Module Area B: Comparative Law

Learning Objectives

The course provides an overview of key constitutional moments and the role of citizens and legal institutions in the creation of constitutional law. It serves to introduce students to the exciting development of constitutional law and jurisprudence in selected African jurisdictions.

Learning Content

This comparative law course introduces students to the constitutional law of selected African countries. The modules combines thematic discussions of a variety of constitutional systems, how constitutions come into being and how they are repealed, and the politics behind key constitutional moments. Themes that run like a thread through the course include: the interplay between constitutional law and politics, and between constitutional law and international law; tensions between constitutionalism and democracy.

Learning Objectives

The seminar is offered as a block seminar and is concluded with a seminar paper.

Learning Content

The selection of topics will vary each semester depending on the topic of the main seminar. 

Learning Objectives

The objective of the module is to critically examine the structures and processes of African regional systems for the promotion and protection of human rights. Upon completion of this Courses, students should be able to competently articulate the role of African institutions in the protection of human rights on the continent. In particular, students should be able to consider and respond to questions such as the appropriateness of the principles and procedures embodied in the documents for African communities.

Learning Content

The module provides an in-depth introduction to the African human rights system. It examines the legal and institutional framework that constitutes the regional protection of human rights within the African Union and highlights the contours of its monitoring system. Various topics related to implementation, children, refugees, women, LGBTI, and access to information are covered to complement this area of law.

Learning Objectives

This module will provide students with an overview of the essential features of various African legal systems, as well as current issues in African jurisdictions. The course serves as an introduction to legal pluralistic jurisprudence for students.

Learning Content

The module provides students with an introduction to various legal systems on the African continent. Substantive discussions of indigenous legal systems, colonial law, and international law will be conducted. Further, issues of legal conflict resolution, access to justice and human rights, good governance and regional integration are addressed. The role of Africa in the global legal order is repeatedly discussed.

Learning Objectives

Students are introduced to the different legal approaches of various international legal systems and acquire the methodological tools necessary to compare these legal systems.

Learning Content

History, aims, functions and methods of comparative law; introduction to the characteristics of different legal families; comparative analysis of selected areas of law.

Learning Objectives

The aim of the module is to provide an understanding of international legal and institutional arrangements that focus on environmental management. Students should be familiar with both the theoretical and practical dimensions of the legal framework after completing the module.

Learning Content

The module highlights several key aspects of international environmental law. It provides an introduction to the principles of international environmental law (such as the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and the precautionary principle), issues related to the protection of the environment (hazardous activities, waste, air pollution), the conservation of the environment (species, biodiversity) and the use/exploitation of environmental resources (trade in animal parts, genetic resources, genetically modified organisms).

Learning Objectives

The goal of the courses is to enable you to understand the role of legal norms in regulating the behavior of states and individuals in international society, as well as the relationship between domestic law and international law.  This goal is achieved through the study of decided cases, legislation, treaty provisions, and scholarly literature referenced in the curriculum.

Learning Content

This course is an introduction to the general problems, sources, and techniques of public international law. Public international law is a system of legal norms designed primarily to regulate relations between sovereign states.  For example, public international law defines the minimum standard of treatment that a sovereign state must provide to the nationals of another state within its territory and the responsibilities of one state to another for failure to meet the required standard of treatment.  Increasingly, individuals are also a direct concern of international law.

Learning Objectives

Each summer semester, a guest lecturer from our partner university, the University of Birmingham School of Law, comes to Bayreuth to present interesting aspects of his or her field as a native speaker.

Learning Content

Learning Content relates to the subject areas of each current guest lecturer.

Learning Objectives

The course provides an overview of the major methods and procedures of English common law. It serves to introduce students to common law techniques, including legal reasoning, interpretation, and the application of precedent.

Learning Content

Common law is the common law based on judicial decisions and recorded in reports of decided cases, which has been applied by the common law courts in England since the Middle Ages. It has evolved into the legal system that also applies today in the United Kingdom, the United States, and most member states of the Commonwealth. The course examines the major approaches in common law courts through the analysis of decided cases. Each topic is addressed through a key principle and relevant case law. Students examine the normative development of precedents related to the topic. As part of the class, they have the opportunity to work on sample cases to practice legal reasoning.

Learning Objectives

This module provides an introduction to the major topics in U.S. constitutional law, primarily through an in-depth look at the formative case law that informs the constitutional text.

Learning Content

These lectures provide an introduction to key topics in U.S. constitutional law, primarily through an in-depth look at the formative jurisprudence that has glossed the constitutional text (particularly in light of the outdated Articles of Confederation) to create the current constitutional framework governing (a) the legal relationships among the three branches of the federal government and (b) the constitutional division of power between the states and the federal government. The lectures also address the jurisprudential development of certain key constitutional concepts with respect to the protection of individual rights, such as the right to due process and equal protection of the laws.