Study Abroad: Paris Program

From its founding in the 1960s, Université Paris Nanterre has dedicated itself to being a new type of institution of higher education: an institution of learning and research whose defining characteristics are its vibrant campus life, educational innovation, and scientific research with a social dimension. Université Paris Nanterre is located to the west of the greater Paris area, just next to the largest business district in Europe and in a dynamic area full of major urban developments. The Nanterre campus reflects the University’s forward-looking policy with respect to sports and cultural activities, environmental commitment, and solidarity actions. 

Today Université Paris Nanterre has 34,000 students in undergraduate, postgraduate and professional continuing education with more than 20% of the student body from a foreign country. There are over 1,000 research professors and researchers in all disciplines of social and human sciences, as well as in sports sciences and physical education, mathematics, computer science and engineering.

Université Paris Nanterre is a member of an Association of Higher Education and Research Institutions known as Université Paris Lumières. The University of Paris 8 and the CNRS research institute also belong to this prestigious grouping of institutions of higher learning. The INS-HEA (special educational needs and disability studies) and ENS Louis Lumière (National Film, Photography & Sound Engineering School) as well as numerous cultural institutions of both French and international renown (Louvre Museum, National Library of France, Quai Branly Museum, Centre Georges Pompidou, National Archives, INA – National Audiovisual Institute, History and Immigration Museum, etc.) are also part of this exceptional educational initiative. This association is one of the leading educational and research bodies in France in the field of social and human sciences.

Nanterre University Map ( Universit Paris Ouest Nanterre - Service Communication)

Photo Universit Paris Ouest Nanterre - Service Communication

Preliminary 2023 Calendar

The structure of the summer program's classes is unique. Unlike many other law schools' programs, this program does more than transport Americans to a city in Europe, where they might be taught in isolation by the same professors they would have at home. Instead, each class is team-taught in English by both a French professor and an American professor. Further, the program seeks to integrate its American students into the French classroom experience by welcoming French students into the program. In fact, we often have 20-40 French students attend, along with some students from other EU countries. Most classes meet in the afternoon, usually between 1:30 and 5 pm, leaving ample time for inter-cultural activities and sightseeing.

The program is divided into two sessions. The first is an online component – Introduction to French & EU Law – which allows flexibility to take the class anywhere. There are scheduled group sessions where information and lessons will be given by your program directors, and other GGU Law professors and our French counterparts. You will be required to complete the course before beginning the on-site elective courses in Paris.

The second session is two weeks in Paris taking classes at the Université Paris Nanterre. In addition to the in-person courses, you’ll have the opportunity to participate in off-campus excursions, like visiting major international law firms and at least one of the three French Supreme Courts (Civil/Criminal Court; Administrative Court; and the Constitutional Court) to attend lectures by court members.

Classes will meet four days a week for each week, leaving time for off-campus extracurriculars, conversations with peers and professors, and pre-planned trips.

Eric C. Christiansen (Comparative Human Rights Law): Professor of Law and Associate Dean for International Partnerships at GGU Law. He has extensive experience with international education and program management. Professor Christiansen successfully directed the earlier iteration of this Program from 2009 to 2013.  He is a former Fulbright Senior Scholar and publishes and teaches in the area of comparative constitutional law.  Additionally, he has taught as a visiting professor and guest lecturer at the University of Paris Nanterre (France), the University of Valencia (Spain) and worked as a lawyer in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, and South Africa. He is a founding member and instructor in Europe’s INNO-Talk program for the promotion of trans-national dialogue related to innovation in international legal education. Prior to entering academia, Professor Christiansen directed several international and local nonprofit organizations.

Laura A. Cisneros  joined the Golden Gate University School of Law faculty in July 2010. She teaches Constitutional Law and Criminal Procedure. She is also the Associate Dean for Faculty Scholarship. She writes and lectures on constitutional law and theory, reading U.S. constitutional jurisprudence through the lens of European Critical Theory with a focus on theories of time and difference. Her articles have appeared in law reviews, including the Santa Clara Law Review and the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law. She is a frequent presenter to law school faculties nationwide on issues involving constitutional law and judicial review. Professor Cisneros earned her J.D. from Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, her LL.M. from the University of Wisconsin Law School, where she was also a William H. Hastie Fellow, and her B.A. in 20th century American History from the University of San Diego. 

Michele Benedetto Neitz joined the University of San Francisco School of Law as a Visiting Professor on January 1. She is the Founding Director of the Blockchain Law for Social Good Center, the first of its kind in the United States. She teaches Blockchain Technology and the Law, Business Associations, Legal Ethics, and other classes. Prior to joining USF Law, Professor Neitz was voted “Most Outstanding Professor” by the graduating class of Golden Gate University School of Law six times, most recently in 2022.

Professor Neitz was appointed to advise the California legislature as a member of the California Blockchain Working Group in 2019. She publishes and lectures on the ethical, regulatory, and social impact issues in blockchain technology.

Professor Neitz graduated as a Root-Tilden-Scholar from New York University School of Law. Before joining academia, she clerked in the Southern District of California for Judge Napoleon Jones. She also worked as an Equal Justice Works fellow at the Legal Aid Society of San Diego and was an associate at Morrison & Foerster.

