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.

• LAW JD 816: Corporations
  Course about the legal structure and characteristics of business corporations. Topics include the promotion and formation of corporations; the distribution of power between management and shareholders; the limitations on management powers imposed by state law fiduciary duties and federal securities laws; shareholder derivative suits; capital structure and financing of corporations; and fundamental changes in corporate structure, such as mergers and sales of assets. The course serves as a prerequisite to advanced courses. PREREQUISITE: Business Fundamentals. GRADING NOTICE: The CR/NC/H option is not offered in Professor Tung's section.
• LAW JD 817: Human Trafficking Clinic: Adv. Advocacy Seminar (S)
  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 and client counseling skills by participating in multiple simulations and a mock hearing. They will learn about comparative models to address human trafficking, and the challenges of a criminal justice framework to solving complex social problems. The course will focus on the lawyer's role in anti-trafficking work, given: (1) converging areas of law; (2) the emerging multi-disciplinary nature of legal work; and (3) tensions among the role of the client as both victim and defendant. Courses will focus on further developing students' competencies in the following areas: (1) strategic planning and decision-making; (2) client interviewing and counseling; (3) trial advocacy; (4) leadership and innovation; and (5) professional responsibility. Classes will focus on a wide range of topics, including: (1) oral advocacy; (2) direct and cross examination; (3) accompaniment and survivor-led advocacy; (4) legal advocacy and brief writing; (4) legislative advocacy; and (5) developing professional roles and self-care. 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 818: Business Organization (S)
  This seminar will explore various ways to organizationally design businesses, especially for those who aim one day to lead, advise, or regulate large corporations. The organizational considerations that are the focus of the core Corporations class represent only some of the many organizational decisions that business leaders face. Besides deciding whether to take a firm public and designing the corporate governance structure, leaders must choose how to integrate algorithms and technology platforms into the business model; whether to outsource various functions, such as call centers and manufacturing; whether to locate corporate compliance within the same group as the general counsel's office or as a separate part of the organization; and how to design the business units to maximize innovation. With each of these decisions, designers must integrate lawyers and the law. This seminar will explore such issues at a strategic level, focusing in particular on the relationship between corporate compliance, liability, and organizational design. There will be no exam. Instead, students will be assessed on their class participation and a 3000-word paper. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: Class of 2024 -- This class may be used to partially satisfy the requirement. PREREQUISITE: Any one of the following: Corporations, Compliance and Risk Management in Global Commerce, Compliance Policy Clinic, or Financial Regulation. ** 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 819: Criminal Procedure: Comprehensive
  This course surveys the constitutional rules that govern investigation, prosecution, and adjudication in the criminal process and derive primarily from the 4th, 5th, 6th, and 8th Amendments. Topics include police powers and limits in searches and seizures (e.g. stops, frisks, arrests, excessive force, profiling, and surveillance), police interrogations (Miranda), the exclusionary rule (the suppression of evidence obtained unconstitutionally), bail and detention, the right to counsel, the right to trial by jury, grand jury proceedings, prosecutorial charging and discretion, double jeopardy, discovery and exculpatory evidence, plea bargaining, jury selection, and the rights to a public, speedy, and fair trial. We will discuss policy and practical considerations as well as the governing constitutional doctrines, and classroom demonstrations will illustrate the course material. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in this section and Criminal Procedure: Constitutional (JD821) or Criminal Procedure: Adjudicatory (JD820).
• LAW JD 820: Criminal Procedure: Adjudicatory Process
  This course examines the procedures and institutions involved in adjudicating the fate of an accused after arrest. Topics include such matters as the right to counsel, bail and detention, charging by grand jury and otherwise, prosecutorial discretion and plea bargaining, discovery, double jeopardy, trial procedure (including the right to a jury trial, the right to confront witnesses, etc.), evolving practices in sentencing, and other matters. RESTRICTIONS: Enrollment is limited to students who have not taken and are not currently enrolled in Criminal Procedure: Comprehensive (JD 819). Students who have taken or who are enrolled in Criminal Procedure: Constitutional (JD 821) are permitted to take this course. OFFERING PATTERN: This class is not offered every year. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule.
• LAW JD 821: Criminal Procedure: Constitutional
  This course covers search and seizure, the privilege against self-incrimination, confessions and the rights to counsel during custodial police interrogation. In general the course will examine the constitutional law in cases arising out of the conflict between police practices and the Bill of Rights. GRADING NOTICE: This class will not offer the CR/NC/H option. RESTRICTION: Students may not enroll in this section and Criminal Procedure: Comprehensive (JD819).
