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 831: Evidence
  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. Gonzales Rose: This course will examine the rules and doctrines of Evidence Law with a focus on the Federal Rules of Evidence and pertinent constitutional law. We will cover hearsay and its exceptions, relevance, prejudice, character evidence, impeachment, and other central subjects. Emphasis will be on the practical application, the policies and purposes, and theoretical considerations of Evidence Law. This course utilizes a problem-based approach to learning and encourages critical analysis of how Evidence Law impacts equity and justice. Assessment for the course will be based upon a bar-style multiple-choice final examination, a policy paper, and short review assignments due before each class (after the first week). 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. GRADING NOTICE: Professor Okidegbe’s and Professor Reza’s sections do not offer the CR/NC/H option.
• LAW JD 832: ENERGY LAW & POLICY
  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 834: EMPLOYMENT LAW
  This course is about the legal regulation of the employment relationship in the U.S. It surveys relevant common law doctrines and selected statutes affecting this. Among the substantive issues to be considered are the at-will default rule (and many of its modifications); regulation of wages and workplace safety; unemployment insurance; whistle-blowing; workplace disputes about property rights (including restrictive covenants surrounding trade secrets, non-compete; arbitration agreements); torts arising in employment contexts (negligent hiring and retention; defamation); liability coverage, and other topics.
• LAW JD 835: Jurisprudence
  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) Originalisms versus moral readings. Does constitutional interpretation involve determining the original meaning of the Constitution as a matter of historical fact (originalisms) versus making normative judgments about the best understanding of our constitutional commitments (moral readings)? We will examine these competing theories through assessing two competing approaches to the Due Process Clause: that of Washington v. Glucksberg and Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and that of Planned Parenthood v. Casey and Obergefell v. Hodges. Does protection of the right to abortion or the right of same-sex couples to marry necessarily entail a moral reading of the Constitution? How does the Supreme Court actually use history in denying rights in Glucksberg and Dobbs? In service of originalism as commonly understood or of conservative moralism and traditionalism? (2) 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”? Does Obergefell put us on a slippery slope from same-sex marriage to plural marriage (including both polygamy and polyamory)? (3) Grounds for justifying rights. What are the best grounds for justifying rights in circumstances of moral disagreement? 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” (quoting Goodridge v. Department of Public Health, the Massachusetts decision protecting a right of same-sex couples to marry). Furthermore, does the Due Process Clause or the Equal Protection Clause provide the better ground for such a right (as well as a right of pregnant persons to decide whether to terminate their pregnancies)? What are the criteria for deciding between these grounds? Do liberty and equality oppose or reinforce one another? (4) 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 (a) battles over civic education (including teaching about race and gender) and (b) conflicts between religious liberty and freedom of speech and the use of antidiscrimination and marriage equality laws to secure the status of equal citizenship for all. For example, must 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? (5) Originalism and the right to bear arms. The Supreme Court has based its major decisions protecting an individual right to bear arms on originalism. Do Heller and Bruen vindicate originalism as yielding objective answers of historical fact about constitutional meaning or, to the contrary, do they suggest that originalism is a site of contestation between competing understandings of our constitutional commitments? How does the Court actually use history in these cases? 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, 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
  This is a basic survey course covering the federal courts, their place in the structure of American government, their relations with the Legislative and Executive branches and with the states, and their adjudication of federal-question cases concerning constitutional and civil rights, federal social welfare programs, and environmental and business regulation. This course builds on first-year courses in Constitutional Law and Civil Procedure and complements upperclass courses on modern public law and legal institutions: e.g., Administrative Law, Immigration Law, Environmental Law, Labor Law, and Conflict of Laws. Topics include the separation of federal judicial, legislative, and executive powers, Congress’ authority to prescribe the federal courts’ jurisdiction and to assign adjudicatory duties to other bodies (e.g., “legislative” courts and agencies), private authority to mount litigation to enforce federal law, standing to sue in federal court, conflicts between federal and state courts, the states’ immunity from private lawsuits, the Supreme Court’s authority to review state court judgments, and “abstention” doctrines governing the exercise of federal judicial power. We will explore theoretical and policy questions—asking not only what federal-courts law is at the moment, but also what it should be. Yet we will organize our discussions around practical lawyering in the federal courts—identifying and analyzing the constitutional, statutory, and judge-made hurdles that litigants must clear to obtain a decision on the merits of a federal question. 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: CRIMMIGRATION
  Noncitizens are increasingly impacted by interactions with the criminal legal system, often facing detention and deportation from the United States as a result of even minor infractions. This course will explore the dynamic field of "crimmigration" -- the intersection between immigration law and criminal law. Through readings, discussion, and independent research projects, students will learn to analyze constitutional, statutory, and regulatory provisions concerning immigration, as well as procedural and substantive requirements in criminal proceedings as they affect noncitizens. Students will also engage with the growing conversation around immigration and criminal abolition, as a response to the expanding carceral state. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement.
• 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 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 840: International Human Rights Clinic: Skills 1
  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 and 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 843: International Human Rights Clinic: Human Rights Advocacy
  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.
