Product Liability Class - Switch to New Professor

Without a doubt, my favorite class this term is EU Product Liability. The class is split between Professors Binchy and Schuster. Prof. Binchy teaches weeks 1-5 on Fridays from 12-2, Prof. Schuster weeks 6-10 on Tuesdays from 3-5, then week 11 is back to Prof. Binchy.

Prof. Binchy's lectures began with basically an introduction to the theory of product liability, starting with the early PL cases and showing how the law evolved over time. It was basically a tort law refresher, discussing theories of negligence, strict liability, joint and several liability, res ipsa loquitor, etc. One of the first cases we discussed with Prof. Binchy was the classic snail in a soda bottle case. (Law school friends, remember that?)

From there, we moved into current European product liability law.

This being week 6, Tuesday was our first class with Prof. Schuster. He's great! I had met him briefly at the LL.M. welcome reception last month.  Really nice guy, good sense of humor, very intelligent. He wrote Chapter 9 of this document (begins on p. 70 of the pdf) about consumer legislation.  He has written several articles and chapters on PL law, competition law as well as sport law. 

I appreciated the fact that he, like Prof. Binchy, gave handouts of cases and other class material. (I wish I could say the same for other lecturers... names withheld here...) Sitting in his lecture, I felt relaxed yet wanted to absord every word. I understood everything he was discussing and I felt comfortable enough to just sit back and listen rather than frantically take notes, which was a nice feeling. I undoubtedly have my wonderful boss and coworkers to thank for part of this.  One of my favorite parts of today's lecture was when he said, with eloquent Irish accent, "if you could cast your eyes for a moment to the 3rd paragraph from the bottom..." - it just made me smile. 

With Prof. Schuster, we will be learning a lot about the European Product Liability Directive. We even already have a homework assignment! Actually, this is the first class in which we've had homework. The assignment is entirely optional, but I will definitely do it as I'm sure it can only help me.  Our assignment is to do a case analysis of "Re A Faulty Baguette", an Austrian Supreme Court case from 2004. 
Faulty Baguette
We have a 1500 word limit, so it's not a huge assignment.  Would like to do a nice job and grease the ol' writing skills again.