Courses

• LAW JD 826: Mediation: Theory & Practice (S)
  Mediation is part of the legal landscape in almost every substantive area and legal setting. This course will cover the theory and practice of mediation, the use of mediation to resolve disputes in various different legal contexts, and the development of practical mediation skills. We will examine the mediation process from the role of the mediator through the attorney representing a party in mediation. We will also address direct negotiation, the decision to mediate, mediator selection, preparation for mediation, and ethical issues involved in negotiation. The course will provide skill building through several interactive role-plays, in which students will have opportunities to act as a mediator, a party in mediation, and counsel to a party in mediation. The role play mediations and other exercises will survey many of the areas in which mediation is being used, including business and commercial; court-connected, federal-state agency (environmental and others); construction, employment/workplace; family/ divorce; school, community, and international. Due to the interactive nature of the class, students will be expected to attend all scheduled classes and to participate actively. Active participation includes in-class discussions, mediation role-plays, assigned reading, and writing a weekly mediator's journal. NOTES: This class does not satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. ** 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 827: Restorative Justice: Principles and Practices
  The course explores the needs of key stakeholders in a justice system (victims, offenders, communities, government officials), outlines the basic principles and values of restorative justice with comparisons to the principles and values of retributive justice, and introduces some of the primary models of practice. It also identifies challenges to restorative justice. These discussions will takes place in the context of secular and religious understandings of justice. The course is organized around the issue of crime and harm within a western legal context. However, attention is given to applications and lessons from other contexts. Of particular interest is the contribution of traditional or indigenous approaches to justice as well as applications in post-conflict situations, such as South Africa. The class will include presentations by the instructor, class discussion of the assigned reading, conversations with victims, offenders and community members, and role plays of different practices. The class meets at the School of Theology and will include students from both the Law School and the School of Theology. Students will be graded on the basis of their written work and classroom performance. There will be no final exam.
• LAW JD 828: Wrongful Convictions Clinic (C)
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Wrongful Convictions Clinic. Students engage in screening applications from prisoners claiming innocence who have requested help from the New England Innocence Project. This may involve reading prisoner questionnaires, pleadings and court opinions in the case, legal research and analysis of the requirements for obtaining a new trial, review of attorney files, and search for forensic evidence in the case. Students meet bi-weekly with the clinic instructor and can expect to spend five hours per week on clinic work. Case work typically continues through the full year, however, if investigation of the prisoner's case finishes earlier, the clinic work will end at that time. Students receive one pass/fail credit for each full semester of participation, with the fall grade deferred until the work is completed. Hours spent on clinic work in the spring semester that do not receive credit may be counted towards the School's Pro Bono Pledge. In addition to their fieldwork the clinic will meet at a mutually agreed upon date and time based on the schedules of all enrolled students. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. NOTE: Students must register for the same section in both fall and spring semesters.
• LAW JD 831: Evidence
  Practical and theoretical aspects of the rules of evidence. The purpose and policies underlying the evidentiary rules are stressed throughout in order to make the rules meaningful, predictable, and functional both for students interested in trial practice and for students who anticipate engaging in a more diversified practice. In addition to covering the substantive rules of evidence, the course demonstrates the significance of evidence as a tactical device at the trial and as a vital skill for the office lawyer. GRADING NOTICE: Professor Cavallaro's section will not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 832: Energy Law & Policy (S)
  Energy law and policy are integral to the U.S. economy and have major impacts on the environment. This seminar will provide an overview of U.S. energy law and policy with an emphasis on the sources and regulation of electric energy. We will pay particular attention to emerging alternative energy sources, e.g. wind, solar, biomass, as well as new technologies, e.g. horizontal fracking for the development of natural gas. We will consider the division of regulatory authority among federal, state, and local governments. Students will have the opportunity to enhance their research, writing, and oral presentation skills and receive detailed feedback. There are no pre-requisites to the course other than a curious mind and interest in the subject matter. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may elect to use this course to fulfill 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 (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 833: Environmental Law
  This is an introductory survey course in environmental law. Topics include clean air, clean water, hazardous waste regulation and cleanup, and the protection of endangered species. Administrative Law is recommended but not required as a prerequisite.
