Summer in Rome Course Descriptions

All courses offered are 2 credits each. Students may take up to 6 credits during the summer. Most students enroll in 5 credits. The minimum for financial aid eligibility is 4 credits.

International Business Law (2 credit hours)
Eleanor W. Myers (co-director)

This course will introduce you to international business law primarily in a transactional setting. This is a vast subject. To represent clients that want to do business with persons from other countries, a practitioner needs to know something of how contract law works in other countries, and of the international law (such as it may be) that will govern international transactions. In addition, one also needs to know about mechanisms businesses can use to deal with insecurity about delivery or payment. This insecurity can haunt any contract between strangers but is endemic in transactions between strangers when business is conducted at great distances. The lawyer also needs to know how to prospectively shape dispute resolution, should a dispute arise–how to limit where and how disputes are resolved and what law the decision maker will use to decide them. This course will offer a broad survey of these and possibly other areas that confront business lawyers representing clients in international business transactions.

International Fiscal Policy (2 credit hours)
Professor Alice G. Abreu (co-director)

This course will provide an introduction to the issues that all countries must confront as they seek simultaneously to attract and retain the product of foreign investment and to prevent the erosion of their fiscal base through foreign investment by their own nationals. It is designed for students who have had no more than the standard first year courses in contracts and property, although it should prove interesting and challenging for students with additional exposure to business and tax law as well. Nevertheless, the course assumes no prior knowledge of the law of corporations, business associations, international law, or taxation, and it is not a substitute for a technical course that covers the international provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and the regulations promulgated thereunder. The course is policy oriented, and although specific laws will be discussed, the emphasis will be on the policies advanced by those laws, not their technical application.

International Intellectual Property Law (2 credit hours)
Professor Donald Harris

This course will cover in an international context broad outlines of the four major branches of intellectual property law – patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret law – and will consider the following topics: obtaining patent and trademark rights in the U.S. and other typical examination countries, exploitation of intellectual property rights with a focus on technology transfer including compulsory licensing, antitrust considerations, protection of rights with a focus on intellectual property litigation, policing intellectual property rights, preventing international distribution and importation, international trade piracy, gray market goods, defending against patent licensing companies, and other topics as time permits.

Global Scholars Program (1 credit hour)
Various Professors & Lecturers

The Global Scholars Program will provide students with an introduction - both in and out of the classroom- to international perspectives on law and legal practice. Topics will include an introduction to European Law, overview of the Italian legal profession, and international aspects of tax law. Students will be provided an opportunity to reflect on their personal perspectives on law, including their legal insights from the lived Roman experience. Students will also learn how to conduct themselves as professionals in visits to an Italian law firm and the Italian Bar Association. They will be expected to have business cards in English and Italian and will have opportunities to explore and share their learning and experiences with other legal professionals.