Daniel Abebe : Courses and Seminars
Conflicts of Law
LAWS 41501
This course will examine the legal framework for the resolution of interstate conflicts of law within the U.S., focusing on the choice of law principles that courts apply to determine the rule of decision in cases where the relevant parties, conduct or transactions have connections to more than one state. The course will consider how conflicts of law rules implicate important separation of powers, federalism and private international law concerns. Topics include the federal constitutional limitations on choice of law, the extent to which courts must give full faith and credit to the judgments of courts in other states, and the role of international conflicts of law rules on the domestic enforcement of foreign judgments.
Student grades are based on an in-class final examination and class participation.
Spring 2012
Daniel Abebe
Foreign Relations Law
LAWS 97801
This course examines the constitutional and statutory doctrines regulating the conduct of American foreign relations. Topics include the allocation of foreign relations powers between the three branches of the federal government, the status of international law in U.S. courts, the scope of the treaty power, the validity of executive agreements and the power to declare and conduct war. The course will also focus on the political question and other doctrines regulating judicial review in foreign relations cases. Where relevant, current events will be explored, such as ongoing controversies regarding individual rights during wartime, the post-September 11 war on terrorism and the war in Iraq.
Grades will be based on a final examination.
Autumn 2011
Daniel Abebe
Greenberg Seminar: US Foreign Policy after the "Arab Spring" and the Death of Bin Laden
LAWS 95902
This Greenberg seminar takes up questions of U.S. foreign policy, with special attention to the Middle East and South Asia, in the wake of Bin Laden's death and the Arab Spring. We will read recent work on specific countries and policy problems, as necessary supplemented by other material.
Graded Pass/Fail.
Autumn 2011
Daniel Abebe, Aziz Huq, Eric Posner
Public International Law
LAWS 72901
This course is an introduction to public international law, which is the body of law that nation states have jointly created for the purpose of governing their relations. The course focuses on the sources of international law, international institutions such as the United Nations, international adjudication, and various substantive fields of international law, such as the use of force, human rights, the treatment of aliens, and international environmental law.
Grades will be based on class participation and an examination.
Non-law students by instructor permission only.
Winter 2012
Daniel Abebe
