins) This course focuses on the intellectual property law of the European Union as it applies to Patents, Trademarks and Copyright, through extensive reference to the relevant legislative instruments and the case-law of the Court of Justice of the European Communities. It comprises 14 hours of class time plus a two hour examination. The aim of this course is to familiarise students with the main principles of EU Intellectual Property Law and the way in which that law interacts with the intellectual property laws of the E.U. Member States. The course is loosely divided into three main sections dealing with Patents, Trademarks and Copyright, respectively. The first section will focus on the rules governing the free movement of patented products throughout the EEA as well as on the history and current status of the Unitary European Patent. The second section will consider Directive 2008/95 which harmonises the substantive requirements for trade mark protection within the EU and the Community Trade Mark Regulation. It will address the following topics: the registration of conventional and non-conventional trademarks; the rights conferred by trademark protection under that directive and regulation; as well as the exhaustion of trade mark rights. The third and final section will consider aspects of the EU’s initiatives in the field of copyright, including, in particular, the protection of databases under EU Law, and the harmonization of certain aspects of copyright in the information society. Students will be expected to do prescribed reading in advance of each class and will be questioned on the content of that reading during the course of the class. Where the topic permits, students will be asked to apply the advance reading to problem questions, designed to assess their understanding of the relevant course material. Units: 1 Prof. Imelda Higgins
European Media and Entertainment Law (Prof. O'Neill) This
course will explore current issues in European Media and Entertainment Law with
a particular focus on the case law under European Convention on Human Rights.
Topics will include free speech theory and the media, political advertising and
expression and the emerging area of the law of privacy. Each of these areas
should provide an interesting counterpoint to the First Amendment position and
the course will be of particular interest to those students who have studied or
plan to study freedom of expression under the Constitution of the United
States.
Faculty
Imelda Higgins, B.C.L. (NUI), LL.M. (NUI), Diploma in European Law (Bruges) – Adjunct at Trinity College
Imelda Higgins is a barrister and adjunct lecturer at the Trinity College Dublin School of Law, where she teaches European Intellectual Property Law at post-graduate level. Imelda Higgins has previously worked as an in-house lawyer in the area of telecommunications and as a law clerk at the Court of Justice of the European Union.
Peter Jan Honigsberg, BA (City University of New York), JD (New York University) – Professor
Professor Peter Jan Honigsberg’s current research focuses on the rule of law and human rights violations that occurred in the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the study of terrorism and other post-9/11 issues. Honigsberg is the founder and director of the Witness to Guantanamo project witnesstoguantanamo.com, which began in fall 2008. He has filmed full-length and in-depth interviews of former detainees in more than a dozen countries who have worked in or are associated with Guantanamo Bay, including prison guards, interrogators, interpreters, medical personnel, psychologists, prosecutors, habeas attorneys, JAG attorneys, high-ranking government officials, high-ranking military officials, and family members of former prisoners. In May 2007, Honigsberg visited Guantanamo Bay. He teaches Terrorism and International Criminal Law, as well as Administrative Law. He is the author of numerous law review articles and books, including Our Nation Unhinged: The Human Consequences of the War on Terror (University of California Press, 2009); “Chasing Enemy Combatants and Circumventing International Law: A License for Sanctioned Abuse” (UCLA International Law and Foreign Affairs Journal, 2007); “Inside Guantanamo,” (Nevada Law Journal, 2010); and Crossing Border Street: A Civil Rights Memoir (University of California Press, 2000). His most recent article is “In Search of a Forum for the Guantanamo Disappeared” (University of Denver Law Review, forthcoming). Honigsberg also frequently contributes pieces to the Huffington Post.
Alexander Schuster, BA (University of Dublin), LLB (University of Dublin), BL (Honorable Society of King’s Inn), M.Litt. (University of Dublin) – Professor at Trinity College
Alex Schuster lectures on both the LL.B. and LL.M. programs at Trinity College. He has written widely on European Union Law, Consumer Law, Sports Law and Product Liability. Alex Schuster was co-editor of the Dublin University Law Journal from 1982 to 1989. He also acted as Executive Director of the Irish Centre for European Law from 1991 through to 1997. Alex Schuster is also a practicing barrister, specializing mainly in the legal areas in which he researches and lectures. He represented Ireland before the European Court of Justice in Case T-89/96, British Steel v. Commission [1999] European Court Reports II – 2089. He has also acted for the State in a number of cases involving the enforcement of European Union Law in the Sea Fisheries and Maritime sectors respectively. Also in a European context, he has represented the Irish salmon farming industry in large scale multi-party product liability litigation against British, Dutch and Norwegian feed manufacturers.
Alex Schuster was appointed to the Consumer Statute Revision Group in 2004 and – in the same year - to the Consumer Strategy Group, a body entrusted with re-structuring the framework for the enforcement of Consumer Law in Ireland. In the wake of its report entitled Make Consumers Count: A New Direction for Irish Consumers, he was subsequently appointed (in May 2006) as a Board Member of the newly established National Consumer Agency. He is also a Member of the International Academy of Consumer and Commercial Law (at Penn State Dickinson School of Law in the U.S.A.). His most recent research paper, on “The Interface between Competition Law and the Business of Sport”, is due for publication in the Penn State International Law Journal later this year.
Ailbhe O’Neill, LL.B, LL.M (Cantab), Ph.D.– Professor at Trinity
College
Prof. O’Neill
completed her doctoral thesis on “The Rights of Companies Under the Irish
Constitution: A Philosophical and Comparative Analysis.” She lectures Corporate
Governance and Taxation Law on the LL.B Programme and Corporate Insolvency Law
on the LL.M Programme. A regular contributor to the Commercial Law
Practitioner, her interest areas include company law and corporate governance.
She has also published a number of articles in the areas of criminal and
constitutional law.