Orientation
Subject to confirmation, orientation will be held on the Sunday before the first day of classes. Please meet in front of the law school, Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3, 15 Quai Claude Bernard, Time TBA. From there, we will walk to a nearby café.
The University
LSU’s Summer in Lyon program is held at Jean Moulin Université Lyon 3. Located in the heart of Lyon, the classrooms are walking distance from most student residences. Students have access to Wi-Fi while at school, and there is also a café on the first floor of the building where they can grab a bite to eat or an espresso.
The curriculum is subject to change prior to the beginning of the first session. More information will be provided as the semester goes on. Below is a Class Schedule for reference on how the program is normally set up:
Dates will be June 2 (Orientation) – July 12, 2024
2024 Class Schedule
FIRST SESSION (June 3 – 20, Exams on June 21)
| Time | Course | Faculty |
| 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM | Comparative Data Protection Law | Prof. Pailler |
| 9:45 AM – 10:45 AM | International Human Rights and Gender-Based Violence | Prof. Avalos |
| 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Comparative Criminal Legal Systems | Prof. Lancaster |
SECOND SESSION (June 24 – July 11, Exams on July 12)
Trip to Geneva: July 4
| Time | Course | Faculty |
| 8:30 AM – 9:30 AM | Introduction to Comparative Company Law | Prof. Reyes |
| 9:45 AM – 10:45 AM | Human Rights and the Environment | Prof. Bryner |
| 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Comparative Criminal Legal Systems | Prof. Lancaster |
Course Titles and Description
Comparative Criminal Legal Systems (2 credits) [First and second session]
Professor Robert E. Lancaster, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU, Lyon Program Director 2024
This course is a comparative overview of criminal legal systems around the world with primary focus on the United States, England and Wales, France, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China. Areas of comparison will include how common law, civil law, Islamic law, and Eastern Asian legal traditions inform the development and implementation of legal systems that address deviant social behavior. The course will provide a comparative overview of policing, adjudication, criminal procedure, prosecution function, defense counsel function, theories of punishment, and administration of corrections. Students will develop a cross-cultural understanding of crime and the operation of criminal legal systems.
Comparative Data Protection Law (1 Credit) [First Session]
Professor Ludovic Pailler, University Jean Moulin, Lyon, France
The aim of the course is to provide an introduction to data protection law from a comparative and practical perspective. Students will be invited to identify and address the major issues in relation with technological innovation (AI) and economic growth, which depends on the free flow of data across borders. The course will highlight the different institutional and legal models of data protection that exist, especially in the US and the EU, the level of protection they provide and how they should be articulated to enable the data flow. The reality and extent of EU Law influence on foreign data protection laws (Brazil, Japan for example) will be highlighted. Finally, the need for a global data protection law will be discussed.
International Human Rights and Gender-Based Violence (1 hour) [First Session]
Professor Lisa Avalos, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU
This course explores various forms of gender-based violence (GBV) in public and private spheres and the relationship between this violence and discourse on human rights in both the legal and policy arenas. GBV is increasingly garnering significant international attention in diverse fields such as law and public health. But how to understand the relationship between GBV and human rights instruments, and how to approach solutions to the issue, are matters of vigorous intellectual and political debate. We will explore aspects of this debate including arguments about cultural relativism and the universality of human rights. We will also examine how international and regional human rights mechanisms are increasingly being used to combat GBV.
Human Rights and the Environment (1 Credit) [Second Session]
Professor Nicholas Bryner, Paul M. Hebert Law Center, LSU
In 2022, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution recognizing “the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment as a human right.” This course explores the relationship and overlap between international human rights law and environmental law.
The course begins with a basic overview of key concepts in human rights law and a brief history of the development of international environmental law. After this introduction, the course examines the question of how environmental harms impact traditionally recognized human rights. It then turns to converse question of how the enjoyment of civil, political, economic, social, and cultural human rights influence environmental protection. Students will consider whether, from a policy and legal perspective, it makes sense to approach environmental issues with a human rights framework, as well as what difference it makes to recognize, as the majority of countries in the world now do, a human right to a healthy environment.
