My class

A couple of my friends want to know more about the class I’m here to teach. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, since they are educators themselves! So here goes— The class is part of the Universidade Católica’s undergraduate transnational law program. Students who complete a certain number of hours in the program get a little notation on their undergraduate law degree. The courses are wide ranging, and include a lot of slightly random snapshot classes, depending on the country and expertise of the professor. All classes are in English, which means that the Erasmus students (EU exchange) can participate. The main goal of this transnational curriculum is to open students’ eyes to the broader international context that has become so much a part of the Portuguese legal profession. Since the law degree is their undergraduate degree, most will take another year or two for a Masters, and the transnational program is a nudge to them to consider some of the Global LL.M programs that are offered.

My topic is an introduction to US common law property rules. We read actual judicial decisions, just like US law students do. The goal is to both expose the students to some of the most important rules about the basic property rights to use, exclude, and to transfer, and also to show them the steps of common-law decision making. The traditional Portuguese law curriculum is heavily lecture-based, but I try to make it as interactive as possible. The quality of the students is really very high, but they are so young in comparison to the typical US law student!Read more