Course Name and Number: Global Lawyering: Comparative Criminal Law Practices (Iceland) (Online), LAW-7830-601
Faculty: Professor Cynthia Alkon and Professor Meg Penrose
Theme: Comparative Criminal Law Practices
Course Description:
Students are invited to join Professors Alkon and Penrose in studying comparative criminal law practices between the United States and Iceland. This class will discuss the similarities and differences between Icelandic criminal law practice and our own. The topics may include: differing law enforcement practices; differing or similar roles for prosecutors; the role and availability of defense lawyers; rehabilitation v. punishment in criminal sentencing practices; use of restorative justice; and the impact of racism in a diverse society v. practices in a more homogenous country. In addition, we anticipate discussing the different approaches to legal reform, including Iceland’s recent inclusive efforts to write a new Constitution. The Black Lives Matter movement in the United States includes calls for systemic legal reform that share some commonality with the constitutional process in Iceland—including street protests. We will evaluate the distinctions, trying to discern if there are Icelandic practices that might be useful models for reform in the United States.
Group Project:
Students will work towards a final project outlining suggested reforms to one or more aspect of the U.S. criminal legal system, including the legislative process, at the state level or in the federal system, including possible pilot projects, based on practices observed/studied in Iceland.

Course Name and Number: Global Lawyering: Solar Power, Wastewater Treatment, and Agriculture (Israel) (Online), LAW-7830-603
Faculty: Professor Gabriel Eckstein and Professor Nancy Welsh
Theme: Solar Power, Wastewater Treatment, and Agriculture
Course Description and Group Project:
In collaboration with Dr. Clive Lipshin at the Arava Institute in Israel (https://arava.org/), students will work to support Dr. Lipshin’s efforts to facilitate wastewater recycling at the small, local level for Palestinians and Bedouin communities in Israel. (See story of work with a Bedouin community in the Negev desert at https://www.israel21c.org/bedouin-village-tests-new-solar-powered-wastewater-treatment-system/). This will likely involve municipal and national law related to wastewater, treated water, and water use standards; regulatory compliance; solar energy issues; social and cultural norms and standards; local community capacity; business opportunities and private-public partnership; dispute resolution related to compliance, public-private sector relations, and other areas; and possibly cross-border legal and political issues. The project will be developed to produce transferable lessons to small and rural Texas communities.

Course Name and Number: Global Lawyering: International Financial Centers (Cayman Islands), LAW-7830-602
Field Course: May 16-29, 2021
Faculty: Professor Mark Burge and Dean Andrew Morriss (Texas A&M University School of Innovation)
Themes: jurisdictional choice, managing financial risk, specialized legal infrastructure and expertise, private law, captive insurance, catastrophe bonds, trusts and foundations, international private investment and development
Course Description:
What exactly could make an innocuous small island attractive for business and financial activity? Increasingly, the answer for sophisticated parties is regulatory specialization. Most U.S. lawyers are aware of Delaware’s reputation as a leader in corporate law, but far fewer understand the analogous role of international financial centers (IFCs) like Jersey and Guernsey (English Channel) and the Cayman Islands (Caribbean). Some U.S. states have even jumped into the arena to directly compete with IFCs, as well. How do small nations and states create regulatory specialties, and what makes them succeed where others fail? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is not about having a “lax” regulatory regime. Instead, a strong commitment to the rule of law is foundational, as is nimble expertise that is best suited to small jurisdictions.
Using a variety of IFCs and their stateside competitors as case studies, this course will seek to understand how jurisdictions like the Cayman Islands, Jersey, Guernsey, and others develop and use law and legal culture to compete with great nations (and with one another) to create sophisticated areas of expertise and attract money from around the world. Specialty topics touched upon in the course will include:
     • captive insurance companies
     • catastrophe bonds
     • securitization and hedge funds
     • non-traditional trusts and foundations
     • tax neutrality
Future lawyers (including 1Ls) who want to build a diverse toolkit of solutions for practice in the 21st Century will benefit from broadening their horizons with this course, which will include guest speakers who are important players in international policy, regulation, and law enforcement.
Group Project:
Analyzing and comparing multiple legal regimes regarding their suitability for structuring, marketing, and attracting investment and other business activity in a specialized area.

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Through on-site visits to various Israeli and Palestinian ministries, non-government organizations, and water and energy-related facilities, students explore water and energy procurement, development, and distribution in Israel and the Palestinian Territories, as well as associated environmental concerns. They also examine the challenges that resources scarcity, political instability, differing cultural norms, and other factors play in natural resources management and consider applicable domestic and international laws and dispute resolutions mechanisms.

“This field study will be a deep dive into the regulatory, political, and environmental issues at play,” Nancy Welsh, Aggie Dispute Resolution Program Director, said. “The current disputes over seawater desalination and its attending environmental impact are very timely, and will give our students insight into the nuances of dispute resolution in a different part of the world that cannot be replicated in the classroom.”

Details:
Combined classroom and field experience in Israel: explore the history, culture, and legal issues related to water, energy, and associated dispute resolution challenges; examine basics of international and comparative law, cross-cultural communication, and being a global professional.