• LAW JD 835: Jurisprudence: Contemporary Controversies Over Law & Morality (S)
  This seminar will examine some classic issues of jurisprudence as they arise in contemporary controversies over law and morality. Topics will include the following: * The legal enforcement of morals. In Lawrence v. Texas, which recognized a right of gays and lesbians to intimate association, Justice Scalia protested in dissent that the case "effectively decrees the end of all morals legislation." Is Scalia right that there is really no distinction between homosexual intimate association and, to quote Scalia's list, "fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity"? What are the proper limits on moral disapproval as a justification for traditional "morals legislation"? * Government's role in promoting public values: conflicts between liberty and equality. To what extent may government inculcate civic virtues and promote public values? We will focus on conflicts between personal liberty (including religious liberty) and the use of antidiscrimination law to secure the status of equal citizenship for gays and lesbians. For example, should laws recognizing same-sex marriage grant religious exemptions to town clerks and business people who morally disapprove of such marriage? * Grounds for justifying rights: protecting freedom to choose versus promoting moral goods. What are the best grounds for justifying rights in circumstances of moral disagreement? For example, should we justify a right to same-sex marriage on the ground that government should respect people's freedom to choose whom to marry? Or instead on the ground that protecting such a right promotes moral goods (the same moral goods that opposite-sex marriage furthers): commitment, intimacy, fidelity, and the like. * Rights, responsibilities, and regulation. To what extent does the protection of rights preclude governmental encouragement of responsible exercise of rights or regulation to protect others from harm? We will examine such issues in the context of reproductive freedom and the individual right to bear arms. * Originalisms versus moral readings of the Constitution. To what extent does constitutional interpretation involve determining the original meaning of the Constitution as a matter of historical fact (originalisms) versus making moral and philosophic judgments about the best understanding of our constitutional commitments (moral readings)? We will explore the emergence of "new originalisms" that aim to justify certain controversial rights that conventional originalists like Justice Scalia have rejected. ** 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 836: Federal Courts
  A basic survey course, covering the federal courts and their conduct of litigation concerning business regulation, environmental protection, and civil rights. This course picks up where the first-year course in Civil Procedure leaves off and complements other courses on modern regulation and legal institutions: e.g., Administrative Law, Environmental Law, Labor Law, Conflict of Laws, and Constitutional Law. Topics include the prerequisites for gaining access to the federal district courts and the United States Supreme Court, the relationship between the federal courts and state courts, and "abstention" doctrines governing the exercise of federal judicial power. Especially recommended for students who plan to practice with firms that represent clients subject to federal regulation, to pursue careers with federal or state agencies and departments, or to handle constitutional, civil rights, or other public interest litigation.
• LAW JD 837: Wrongful Convictions and the US Criminal Justice System (S)
  The past two decades have witnessed an unprecedented surge in the freeing from our nations jails and prisons of innocent people who were wrongfully convicted. Many have served lengthy sentences and some have spent years on death row awaiting execution for crimes they did not commit. This course will examine the broad range of factors that contribute to the wrongful conviction of the innocent and, in doing so, will shed light on broader questions about the functioning of the US criminal justice system, including the wrongful criminalization of persons and communities. We will explore the role played by faulty eyewitness-identification procedures; coercive and deceptive police interrogation procedures; the mishandling of confidential informants, cooperating witnesses, and jailhouse snitches; junk science, disorganized crime labs, and incompetent and corrupt experts; police and prosecutorial failures to preserve & disclose exculpatory evidence; and incompetent defense counsel and underfunded criminal-defense-delivery systems. We will also examine the role of racial and ethnic bias, profiling, and tunnel vision. We will look at the use of postconviction procedures such as appeals, new-trial motions, and habeas corpus petitions, to free the wrongfully convicted. Finally, we will explore some of the reforms that have been proposed and some of the critiques of the innocence movement, with its reliance on DNA technologies, and its narrow focus on the "wrong-man" notion of the "factually innocent." Films, case studies, and guest speakers will help ground our discussion in concrete examples. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement with the approval of the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 15 students. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is frequently offered in alternating years. 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 838: Antitrust Law
  Antitrust law regulates the competition between business firms in unregulated markets (and in varying degrees in regulated markets, where it supplies a benchmark standard). Thus, all privately owned economic entities are subject to or affected by the antitrust laws (federal or state), ranging from the largest multinationals to self-employed individuals, e.g., lawyers. Antitrust law constrains business behavior that injures the competitive process, encompassing such topics as price fixing, boycotts, monopolization, mergers, price discrimination, distributorship limitations and similar trade restrictions. Antitrust analysis is increasingly economic in its orientation and therefore economic analysis will form a vital part of the course. Supplementary economic readings are suggested for students without previous economic background (and for others who may wish to refresh their knowledge).