LinkedIn: michele-neitz Blockchain Law for Social Good Center: https://blockchainlawsg.org/

Jyoti Nanda studies criminal and juvenile law with a focus on how legal actors, institutions, and doctrines have responded or failed to respond to the dramatic expansion of the carceral state. In 2022, GGU awarded her the Justice Jesse W. Carter Faculty Scholarship Award for her commitment to impactful and cutting-edge scholarship. She is interested in the intersections of criminal law and social hierarchies shaped by race, age, gender, dis/ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, and immigration. Her research draws on her background in Ethnic Studies and her experience as a youth advocate and civil rights lawyer to better understand contemporary legal practices within the historical context of racial and economic inequality in the United States. Nanda’s 2012 article Blind Discretion: Girls of Color in the Delinquency System served as the framework for a national report on the adultification of girls of color in our criminal justice system.  She has written on how race functions to ascribe and criminalize disability within the special education context in over-policed and over-surveilled schools. Most recently, Nanda published a ground-breaking paper on the flaws of juvenile probation, arguing that it is a deceptive system leading youth deeper into the criminal system.  Her research and writing appear in the national press in print, T.V., and radio, and she has received numerous awards for her work.  Nandae is a graduate of Northwestern Law and U.C. Berkeley. Born in Nairobi, she is a proud immigrant and the daughter of parents who were refugees and immigrants from Pakistan/India and Kenya. Nanda considers herself a scholar, teacher, and lawyer-activist. 

Professor Stephanie Hennette-Vauchez is a professor of public law at the Université Paris Nanterre (France), where she is the director of the CREDOF (Centre de recherches et d’études sur les droits fondamentaux). She is also a senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Her research interests lie in the field of human rights law. She has published extensively on French and European aspects of law and bioethics, on states of emergency, and on religious freedom and religious discrimination. She was also one of the scientific coordinators of a vast collaborative research project (REGINE – Recherches et Etudes sur le Genre et les Inégalités dans les Normes en Europe) on gender and law.  Her recent publications in English include: “Gender Balance in International Adjudicatory Bodies, in the Max Planck Encyclopedia for International Procedural Law” (2019) and “Incompatibility between the ‘French Republican Model’ and Anti- Discrimination Law? Deconstructing a Familiar Trope of Narratives of French Law” (with Elsa Fondimare), in Barbara Havelkova, Mathias Möschel ed., Anti discrimination law in civil law jurisdictions, Oxford University Press, 2020.

Professor Katrin Deckert is associate professor and co-responsible of the common law track of the bilingual Master French law/foreign law at Paris Nanterre University. She is an affiliate researcher with the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (Germany) and the former Deputy Secretary-General of the International Academy of Comparative Law (2006-2015). Professor Deckert studied law and economy in France and Germany and holds a PhD in German, French and European corporate and financial markets law from the Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne University and the University of Hamburg. She was research fellow at Paris Pantheon-Sorbonne University (2001-2004), research and teaching assistant at Paris Panthéon-Assas University (2004-2006), research assistant at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg (2007-2009), Lecturer in German Law at Paris-Est Créteil University (2008-2010), and senior research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law (2010-2011). Professor Deckert teaches and researches in German, French and European corporate and capital markets law, with a focus on CSR/ESG and law & economics, and is the editor-in-chief of the International Journal for Financial Services.

Professor Lanna Hollo is a human rights lawyer and advocate withover 25 years experience working within international and non-governmental organizations.  She focuses on issues of racism, discrimination, minority rights, conflict prevention and security and is especially interested in the use of law and legal tools to bring about social change. Founding member of a new organization (RE)Claim – Resourcing Equality Center for Law and Innovative Mobilizing - she led Open Society Justice Initiative’s work challenging racial discrimination in France for more than a decade, notably developing and coordinating collective strategic litigation efforts.  She previously worked at the Council of Europe within the Secretariat of the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance and the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.  

Professor Helen Hartnell
Emerita Professor Helen E. Hartnell, Juris Doctor, Ph.D. is professor of international economic law, European law, private international law, and commercial law. She received her JD magna cum laude from the University of Illinois in 1980, then practiced law in the USA and in Germany (1983-1988). She earned an interdisciplinary Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018 in Jurisprudence & Social Policy (JSP). Professor Hartnell taught full-time for 25 years, during which time she held faculty appointments at Golden Gate University School of Law (San Francisco), at the Central European University (Budapest), and at Tulane Law School (New Orleans). She was Visiting Scholar at the University of Cologne (Law Centre for European and International Cooperation (RIZ); Institute for Foreign and International Private Law) from 2004-2006, DAAD Guest Professor of Anglo-American Law at the Free University of Berlin from 2006-2007, and Fulbright Professor at the University of Helsinki Faculty of Law in 2012. Professor Hartnell has also taught at the American University of Armenia (Yerevan); the University of Cologne; the University of Cyprus (Nicosia); ELTE University (Budapest); Harvard Law School; Marquette Law School (Milwaukee); the University of Paris-X (Nanterre); Southern Methodist University School of Law (Dallas); and Suffolk Law School (Boston). She has continued teaching courses on law, politics and society at the FU Berlin (FUBiS) since her retirement from GGU in 2013.

Download the 2023 Paris Program Application. Scan and if you are on the GGU Law campus, you may give your completed application to Maya Guerrant in the Law School Student Affairs Suite 2333 or in the faculty mailbox of Prof. Eric Christiansen.

Maya Guerrant

Golden Gate University School of Law
Administrative Coordinator, Summer Paris Program
415-442-6642

mguerrant@ggu.edu
parisprogram@ggu.edu

Professor Eric C. Christiansen

Golden Gate University School of Law
Director, Summer Paris Program
415-369-5338

echristiansen@ggu.edu
parisprogram@ggu.edu

Professor Laura A. Cisneros

Golden Gate University School of Law
Director, Summer Paris Program
415-369-5358

lcisneros@ggu.edu
parisprogram@ggu.edu