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This field study is being taught in conduction with Law 5034, offered Winter Quarter 2019. During spring break, select students enrolled in Law 5035 will travel to Thailand to tour elements of the anti-trafficking ecosystem in Bangkok and Chiang Mai (the largest city in northern Thailand). Thailand is considered a source, transit, and destination state for many forms of human trafficking. As part of this field study, students will meet with multilateral organizations, government officials, non-governmental organizations and survivors' organizations, and other individuals involved in the anti-trafficking movement. Students will also consider the legal and ethical challenges associated with working in this field. Enrollment is limited to 12 students who will be chosen by lottery (with preference given to 3Ls). Grading will be based on participation in field study activities and a final reflection paper. N.B. Students will require a passport (valid 6 months from the date of entry) to visit Thailand. U.S. citizens do not require a visa for stays of less than 30 days. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS website (Click Courses at the bottom of the homepage and then click Consent of Instructor Forms). See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments.

War is violent and often devastates the lives of those caught up in it. Yet it is also a means by which political communities protect themselves, pursue collective interests, and defend their rights. When, if ever, is the recourse to armed force justified, either as a legal or moral matter? And what rules, if any, do law and morality impose on the conduct of war? The course explores both the international law regime and the just war theory principles governing war. We will begin by considering when states may permissibly use force, and how changing security threats, including terrorism, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and the impulse to respond to widespread humanitarian atrocities challenge and are reshaping the legal framework on recourse to force. We will then explore the rules governing the conduct of warfare itself, including the constraints on the means and methods of war, the requirement to avoid targeting non-combatants in armed conflict, and the rules governing the treatment of detainees. A particular focus of the class will be the application of these rules in non-traditional, asymmetric conflicts between states and non-state armed groups. Throughout, we will consider the relationship between just war theory and the international law regime governing the use of force, when they conform with one another and when they diverge, and why. Special Instructions: Section 01: Grades will be based on class participation, written assignments, and a final exam. Section 02: Up to five students, with consent of the instructor, will have the option to write an independent research paper for Research (R) credit in lieu of the written assignments and final exam for Section 01. After the term begins, students (max 5) accepted into the course can transfer from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. Elements used in grading: Class Participation; Written Assignments, Final Exam or Research Paper.

How to use Qing legal documents for research. Winter: sample documents that introduce the main genres including: the Qing code and commentaries; magistrates' handbooks and published case collections; and case records from Chinese archives. Spring: class meets occasionally; students complete research papers. Prerequisite: advanced reading ability in Chinese. Elements used in grading: Students complete research papers. This course is cross-listed with History ( HISTORY 495A) and Chinese ( CHINA 495A).

This course will provide an overview of the field of Jewish Law and will seek to provide a few case studies of topics in Jewish Law. All the readings are in English and this course presupposes no background in Jewish Law. Jewish Law is the world's oldest complex legal systems with distinct and idiosyncratic approaches to family, commercial, ritual and many other areas of law. It also has developed an elaborate "conflicts of law" sub-literature focusing on when should Jewish Law apply and when should some other legal system apply, reflecting the long history of the Jewish community in the diaspora as a minority. In this course, we will consider how Jewish law approaches a number of specific topics and we will ponder as well the proper interaction between Jewish law and secular legal norms, Jewish Law and changes in technology, Jewish law and sovereignty, Jewish Law and Bioethics and Jewish law and Family. Other topics will be added as we all see fit. Students who are interested in making a presentation on an area of their choice are welcome to do so. The course will seek to include an optional supplementary "field trip" to see a rabbinical court in action in California. The Learning Outcomes provided by this court include the following: Students who take this course will: 1. Exhibit knowledge and understanding of key concepts in substantive law, procedural law, and legal thought in Jewish Law. 2. Demonstrate facility with legal analysis and reasoning in the Jewish Legal tradition and will demonstrate the ability to conduct legal research in Jewish Law. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer, with consent of the instructor, from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Final Paper. Cross-listed with Jewish Studies ( JEWISHST 265).