• LAW JD 822: Advanced Privacy Law
  This advanced course in Privacy Law offers a more detailed examination of privacy law and privacy theory. It builds on the conceptual, analytical, comparative, and doctrinal skills developed in Information Privacy Law to enable more sustained and expert engagement with the American and European regimes of privacy and data protection law. The course offers a deeper and more specialized examination of both scholarly and practical issues in privacy law, from academic theories of privacy and data protection, to deeper examinations of the EU data protection regime and the GDPR, national security law, American privacy reform at the state and federal levels, and other issues of privacy law of the moment. It is intended for students who took Information Privacy Law and who wish to pursue careers in privacy or technology law as well as for those interested in academic theories or privacy--or both, since the emerging global practice of privacy law is one in which lawyers and academics are frequently--and necessarily--in conversation with each other. Assessment will be on the basis of class participation and a final exam/assignment. PREREQUISITE: Information Privacy.
• LAW JD 823: Compliance Policy Clinic: Fieldwork (C)
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to 1) students who have formally applied and been accepted to the Compliance Policy Clinic, a 6-credit, one-semester clinic; and 2) with instructor permission, students who have already completed one 6-credit semester in the Compliance Policy Clinic. The Compliance Policy Clinic prepares students to be effective compliance lawyers and leaders in the rapidly-expanding field of compliance lawyering: working across disciplines to translate complex, shifting legal requirements into effective systems that protect highly-regulated institutions from legal liability, reputational damage, and operational risk. The Clinic is designed to develop core skills and capacities that are transferrable across compliance practice contexts and substantive areas of law. Students lead the Clinic's work with private-sector, public-sector, and NGO partners/clients across a range of fields and industries as well as on systems-level projects in global anti- corruption law and other compliance topics with broad social impact. PRE/CO- REQUISITE: Introduction to Risk Management and Compliance. Additional courses that may be helpful to take before or at the same time as the Clinic: Corporations, Administrative Law, Professional Responsibility. NOTE: The Compliance Policy Clinic counts towards the 6-credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 825: Election Law and Voting Rights Reform
  This course examines the law that organizes democratic elections. After discussing the ideas and concepts that have influenced the development of the right to vote and the basic organizing structure of our election systems, we will explore a number of topics, including: (1) the role of political parties, (2) the disenfranchisement of black voters, (3) the passage and operation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, (4) the practice of felon disfranchisement, (5) the problems of racial and partisan gerrymandering, (6) the proper role of the courts, (7) special issues that arise in presidential elections, and (8) recent efforts to unduly influence or subvert elections. Throughout, students will learn to not only identify ongoing problems but also evaluate possible reforms. GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 826: Mediation: Theory & Practice (S)
  This course will cover the theory and practice of mediation as a mode of Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) used in various legal contexts. We will start by mastering the basic concepts and techniques of facilitated negotiations, and work our way, using simulations and role plays, through successively more difficult mediation scenarios. These scenarios will be set in various legal contexts such as commercial, family, criminal, and international disputes. We will work together to develop your individual mediation skills and to learn effective mediation advocacy and settlement valuation. Through lectures, exercises, simulations and classroom discussions we will focus on the theoretical underpinnings that guide the mediation process and the skills related to communication, problem-solving and professional judgment. We will explore the ethical and professional issues related to mediation as well as the legal and cultural constructs that shape mediation practice. Because this course is experiential, students are required to attend all sessions and to participate actively. NOTE: This class counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the 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 831: Evidence
  Lawson/Borenstein/Donweber: 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. Okidegbe: Evidence law is a system of rules and standards that regulates proof of facts in adjudication. This course will examine the rules of Evidence Law with a focus on the Federal Rules of Evidence. It will utilize a problem-based approach to learning evidentiary concepts and standards. The topics covered by this course include relevance, character evidence, impeachment, competency of witnesses, the hearsay rule, opinion evidence, and other central subjects. Assessment for the course will be based upon a final examination.
• 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. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the 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. We will consider the theoretical foundations and political dimensions of environmental law as we focus on several key statutes including the Clean Air Act (and its application to climate change), Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (the Superfund statute), and the National Environmental Protection Act.
