Columbus School of Law

2009 Brochure	Course Info	Student Forms and Academic Rules
Cracow Program	Program Costs	Guests and Sponsors
Admission	Day Trips & Photographs	The Jagiellonian University
Message from the Director	Cultural & Travel Information	FAQs (pdf)

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Schedule of Classes
Course Descriptions
Faculty Information
Course Materials and Library Facilities
2009 Textbooks

In addition to staple courses examining the laws of the European Union and those that regulate international trade, new courses are developed each year especially for the Summer Law Program in Poland. The law school's goal is to offer students unique courses covering comparative aspects of substantive areas of law which are rarely available in the United States and that are of fundamental importance to students of countries in transition, like Poland.

Courses in previous years have focused on international aspects of securities and economic regulation, human rights, arbitration, constitutional law and legal ethics and the legal profession. In summer 2009, the program will offer courses on comparative taxation, international business transactions, as well as international intellectual property law.

All classes in the Summer Law Program will be conducted in English. American students must enroll for at least five, and no more than seven, semester hours of credit. Methods of evaluation of students' performance may vary; most of the courses have written exams, though some courses may offer take-home exams or written papers.

Schedule of Classes (tentative)

(3 credit hours)

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Three-week courses
(2 credit hours)

• Comparative Tax Law
  Professor Regina T. Jefferson
• International Business Transactions
  Professor Ewa Baginska
• International Intellectual Property Law
  Professor Susanna Fischer/Professor Megan La Belle
• Introduction to the American Legal System
  Professor Izabella Krasnicka

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Course Descriptions

Comparative and International Trade (3 credit hours)
Americans: Only the first 20 are guaranteed registration in this course.
This course concentrates on the public regulation of international trade and policy of the world's major trading partners. It examines problems of import and export controls, response to unfair practices in international trade, dumping and subsidies, antidumping and countervailing duties, as well as international monetary policy and international investment. Students are introduced to the basic regulatory scheme of the WTO/GATT System, to the policies of Free Trade Areas and Customs Unions and to trade with the European Union and with non-market economies. The emphasis is on U.S. regulation of international trade, the distribution of national powers to deal with transnational problems, presidential powers to regulate international economic affairs, escape clauses and safeguards under GATT and U.S. law and retaliation against unfair trade practices. The course grade is based on a final written examination.

Comparative Tax Law (2 credit hours)

This course is an introduction to a comparative study of different tax systems used throughout the world. The focus of the course is on the structure of these various systems as well as the underlying policies that their rules and regulations reflect. Using a conceptual approach, the course compares different solutions to common problems of tax system design, including the importance of the competing tax policy goals of fairness, efficiency and simplicity. Examples of the kinds of issues to be discussed include different national approaches to the formulation of tax policy, the interpretation of tax statutes, the definition of income subject to taxation, the prevention of tax avoidance, the contrast between the taxation of business organizations and individuals, the relationship of tax expenditures and direct expenditures, and selected international tax issues. Students who are interested in taxation and international economic affairs are encouraged to enroll. The course grade is based on a written final examination.

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International Business Transactions (2 credit hours)
This course concentrates on private business transactions that cross national boundaries. It is designed to provide students with the tools they need to understand the various legal doctrines applicable to international commercial contracts. After an examination of some basic international and comparative law principles, the course focuses primarily on international sales of goods, distributor/agency agreements and international payments and security. In addition, it will examine relevant issues of private international law and the resolution of international disputes. This is an exam course.

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International Intellectual Property Law (2 semester hours)

This course introduces students to international intellectual property law and its relationship to international trade in an increasingly global marketplace. Focusing on copyrights and neighboring rights, patents, trademarks and geographical indications, and trade secrets, the course will explore the development of international standards for protecting intellectual property under various multilateral agreements, including the Berne Convention, the Paris Convention, and the TRIPS Agreement. The course will also cover some international agreements establishing international systems for the protection of intellectual property, such as the Madrid System for international trademark registration and the Patent Cooperation Treaty. The course will introduce some key issues relating to international enforcement of intellectual property rights, including jurisdiction, territoriality, conflict of laws, and remedies. The course will also introduce students to the major legal institutions in the system of international property, such as the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Special attention will be given to the debate over the desirability and justice of the harmonization of different intellectual property regimes among societies with different cultural traditions and at different stages of development. The course grade is based primarily on a written final examination.

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Introduction to the American Legal System (2 semester hours)

This course is offered to Polish and European students only.

Principal themes include differences in the models of legal education and the legal profession in the United States and Poland. This course introduces students to the concept of precedent and to the role courts play in the lawmaking process in common law countries, and presents the structure of the American court system and focuses on the process of judicial review. The course analyzes the basic principles of the American judicial process, the role of the jury in both criminal and civil proceedings and the differences between adversary and inquisitorial processes. Finally, the course provides an overview of the electoral system in the United States and of alternative dispute resolution mechanisms. The course grade is based primarily on a final written examination.