With autocracy resurgent and democracy on the decline, what is the future of global cooperation? What will be the fate of global institutions built to restore and maintain peace? Why pursue global cooperation at all? This seminar examines the role of the United Nations and other international organizations in responding to transborder threats in the modern era. Case studies may include the Syrian war, the Paris Climate Accord, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak in West Africa, and the COVID-19 pandemic. For LAW 5039, students may enroll for one unit (Section 01) or students may write a long policy memo for an additional unit of credit (Section 02). See syllabus for details. Elements used in grading: Attendance, class participation, written assignments, and a final presentation. Permission of instructor only; enrollment is capped. Please contact the instructor for consent to enroll. Accepted students should forward instructor consent to the SLS Registrar's Office (registrar@ law.stanford.edu) for a permission number to enroll in LAW 5039 in Axess. Course is cross-listed with PUBLPOL 217 and INTLPOL 217.

South Africa's transition to democracy in 1994 marked the formal end of the comprehensive political, economic, and social system of racial subordination known as apartheid. The country has changed dramatically since then, as the government has built several million new housing units, created social welfare systems, and created an array of government and private sector programs to combat discrimination and redress the effects of subordination. Yet the country remains among the most unequal in the world, with 64% of black South Africans living below the poverty line, compared to 1% of whites. Most non-white South Africans receive poor education, live in substandard housing, and have limited employment opportunities. In the last several years, discontent with the pace of economic and social transformation has sharpened, with many young people in particular arguing that the Mandela generation took an overly conciliatory approach to white privilege in the economy, society, and interpersonal relations. There is new dynamism at the top, too. Many South Africans have been disappointed in efforts by President, Cyril Ramaphosa (in office since 2018), to curtail corruption and expand redistributive economic and social policies. However, in 2024 the ruling African National Congress lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since 1994 and entered into a governing coalition with the centrist Democratic Alliance, which some see as likely to improve governance. (Others worry that it will tilt policy in favor of whites.) This course provides an opportunity to engage South Africa at this exciting historical moment, through intensive study during a week at Stanford and meetings with lawyers, activists, community members, and possibly students, journalists, and politicians during a week in Cape Town. We will focus on how lawyers are struggling for social justice and economic and social transformation--sometimes through ambitious arguments using South Africa's highly progressive constitution, but more often by supporting social movements day to day. Our learning will be grounded in specific cases, such as of the shack dwellers movement Abahlali baseMjondolo; Equal Education, an organization of high school-age students; and pioneering class actions on behalf of injured gold miners. These will enable us to explore various ways law and lawyers fit into social change, the challenges and rewards of such work, and how their perspectives overlap with and diverge from those of their clients. At the same time, we will draw connections between this work and the grand debates and historical arc described above. While comparing South Africa with the United States will not be a primary purpose of the course, we may well see interesting parallels and divergences, and will have some space to discuss those, among ourselves and perhaps with our South African interlocutors. The format of the course will be unusual: We will return to campus two weeks before the Fall quarter begins and spend the week of September 7 preparing intensively at Stanford (starting Monday, September 8). We will meet daily for approximately three hours of discussion, collaborative exercises, and some lecturing, as well as read assigned material outside class. We will (a) learn some essential background on apartheid; current legal, political, economic, and social conditions; and our case studies; (b) begin to analyze legal activism methods and the challenges of transformation; and (c) prepare topics and specific questions for our meetings in South Africa. Students will lead the meetings, with faculty in the background, so this preparation is an important part of their total work in the course. The following weekend we will fly to Cape Town, where we will spend the week of September 14 learning from visits to organizations and communities, and possibly one or two museums or other sites, as well as from discussions with a range of South Africans. We will return the weekend before the Fall quarter begins. The course grade will be based on two short papers due after our return, active in-class engagement with the assigned materials, and preparation for and participation in interviews during the trip. The course is open to rising 2Ls and 3Ls. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete an application available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/international-and-global-opportunities/global-law-program/sls-in-south-africa/ BY MAY 7, 2025, AT 11:59 PM. (The application will be available starting April 14, 2025.) We highly recommend that you attend an information session on the course on Thursday, April 17, 2025, from 1 to 2 p.m. in Room 90, prior to applying. S-Term early start for Autumn Quarter.