• LAW JD 835: Jurisprudence: Contemporary Controversies Over Law & Morality (S)
  This course will examine some classic issues of jurisprudence as they arise in contemporary controversies over law and morality. Topics will include the following: (1) 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 same-sex intimate association and, to quote Scalia's list, "fornication, bigamy, adultery, adult incest, bestiality, and obscenity"? What are the proper limits on traditional "morals legislation"? (2) 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 (including strong polarization and constitutional rot)? For example, should we justify a right of same-sex couples to marry 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 to another human being, along with "the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family" and "yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity" (quoting Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts decision protecting a right of same-sex couples to marry). (3) Government's role in promoting civic virtues and 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 and marriage equality laws to secure the status of equal citizenship for gays and lesbians. For example, should laws recognizing same-sex marriage or protecting against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity grant exemptions to business owners who disapprove of such rights on religious grounds? (4) Governmental encouragement of responsibility: rights with responsibilities and regulation. To what extent does the protection of rights license irresponsible conduct and preclude government from encouraging responsible exercise of rights or regulating the exercise of rights in order to protect others from harm? We will examine such issues in the context of reproductive freedom and the individual right to bear arms. (5) Originalisms versus moral readings. 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 examine these competing approaches through assessing two competing approaches to the Due Process Clause: those of Washington v. Glucksberg and Planned Parenthood v. Casey. Does protection of the right to abortion or the right of same-sex couples to marry necessarily entail a moral reading of the Constitution? UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may be used to satisfy the 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 JD 836: Federal Courts
  Federal Courts is a course about judicial power. In short, it helps students answer the question: What is the role of the federal judiciary in our constitutional democracy. We examine the statutory, constitutional, and judge-made doctrines that empower the federal courts, as well as those that limit their authority. What is a "case" to begin with? Are some disputes simply not cases amenable to resolution by federal judges? Who should be able to bring a case to the courts' attention? The simple answer is someone injured by unlawful conduct. But what constitutes an injury? And who decides what constitutes an injury? Who can be held accountable for injuries resulting from unlawful conduct? Should certain entities and people have immunity from suit in federal court altogether? We grapple with that question in our study of state sovereign immunity and official immunity doctrines. We also study the relationships between the federal courts and the other branches of government: Congress and the President. For example, does Congress have the power to abolish the federal courts, if it sees fit? Could it remove certain cases from the federal courts' jurisdiction, such as cases involving immigration or the Second Amendment? This course builds extensively on topics covered in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure. It is strongly recommended for students who are interested in litigation of any sort (in state or federal court), civil rights, and government lawyering at any level, including clerking for a state or federal judge.
• LAW JD 838: Antitrust Law
  The antitrust laws reflect a conviction that competition in the marketplace will yield the best outcomes for consumers and the optimal allocation of resources in our economy. Beginning with the Sherman Act of 1890, the antitrust statutes condemn a variety of acts -- from mergers to agreements among competitors to monopolists' exclusionary business practices -- that restrain trade or contribute to monopoly power. The statutes, however, are written in general terms, leaving it to the courts to draw the line between lawful competition and unlawful restraints of trade or monopolization. Early on, the Supreme Court established that the law reaches only "unreasonable" restraints, which only begs the question of how to draw the line between "reasonable" competition and "unreasonable" interference with competitive markets. Over the course of the twentieth century, the courts struggled to fix this line; as the century closed, they had settled on an economically-oriented normative framework that largely deferred to firm decisions and doubted the value of government intervention in markets. In recent years, however, a cacophony of voices -- ranging from activists to scholars to politicians of all stripes -- has begun to call that framework into question and to call for renewed enforcement of antitrust laws. This course will explore the principal statutes and common law that have shaped antitrust law over the past century-and-a-quarter since Congress passed the Sherman Act. We will also examine the standards and procedures that the antitrust agencies use to evaluate mergers and to challenge conduct as anticompetitive. As we critically evaluate the case law, we will also reflect on current calls for reform. While we will engage rigorously with economics, all of the economic principles necessary to understand the case law and debates will be explained in the course; formal training in economics is not a requirement.
• LAW JD 840: International Human Rights Clinic: Skills Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the International Human Rights Clinic. This course is the companion fall classroom component for students enrolled in the Clinic and provides an introduction to essential lawyering skills, with a focus on those relevant to the practice of human rights law. The goal of the course is to help students develop a wide range of competencies, including written and oral communication and advocacy, legal research, factual investigation, witness interviewing, professional responsibility, and strategic thinking and problem-solving. NOTE: This course counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• 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 may include formation of contracts, choice of law, financing the international sale of goods through letters of credit, sales and distribution agreements, licensing and contract manufacturing, joint venture agreements, foreign investment, international dispute settlement, and global compliance issues. This course explores one or more of these topics with contract drafting and negotiation exercises. NOTE: While prior background in international law is not required, it is strongly recommended.
• 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 Human Rights Clinic. This is the companion spring classroom component for students in the Clinic. The course focuses on further developing skills in the context of the substantive law and mechanisms of the Inter-American Human Rights system. 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 Inter-American machinery; and simulations using comparative and foreign human rights 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: This course counts towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.

Back to full list of School of Law