Courses
The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular semester. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the Student Link for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.
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LAW JD 881: Alternative Dispute Resolution
The goal of this course is to improve students' ability to resolve disputes and to productively engage in conflict. In this highly interactive class, students will examine a variety of dispute resolution processes, other than traditional court adjudication, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, dispute system design and restorative justice. Over the course of the semester, students will engage in a series of exercises (i.e., role-plays) through which they can develop and hone their skills and approaches to dispute resolution. Discussion and short lectures will accompany the exercises, as appropriate. There will be short written assignments as well as a longer paper due at the end of the semester. No final exam. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 16 students. NOTE: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in both Alternative Dispute Resolution and Negotiation (JD921). -
LAW JD 882: Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program: Core Lawyering Skills (C)
THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. The seminar is the fall companion course for students enrolled in the Program. It provides a practice-oriented introduction to advocacy on behalf of indigent clients, including noncitizens and survivors of human trafficking. Students will develop a wide range of competencies with classes focusing topics including: (1) client interviewing and counseling; (2) case planning; (3) legal research and writing; (4) cultural competency; (5) legal story-telling and developing a theory of the case; (6) affidavit writing; (7) vicarious and secondary trauma; and (8) professional responsibility. Students will participate in class simulations, present in case rounds, and actively engage in facilitated discussions. There also will be two boot camp classes for students with specialized training in the following areas: (1) immigration law with a focus on asylum law and representing vulnerable noncitizens; and (2) human trafficking law with a focus on the protection framework in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act and multi-disciplinary lawyering. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 883: Securities Regulation
This course offers an introduction to federal securities regulation under the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. We will examine how the securities laws shape the process by which companies raise capital through IPOs, public offerings, and private placements. We will also focus on the mandatory disclosure regime for publicly traded companies and the related topics of securities fraud, insider trading, market manipulation, and shareholder voting. We will study core concepts such as the definition of a security and materiality. Finally, we will spend significant time examining the role of the SEC and private shareholder litigation in policing the securities laws. PREREQUISITE/COREQUISITE: Business Fundamentals is a prerequisite; Corporations is a corequisite. -
LAW JD 887: Taxation of Corporations and Shareholders
Federal income tax considerations have major implications for planning in the corporate area. This course focuses on income tax issues in transactions between corporations and shareholders, including distributions, exchanges, reorganizations and capital contributions. PREREQUISITE: Introduction to Federal Income Taxation. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 888: Immigrants' Rights Clinic: Adv. Advocacy & Trial Theory (C)
THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program. In this seminar, students will further develop their trial advocacy skills by participating in multiple mock hearings and portions of simulated trials. In particular, this course will focus on developing students' competencies in the following topics: (1) witness preparation, including working with lay and expert witnesses; (2) oral advocacy, including direct/cross examination and opening and closing statements; (3) factual and legal research; (4) cross-cultural lawyering and implicit bias; (5) legal advocacy and brief writing; (6) basic negotiation; and (7) developing professional roles and identities. Students will also be introduced to the intersections between criminal and immigration law, and to law and organizing in the immigration context. NOTE: The Immigrants' Rights and Human Trafficking Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 889: Introduction to Federal Income Taxation
The income tax is a pervasive feature of life in the United States and lawyers encounter tax issues in virtually every field of practice. This course introduces students to the fundamental principles of the federal income tax, and its impact on a wide range of matters, including employment, tort claims, divorce, retirement, and especially business activities and investments of all types. Topics include: the concept of income, determination of gross income, allowance of deductions and the determination of taxable income, identification of the taxpayer, taxable periods and timing, the determination of gain or loss (including realization and recognition) from dealings in property, the concept of income tax basis, and the process of change in the tax law. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 890: National Security Law & Foreign Relations Law
This course will introduce the framework of constitutional, statutory, and international law that authorizes and constrains the conduct of U.S. foreign affairs and national security policy. We will study the allocation of foreign affairs and national security authority among the branches of government, as well as selected topics of contemporary relevance. These will vary with contemporary events but will draw from the following: international and domestic law governing recourse to force and the conduct of hostilities; the detention, interrogation, and prosecution of alleged unprivileged belligerents and other suspects in national security matters before courts and military commissions; torture and extraordinary rendition; covert action; the protection of civil liberties in wartime; surveillance; and contemporary issues at the intersection of international economic law, trade, and national security. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 892: Torts
