Established in 2004, the Common Law Section’s intensive three-week-long January Term allows students to enroll in just a single course for the duration of the session. Each course provides a rigorous experience requiring broader reading, more intense work, and greater individual initiative.
The January Term’s three-week schedule allows visiting professors and those who would not otherwise be able to teach a traditional semester to share their areas of expertise with students. This year, the roster of international visiting professors includes Visiting Professor, Georgina Heydon from RMIT University (Australia). As a forensic linguist, Prof Heydon provides expert evidence on police interviewing tactics, threat identification, and authorship.
Another international visitor is the Visiting Professor Karolina Kremens, Wroclaw University (Poland). Professor Kremens will bring her international perspective to a course on “ Studies in Criminal Law: Comparative Criminal Procedure ” (CML4114JA). Visiting from the University of Puerto Rico School of Law, Professor Hiram Melendez will teach the course in international law entitled “ Puerto Rico Exchange Course: Foundations of Intellectual Property” (CML4137JB).
French Program students will have the chance to take a special course on criminal law, “Droit pénal ” (CML4508JA), offered by Visiting Professor Richard Nsanzabaganwa (French website). And returning this year is the ever-popular course on sports law, “Le droit du sport” (CML3740JA), offered by Visiting Professor Benoît Girardin, President LBB Strategies, who has negotiated and collaborated with a wide range of national and international federations on sport issues.
The full list of January Term course offerings can be found by selecting “January” as the Term option in the Common Law Section’s 2019-2020 Course Search Engine.
While upper-year students explore the above options and more, first-year students spend January Term engaging in an intensive three-week study of dispute resolution, with the assistance of many experienced professionals from the community who volunteer their time and expertise. Through interactive teaching and role-playing, first-year students learn the practical skills of interviewing, negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, as well as professional ethics.
The intensive format of January Term encourages student-faculty contact and provides all involved with the opportunity to boldly invest themselves in one subject. We look forward to continuing this exceptional tradition throughout January 2020.