Courses

The listing of a course description here does not guarantee a course’s being offered in a particular term. Please refer to the published schedule of classes on the MyBU Student Portal for confirmation a class is actually being taught and for specific course meeting dates and times.

• LAW JD 734: Judicial Externship Program: Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is the companion academic component for students simultaneously enrolled in the Judicial Externship: Fieldwork course. The seminar focuses on teaching the substance and skills related to being a successful judicial extern. Topics include judicial ethics, legal research, judicial process, opinion drafting, judicial selection and recusal, and judicial decision-making. Students keep reflective journals chronicling their educational experience and reactions to the practice of law observed at the field placement. Please note that the course is scheduled to meet for seven two-hour class sessions, every other week. NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Judicial Externship: Fieldwork (JD 735). GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 735: Judicial Externship Program: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. Students receive credit for working in chambers for a judge in the state or federal court system. The assignments handled by an extern are similar to those handled during a post-graduate clerkship. Students may find their own judicial placements that must be approved by the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office, or the Office will match the student with a judge. Students receive 4-9 variable P/F credits for their fieldwork, as determined in consultation with their placement supervisors. Each credit requires 50 hours of work over the course of the 13-week semester (averaging 4 hours per week). NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Judicial Externship: Seminar (JD 734).
• LAW JD 736: Prison Education Practicum
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Practicum. Students in the practicum will learn to teach a class about the criminal legal process to incarcerated individuals who are facing criminal charges in local Massachusetts jails and prisons. The students will cement their own understanding of criminal procedures by having to prepare to teach others, and also learn invaluable information from the class participants who have been navigating the legal system themselves and have insight on what the process is like to someone accused of a crime. Students will practice their legal research skills and gain confidence in their understanding of the law and legal process while participating in the practicum. NOTE: This practicum counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 737: SILC: Venture and Finance Seminar 1
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Venture & Finance Seminar 1 students in SILC's Venture & Finance Practice Group meet to review substantive legal issues in corporate law (including partnerships, LLCs, and corporations), business and financial regulation, securities law, and commercial law and regulation. The seminar will also introduce students to the lawyering skills (including interviewing, counseling, negotiation, drafting, etc.) that will help them in counseling MIT and BU students on their creative and innovative projects. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 738: SILC: Venture and Finance Seminar 2
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in Venture & Finance Seminar 2 students in SILC's Venture & Finance Practice Group expand upon the legal and practice issues reviewed in the fall seminar, including issues in corporate law (including partnerships, LLCs, and corporations), business and financial regulation, securities law, and commercial law and regulation. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations. NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 739: Semester in Practice Program: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This course is the fieldwork component of the Semester-in-Practice Program. Students spend a semester working full-time for credit in non-profits, government agencies, courts, private companies, or law firms. Placements may be paid or unpaid. Students may find their own placements that must be approved by the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office, or the Office has resources to help students identify and apply to suitable field placements based on their interests and career goals. NOTE: Students who enroll in the Semester-in-Practice Program may count the credits towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Semester-in-Practice: Seminar (JD 740).
• LAW JD 740: Semester in Practice Program: Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This course is the seminar component of the Semester-in-Practice Program. Students will take the course online or on campus course (depending on the location of their placement). Topics covered in class will include legal ethics and professional responsibility, professional development, access to justice, cross-cultural lawyering, and the changing role of the legal professional. Students will have weekly readings and be expected to write weekly reflective memoranda. They will also give a presentation and prepare a final 10-12 page paper. NOTE: Students enrolled in this course may count the credits towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Semester-in-Practice: Fieldwork (JD 739).
