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Search and explore Duke Law's wide variety of courses that comprise nearly every area of legal theory and practice. Contact the Director of Academic Advising to confirm whether a course satisfies a graduation requirement in any particular semester.

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NOTE: Course offerings change. Faculty leaves and sabbaticals, as well as other curriculum considerations, will sometimes affect when a course may be offered.

JD/LLM in International & Comparative Law

JD/LLM in Law & Entrepreneurship

International LLM - 1 year

Certificate in Public interest and Public Service Law

Areas of Study & Practice

Clear all filters 17 courses found.
Number Course Title Credits Degree Requirements Semesters Taught Methods of Evaluation

220

Conflict of Laws 3
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) writing
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research and/or analytical paper
  • Class participation

This course in legal reasoning highlights the central problematic of conflict of laws: the rule of law and the specter of judicial activism. It does so by way of a systematic exploration of the judicial methods and patterns of legal argument used to decide cases in which the relevant facts of the dispute are connected with multiple jurisdictions. The first half of the course is focused on domestic conflicts issues in the United States, mostly dealing with choice of law questions in tort, contract, and family law. This study examines the full range of approaches that developed in the courts between the time of Joseph Beale and rise of the Second Restatement on Conflict of Laws. The second half of the course turns from domestic to transnational conflicts problems, and in particular, brings a focus to the topic of extraterritorial jurisdiction. This study survey US federal court decisions on extraterritorial choice of law, including questions in constitutional law, civil rights law, environmental law, labor law, antitrust law, securities law, and human rights law. 

Grade is 20% class participation, 80% paper.

302

Appellate Courts 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper, 25+ pages

This course will examine the practices and powers of American appellate courts, with a particular emphasis on the federal courts of appeals.  Our discussion will focus on the goals of these institutions and the extent to which individual components of the appellate decision-making process—including oral argument and opinion-writing—further those goals.

We will begin with an overview of the function of appellate courts—why they were created and what we expect of them today.  We will then move to the specific components of appellate adjudication, including mediation, briefing, oral argument, and judgment, as well as the personnel who contribute to the adjudication process.  Finally, we will consider the ways in which the appellate courts have been affected by an increasing caseload, and proposals for alleviating the strain on the courts.

Ultimately, the goal of the course is to expose you to how appellate courts operate and the purported goals of these institutions.  Over the course of the semester, you should also be evaluating what you think are the fundamental objectives of appellate review and whether the current structure of the courts allows them to meet those goals.

Evaluation in the course will be based on a final research paper, which may be used to satisfy the SRWP.

329

Education Law 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

Education Law: Constitutional, Statutory, and Policy Considerations. This seminar introduces students to the legal standards that govern public schools in the United States. Constitutional topics include the right to a public education, the financing of public schools, desegregation and equal opportunity of students, limitations on student speech, school discipline and the right to due process, religion in schools, and privacy rights of students. Statutory topics include federal laws such as the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, Title IX, and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. Policy topics include school reforms, such as charters and vouchers, and the ongoing inequities in US public schools, and the school-to-prison pipeline, and recent restrictions on classroom curricula. A research paper is required; successful completion of the paper will satisfy the Substantial Research and Writing Project Requirement. A course pack will be used in lieu of a textbook, supplemented with materials posted on Canvas.

338

Animal Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This course will examine a number of topics related to the law of animals, including various issues that arise under the laws of property, contracts, torts, and trusts and estates. It will also examine various criminal law issues and constitutional law questions. The class will consider such issues as the definition of "animal" as applicable to anti-cruelty statutes, the collection of damages for harm to animals, establishing standing for animal suits, first amendment protections, and the nuances of various federal laws.

518

Constitutional Law II: Historical Cases and Contemporary Controversies 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 25
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 20+ pages
  • Class participation

Federal constitutional law is deeply shaped by its history. Many of our hot-button issues emerged in the early Republic: the specific questions are often different but the basic disagreements and arguments are startlingly modern.  The modern “canon” of US Supreme Court cases through which constitutional law is taught is an abstraction from this history.  Even if this is mostly unavoidable, the result is that in important ways our understanding of constitutional history, and thus of contemporary constitutional law as well, is distorted.  In this course we will look at a series of contemporary issues  - such as freedom of speech and religion, unenumerated rights, and federalism, through the lens provided by cases and controversies in the first century of the Constitution’s existence that for the most part have dropped out of our field of vision.  Our goal is not simply to develop a deeper understanding of the constitutional past but just as importantly to acquire fresh perspectives on contemporary law.