Corruption is a global problem. Although data suggests that there are places that accumulate more harmful practices than Latin American countries, Latin America is perceived as a champion of corruption. This macro vision may hide the distinctive characteristics of each country, as Latin America is a patchwork of idiosyncrasies regarding corruption. However, Latin American countries are narrowing their differences to closer patterns at a considerable pace. Latin America is facing an unprecedented chapter in its history against corruption due to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international organizations' recommendations, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (the US federal law that addresses accounting transparency requirements for companies that negotiate bonds in the US), and other constraints related to economic globalization. This course will present students with the theoretical literature that aims to explain corruption in Latin America, the technical constraints that have recently reshaped its practices, and the latest most significant cases. From the petty bribery that is essential for people to gain access to basic needs, to the sophisticated structure that is the mainstay of organized crime, corruption embodies an enormous range of different practices. Risk and uncertainty, information asymmetry, and contract enforceability are traditional barriers to the development of ethical business in Latin America in general. However, recent episodes in Latin America have demonstrated that corruption involving politicians and public procurement concretizes huge entry barriers to the free market. One of the aims of this course is to show how this kind of corruption is incorporated within the design of legal statutes and the practices of institutions. Some of the questions raised by this course will address issues including the following: what companies and institutions can do to improve fair trading in Latin America and stop the vicious cycle of corruption; how successful they might be considering Latin America's social and political environment; what challenges are introduced by the Foreign Corruption Practices Act; how political austerity in Latin America relates to the ability to inspect areas that are vulnerable to corruption and criminality; what the recent plea-bargain cases in Latin America, especially Brazil, show about hands-on experience with corruption; and how this knowledge can prepare lawyers to prevent their clients from falling into the same path-dependent dangers. The course is designed for JD candidates and LLM students, but graduate students from other departments are most welcome. Legal jargon is not expected. We will learn through seminar-style discussions and lectures. Elements used in grading are class participation, attendance, and a few reaction papers.

This is a course about the relationship between law and the larger society--but with readings drawn almost entirely from studies carried out in countries other than the United States. The course will look, for examples, at readings from Chile, China, England, Germany, Israel, Japan, Jordan, Russia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Venezuela. Introduction: The aim of the seminar is to introduce students to studies of the relationship between law and society, but with an international and comparative perspective. The readings use a broad range of methods and techniques, to explore how legal rules, processes and institutions are framed by, and influence, the social context. Paying attention to the social context opens the door to a richer understanding of the law, a better explanation of what makes it work (or not work) and how it changes over time. Traditionally the field called comparative law has concentrated heavily on differences between common law and civil law; and at principles and doctrines and formal rules. But in the real world we know that systems can behave every differently even if they share formal rules and institutions. Consider, for example, Canada and Jamaica, both common law countries; or Japan, Haiti and Spain --all civil law countries. In many ways, the world today is a global village. Lawyers, too, often work across borders. It is the theory of the course that we can learn a lot about law and legal institutions, if we look at experiences in different countries: plea bargaining in England; how victims of motorcycle accidents in Changmai, Thailand, deal with tort law; how the black market for used cars functioned in the former East Germany; the controversy over honor killings in Jordan; disputes over the sale of tunas in Tokyo's fish market; informal lending markets in Taiwan. The aim is a more general understanding of how legal systems work, how structure and culture interact; and the role of lawyers, judges, courts, and institutions in different societies. There are lessons to be learned about American society as well. Methodology and evaluation: The discussions in the classes will focus on a selection of readings from Law in Many Societies --a reader edited by Lawrence Friedman, Rogelio Pérez-Perdomo and Manuel Gómez (Stanford University Press, 2011). Other readings are contained in a package available to students in the class. Some of the readings are classics in the field. Others raise contemporary problems. The course is a traditional seminar, in the sense that everyone in the seminar will be encouraged to speak, and to contribute to general discussion. For each class, each student must write a short essay, reflecting on the readings (two or so pages at most or about 500 words). These should be sent to both professors (lmf@stanford.edu & rperez3@ law.stanford.edu) and to fellow students, by email, not later than 24 hours before the class. These reflection papers allow participants to tell us what aspects of the readings they found significant, and what they found right or wrong about the readings. No footnotes or research are expected, and are, in fact, discouraged. The reflection papers are required; but they are not graded. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer, with consent of the instructor, from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement. Automatic grading penalty waived for writers. Elements used in grading: The course grade will reflect class participation, and an extended take-home exam or a research paper at the end of the quarter.

Islamic law, along with English common law and Roman law, is one of the world's great legal systems. This course will introduce students to the following topics: the material sources of Islamic law; the history of its development from western Arabia into a global legal system; basic elements of Muslim jurisprudential theory; and, an introduction to Islamic family law as an exemplar of the development of Islamic law from revealed sources to modern statutory law. Course readings will consist of primary sources in translation along with relevant scholarly articles. Elements used in grading: Grades will be determined by a combination of in class participation and a final ten page paper. The class will meet on Thursdays from 4:15 to 7:15 p.m. on April 1, 8, and 15.