Courses
Summary chart showing courses offered by semester.
This course surveys the food laws and regulations as well as the socio-economic dynamic which shapes the food laws of specific regions of the world including the US, EU, UK, Latin America, Japan, and India. It also surveys the role of international agencies in the application of food laws (WHO, FAO, Codex, WTO). Modules on Critical Analysis and Comparative Food Law and a Food Safety Governance Comparative Study are also included. The Lead Instructor is Neal D. Fortin, Director and Assistant Professor of the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations at Michigan State University, along with an international network of guest lecturers of attorneys, academics and former government officials who practice in that specific region and who understand the legal complexities of the flow of food and agricultural products across national boundaries.
This course is taught by Lead Instructor Neal D. Fortin, Director and Assistant Professor of the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations at Michigan State University, and surveys the laws and regulations governing the manufacture, distribution and sale of food products in the United States. This course will cover the history of U.S. food regulation, the regulation of foods and food additives, dietary supplements, genetic modification regulation, HACCP, civil and criminal liability for defective products, inspections, labeling, importation and exportation, novel processing technologies regulation, and many other issues of current concern in US food regulation. The course has been updated to include the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act.
This course is designed for those who require comprehensive information regarding the regulation of food products in the European Union (EU). The Lead Instructor for this course is Dr. David Jukes, Professor and Senior Lecturer in Food Laws at the University of Reading, in Reading, England. Dr. Jukes is joined by several distinguished food attorneys and food law professionals from Ireland, United Kingdom, France, Germany and Latvia. The course includes a brief introduction to the EU, the role of case law, official controls, European Food Authority, food labeling, HACCP and concludes with a case study on the role of science in EU food Law
Taught by Lead Instructor Dr. Rebeca Lopez-Garcia, a food industry consultant, who resides in Mexico City, Mexico, this course surveys the political, social, economic and historical events that have shaped the development of food laws and regulations throughout Latin America including an overview comparison of the basic food laws, agency responsibility in each country, product registration requirements, basic standards, labeling and additives, international trade issues and dispute resolution. It examines food-related issues and events on a regional basis including Mercosur as well as the specific countries of Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina.
The Instructors for this course are Attorney John F. Blakney and Attorney Olivia Wright of the law firm of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP. Mr. Blakney is a partner and Ms. Wright is an associate in the firm’s Ottawa office. This course contains a comprehensive examination of the regulation of food product in Canada. The Regulatory Framework; Labelling and Advertising Rules under the Canadian FDA and other Canadian Statutes; Food Additives, Food Supplements and Food Fortification; The Regulation of Novel Foods and Genetically Modified Foods, Organic Foods and Food Irradiation; Inspection and Related Food Safety Programs; Food Recalls; and Compliance and Enforcement.
This course is taught this fall by Dr. P. Vincent Hegarty, Professor Emeritus and Founding Director, and Neal D. Fortin, Director and Assistant Professor, of the Institute for Food Laws & Regulations at Michigan State University, with guest lectures from representatives in Codex Alimentarius, WHO, WTO, the World Bank, the food industry, a developing country, and a consumer organization. Codex Alimentarius is a global reference point for food producers, food processors, consumers, national food control agencies, and for international trade. Codex formulates and harmonizes food standards and ensures their global implementation. Codex has food standards for commodities (237), codes for hygiene or technological practice (41); guidelines for contaminants (25); and has evaluations on pesticides (185), food additives (1,005), veterinary drugs (54); and limits for pesticide residues (3,274).
This course is taught by Lead Instructor Dr. Scott Haskell DVM, MPVM, PhD, with expert guest lectures from the OIE and around the globe. The mission of the OIE is: (1) To guarantee the transparency of animal disease status world-wide; (2) To collect, analyze and disseminate veterinary scientific information; (3) To provide expertise and promote international solidarity for the control of animal diseases; and (4) To guarantee the sanitary safety of world trade by developing sanitary rules for international trade in animals and animal products. This course will examine the history, objectives and operations of the OIE, roles of the OIE in animal health, animal welfare, and food safety throughout the world, the WTO Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement); and the OIE standards, guidelines and recommendations.
This course is designed for those who must understand the legal and regulatory complexities of the flow of food and agricultural products in Asia. The first part of the course looks at country-specific food laws, then moves to the international institutions, and then combines these two parts into a comparative analysis and introduces current and emerging issues. The Lead Instructor is Michael T. Roberts, an attorney and also a prolific and respected author, lecturer, and commentator nationally and internationally on matters relating to food and agricultural law and policy. He has taught classes on food and agricultural law topics in the U.S., England, Belgium, and Romania.
This course is designed for those who wish to understand the legal and regulatory complexities of risk regulation. This interdisciplinary course focuses on societies’ efforts to assess and manage health, safety, and environmental risks. Amid contemporary preoccupations with risks, managing threats to society has become one of the central tasks of governments. Risk regulation has to come to terms with issues such as: selecting the risks deserving regulatory attention, feeding the best scientific advice into decision-making, deciding in situations of scientific uncertainty, defining the role of non-scientific values, ensuring an open and participative form of decision-making, calculating the costs and benefits of regulation as well as their distributional and equity effects. The instructor is Alberto Alemanno, an Associate Professor of Law at HEC Paris and a U.S. attorney-at-law (New York).
The Summer Academy in Global Food Law & Policy is an established one-week summer program that brings together practitioners, policymakers, industry representatives, and leading academics working in the field of food law and policy. It offers intensive training on the most innovative developments in global food regulation and provides a unique opportunity for professional development and networking in an informal and interdisciplinary setting.