• LAW JD 839: First Amendment
  This course will examine the free speech, free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment. About two-thirds of the course will focus on speech, including such topics as political speech (including campaign finance regulation), commercial speech, and expression in the public forum. The final one-third of the course will focus on religion, including such topics as freedom of religious practice, religion in schools, and religious displays and symbols.
• LAW JD 841: Supervised Research & Writing
  Upper-class students may pursue a special research interest under the guidance of a full time faculty member, and earn one or two semester credits for a Supervised Research and Writing project (also known as an Independent Study). The study must involve a substantial investment of time and effort, and result in significant written work that reflects a high standard of legal scholarship. The student's final grade will be based solely upon written work submitted, and will be included in the student's average. NOTE: Students must register for Supervised Research and Writing directly with the Registrar's Office. You may not register via the Student Link.
• LAW JD 842: International Business Transactions
  This course is designed to give students a broad overview of the law--domestic, foreign, and international--governing international business transactions. With the significant growth in international commerce and trade, and the forces of economic and social globalization, lawyers will increasingly confront international legal issues during their professional careers. This course will focus on the legal problems encountered in business ventures that cross national borders. Topics include formation of contracts, choice of law, financing the international sale of goods through letters of credit, regulation of international trade, the organizations and operations of the institutions of the World Trade Organization, foreign investment, international dispute settlement, and international transfer of intellectual property. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 843: Int'l Human Rights Clinic: Human Rights Advocacy (S)
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the International and Human Rights Clinic. This is the companion spring classroom component for students in the Clinic. The course focuses on further developing skills directly tied to students' ongoing fieldwork. Classes will cover: interviewing and counseling institutional (non-governmental organizations) clients; designing and implementing human rights field research; ethical pitfalls and professional 'best practices' in human rights collaborations with international networks; advocacy within the UN machinery; advocacy within selected regional human rights mechanisms; and in-depth research workshops using comparative and foreign human rights research problems. The classes will be a combination of readings and discussion; simulations; student presentations; short papers and case rounds to discuss project work; and group and individual feedback on project development. NOTE: The International Human Rights Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 844: Transaction Simulation: Follow-On Venture Capital Financing
  This course is one of the semester-long transaction simulations offered as part of the School's Transactional Law Program. The simulated transaction is a venture capital financing for a privately-held company in the biotechnology industry. The transaction will be an "insider-led," "down-round," "follow-on" financing -- meaning the company's existing institutional shareholders will purchase the majority of new shares to be issued in the new financing round at a lower price per share than the price per share in the company's previous round of financing. The course exposes students to the principal issues involved with guiding a client through a financing, one of the most important transactions for a private company, and in doing so builds skills students will need as they enter transactional practice. Students will undertake the key legal tasks typically performed by both junior and senior attorneys in connection with this type of transaction, including analyzing legal issues, advising clients and drafting and negotiating agreements, including preferred stock terms and key provisions of a stock purchase agreement and investor rights agreement. Much of the course work will be done in teams representing the company or the investors, with students having the opportunity to play the role of company counsel and investor counsel. The course grade will be based on drafting assignments, contributions to team efforts such as in-class presentations and negotiation sessions, and individual class participation. CLASS SIZE: Limited to 12 students. NOTES: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. The course will also satisfy the Transaction Simulation requirement of the Transactional Practice Concentration. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: A student who fails to attend the first class or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the Registrar, will be administratively dropped from the class. Students who are on the wait list are required to attend the first meeting to be considered for enrollment.