This course includes a field study trip to Israel. Students will complete the Field Study Preparation for 0.5 credits as a Spring course with the Field Trip completed in May and the Field Study Debrief, Reflection Exercises, and Research Project completed during the Fall semester for an additional 2.5 credits.

Offered Spring 2018.

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Situated as it is along the North Sea, Aberdeen, and its ancient University, naturally evolved into an energy center. Our program takes advantage of the broad expertise--in terms of both scholarship and business--growing out of Aberdeen's extensive connections to the North Sea oil and gas fields. More broadly, we consider EU and International Law as they apply to energy, environmental, and climate change policy issues. And we give particular attention to dispute resolution in Scotland, the UK, and the EU, including arbitration. Finally, we take advantage of the Scottish location to learn about the history and evolution of Scots Law and the present mix of legal institutions.

“Arbitration has long played an important role in dispute resolution in Scotland and, as a result, Scotland has developed its own body of arbitration law,” said Executive Professor of Law Randy Gordon, who will lead the course. “As part of our field study in Aberdeen, we will examine the particulars of the Scottish arbitration scheme and how it fits within and diverges from the international commercial arbitration system.”

Details:
This course includes a field study trip to Scotland. Students will complete the Field Study Preparation for 0.5 credits as a Spring course with the Field Trip completed in May and the Field Study Debrief, Reflection Exercises, and Research Project completed during the Fall semester for an additional 2.5 credits.

Offered Spring 2018.

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Students experience firsthand the challenges of developing rule of law in a post-conflict environment. Students examined how the history of conflicts and genocide have impacted the Cambodian legal system. Through hands-on experience, students investigate the issues of environmental law, land rights and labor arbitration affecting Cambodia today. Students also gain an understanding of being a global professional.

Details:
This course includes a field study trip to Cambodia. Students will complete the Field Study Preparation for 0.5 credits as a Spring course with the Field Trip completed in May and the Field Study Debrief, Reflection Exercises, and Research Project completed during the Fall semester for an additional 2.5 credits.

Offered Spring 2017.

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Students travel to the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands to explore firsthand the basics of international and comparative law, cross cultural communication and being a global professional. As Jersey is a major international financial center, the students examine how businesses and investors make use of Jersey structures to invest in Great Britain, the European Union and the world. They gain an understanding of the British constitution, European Union financial regulation and the legal issues involved in wealth management.

Details:
This course includes a field study trip to Jersey. Students will complete the Field Study Preparation for 0.5 credits as a Spring course with the Field Trip completed in May and the Field Study Debrief, Reflection Exercises, and Research Project completed during the Fall semester for an additional 2.5 credits.

Offered Spring 2017.

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Applying international and comparative law concepts along with cross-cultural communication, the students meet with government officials, NGOs, judges, practicing lawyers & communities to understand the complexities of land use and ownership, including the interplay between customary and statutory law in Ghana.

Details:
This course includes a field study trip to Ghana. Students will complete the Field Study Preparation for 0.5 credits as a Spring course with the Field Trip completed in May and the Field Study Debrief, Reflection Exercises, and Research Project completed during the Fall semester for an additional 2.5 credits.

Offered Spring 2017.

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The U.S.-Mexico borderlands have loomed large in the mythology of Texas. Come experience the power of the borderlands, as the myth collides with the reality of the 21st century in Texas A&M University School of Law’s collaborative summer program with Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) in Laredo, Texas. Laredo is the largest port of entry in Texas and is the third-largest port of entry in the United States. Laredo’s annual import-export trade topped $280 billion in 2015. Total trade back and forth across the U.S.-Mexico border amounts to almost $1.5 billion each day.

The Laredo program consists of two parts, totaling six credits over seven weeks. The first part is a two-credit, two-week course called “Borderlands Law,” which will be held on the Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) campus in Laredo and will include guest speakers and field trips. Six TAMIU students will participate in this class.

The second part of this summer program will be a five-week, four-credit externship placement in Laredo, immediately following the two-week Borderlands Law course. The externship will place students in a public interest setting or private law firm setting in Laredo.

Details:
Preference for enrollment in the Borderlands Law course and the associated Laredo externship will be given to those students who enroll in both courses (i.e., the Borderlands Law course and the Laredo externship).
Enrollment limited to six (6) law students.

Offered Summer 2016, Summer 2017, Summer 2018, and Summer 2019.

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This course is a combined classroom and field experience in the Cayman Islands designed to provide a foundation for the examination of international business and tax strategies and related policy issues. The course will provide introductory knowledge and concepts to students, so that, as part of their legal practice, they will be able to assist clients in evaluating international business strategies. Students will study the various business goals that may motivate U.S. corporations to organize and utilize offshore business entities, and will examine the broader policy and legal issues related to the use of such entities. Most importantly, students will have the opportunity to meet and interact with professionals and policymakers from the Cayman Islands.

This course includes a field trip to the Cayman Islands during Spring Break. All three segments will be completed in the Spring semester for a total of 2 credits.

Offered Spring 2016.