Introduction to to Comparative Company Law (1 Credit) [Second Session]
Dr. Francisco Reyes, Bogota, Colombia
The continuing harmonization of European Corporate Law as well as the various regulatory approaches that exist in the U.S., Latin America and other jurisdictions about incorporated entities and other business associations provide an interesting background for Comparative Law studies. This course is intended to introduce students to the regulation of business forms as they exist in multiple jurisdictions. It will start by focusing on the rationale that brings together the Company Law systems of the US, Europe and Latin America and will then trace the evolution of business forms and corporate governance regimes in these jurisdictions. The course will highlight specific traits that set apart the Company Law regimes adopted by such countries.
The program will also explore specific topics related to mergers and acquisitions in a comparative context. Emphasis will be placed in the practical aspects that are considered in international deals, such as the different types of transactions, the due diligence process, and the drafting of basic M&A documents.
Faculty
Prof. Lisa Avalos
Professor Avalos joined the Law Center faculty in 2018. Her teaching and research interests are in the areas of criminal law and procedure, with an emphasis on sexual offenses and gender-based violence. She also teaches in the area of legal ethics. Professor Avalos’s publications have appeared or are forthcoming in the University of Illinois Law Review, Case Western Reserve Law Review, Brooklyn Law Review, Nevada Law Journal, Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law, Fordham International Law Journal, and others.
Professor Avalos previously taught at the University of Arkansas School of Law and was a visiting assistant professor at Georgetown University Law Center. Prior to entering academia, she worked as an associate at McDermott Will & Emery in New York City and at Neal, Gerber & Eisenberg in Chicago. She earned her J.D. from New York University School of Law. She also holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in sociology from Northwestern University, and a B.A. in psychology from Northwestern University. Prior to attending law school, she taught sociology at Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa.
Email: avalos@lsu.edu
Prof. Nicholas Bryner
Professor Bryner was an Emmett/Frankel Fellow in Environmental Law and Policy at the UCLA School of Law for 2016-18. He served as Visiting Associate Professor and Environmental Law Fellow at George Washington University Law School (August 2014-June 2016) where he co-taught courses on environmental and natural resources law.
Bryner received his B.A. magna cum laude in Political Science from the University of Utah, with minors in Latin American Studies and Chemistry. He also earned joint degrees (J.D. / M.A.) in law and Latin American and Hemispheric Studies from The George Washington University Law School and Elliott School of International Affairs. At GW, Bryner was elected to the Order of Coif, received the Pro Bono Service Award and the Patton Boggs Foundation Public Policy Fellowship, and was a Presidential Merit Scholar. In addition, he served as an Articles Editor for The George Washington Law Review.
Email: bryner@lsu.edu
Prof. Robert E. Lancaster
Robert Lancaster is the Assistant Dean of Experiential Education at LSU Law. He teaches the Parole and Re-entry Clinic, Divorce and Child Custody Mediation, and Legal Interviewing and Counseling. His professional interests are primarily focused on the pedagogy of experiential legal education, exploration of issues of mass incarceration and prisoner reentry, and alternative methods of conflict resolution in family decision making.
Prior to LSU, he was a Clinical Professor of Law at Indiana University School of Law -Indianapolis where he taught in the Civil Practice Clinic, the Judicial Field Placement Program, Lawyering Practice, and a seminar exploring wrongful convictions. Professor Lancaster has also taught in the Criminal Justice Defense Clinic at the Washington School of Law, American University in Washington, D.C. and was a Cover Fellow at the Yale Law School. Prior to teaching, he represented death row inmates in state post-conviction and federal habeas proceedings.
Professor Lancaster has extensive experience living and working overseas. He spent a gap year after his college graduation living and working in Japan. He has travelled throughout the provinces of China for four years while he was the faculty director of the China Trial Advocacy Institute (CTAI) — a rule of law and human rights project headquartered at Renmin University School of Law in Beijing and funded by the Bureau of Democracy, Rights and Labor of the United States Department of State. He also served as resident faculty for the China Law Summer Program and the European Law Summer Program while at Indiana University. Professor Lancaster regularly serves as a visiting professor at the Université Grenoble Alpes Faculté de droit in France and at Shandong University School of Law in Weihai, China.
Professor Lancaster is a founding member and President of the Board of Directors of the Louisiana Parole Project – a non-profit focused on decarceration and the successful reentry of individuals who have served long prison sentences. He serves on the Louisiana State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, and he also serves the Louisiana State Bar Association as a member of the Access to Justice Committee and the LGBT Section of the Diversity Committee. Professor Lancaster was also a longstanding member of the Board of Governors for the Society of American Law Teachers (SALT)—a community of progressive law teachers working for justice, diversity and academic excellence.
