FIRST PART: BASICS OF CIVIL LAW

1. Orientation to the Course

2. Introduction to the civil law system

3. Savigny: Classical Legal Thought

4. Jhering & Geny: the Civilian Social Critique of Classical Legal Thought

5. How different are common law & civil law in practice?

SECOND PART: COMMON LAW BASICS

6. Classical & post-realist common law contrasted

7. The civil law doctrine of abuse of right

8. What is policy analysis?

THIRD PART: THE POLITICS OF CONSUMER LAW

9. Is the social present in the contractual core?

A. US consumer protection law

10. Unconscionability and the economics of contractual regulation

11. Regulating transactions through tort and property rules

12. The politics of “freedom of contract” (in the US)

B. European Union consumer protection law

13. Civil law approaches to consumer protection

14. Consumer protection in the European Union

FOURTH PART: THE POLITICS OF INTENTIONAL TORT LAW

15. Hohfeld & the Critique of Rights

16. Veghelan, Bering & the Background Rules Thesis

17. The Creation & Limitation of Sexual Harassment Liability & the Partial Abolition of Criminal Conversation

18. The Necessity Defense & the Economic Analysis of Law

19. The Relation between Policy Analysis & Politics

FIFTH PART: PUBLIC LAW IMPACTS ON PRIVATE LAW: US & GERMANY COMPARED

20. Introduction to German constitutional law and takings doctrine

21. U.S.14th amendment limits on private law rules and takings doctrine

22. German horizontal effect (state action) doctrine

23. The US state action doctrine

24. TBA