• LAW JD 741: SILC: Intellectual Property Seminar 1
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in IP Seminar 1 students in SILC's Intellectual Property Practice Group meet to review substantive legal issues in intellectual property law and how they relate to SILC's practice, including issues in copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and related legal issues. The seminar will also introduce students to the lawyering skills (including interviewing, counseling, negotiation, drafting, etc.) that will help them in counseling MIT and BU students on their creative and innovative projects. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations.  NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 742: SILC: Intellectual Property Seminar 2
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Student Innovations Law Clinic. The BU/MIT Student Innovations Law Clinic (SILC) provides counseling and guidance to assist MIT and BU students with laws and regulations that relate to their innovation-related academic and extracurricular activities. As a companion to SILC Fieldwork course, in IP Seminar 2 students in SILC's Intellectual Property Practice Group expand upon the legal and practice issues reviewed in the fall seminar, including issues in copyright, trademark, patent, trade secret, and related legal issues. This class will occasionally meet with some or all of the students in the other SILC Practice Group sections for clinic-wide discussions and case round presentations.  NOTE: This Clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 743: NY Pro Bono Scholars: Fieldwork
  This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. Through the Pro Bono Scholars Program, students spend their spring 3L semester working full-time for credit at a government agency or non-profit providing direct legal services to indigent clients. Participating students sit for the February New York bar exam, and begin their fieldwork the week after. Students passing the bar exam and completing other NY bar and BU Law graduation requirements are admitted to the NY bar in late June. NOTE: Students who enroll in this program may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: NY Pro Bono Scholars Program: Directed Study (JD 744).
• LAW JD 744: NY Pro Bono Scholars: Directed Study
  This CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Clinical and Experiential Programs Office to enroll. This is the companion academic component for students enrolled in the Pro Bono Scholars Program: Fieldwork course. Students work with a faculty supervisor in designing their own reading list, writing a 15-20 page research paper, and submitting seven 4-6 page bi-weekly journals. COREQUISITE: NY Pro Bono Scholars Program: Fieldwork (JD 743).
• LAW JD 745: Health Care Corporate Compliance
  Health care organizations of all types (hospitals and health systems, medical device and pharmaceutical companies, health plans, and other health care providers) must develop and maintain an effective corporate compliance and ethics program. Boards of Directors are judged on whether or not they have taken steps, directly and through management, to implement such programs. This is necessary both as a core management tool and to demonstrate a commitment to good governance and compliance in order to take advantage of penalty reductions under U.S. Sentencing Guidelines, including the Sentencing Commission's June 2020 revisions. "Such compliance and ethics program shall be reasonably designed, implemented, and enforced so that the program is generally effective in preventing and detecting criminal conduct." But how do you design such a program? How does legal counsel assist the company in building and operating one? What distinguishes the "legal function" from the "compliance function." Lawyers working in health care businesses need to be able to answer these questions to advice the board and management. This course focuses on the fundamentals required to develop and maintain an effective health care corporate compliance program. Students will study the seven elements of a successful compliance program in practical detail and will learn best practices for compliance programs. Specifically, this will include learning how best to design and implement compliance oversight and committees, practicing policy drafting, and exploring the most effective ways to educate and train in compliance. This will also include developing an excellent understanding of audit, investigation, and corrective action skills and strategies.
• LAW JD 746: HEALTH LAW SURVEY COLLOQUIUM
  The Health Law Survey Colloquium (HLSC), led by the director of the Health Law Program, is designed to orient students to the breadth of health law expertise at Boston University by featuring various BU faculty as guest lecturers each week. The HLSC will present a diverse range of topics spanning the field of health law. By asking each speaker to share something from their core specialty, we expect to receive enthusiastic and highly-engaging conversations with the students. Relevant readings may include scholarly works in progress (as in typical colloquia) but also excerpts from casebooks, primary sources, new legal or regulatory developments, or case studies from practice. Students will write response papers. 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 (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 747: Topics in Immigration
  In this seminar, we will take a broad multifaceted view of immigration, from perspectives including not just law, but also economics, history, business and investment, innovation, national security, and cultural vitality. In addition, we will consider episodes of transnational migration. It should not surprise us that large-scale population movements across time and/ or space affect how populations thrive or wither. Among other issues, we will concern ourselves with the 1924 National Origins Act, which established quotas based on the percentage of immigrants from each country who were already living in the U.S. in 1890. The law additionally prohibited immigrants from Asia, and also shut out most European Jews and other refugees fleeing fascism and the Holocaust. Many in Japan were also offended, and they protested the law as well. Other quota acts followed, including the Emergency Quota Act in 1921, which stipulated that new arrivals would be limited to 3% of the number of immigrants from any given country as of the 1910 census. The Act remained in effect until 1965. These quota limits exacted irreversible declines in innovation, investment, and job creation, weakening the American economy. We will investigate the effects of immigration, incorporating the perspectives listed above. 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, 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 748: International Economic Law and Climate Change
