Courses

• LAW JD 980: International Business Arbitration (S)
  Legal dimensions of international business dispute resolution through binding arbitration. Treaty framework for determining validity of arbitration agreement and for recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards (New York Convention, Panama Convention, Washington Convention). Comparative approach (French, English, Swiss, and U.S. legal systems) to the influence of national law on international arbitration. UNCITRAL Model Law. NAFTA Chapter 11 and bilateral investment treaties. Special status of international commercial arbitration in national law. Major arbitral institutions and rules, including ICC, LCIA, AAA and ICSID. State contracts: Act of State and sovereign immunity. Expropriation claims. Delocalization and the influence of the arbitral seat. Arbitral awards as a contribution to lex mercatoria. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 18 students. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 981: Criminal Trial Advocacy
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to 2L students who have applied to and been accepted to start the Criminal Clinic in Spring 2016. Trial Advocacy is a three credit course which will meet once a week for two hours. It will focus on courtroom skills in the context of criminal trial litigation. NOTE: The Criminal Clinical Program satisfies the upper-class professional skills requirement.
• LAW JD 982: Criminal Trial Practice I (C)
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have applied to and been accepted into the Criminal Clinical Program. The Fall section is restricted to 3Ls who will begin the program in Fall 2015. The Spring 2016 section is restricted to 2L students who will begin the program in Spring 2016. (Fall/3L section) Criminal Trial Practice I will meet in the first semester for two hours each week at the law school and will require students to be available one morning a week to be in court, from Monday through Thursday. The classroom component of this course will provide students an introduction to Massachusetts criminal procedure and basic instruction in lawyering skills such as case planning and investigation. Students in the program will be assigned to cases handled by senior members of the Prosecutor and Defender programs and will be expected to conduct tasks out of court such as legal research, fact investigation, witness interviews and preparation. One morning a week, these students will be in court observing and second seating the cases they have helped to prepare. After the completion of this course, students will be assigned to the Prosecutor or Defender component of the clinic and must register for the appropriate section in the following semester. (Spring/2L Section) Criminal Trial Practice I will meet in the second semester for three hours each week at the law school and will require students to be available one morning a week to be in court, from Monday through Thursday. The classroom component of this course will provide students an introduction to Massachusetts criminal procedure and basic instruction in lawyering skills such as case planning and investigation. Students in the program will be assigned to cases handled by senior members of the Prosecutor and Defender programs and will be expected to conduct tasks out of court such as legal research, fact investigation, witness interviews and preparation. One morning a week, these students will be in court observing and second seating the cases they have helped to prepare. NOTE: The Criminal Clinical Program satisfies the upper-class professional skills requirement.
• LAW JD 983: Estate Planning (S)
  This seminar will explore the theories and skills involved in the estate planning and administration process. Initial class discussions will focus on selected non-tax topics in estates, trusts, and fiduciary law, including asset protection, duties of loyalty and care, accountability to beneficiaries, and dynasty trusts. During the semester, each student will choose a research topic, give an oral presentation, and complete a substantial paper reflecting the results of the research. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who waitlist for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 984: Professional Responsibility
  This course offers an approach to the lawyer's responsibilities to clients, the profession, and the public. Topics addressed will be problems of disclosure, conflict of interest, advertising, adversary tactics, competence, attorney fees, and fiduciary duties. NOTE: This course satisfies the upper-class professional responsibility requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 985: Corporate Finance
  This course covers the foundations of corporate finance. It starts with the concepts of time value of money, discounting, and present value. With that background it then considers the major financial decisions made by corporate managers. Topics include the valuation of financial assets and liabilities, criteria for making investment decisions, business valuation, relationships between risk and return, portfolio theory, market efficiency, capital structure choice, and cost of capital. GRADING NOTICE: Professor Sims's section will not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 986: Legal Writing Fellows
  This class is restricted to students who have applied and been accepted as Writing Fellows for the First Year Writing Program. Accepted students must register for both the fall and spring sections of the class.
• LAW JD 987: Securitization (Structured Financing)
  Securitization is a process which converts illiquid financial assets (e.g., loans, receivables) into liquid and tradable financial assets (securities). After an overview of the financial system we follow the process: creating loans, transferring loans to an entity, choosing the entitle (form, possible regulation and tax considerations), distributing the entity's securities, and examining global-cross-border securities. Because the process touches on many legal areas (e.g., banking, securities regulation, regulation of investment companies, corporation, trusts, UCC, bankruptcy, contract, and fiduciary duties) the class offers a high level understanding of the process and awareness of the issues on which it touches, focusing on planning. Students are graded on 2 short papers (up to 10 double-spaced pages) offering problems in particular topics related to the materials. Papers should be completed after presentation in class. Teaching book: Tamar Frankel, Securitization (2006) (a treatise without the footnotes), with discussion topics and problems. NOTE: This course satisfies the Upper-class Professional Skills requirement.
