Prague Study Abroad Program

July 8 to July 29, 2012

This three-week program looks at the legal systems being developed in European Union.

Charles University, founded in 1348, is Europe's fifth oldest university and the site of the program. The law school is located on the bank of the Vltava (Moldau) River, a five-minute walk from Prague's spectacular Old Town Square. Student housing is available in a university dormitory within a 20-minute walk.

Virtually untouched by World War II, Prague is one of Europe's most beautiful cities. With a population of more than one million and a history reaching deep into the Middle Ages, it offers the visitor an inexhaustible variety of crooked streets, architectural surprises, tucked away pubs, and musical and theatrical events.

In past summer programs, students in Prague met with the Czech Minister of Justice, the President of the Supreme Court, the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic, and the Rector of Charles University. They also enjoyed field trips to the Czech countryside led by Czech faculty members.

Courses

European Union Economic Law (Prof. Kral)The course will explain how EU functions as Customs Union, Common Market and Monetary Union. Therefore the course will primarily deal with following areas of EU Economic Law - EU Competition Law, EU Common Market Law, Euro currency Law. The issue of enforcement of EU Economic Law by European Commission and Court of Justice of the EU will be tackled as well.

European Constitutional Law (Prof. Kühn)This course will explain the divergence between judicial review as practiced in the United States and centralized judicial review in Central Europe. We will explore constitutional transnational law in Europe and its impact on Central European countries and discuss substantive issues of constitutional law in Germany and post-communist Europe. We will read and analyze decisions of European courts relating to topics such as abortion, role of religion, criminal process, etc.

Antitrust from a Global Perspective (Prof. Markham) This course will provide students with an introduction to basic competition law from a global perspective.  The readings and class sessions will focus on the antitrust laws and underlying policies in the U.S., the E.U. and China as leading examples of antitrust regimes.  Subjects will include the laws and economic policies regarding anticompetitive conduct including conspiracies, monopolization, mergers and acquisitions. The course will also consider efforts by nations to conform their divergent laws and to coordinate enforcement in the context of a global economy.  

Comparative Law: Legal Systems of the World (Prof. Donovan) This course will focus on the European civil law tradition, examining its present-day reality in Europe (Czech Republic), Latin America and Asia (China).  The course will also look briefly at non-U.S. common law systems (Ireland) and customary law African systems (Ethiopia). 

Faculty

Dolores A. Donovan, BA (Stanford University), JD (Stanford University) - Professor and Director of International Programming

Professor Donovan specializes in constitutional and comparative law. Her publications deal with the legal systems of developing nations and criminal justice systems. Her articles can be found in domestic and foreign law journals, ranging from peer-reviewed publications such as the American Journal of Comparative Law to the Ethiopian Law Review. Donovan is a consultant to foundations and government international development agencies. She was the South Asia regional senior equity advisor to the U.S. Agency for International Development, a senior Fulbright Professor at the Ethiopian Civil Service College, a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School, and a visiting professor at the UC Hastings College of Law and the East China Institute of Politics and Law in Shanghai.

Jesse W. Markham Jr., BA (Harvard University), MA (University of Massachusetts), JD (Vanderbilt University) - Marshall P. Madison Professor of Law

Professor Markham is a leading antitrust practitioner who has guided the antitrust departments of Holme Roberts & Owen, Morrison & Foerster, and Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe. He has also served as an antitrust prosecutor in California and Massachusetts. He is a contributing author to Antitrust Dispute Resolution (2007) and California Antitrust Law (First, Second, and Third Editions, plus forthcoming), and the author of numerous articles in scholarly and bar publications. Prior to joining the faculty full time, he served as an adjunct professor since 1992 and lectured at both the Haas Business School and Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley. Markham also practiced corporate law in Paris, France, with the firm now known as Clifford Chance.

Richard Kral, JUDr, LLM (Charles University) - Law Professor at Charles University

Professor Kral lectures and writes on European Union law at Charles University. He also has a master's degree in European Union Law from the University of Amsterdam.

Zdenek Kühn, JUDr (Charles University), PhD (Charles University), SJD/LLM (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) - Law Professor at Charles University

Professor Kühn is an associate professor of legal theory and political science at Charles University Law School. He has served as a justice to the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic since Jan. 1, 2008. He received the The Hessel Yntema Prize, in Berkeley, Calif., for the best article by a scholar up to the age of 40 published in vol. 52 of the American Journal of Comparative Law.