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Law of the European Union (3 credit hours)
Americans: Only the first 20 are guaranteed registration in this course.
This course provides an overview of the political and legal framework of the European Union institutions, trade relations and legal and business implications of the European process of integration. The course focuses on the creation of the European Union, the structures and processes for the development of the Union's law, constitutional issues, the role of the European Court of Justice, East-West trade and U.S. trade within the European Union. Students may have the option of taking a written examination or giving a class presentation and writing a paper.

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Faculty Information

PROFESSOR EWA BAGINSKA holds a postdoctoral degree in law and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and International Commercial Law of the Faculty of Law and Administration at the Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland. She teaches Contracts, Torts, Consumer and Competition Law, and Introduction to American Private Law. In 1998-1999, Professor Baginska was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at The Catholic University of America Columbus School of Law, and in 2000-2001, she was granted a NATO Postdoctoral Science Fellowship also at CUA Law. She is a fellow of the European Tort and Insurance Center in Vienna, Austria. Professor Baginska has published over 40 articles, reports and book chapters in the area of civil law and comparative law. Professor Baginska has authored two books: Products Liability in U.S. Law (2000) and Tort liability of public authorities (2006).

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Professor Michal Chorosnicki is an associate professor at the Jagiellonian University Law School. Dr. Chorosnicki has served as the Polish Administrator of the Summer Law Program in Cracow since the program's inception in 1992. He is a specialist in international relations who has significant experience in the American legal process. Dr. Chorosnicki is a former visiting professor at Yale University, Southern Connecticut State University and at the Columbus School of Law (1995 and 1999). He participated in the Advanced Study Program at the Royal Institute of Foreign Affairs in London, at the American Studies Program in Salzburg, Austria, as a scholar at Kiev University in the Ukraine and was an international visitor in the U.S.I.A. program. He latest book is entitled NAFTA: The Decade of Change.

PROFESSOR SUSANNA FREDERICK FISCHER is an Associate Professor. She has practiced law on both sides of the Atlantic, as a New York attorney and an English barrister. Her primary areas of practice and her main research interests are intellectual property law, media law, cyberlaw, and constitutional law, from a comparative law perspective.

Professor Fischer received her legal education at Merton College, Oxford University, where she received a B.A. in jurisprudence, and the University of Virginia, where she received a LL.M. She also studied at Princeton University, where she was awarded a B.A. in history, magna cum laude.

She practiced for six years as a barrister in London, where she was a member of the Chambers of Patrick Milmo QC, now 5 Raymond Buildings, Gray's Inn. As a barrister, her work focused primarily on media law. She represented clients before all levels of English courts and tribunals, including the House of Lords. In London, she also worked as a legal adviser for News International plc. and was a law lecturer on contract at London Guildhall University. After being admitted to the New York State Bar, she spent the next three years practicing intellectual property law at two New York City law firms, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP. Professor Fischer joined the faculty of Columbus School of Law in August, 1999, where she currently teaches or has taught international intellectual property law, introduction to intelellectual property law, copyright law, constitutional law, comparative constitutional law, comparative law, cyberlaw, and civil procedure.

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Professor Rett Ludwikowski is the founding director of the Summer Law Program in Cracow, created in 1992. Professor Ludwikowski holds doctorate degrees in law and legal and political theory. Until 1982 he taught law and politics and held the chair of Modern Legal and Political Movements and Ideas and was the chairman of the Division of Law and Business at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland. After coming to the United States in 1982, Dr. Ludwikowski continued his research work, while holding several visiting scholar and visiting fellow positions, including the USICA Program, U.S. State Department (1981), The Heritage Foundation (1981), Elizabethtown College, PA (1982-1983), and the Hoover Institute, Stanford University (1983). He was also a recipient of a Fulbright Scholarship (1997) and the residential Fellowship of Max Planck Institute in Hamburg, Germany (1989). He came to the Catholic University of America in 1984 and has been a professor of law at the Columbus School of Law since 1985. Dr. Ludwikowski has served as the director of the Comparative and International Law Institute since the institute's inception in 1985. From 2001 to 2003, he was the managing editor of Comparative Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, a multi-volume publication of Oceana Publications, Inc.

Professor Ludwikowski has authored 20 books, including his most recently published books, International Trade. Warsaw: C.H. Beck, 2006 and Mafia --Part II, Warsaw, KUBA, 2006.

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Course Materials and Library Facilities

Nicholas Ghazal • Krakow • Summer 2008

"The Summer Law Program was a great chance for me to improve my law knowledge and to make progress in English."

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