Teaching International Criminal Law in Germany

Today marks the start of the second week of the Summer Session in International and Comparative Law in Giessen Germany.  Pictured at the top of this post is the “castle,” the building where my class in International Criminal Law meets.  Inside this charming old exterior are some of the modern and fully equipped classrooms of Justus Liebig University, although the Justus Liebig Law School itself is physically located elsewhere.

My International Criminal Law class has 34 students.  There are 15 students from Marquette University Law School, 4 students from the University of Wisconsin Law School, and 4 students from other U.S. law schools.  The remaining 11 students come from law schools around the world, including Germany, Ethiopia, Turkey, Luxembourg, South Africa, Norway, Greece and Brazil.

Giessen is a college town.  It is dominated by University buildings spread throughout the town, much like Madison, Wisconsin.  There are numerous outdoor beer gardens and cafes, and the local population seems to spend much of their time sitting outside and drinking either coffee or beer.  It seems appropriate that the word “Giessen” translates into english as “pouring.”

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Kagan Hearing Recap

The hearings on the nomination of Elena Kagan to be Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court ended with a whimper rather than a bang.  In an op ed piece in last weekend’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, I reviewed the arguments put forth by her critics and found them wanting.  You can read my piece here.

My colleague Rick Esenberg had a different view of the nomination.  You can read Rick’s piece here.

It seems that the Kagan hearing failed to generate much interest.  Given the scant written record of the nominee, there was simply not much to get excited about.  She has a long and distinguished professional career, but her various positions as law clerk, executive branch policy advisor and Solicitor General all involve the application of her personal talents in the furtherance of someone else’s agenda.  As a law school dean, she conciliated between factions rather than advocating one particular viewpoint.  One looks in vain for written expressions of her personal views on controversial legal issues.

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Best of the Blogs

Time for a new feature here at the Marquette University Faculty Blog.  From time to time the editors of the blog will share links to some of the more interesting recent law-related posts appearing on the blogosphere.  I will get things started.

Over at Scotusblog, Tom Goldstein has an excellent round up of the recently concluded Supreme Court term.  It is commonplace to read broad generalizations about the Roberts Court in the media lately, for example during the hearings on the nomination of Elena Kagan.  Is this an activist Court, rejecting precedent and beholden to corporate interests?  Or has the Court found its moorings once again after years of drifting along according to the whims of Justice Kennedy?  Tom takes a cold hard look at the evidence, and his conclusions may surprise you.  You can read his post here.

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