The first LSS Cairo took place from June 8 to July 15, 2008.
The following 5 modules were offered in summer 2008:
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Islamic and Middle Eastern Law
Prof. Dr. Andrea Büchler, University of Zurich
and guest lecturers
"Islamic and Middle Eastern Law" gives an overview of classical Islamic law and its current development and application in Middle Eastern countries. Besides studying the historical and political foundations, the Sunni law schools and the methodological aspects of Islamic law, particular fields of law, as Islamic criminal and medicine law are also taken into account. Islamic family law is a main focus of this module since it is the field of law which is being applied in most of the countries in the Middle East in a nearly classical form.
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Banking, Insurance and Capital Market Law
Prof. Dr. Rolf H. Weber, University of Zurich
Dr. Reinhard Klarmann, LL.M., Sarwat A. Shahid Law Firm, Cairo
"Banking, Insurance and Capital Market Law" addresses the international financial architecture incl. the most important international financial institutions (such as IMF, World Bank Group, Bank for International Settlement, IOSCO, OECD) and the organizations regulating certain aspects of the financial markets such as the WTO and the European Union, the basic principles of Islamic Banking, the legal framework of the monetary order and the banking system in Switzerland (incl. organizational and behavioral rules to be obeserved by the banks) as well as the most important types of contracts and agreements in the banking markets.
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ntellectual Property Law
Prof. Dr. Reto M. Hilty, University of Zurich
Dr. Volker Kitz, Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, Munich
Intangible goods have become one of the most important factors in modern economies. Inven-tors and creators as well as those who invest in related products claim legal protection in terms of patent and copyright law. Further on, competitors try to distinguish their products on the market by means of trademarks. After a short introduction to these systems of legal pro-tection, cases which have to be prepared in advance by students will be discussed in class.
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Comparative Constitutional Law
Prof. Dr. Christine Kaufmann, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, Humboldt University Berlin
Dr. Nathalie Bernard-Maugiron, Institute of Research for Development (IRD), Cairo
The Module Comparative Constitutional Law covers historical and theoretical aspects of constitutionalism, also in relation to international law, and focuses on some challenging aspects of constitutions.
It discusses cases from different legal systems including European countries and the EU, the U.S. and Canada, Asian and African and, if available, Arabic countries. The issues are judicial review - how far can courts go in a democracy? -, human rights - what is their role and legal position? - , religion - which rights protect religion? which conflicts arise? -, equality - who has a right to equality in which context? how does equality relate to dignity, or to liberty?, and finally, democracy - which individual rights foster a living democracy? how can democracies protect themselves? Students learn how to compare in law, and have the opportunity to raise complex questions in class, and contribute actively what they know from their legal backgrounds, to inspire comparison.
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Comparative Private Law
Prof. Dr. Anton K. Schnyder, University of Zurich
Prof. Dr. Helmut Heiss, University of Zurich
and guest lecturers
“Comparative Private Law” presents an overview on the legal systems of the world and the various theories on how to group them into legal families. Within this approach several issues, such as mixed jurisdictions (e.g. the law of Israel), transformation of laws (e.g. the transformation of former socialist legal systems), legal transplants (e.g. the Swiss Civil Code in Turkey) and harmonisation of laws (e.g. in Europe), require special attention. Conclusions can be drawn for a proper comparative legal method as used by legal literature but also by legislators and courts.
