Daniel Arthur Laprès american law COURSE OUTLINESDaniel Arthur Laprès american law COURSE OUTLINES

Cabinet d'avocats

INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN BUSINESS LAW

This course is intended for third year students and is given is English.

The objective is to introduce students to the fundamental legal concepts that reflect American values in a business context. The case method is used to immerse students in the empiricism that characterizes the Anglo-American legal family. The cases studied are from American courts throughout their history, from the federal courts and those of numerous States, including many by leading jurists. Emphasis is placed on inter-disciplinary relations between law and ethics, as well as between law and economics. Frequent references are made to French and European Union law to highlight American specificities. Emphasis is placed on empiricial, inductive approaches, often using economic reasoning to address problems of interest to all legal systems. Students are encouraged to compare the results in American law with the solutions adopted in their national legal systems.

During the first semester, students are introduced to the main concepts of the American legal system, in particular, constitutional law, criminal law, tort law, and contract law.

In the second semester, attention is concentrated on the the management of legal risks and cooperate governance through the law of business organizations: their formation, financing, management, transfer, and disappearance.

The first part of the course is not a prerequisite for the second. Students can benefit fully from and succeed in the second semester program without having taken the first part of the program.

Class discussions are focused on the cases and other materials posted on this site.

For additional reading, students are referred to Roger LeRoy Miller and Gaylord A. Jentz, Fundamentals of Business Law, West, New York, 2002, in particular Unites 1, 2 and 3 with respect to the first semester, and Unit 8 for the second semester.

Evaluation is based on :

- class participation as attested in particular by submissions of case studies at the start of each class at which the student is present and

- a final written exam emphasizing the application of the rules learned to hypothetical cases in the manner used in class discussions (two hours, closed book).

OUTLINE

INTRODUCTION

Identification of the common law system and comaprison with other legal systems, in particular the civil law and Chinese legal systems

Approche critique du bijuridisme.

Les anglo-saxons sont morts, longue vie aux anglo-normands!, La Gazette du Palais, Paris, April 2002

Judicial Review of Rules of Law - Maxim cessante ratione, cessat ipsa lex, The Canadian Bar Review, Toronto, March 1977.

Stare Decisis, the Binding Effect of Decisions of House of Lords on Lower Courts, The Canadian Bar Review, Toronto, September 1974.

PART ONE - THE AMERICAN LEGAL ENVIRONMENT

1. - The American legal system

Cases:
Russel - Fuentes - Hunt - Spanel

Topical issues:

Federalism:
Supreme Court Continues Pro-Business Stance
UCC Found to Trump Contracts on New York Bank Transfers

Kuwait Contractor Fights $4.9 Million Ga. Judgment on Jurisdictional Grounds
Ex-Tyco Executives Contest Use of Findings From Internal Probe
Top court upholds solicitor-client privilege
Linklaters Hit With $55 Million Negligence Claim
N.Y. Appellate Court Rejects Breach of Duty Claim Against Wilson Elser
Law firm can be sued for fraud on client's creditors
Law Firm's Damages Claim Against Chase Can Proceed
IBM in case illustrating judicial procedure
Pets
Courts Warm Up to Pet Owners' Suits
Judge Rejects Part of Family's Claims in $1.6M Suit Over Dog's Death
Bid to Create New Tort Over Pets Fails, For Now

Supreme Court

Legal Expression