• LAW JD 846: Historical Perspectives on Law, Constitutions and Culture (S)
  This workshop-format seminar examines the interplay of law, constitutions, and culture from an historical perspective. The heart of the seminar is student engagement with works-in-progress by leading scholars in the history, theory, and culture of law, broadly understood. The first three class sessions will be devoted to developing the intellectual tools necessary for reading and engaging with such papers. Starting in week 4 of the semester, the class format will alternate between workshop sessions and more traditional seminar sessions. During the five workshop sessions, an invited scholar will present a current scholarly work-in-progress for discussion. Students will read the speaker's paper in advance and prepare discussion questions for the seminar. During the other sessions, the class will meet as a normal seminar, during which we will discuss readings related to the workshop papers and legal history more generally. The written work for the seminar will consist of a series of brief, critical essays in response to a student-selected subset of the workshop papers. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing with this seminar. NOTE: This course is open to law students and to graduate students from other departments. A background in history is not a prerequisite. Graduate students from outside the law school may be able to receive 4 credits for this course. Please consult the professor regarding this option. ** 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 847: Federal Courts
  This course focuses on the statutory, constitutional, and judge-made doctrines that shape and restrict the powers of federal courts. In particular, it examines the relationships between the federal courts and the other branches of the federal government, as well as the relationship between the federal and state courts. Selected topics include standing and justiciability, congressional control of the federal courts' powers (such as the extent to which "enemy combatants" may be excluded from federal court), federal question jurisdiction, and state sovereign immunity from suit in federal and state courts. This course builds extensively on topics covered in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure. It is strongly recommended for students who plan on clerking (especially for a federal judge) or who expect to represent clients in federal court or in civil actions against government actors.
• LAW JD 848: Democracy & the Rule of Law (S)
  This seminar will explore the history, origins, and principal theories of democratic government and the role and meaning of the rule of law within democratic polities. We will scrutinize conflicting conceptions of democracy, threats to the emergence and survival of democracy, value tradeoffs within democracies, and the meaning of the rule of law within a democratic framework. Topics may include social contract theory; (U.S.) constitutional, parliamentary, and other forms of democracy; the economic, social, and cultural prerequisites for democracy; the role of social norms, ideology, and civic virtue; conceptions of the rule of law and individual rights within the framework of majoritarian government; the influence of disparate power and wealth; contemporary challenges, and the future of democracy. Current events will be woven into the curriculum and class discussion. NOTE: A limited number of students will be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement with this seminar. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. **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 849: Privacy, Security & Technology (S)
  Previously titled National Security & Technology: Law & Policy. This seminar explores how modern technology disrupts many of the customs and principles upon which our laws and institutions for national security have evolved. The advancement of modern technology is changing the nature of how we perceive and defend against security threats across all domains. Attacks can be launched in ways that national borders and other conventional defenses cannot easily stop, and the proliferation of privacy enhancing cryptographic tools provides virtual refuge for threat actors to congregate, coordinate and conspire. At the same time, the state has mobilized the use of new technologies--expanding, and indeed, redefining, surveillance capabilities--to predict, prevent and defend against threats in the modern era. This course will focus on a series of historical and contemporary challenges posed by a range of technologies to the government's administration of security and justice, and the solutions implemented or proposed by the state in response. The objective is to contextualize and deepen our understanding of the substantive and institutional questions that arise from the modern day "going dark" problem, in order to facilitate sound policy and good politics in areas that are devoid of law. Topics for discussion may include, but are not limited to: the use of cryptographic tools to evade government surveillance; government proposals for "backdoor" access to people's devices and data; the use of government hacking as a surveillance tool; and the use of machine learning to predict and prevent threat incidents. No technical knowledge is required. NOTES: This class does not satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. **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 850: Insurance Law
  The presence or absence of insurance is in many instances the single most important determinant of whether and how a tort or contracts action is litigated. This course focuses on both individual and commercial forms of insurance coverage. Students are introduced to the key insurance concepts of risk management, including the transfer, pooling and allocation of covered risks. Problems of contract interpretation, imperfect information, adverse selection and discrimination will be treated at length. Additionally, the class will take up issues particular to property, life, health, disability, liability and auto insurance. Finally, some time will be devoted to the state regulatory regimes designed to ensure solvency and profitability, and to the secondary market (i.e. reinsurance, and surplus and excess lines). A final exam is required.

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