Summer Program in Law
Now in its 54th year, the Florida State University College of Law Summer Program in Law at the University of Oxford offers a five-and-a-half-week semester of legal studies in England. The 2027 program will run from June 28 to August 5, hosted at St. Edmund Hall, an Oxford college tracing its roots to the 13th century, when St. Edmund of Abingdon—lecturer and later Archbishop of Canterbury—taught on the same site.
As the oldest ongoing Oxford summer program sponsored by a U.S. law school, it welcomes approximately 30 students from across the United States each year. Participants may earn up to six semester hours of A.B.A.-approved course credit, enrolling in two or three courses taught by tenured law faculty from both the University of Oxford and Florida State University.
Note: A letter of good standing and transcripts for non-FSU students are required; because GPA scales vary from school to school, you may enter 0.00.
Questions
Please contact Shirley Oglesby, assistant to the director.
Information
An Introduction to English Public Law (Bell, 2 hours)
The course will offer an introduction to constitutional and administrative law in England. Week 1 will offer an overview of three main actors in English public law – the UK Parliament, the courts and the executive – as well as beginning to highlight some of the debates about the scope of their powers and the relationships between them. Subsequent weeks will build on the first by considering more specifically how the executive is held to account in English law. A major focus will be on judicial review, including the grounds on which it can be sought and the various barriers to access. However, the course will also consider other methods of legal accountability, including the role of tribunals in the English legal system and the possibility of bringing a private law claim against a public authority. The course, finally, will turn to considering and evaluating methods of rights protection in the UK, including the Human Rights Act 1998 and common law rights.
The course will aim to foster legal expertise, especially in case law analysis. Each class will be focused on a case which will serve as a springboard for broader discussion of the themes raised. Assessment will be solely by a three-hour exam at the end of the course.
English Legal History (Hackney, 2 hours)
This course looks at the institutional framework of the Common Law and how that framework influenced the structure of the substantive law. It discusses the initial courts; the emergence of the dominant ‘common law’ courts, King's Bench and Common Pleas, and the competing/complementary Equity jurisdiction in the Chancery; and the writ system and development of the pleading forms and the methods of proof used in trials. Considers tenures, the principal Real Actions for the recovery of land at Common Law and selected writs. There will be a 2.5-hour closed-book handwritten exam.
Origins of Federalism: From British Colonies to United States (Green, 2 hours)
This course will have three elements: describing currently dissonant theories of originalist federalism, examining the legal-historical evidence supporting such theories, and addressing applications of such theories in modern case law. There will be a written exam.
Public International Law (Tesón, 2 hours)
In this course we will examine the law that governs sovereign nations and international organizations, as well as the relations of individuals and groups with them. The course covers, inter alia, the nature and sources of international law, international adjudication, territory, jurisdiction, human rights, and war. Prepared course materials will be posted on Canvas and there will be an in-class exam for this course.
Craig Green
Steven M. Goldstein Professor of Law and Editor in Chief of Law & History Review
Florida State University College of Law
Professor Green received a PhD from Princeton's history department in 2018, while simultaneously teaching full time at Temple Law School. He received his M.A. from Princeton University in 2018, and his J.D. from Yale University in 1999.
Professor Green is an accomplished teacher of subjects ranging from Civil Procedure to Native American Constitutional Law, from Legal History to Administrative Law, and from Federal Courts to Reproductive Justice. He received Temple Law School's teaching award in 2009 and 2015, he was the youngest recipient of Temple University's Lindback Award for Distinguished Teaching in 2010, and the law school nominated him for Temple's highest teaching prize in 2016.
Before entering the academy, Professor Green was a law clerk for Judge Louis H. Pollak and Judge Merrick B. Garland. He was a Bristow Fellow with the Solicitor General's Office, and he worked for the Civil Appellate Staff in the Department of Justice. He has filed successful briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court and several courts of appeals.
Fernando R. Tesón
Eminent Scholar Emeritus
Florida State University College of Law
Professor Tesón has a J.D. from the Universidad de Buenos Aires, an LL.M. from the Université Libre de Bruxelles and an S.J.D. from Northwestern University. He is the leading authority on humanitarian intervention and the philosophy of international law. In addition, he has written on diverse topics such as immigration and political rhetoric. Originally from Buenos Aires, Professor Tesón has dual U.S. and Argentine citizenship. He has authored several books and has also published dozens of articles in law, philosophy and international relations journals and collections of essays. Professor Tesón has presented his scholarship around the world.
Joanna Bell
Associate Professor, Jeffrey Hackney Fellow and Tutor in Law
St. Edmund Hall, University of Oxford
Prof. Bell teaches Administrative Law, Constitutional Law and Tort for the college, as well as Environmental Law for the Faculty. Previously, she spent a number of years as a College Associate Lecturer at St. John's College, University of Cambridge, and Affiliated Lecturer at the Cambridge Law Faculty. In earlier years, she was a student at the University of Oxford and graduated with a BA in Law from Keble College, sharing the Wronker Prize for best overall performance in FHS examinations. She then read for the BCL (obtaining a distinction) and the DPhil in Administrative Law.
Jeffrey Hackney
Emeritus Fellow and Lecturer
Wadham College, University of Oxford
Jeffrey Hackney holds M.A. and B.C.L. degrees from Oxford, where he was a Vinerian Scholar. He is a member of Middle Temple and a senior Oxford faculty member, having served as fellow and tutor in law at St. Edmund Hall from 1964 to 1976, and as fellow and tutor in law at Wadham College until his retirement in 2009. He is now an emeritus fellow of both colleges and continues to teach in the Faculty. Hackney's special interests are legal history, Roman law, land law and equity.