  The aim of this class is to provide an overview of how international environmental commitments and international economic commitments fit together within the global economic governance architecture. Students will explore the history of today¿s international climate movement, beginning with the 1992 Earth Summit (Rio) and covering the most recent commitments made under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. They will explore the parallel way in which international trade and investment commitments have intensified during that time period, and the course will layout the various efforts by global leaders to harmonize the two (economic and environmental) regimes. The course includes topics such as (1) environmental disputes at the World Trade Organization, (2) investor-state dispute settlement targeting environmental and climate policies, (3) efforts at the bilateral, regional and mega-regional level to incorporate environmental commitments into free trade agreements, (4) unilateral efforts by the EU and the US to promote climate-friendly policy-making worldwide and (5) developing country perspectives in the ¿just transition¿ movement. By the end of the course, students will have a comprehensive understanding of the points of harmony and tension between these two regimes and will have thought critically and creatively about the ways forward. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class 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, 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 749: DISABILITY LAW
  This seminar surveys the evolution of federal law as it relates to people with disabilities. We will cover disability discrimination in the areas of employment, education, government services, public accommodations run by private entities, and housing. In exploring these areas we will examine relevant case law and statutes (i.e. the ADA and its amendments, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the IDEA, and the Fair Housing Act) and their implementing regulations and guidance. In addition to studying legal authorities, we will engage in practical classroom exercises and hear from attorneys practicing in disability law-related settings. Readings will be provided. Grades will be based on class participation and a final paper. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class 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 762: Health Law Externship: Fieldwork
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Office of Experiential Education to enroll. Students receive credit for working at a public agency, a non-profit, or a private health care organization. Placements may be paid or unpaid. Prior to the beginning of the semester, the course instructor works with students to identify suitable field placements depending on each student's individual interests and career goals. Once possible placements are identified, students are responsible for applying and being accepted to those organizations. Students receive 3-9 variable P/F credits for their fieldwork, as determined in consultation with their placement supervisors. Each credit requires 50 hours of work over the course of the 13-week semester (averaging 4 hours per week). NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits towards the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Health Law Externship: Seminar (JD 764).
• LAW JD 763: Mock Trial Competitions
  This year-long course is designed to prepare and support the 2L and 3L members of BU Law’s mock trial competition organization who participate in extramural mock trial competitions as advocates (including foil teams and alternates), student coaches, witnesses, bailiffs, or trial technicians. The course will focus on teaching students the basics of trial procedure and practice, pretrial and trial motions, and evidence, with a focus on the procedures, motions, and evidence rules that are most relevant to mock trial competitions. In the fall, class sessions will focus on the various aspects of mock trial (motions in limine, opening and closing statements, direct and cross exam, proffering experts, common objections, common rules of evidence, trial motions, and procedural competition basics). In the spring, students and the instructor will use course hours to prepare for and attend various mock trial competitions. All students will be required to write a reflection paper due no later than two weeks after the close of their competition. There will be no final exam. GRADING NOTICE: CR/NC graded. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: This class may not be used to satisfy the requirement. 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 course.
• LAW JD 764: Health Law Externship: Seminar
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have received permission from the Office of Experiential Education to enroll. This is the companion academic component for students enrolled in the Health Law Externship: Fieldwork course. The one-hour weekly seminar examines various health law issues as well as the challenges of working in a health care environment. The seminar requires students to write a paper and make a class presentation. In addition, each student submits reflective memoranda chronicling their educational experience and reactions to the practice of law observed at the field placements. NOTE: Students who enroll in this externship may count the credits toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. COREQUISITE: Health Law Externship Program: Fieldwork (JD 762). GRADING NOTICE: This class does not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 766: Environmental Law Practicum
  THIS CLASS IS RESTRICTED to students who have formally applied to and been accepted to the Environmental Law Practicum. Students receive credit for completing environmental law-related legal projects for a regional or national environmental law organization, such as the Conservation Law Foundation and the Natural Resources Defense Council. Projects will vary in scope and content based on student interest and the needs of the partnering organization. Project topics include clean energy, clean water, and environmental justice, which concerns the intersection of civil rights, fundamental fairness, and environmental policy. Students may also have the opportunity to work on litigation-related matters. Throughout the semester, students will work both under the supervision of an attorney at the partner organization and under the supervision of Professor Pam Hill. Practicum students must attend at least six class meetings with Professor Hill. Students receive either 1, 2 or 3 graded credits depending on the nature of the project and the anticipated workload. NOTE: This clinic counts toward the 6 credit Experiential Learning requirement. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option.