• LAW JD 988: Mergers and Acquisitions
  This course will cover the principal legal, tax and business issues of mergers and acquisitions. PREREQUISITE: Corporations or permission of instructor.
• LAW JD 989: Jessup Moot Court: Problem Solving in International Law
  This course is restricted to students who applied and were accepted as participants for the Jessup Moot Court competition. A full description can be found here: http://www.bu.edu/law/central/jd/programs/appellate-advocacy/jessup.shtml
• LAW JD 990: Feminist Jurisprudence (S)
  This seminar examines the evolution of feminist jurisprudence (also called feminist legal theory) and its critique of the U.S. legal system and its norms. It takes up various debates within feminist jurisprudence and examines its application to many contemporary issues of law and public policy. The seminar provides an introduction to the various "generations" of feminist legal theory, as well as its relationship to other forms of legal theory. Students will learn about prominent strands of feminist legal theory, including liberal (or sameness), relational (or difference), radical (or dominance), Critical Race (or intersectional) and anti-essentialist, postmodern, and "Third Wave" feminism. We will consider the relationship between feminist jurisprudence and other forms of critical theory, such as Critical Race Theory, Queer Theory, and masculinities theory. The seminar will assess debates within feminist jurisprudence concerning how best to understand gender, the ideals of sex equality and equal citizenship, questions of sameness and difference between women and men, and over whether, in view of differences among women based on class, ethnicity, race, and sexual orientation and in view of other critiques of identity categories, it is desirable or possible to speak about "women" -- or "men" -- as meaningful categories. Topics covered vary, depending on student interest, but will likely include some of the following: legal regulation of sexuality, marriage, reproduction, and family; work/life conflict; employment discrimination (including sexual harassment); political leadership and representation; pornography; poverty and social welfare policy; violence against women; war and military service; international human rights; and the debate over multiculturalism and its impact on sex equality. The format of the seminar is primarily discussion, with some lecturing. The written requirement may be satisfied either by a research paper (which may be used to satisfy the certification requirement) or three shorter papers on assigned questions (which may also be used to satisfy the certification requirement) or a take-home exam. Students will also write several short reaction papers about the readings. OFFERING PATTERN: This class will not be offered in 2016-2017. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 991: International Human Rights (S)
  This is an introductory course to international human rights. The course will introduce students to the concepts of human rights, and the instruments that have codified and provided content to those concepts in the last sixty years. We will examine such questions as: Is there such a thing as human rights law? What standards, mechanisms, monitoring or enforcement machinery exists to make human rights concepts "legal"? Is there such a thing as universal consensus on human rights, or are the concepts relative from one region to the next? What, if any, constraints does human rights law place on the actions of sovereign states? How does the UN machinery operate in human rights law-making, monitoring and enforcement? What is the role of regional organizations, domestic courts and international entities in developing, promoting and implementing human rights norms? The course will take a contextualized approach using cases and current situations to address these questions primarily from a human rights perspective. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ** A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 998: Health Care Transactions (S)
  Partners, associates and general counsel from leading firms will discuss the deals they were personally involved in. After an introduction to joint venture theory and the regulatory context of health care, everyone in the class examines 2 transactions: a physician recruiting agreement and an ambulatory surgery center JV. The remainder of the course will involve 5 -- 6 complex health care transactions, using actual documents from recent deals. The transactions run the gamut from hospital M&A to biotech licenses. For the transaction you select, you will work in teams to analyze the deal, and will present your conclusions to the lawyers who closed it. Your final project will be a negotiation or drafting assignment drawn from class materials. PREREQUISITES: The course does not have pre-requisites, but Corporations and Health Care are suggested; if you select the biotech transactions, IP and FDA are suggested. NOTES: This seminar satisfies the Upper-class Professional Skills requirement. This seminar does not satisfy the Upper-class Writing Requirement. **A student who fails to attend the initial meeting of a seminar (designated by an (S) in the title), or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, may be administratively dropped from the seminar. Students who are on a wait list for a seminar are required to attend the first seminar meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW LE 650: Legal English 1
  
• LAW LE 651: Academic Skills
  
• LAW LE 652: Legal Cult
  
• LAW LE 653: Legal English 2
  
• LAW LE 654: Legal Writing
  
• LAW LE 655: Persuasive Advo
  
• LAW LE 656: Topics Amer LAW
  

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