544

The Collective Action Constitution 3
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) writing
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Collective action problems arise where every member of a group has a choice between alternatives, and if each member acts in a narrowly self-interested fashion or all members are unable to coordinate their actions, the outcome will be worse for all members by their own estimations than it will be if all or some of them choose another alternative.  Collective action problems are caused either by externalities (e.g., a prisoners’ dilemma), or by coordination difficulties (e.g., deciding which side of the road to drive on).  This seminar will examine the extent to which the United States Constitution can be understood as solving collective action problems that arise for the states and as empowering the states themselves and the federal government to solve such problems.  Topics will include:

  1. the number and importance of multi-state collective action problems both today and at the time of the creation of the Constitution;
  2. collective action theory in the social sciences;
  3. the promise and perils of relying on interstate compacts and other agreements to solve multi-state collective action problems;
  4. the necessity of federal power to solve such problems and a general examination of how Article I, Section 8, of the Constitution authorizes Congress to do so;
  5. the Interstate Commerce Clause and related structural principles (i.e., the anti-commandeering doctrine and the dormant commerce doctrine);
  6. the Taxing and Spending Clause and the Necessary and Proper Clause;
  7. the many other parts of the Constitution that can be explained to a significant extent by the logic of collective action (e.g., the Foreign and Indian Commerce Clauses; Article I, Section 10; the Treaty Clause of Article II; certain heads of federal jurisdiction in Article III, especially diversity and suits between states; the Privileges and Immunities Clause and the Territories Clause, both of Article IV; Article V’s requirements for constitutional amendments; and Article VII’s requirements for ratification of the Constitution);
  8. the inability of the collective action theory of the Constitution to explain certain parts of the Constitution, especially the Reconstruction Amendments, which follow a different structural logic;
  9. various challenges to the theory (e.g., that partisan polarization and congressional dysfunction undermine federal power to solve collective action problems; that the theory threatens to collapse the text of the Constitution into its underlying purposes; that the theory limits federal power too much (according to legal liberals) or not enough (according to legal conservatives); and that claims about whether collective action is rational or likely to occur are historically contingent and normatively contestable; and
  10. why the theory should matter to judges, elected officials, academics in several disciplines, and engaged citizens.

Readings will draw from The Federalist Papers and other Founding materials (e.g., the Articles of Confederation, Madison’s Vices memorandum, various letters of the Founders, the Virginia Plan, and the Constitution); book chapters (by, e.g., Akhil Amar, Jack Balkin, Daniel Farber, Jack Rakove, and Neil Siegel); law review articles (by, e.g., Robert Stern, Donald Regan, Steven Calabresi, Robert Bork, Robert Cooter, Neil Siegel, and Ernest Young); U.S. Supreme Court opinions from the Marshall Court to the present; and select draft chapters of my book manuscript.

Students will be required to write a 30-page research paper on a topic related to the substance of the seminar, which may be used to fulfill the JD SRWP degree requirements, the LLM writing requirement, or the special writing requirement for JD/LLMs. 

Grades will be based on the quality of students’ course participation (40%) and the quality of their research papers (60%).

545

Urban Legal History 3
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Urban Legal History is a research seminar which will focus on the legal issues relating to Durham's political, social, and economic development. The class will involve intensive study of primary and secondary materials, and will require students to produce substantial (45 page) research papers.

556

Second Amendment: History, Theory, and Practice 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reaction Papers
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Recent Supreme Court decisions have ushered in a new era of Second Amendment theory, litigation, and politics. Current events keep issues of firearms, gun violence, gun safety, and self-defense constantly in the news. This seminar will explore the Second Amendment and other aspects of federal and state firearms law. Students will be introduced to the historical and public policy materials surrounding the Second Amendment, the regulatory environment concerning firearms, and the political and legal issues pertaining to firearm rights-enforcement and policy design. Evaluation for the seminar will be based on in-class participation and a choice between six short reaction papers or one thirty-page paper.

562

Sentencing & Punishment 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

This seminar will focus on the process of imposing sentences in criminal cases, administering punishment, and attempting rehabilitation of convicted criminals. The course will first provide background regarding the purposes of punishment and the history of mandatory sentences, presumptive sentences, and sentencing guidelines, and focus on some of these issues in more detail through the use of a expert guest lecturers and a tour of the Federal Correctional Facility in Butner, NC. Students will be expected to participate meaningfully in the lectures, guest speakers and field trip, and produce a research paper on a related topic.

565

The Reconstruction Amendments: Our Second Founding 2-3
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Reaction Papers
  • Class participation

The Reconstruction Amendments (the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments) are cornerstones to what has been described as our nation’s “Second Founding.”   Although students may be familiar with discrete clauses of these amendments from a general constitutional law or federal courts class, this seminar offers a chance to study the Reconstruction Amendments in more detail, and as a unit.   We will become acquainted with the key figures, events, and primary documents that surround the drafting, ratification, interpretation and enforcement of these Amendments.   We will consult the work of luminaries such as Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and John Bingham, as well as contemporary sources like newspaper articles, congressional reports, and the Proceedings of the Black National and State Conventions.    We will also examine select secondary works by legal scholars and historians that shed light on these amendments both descriptively and theoretically.  

Students may enroll in the course for 2 or 3 credits.  Evaluation for the 2 credit course will be short reflective papers and class participation.  Evaluation for the 3 credit course will be short reflective papers, class participation, and a research paper suitable to satisfy the substantial writing requirement. 