Professor Lancaster received his BA, magna cum laude, in Philosophy (with Honors in English) from Millsaps College and his JD, cum laude, from Tulane Law School. He is admitted to practice in Louisiana, Indiana, and Connecticut and is a Qualified Child Custody and Visitation Mediator in Louisiana.
Email: rlancast@lsu.edu
Prof. Ludovic Pailler
Professor Ludovic Pailler joined the Jean Moulin Lyon 3 University Law Faculty in 2017 as an Associate Professor and was appointed Full Professor (Agrégé des facultés de droit) in 2019. He is currently Vice-Dean for undergraduate students and Director of the legal clinic. He was a visiting professor in several universities (Ain Shams, Egypt; Sao Paolo, Brasil; El Salvador, Argentina; French University in Armenia; Bucharest, Romania; Vientiane Laos).
Professor Ludovic Pailler earned his Ph.D. summa cum laude at the Limoges University (2015) and was awarded the René Cassin Prize. He is a member of several academic societies (Comité français de droit international privé; International Law Association; European Association of Private International Law) and is co-president of the Code and Law section of Société de législation comparée. His publications mainly relate to private international law, fundamental rights law, and data protection law. He authored two books, co-authored a digital law book and is preparing a private international law book. He edited two volumes of proceedings from an international symposium he organized, and took part to many conferences, particularly in France and Canada. He regularly publishes articles, notes and reviews in French and English.
Email: ludovic.pailler@univ-lyon3.fr
Dr. Francisco Reyes Villamizar
Francisco Reyes Villamizar has been a research fellow at Max Planck Institute. A former Superintendent of Companies from Colombia he was also the Chairman of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). He co-drafted the 2022 Commercial Code of Mozambique.
He has been an active participant and draftsman of several comprehensive legislative reforms to the Colombian laws of Corporations and Bankruptcy, including the successful law on Simplified Stock Corporations enacted in 2008. He prepared the OAS Model Law on Simplified Corporations. He also presided over the governmental commissions for the amendment of the Colombian Bankruptcy Law and the Law on Secured Transactions.
LLB from Javeriana University in Bogotá, LLM from the University of Miami School of Law and PhD in Law from the University of Tilburg. He also holds a diploma in Portuguese Culture from the University of Lisbon (Portugal).
Dr. Reyes Villamizar has been a Visiting Professor in four continents, including Louisiana State University (Baton Rouge, LA), Stetson College of Law (Gulfport, FL), University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ), University of Miami (FL), Université Jean Moulin Lyon 3 (France), University of Fribourg (Switzerland), University of Tilburg (The Netherlands), Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México, Universidade Agostinho Neto (Angola), Doshisha of Kyoto (Japan) and Universidad Austral (Argentina).
Author of several books and articles in the fields of Business Associations and Bankruptcy. His extensive scholarly production includes publications in Spanish, English and Portuguese. Author of the books Latin American Company Law (Carolina Academic Press, 2013), Direito Societario Americano (Quatier Latin, 2012), Análisis Económico del Derecho Societario (Astrea, 2018), and a two-volume treatise on Colombian Company Law (Temis, 2006).
Speaker at several international fora, including those at the Supreme Courts of Brazil and Mexico, as well as Columbia, Harvard and Fordham Universities. For several years he served as director and Chairman of the Board at the Latin American publishing company Legis S.A. He has been an expert witness before courts in New York, Florida, Arizona and California.
Email: societario@gmail.com
Trip to the International Labour Organization (ILO)
This year, students will be visiting the ILO headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Students will take a bus to the ILO headquarters on July 4, where they will participate in discussions and simulations guided by ILO employees. More details will be available as the Lyon program gets closer.
Academic Policies
The program fully follows all policies of the LSU Law Center on all matters, including class attendance and grading. For more information, please consult the Summer in Lyon Program Official Brochure and the LSU Law Center Catalog. Visiting students admitted in the program: acceptance of any credit or grade for any course or activity taken in the program must be verified with your home school.
Program Director: Professor Robert E. Lancaster, rlancast@lsu.edu