Law 674 – The Trafficking in Human Beings: Law and Policy

Quarter: Fall 2016 (Semester)
Instructor: Khaled Abou El Fadl Khaled Abou El Fadl

The course will provide an overview of the broad range of legal issues related to the growing international and domestic problem of human trafficking.  Conservative estimates are that around a million people are trafficked in the world each year.  Annually, at least twenty thousand people are trafficked in the United States for forced labor, including domestic services, agricultural and construction work, and sweatshops, leave alone trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation.   This course will examine a broad range of issues including human trafficking and international law, domestic and international anti-trafficking agencies and organizations, criminal and civil litigation in trafficking cases, and immigration law related issues. The course will start out with a theoretical examination of the definitional challenges involved in thinking about labor, coercion, and consent. The course will then examine slavery, peonage, and involuntary servitude in the law of nations and the U.S. We will also focus on the international legal framework, especially the Polermo Protocols, international agencies, and NGOs, as part of the effort to deal with this increasingly acute global crisis. In this context, we will also discuss displaced persons and international refugees as a major contributing factor to the problem of human trafficking. As part of our international treatment, we will analyze the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, U.S. federal contractors and corporate accountability, and international crimes. *Law School Fall 2016 Semester starts 8/22/16