Principles of civil recovery for injury, including strict liability, negligence, and the intentional torts, with emphasis on the social, economic, and moral underpinnings of the doctrines. -
LAW JD 894: Trial Advocacy
This course introduces the student to the structure of the trial process and the skills used by trial lawyers. The topics covered range from opening statements to closing arguments, including conducting direct and cross examination of witnesses, making and meeting objections, introducing documents and discovery into evidence, and using hypothetical questions with expert witnesses. Students must perform simulated exercises and will try one or more civil or criminal cases before a jury. Visit the web for more information on the instructors. PREREQUISITE: EVIDENCE. Students taking TRIAL ADVOCACY in the second semester of their third year may take EVIDENCE as a COREQUISITE. Students who have taken part in a clinic may not subsequently enroll in Trial Advocacy. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 12 students. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. NOTE: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. ** A student who fails either to attend the initial meeting of a section of Trial Advocacy, or to obtain permission to be absent from either the instructor or the registrar, WILL BE administratively dropped from the section. Students who are on a wait list for a section are required to attend the first section meeting to be considered for enrollment. -
LAW JD 895: Appellate Advocacy and the Art of Judging
This two-credit simulation course will provide students with experience in the appellate advocacy process by providing the opportunity to assume the role of an appellate judge in oral argument and of appellate attorneys arguing a case. At each class, on a rotating basis, two students will present oral arguments on opposing sides of a legal issue, seeking affirmance or reversal of decisions rendered in recent state and federal cases. The legal issues will generally be taken from first year course subjects or involve principles of statutory construction. Students not scheduled for an argument on a particular day will perform the role of an appeals court panel, probe the strengths and weaknesses of each presenting attorney, and deliver a ruling. PREREQUISITE: Evidence is recommended but not required. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 12 students NOTE: This course counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. -
LAW JD 896: Corporate Counsel Externship Seminar
This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is a 2-credit graded seminar for those students doing fieldwork in Corporate Counsel offices that meets every week for 1.5 hours. The seminar will cover a range of topics and competencies essential to legal practice in the corporate counsel offices of for-profit and nonprofit companies, such as the modern role of in-house counsel; representing and becoming a trusted advisor to the internal corporate client; upholding confidentiality and ethical standards; learning the client's business; communicating effectively in a business setting; collaborating with others; and solving problems to further the client's strategic objectives. To maximize the students' growth over the semester, the seminar will also teach students how lawyers learn from practice, build strong supervisory relationships, reflect and self-assess, and set and measure progress on professional development goals. Students will write reflective papers, make oral presentations, and complete other work as required by the instructor. COREQUISITE: Corporate Counsel Externship Fieldwork (JD 954). NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. -
LAW JD 898: Criminal Trial Practice II/Defenders (C)
THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Criminal Law Clinical Program. Criminal Trial Practice II is for students in their second semester of the Program who have been assigned to the Defender section. Students represent indigent defendants charged with criminal offenses in either the Boston Municipal Court or the Boston Juvenile Court. Students gain exposure to lawyering experiences such as investigation, interviewing, counseling and trial advocacy with a primary emphasis on the development of trial skills. Students spend the first part of the semester acting as defense counsel in misdemeanor cases of increasing complexity. Later in the semester, representation in felony cases is possible, as well as exposure to a number of other aspects of the criminal justice system. Students must be available to be in court two days a week, from Monday through Thursday. PREREQS: Evidence; Trial Advocacy or Criminal Trial Advocacy; Criminal Procedure (Comprehensive, Investigatory, or Adjudicatory). NOTE: The Criminal Law Clinical Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 899: Criminal Trial Practice II/Prosecutors (C)
THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Criminal Law Clinical Program. Criminal Trial Practice II is for students in their second semester of the Program who have been assigned to the Prosecutor section. Students act as prosecutors in the Quincy District Court on behalf of the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office, handling felony and misdemeanor cases of increasing complexity under the supervision of the clinical professor. Students are exposed to a wide variety of experiences, including investigation, interviewing, and trial advocacy. Students handle pretrial matters, litigate evidentiary hearings, and are assigned to conduct every phase of jury or bench trials. Students collaborate but serve as the lead prosecutors on their own cases. Case assignments are based upon an individual assessment of a student's progress and demonstrated competence. Students in the Prosecutor Clinic may choose to enroll for 5 or 8 credits. Those receiving 5 credits must be available to be in court one full day and one additional morning per week on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. Those receiving 8 credits must be available two full days per week on Monday, Tuesday or Thursday. PREREQS: Evidence; Trial Advocacy or Criminal Trial Advocacy; Criminal Procedure (Comprehensive, Investigatory, or Adjudicatory). NOTE: The Criminal Law Clinical Program counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. -