• LAW JD 845: Commercial Law
  This seminar will provide an overview of commercial law in the context of the increasingly digital nature of business and markets. Since consumer transactions account for two-thirds of GDP, much of the course, though not all, will focus on transactions between businesses and consumers. Regardless of the industry, consumers increasingly interface with businesses through tech platforms—whether that be an advertisement on Facebook, a Google search to decide which business to visit in person, or a phone comparison of the Amazon option to the in-store product on the shelf. Areas of law treated will include (often necessarily briefly) Secured Transactions, Sale of Goods, Bankruptcy, Electronic Commerce, Consumer Protection, Antitrust, Dispute Resolution, Financial Regulation, and the role of the Federal Trade Commission and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The goal will be to provide future lawyers with a broader sense of the many laws that come to bear on commercial transactions, and the array of stakeholders involved—especially consumers, employees, business owners, workers, and the public. GRADING NOTICE: This class will 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, 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 846: Historical Perspectives on Law
  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. 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. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT OPTION: Students may use this class to 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.
• LAW JD 851: Labor Law
  Labor law structures the process through which workers organize and engage collectively, rather than individually, with their employers. This course will cover the basics of private sector labor law in the United States. We will study the National Labor Relations Act and the processes of union organizing and collective bargaining that the NLRA establishes. We will also consider historical perspectives on labor law, issues particular to public sector unions, union participation in the political process, the “right to work,” and the ability of non-unionized workers to engage in concerted action. Finally, through the lens of labor law, the course will tackle issues of statutory interpretation, administrative law, and constitutional law. The materials are not intended to cover the legal rights of individual employees outside of the NLRA. Students interested in in-depth treatment of those topics are encouraged to take Employment Law and/or Employment Discrimination instead of or in addition to this class. To enroll in this class, students must have completed Contract Law, Tort Law, and Constitutional Law.
• LAW JD 853: EMPLOYMENT DISCRIMINATION
  Comprehensive coverage of federal and state statutory anti-discrimination and accommodation laws governing employment. Federal statutes treated include Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, the Family Medical Leave Act, the Equal Pay Act, and section 1981. Constitutional equal protection law also will be treated where applicable. Topics include disparate treatment, disparate impact, systemic disparate treatment, harassment, retaliation, remedies, including affirmative action, and procedural choices.
• LAW JD 854: WHITE COLLAR CRIME
  The purpose of this Course is to teach present-day white collar crime practice. The course will review: (i) the theoretical bases of modern white collar criminal prosecution; (ii) the major statutes used by prosecutors, including mail and wire fraud, securities fraud, bribery and extortion, obstruction of justice, perjury, and RICO; and (iii) the procedural aspects of white collar crime such as grand jury, attorney/client privilege, and sentencing. Students will learn the prosecutorial and defense techniques employed in significant recent white collar cases. Upon successful completion of the course, students will be familiar with the statutes, procedures, and legal analyses employed by prosecutors and private lawyers in white collar criminal practice. GRADING NOTICE: This course does not offer the CR/NC/H option. OFFERING PATTERN: This class not offered every year. Students are advised to take this into account when planning their long-term schedule.
• LAW JD 855: LAND USE
  The built environment around us is not inevitable or by accident. It is the outcome of a series of legal and political choices about how people should live together; about how to regulate and control the future use of the property around them. These choices result in a legal regime that, at once, is enormously complex, implicates the most basic questions of equity and constitutional freedoms, and affects people in every aspect of their daily lives. This course will examine land use from a legal, historical, theoretical, and, most important, practical perspective. Students will be introduced to a brief history of land use controls in the United States. The course will then cover the basic aspects of land use law: Euclidean zoning, special use permits, variances, vested rights and preexisting uses, exactions, exclusionary and inclusionary zoning, subdivision control, wetlands control, and legal challenges to zoning decisions. The course will also look at more recent trends and issues in land use law, such as smart growth and transit-oriented development, form- based zoning, marijuana regulations, short-term rentals, climate change resilience, and increased federal control of local land use. Finally, the course will examine the constitutional limits of land use regulation under the Fifth Amendment. Students will undertake practical exercises to introduce them to how land use lawyers practice. They will attend a zoning board hearing and report on it; they will analyze a client's proposal to determine what zoning relief is necessary; they will attend a zoning trial or appeal. The course will cover general zoning principles applicable nationally but will focus on Massachusetts law for the practical exercises. The class will require student participation in discussion. The only prerequisite is completion of first-year Property. Students will produce a brief paper on the zoning board meeting they attend and a final paper, and be asked to comment on the trial or hearing they attend. Grading will be based on class participation, the zoning exercise, the comments, and the two papers. UPPER-CLASS WRITING REQUIREMENT: A limited number of students may use this class to satisfy the requirement.
• LAW JD 857: INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
  In our modern information economy, the law of intellectual property has taken on enormous importance to both creators and users. This course introduces students to the principles of trade secret, patent, copyright, and trademark law, and explores the ways in which those principles are shifting and adapting in response to new technology. The course is open to all upper level students, without prerequisite. No scientific or technical background is required.