Course Archive

Europeanization and Reform of National Welfare States
Jonathan Zeitlin, UW-Madison Professor of Sociology, Public Affairs, Political Science, and History
Kathleen Thelen, Northwestern University Professor of Political Science

This graduate seminar will focus on the reciprocal interaction between Europeanization and national welfare state reform. How far and through what mechanisms has European integration influenced domestic reforms of welfare and labor market institutions across EU Member States? And how have such national-level reform processes influenced the evolution of EU social and employment policymaking? Such mutual influences are particularly significant in the case of the Open Method of Coordination (OMC), where EU Member States collaborate with the European Commission in defining common strategic objectives, monitoring each other's performance in meeting them against agreed indicators, and promoting additional reforms through both precept and example.

European Union Law/Law and Politics of the European Union
Greg Shaffer, UW-Madison Professor of Law

This course introduces students to the law and politics of the European Union, including the framework for the law's enactment, implementation and enforcement, and the creation of a common European market for the free movement of persons, goods, workers, services and capital. The course provides an overview of the development of European Union law and politics in terms of scope, institutions, rules and membership; the legislative process; judicial review; the direct effect and supremacy of European Union law; issues of sovereignty and federalism; the creation of a common market; European Union competition law, environmental law, social policy and trade policy. Students write a paper of their design, recommended to be about 30 pages (double-spaced). The course is recommended to those interested in the practice of transnational law, those planning to spend a semester studying in Europe, those interested in comparative constitutionalism and comparisons of specific substantive areas of law, and those interested in the on-going emergence of regional integration. Renowned European academics often visit the class during the semester, funded by Wisconsin's European Union Center.

International Law: Transnational Legal Process
Greg Shaffer, UW-Madison Professor of Law

This is a basic introductory course to the subject of international law. The reason why the phrase "transnational legal process" is included in the title is to distinguish this course from one that focuses solely on "public international law." A public international law course addresses the law of nations and of international diplomacy, typically as practiced by public international lawyers in the Legal Advisor's Office in the US Department of State. The only actors involved are states (i.e. it is inter-national law) and, to a certain extent, the United Nations and its International Court of Justice. This course involves the processes of "transnational law" as well, in the sense that it covers the cross-border (or trans-national) effects of national law and foreign law on a variety of actors. In short, this course broadens the scope of traditional coverage to help prepare students to developments in international and transnational law in an age of globalization in which non-state actors (including businesses and individuals) are also the makers and subjects of international law, and in which cross-border regulatory issues are of growing importance.

Law and Transnational Economic Regulation: Toward Global "Constitutionalism"?
David M. Trubek, UW-Madison Voss-Bascom Professor of Law

This is an interdisciplinary research seminar on global governance and international economic law. It explores the emergence, operation, and legitimacy of regimes that regulate transborder economic affairs. The seminar will focus on two core dimensions of transnational economic regulation: the organization of global governance and the legal and political issues of legitimacy and accountability that fuel debates regarding global "constitutionalism." We will employ several disciplines to ask such questions as: How transnational regulatory regimes work? Why they take the shape they do? Why do some use law and others do not? How do they affect national laws and policies? Do they threaten democratic values? What can be done to ensure greater openness, fairness, and accountability? Class discussion will focus on the European Union and the World Trade Organization, which are the two most important of these regimes, but other areas will be discussed as well.

New Approaches to Regulation: Law and Policy
David M. Trubek, UW-Madison Voss-Bascom Professor of Law
Louise G. Trubek, UW-Madison Clinical Professor of Law

This seminar explores new approaches to regulation and their implications for law, policy, and public administration. Critics of government regulation and the administrative state from the left and right have called for alternatives to conventional top-down, command and control regulatory systems. New approaches involving devolution, public-private partnerships, negotiated regulation, network creation, coordinated data collection, benchmarking, monitoring, feedback, and revisable standards are being tried out. This type of "new governance" changes the way law is created and administered. It restructures relationships among markets, government and the professions and re-opens the age-old issue of how best to maintain social values in a market economy. The seminar will explore the emergence of new approaches in several fields, including the environment, health care, and employment. Case studies from the US, Europe, and Brazil will be examined.

Working with Wisconsin lawyers, regulators and business leaders, the seminar will study new developments in the areas of environmental regulation and governance of the health care system. Several classes will be devoted to discussion with practioners who will talk about their own practices and new governance.

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Fall 2004