LAW JD 900: Economics of Intellectual Property Law (S)
This seminar will explore the economics of intellectual property law. There are no prerequisites. The readings for the seminar will consist of Cass and Hylton, Laws of Creation (2013), and several cases and articles. The seminar will emphasize understanding the policy justifications for the major doctrines in intellectual property. The topics studies will include patent law, copyright law, trademark law, trade secret law, and the intersection of antitrust and intellectual property. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 14 students. 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 901: Appellate Advocacy Program Director
This class is restricted to third-year students who applied and were accepted as directors of the BU Law Moot Court programs (Stone and Albers). NOTE: This class may be used to satisfy the Upper-class Writing requirement. -
LAW JD 902: 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 an unjust result after either trial or plea. Each section will represent a single client. It is anticipated these will be homicide clients. This course is reading intensive in the first three weeks of class; students must read a homicide transcript and case file in its entirety. The remainder of the semester involves meeting with incarcerated clients and possibly with witnesses, legal research and analysis of the requirements for obtaining a new trial, review of attorney files, and searching for forensic evidence in the case. Issues covered in a given case may include jury contamination, Fourth Amendment violations, and issues of mental health and constitutional limitations on sentencing. Students meet weekly with the clinic instructor and can expect to spend ten to fifteen hours per week on clinic fieldwork. In addition to their fieldwork, students will attend a weekly seminar covering issues raised by fieldwork and research, to be determined by the particular case. Students may enroll in the fall semester, the spring semester (each 2 credits), or both the fall and spring semesters (for a total of 4 credits). NOTE: The Wrongful Convictions Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. -
LAW JD 903: Supreme Court 2019 Term: Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure and Habeas Cases (S)
This course will focus on criminal procedure and criminal law cases that are currently on the docket of the Supreme Court. Each week, the class will read a substantial amount of materials in preparation for one case, including its lower court opinion, the briefs from each party, two sets of amicus briefs, and a Supreme Court opinion drafted by a member of the class. Students will also be expected to read the most significant Supreme Court precedents involving each case. Prior to each class session, each student will be responsible for writing a 3-5 page memo critiquing the readings of the week. Students will also be responsible for drafting one 20-25 page Supreme Court opinion to be distributed to and discussed by the class. Criminal Procedure is not a prerequisite for this course. 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 904: Law of Consumer Markets (S)
Understanding the laws governing consumer transactions is relevant not only to our daily lives but also to many careers in the law. Why do consumer laws matter for societal issues such as racial and income inequality? How can government agencies best promote compliance while minimizing burden to businesses? How should leaders of consumer corporations navigate a heavier regulatory era? This seminar will examine consumer laws from three main perspectives: the businesses that must comply with regulations; the agencies--such as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission--that write or enforce rules; and the consumers who purchase over $10 trillion in goods and services annually. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option. LIMITED WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: A limited number of students may be permitted to satisfy the upper-class writing requirement with this seminar. **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 905: Entertainment Law (S)
This seminar will focus on the varied legal doctrines that influence both the business and practice of Entertainment Law. Some of the primary topics include issues involving publicity rights and the use and control of image, celebrity and promotion issues, defamation and free speech, invasion of privacy, copyright including infringement and dispute and other general contractual relations surrounding the entertainment field. The course will also explore the practical aspects of entertainment law such as complicated litigation issues involving jurisdictional and venue concerns, client counseling and negotiations and other ethical concerns raised in the course of representation of your client. This course will not focus on sports entertainment or any other specific labor-related organizations. There will be no final exam. Grades will be based upon papers and class participation. NOTES: This class does not satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. ENROLLMENT LIMIT: 18 students. 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 906: Current Issues in Employment Law (S)
This seminar focuses on selected developments in employment law as seen from the perspective of a practitioner. Topics include exceptions to the at-will doctrine and expanding theories of job protection; the increased focus on sexual harassment, retaliation, and wage and hour claims; the role of labor law in a predominantly non-union private sector; and other emerging trends. The grade for the course will be based on several take-home problems, a final paper, and class participation. PREREQUISITE: A prior course in labor or employment law, or permission of the instructor, is required. NOTE: This class does not satisfy the upper-class writing requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. 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, 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.