Program Schedule and Course Information

Calendar and Important Dates

Daily Course Schedule
8:30 a.m. - 9:40 a.m. -- Introduction to the Irish Legal System
10 a.m. - 11:10 a.m. -- Comparative Health Law
11:30 a.m. - 12:40 p.m. -- Comparative Traditions and Trends in the Legal Profession

Courses of Study
Introduction to the Irish Legal System
(Professor John Ahern)
This course is designed as an introduction to the Irish legal system and Irish law, particularly Irish constitutional law. The first part of the course will trace the evolution of the Irish legal system including a brief look at Brehon law and the arrival of the common law in Ireland and will enumerate the various sources of Irish law. Next, we will look at the various branches of government, particularly the judicial branch and examine the roles of the various actors in the Irish legal system. The second part of the course will focus on Irish constitutional law. It will trace the history of Irish constitutionalism, concentrating on the background to the present Constitution. The general approach of the Irish courts to this instrument will be examined, particularly the various doctrines of constitutional interpretation used by the courts. In addition, the jurisprudence of a number of the substantive rights conferred by the Constitution including the right to property, freedom of expression and equality will be analyzed and placed in a comparative context.

Comparative Traditions and Trends in the Legal Profession
(Professor Carolyn Kaas)
This course will examine some of the core values, principles, and organization of the legal profession and the practice of law in the US, Ireland, and several other jurisdictions. There will be at least one example from each of the six populated continents. The course will cover the traditions of the several legal systems, and will focus on key concepts such as professionalism norms, confidentiality, duty of loyalty, the nature of the lawyer/client relationship, lawyer regulation, and access to justice. Cultural differences that impact some of these concepts will be explored, such as authoritarian vs. egalitarianism and individualistic vs. communitarian worldviews. The course will also examine the origins and global progress of several new and emerging "movements" affecting the legal profession, such as Mediation and other dispute resolution methods, Collaborative Law and other innovations in Negotiation, Therapeutic Jurisprudence, Restorative Justice, and Comprehensive or Integrative Law.

Comparative Health Law
(Professor Neville Cox)
This course will focus on various aspects of health law in the United States, Ireland and the United Kingdom. It will begin by looking at the question of how best the medical profession should be regulated and the role of the law in securing quality of health care. We then consider various aspects of legal involvement in the relationship between medical practitioners and patients, including rules on informed consent and the law in respect of medical malpractice suits. Finally we consider aspects of what might be termed the ethical boundaries of health care, including surrogacy, abortion, artificial forms of reproduction and end-of-life decisions.

Student Performance and Grading
Students are expected to prepare for class, to attend class regularly, and to participate in class discussions. Ordinarily, grades are based on a written examination. The grading scale is from A to F.

Directors
Professor Carolyn Kaas will serve as the on-site director of the program. Professor Robert Farrell is the permanent director of the Summer Program at Trinity College.

Faculty
Dr. Neville Cox is a senior lecturer in the Law School of Trinity College where he is director of Postgraduate Teaching and Learning and where he has been a recipient of the Provost's award for outstanding teaching. He is a Fellow of Trinity College Dublin and a practicing barrister. He is the author of Blasphemy and the Law (2000), Sport and the Law (2004) and Defamation Law (2007) as well as numerous chapters in books and articles in law journals. In 2006, he was the International Scholar in Residence in Washington and Lee Law School in Virginia.

Carolyn Wilkes Kaas is an associate professor of law at Quinnipiac, and also the director of clinical programs, the director of the School of Law's Family Law Concentration program, and co-director of the Center on Dispute Resolution. She has taught for twenty years in Quinnipiac's in-house Civil Justice Clinic, supervising students in a variety of civil and family matters. She is currently teaching a wide range of field placement courses, and a seminar entitled "Examining the Practice of Law." Professor Kaas has served on the Connecticut Bar Association Standing Committee on Professionalism and the Chief Justice's Commission on Civil ADR in the Courts. She also serves on the boards of the Connecticut Council for Non-Adversarial Divorce, Connecticut Legal Services, and is a founding member of the Connecticut Mediation Network and The Non-Defensive Voice. Professor Kaas graduated from Cornell University in 1976, from University of Connecticut School of Law in 1983, with highest honors, and clerked for the Honorable Ellen Bree Burns from 1983-85, at the United States District Court for the District of Connecticut. She was an associate with Wiggin and Dana before joining the faculty at the law school in 1989.

John Ahern is a lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. He graduated from Trinity College in 2005 and is currently undertaking a PhD at Trinity on "The Choice of Law in Torts" under the supervision of Prof. William Binchy.  At Trinity, he is coordinator of the Senior Freshman Mooting Programme and lectures on Conflict of Laws in the LL.B. degree program and on Private International Law in the LL.M. program. His research and teaching interests include private international law, tort and European law. His doctoral research focuses on the Choice of Law in Tort at a European level and its interaction with existent common law regimes. He is the Irish editor for conflictoflaws.net and is co-editor (with William Binchy) of The Rome II Regulation on the Law Applicable to Non-Contractual Obligations: A New International Litigation Regime (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009.)

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