582

National Security Law 3
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This fall-only survey course is designed to provide students (particularly those with no background in the topic) with an overview of the American legal architecture related to the U.S. security enterprise. The class will also examine related issues that arise "in the news." It is aimed not only at students considering a career in government or the military but also for those headed to private practice, including those who appreciate that the U.S.’s $849 billion ($2 trillion in defense outlays worldwide) impacts virtually all potential clients.

The course includes analyzing the constitutional structure governing national security matters and the role played by the three branches of government (with special emphasis on Presidential power). It will also examine domestic authority for the use of force overseas, governmental surveillance, the investigation and prosecution of national security cases, as well as First Amendment issues and environmental matters related to national security. In addition, homeland security issues (to include the domestic use of the armed forces), security-based travel restrictions, public health emergencies, civil-military relations, and the impact of national security issues on business transactions will be reviewed. The textbook for this course will be Dycus, et al., National Security Law (7th ed., 2020). Other materials may be provided as necessary. The instructor will offer practical, real-world perspectives on the issues discussed based on their extensive careers in government.

There is one assigned time block for the course, but the structure of classes may vary, and students may be divided into sections, discussion groups, and panels.

The course is expected to include guest speakers. There may be occasional asynchronous content, including short lectures, podcasts, and some documentary footage. Students will have advance notice of all required participation elements.

Given this is a course in national security, class instruction will likely include written, oral, and visual depictions of physical force and violence—and occasionally extreme representations of the same.

There is no examination for this course, but a 30-page research paper (constituting 60% of the grade) is required on a topic chosen by the student and approved by the instructors. The course paper may fulfill the Substantial Research and Writing Project with instructor approval, provided all SRWP requirements are met. The remainder of the grade (40%) is based on the quality and frequency of class participation (which may include short papers and/or brief oral presentations).

583

Public Law Colloquium 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research and/or analytical paper
  • Class participation

The Public Law Colloquium is the flagship offering of the Richard A. Horvitz Program in Constitutional and Public Law. The goals of this two-credit Colloquium are to expose students to the academic enterprise, by workshopping works-in-progress by leading law professors, and to develop deeper knowledge in a particular area of public law. The theme of the Colloquium in Fall 2024 will be “Judicial Power,” including topics such as law and equity, justiciability of disputes, the relationship between judicial and administrative adjudication, judicial remedies, and the nature of judicial decision making.

The Colloquium will revolve around six workshops in which professors from other law schools will present works-in-progress falling within the broad theme of the course. Those workshops will meet in the lunch hour on alternate Thursdays. Students will be expected to engage with the speaker and with each other in discussion. Faculty interested in these topics also will be invited to attend and participate in the discussions. On the off-weeks, the class will meet with the instructors on Thursday afternoons (4 to 5:50 pm) to discuss the paper for the next workshop. These classes will develop the general legal area that the paper addresses; we will assign background reading in that area to enhance understanding of the paper’s argument.

The Colloquium will be graded. Students will have two “deliverables”: Prior to each workshop, students will submit two detailed questions for the author about the paper. (Students will then be expected to ask at least one of their questions at the workshop.) And each student will select one of the papers and write a substantial essay responding to or critiquing it. Grades in the course will be a function of these two deliverables with a significant component for the student’s participation in workshops and off-week discussions.

593

Sexuality and the Law 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Midterm
  • Class participation

Issues in the legal regulation of human sexuality and gender identity are contested to varying degrees worldwide. Taking a global, comparative, and interdisciplinary approach to the investigation of the legal regulation of human sexuality and gender identity, this course uses case-studies to examine the cultural and religious, as well as the political and jurisprudential foundations of court decisions, laws, and regulations.

717

Comparative Constitutional Design 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper, 25+ pages

Recent constitutional reconstructions in various parts of the world have called new attention to the problems of institutional design of political systems. In this course we will examine the design and implementation of national constitutions. In particular, we will address the following questions. What are the basic elements of constitutions? How do these elements differ across time, across region, and across regime type? What is the process by which states draft and implement constitutions? What models, theories, and writings have influenced the framers of constitutions?

In the first half of the course, we will review the historical roots of constitutions and investigate their provisions and formal characteristics. We will also discuss the circumstances surrounding the drafting of several exemplary or noteworthy constitutions, from various regions of the world. We will then examine particular features of institutional design in depth. These will include judicial review, presidentialism vs. parliamentarism, federalism, and the relationship of the national legal system to international law.

758

Originalism: An Overview of Theory and Practice 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation

Originalism has become a major force in constitutional interpretation throughout the federal and state judiciaries.  The theory’s merits and the merits of the outcome it yields are the subject of intense debate in the legal community and across the country.

This two-hour weekly seminar is designed to help acquaint you with the history of Originalism, developments in Originalism over time, criticisms of the theory, current controversies among originalists, and how lawyers and judges engage in originalist analysis. 

Students will be evaluated on papers responding to the course readings and on class participation.

794

Slavery and the Law 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

The laws of slavery defined property in people, governed the relations between slaveholders and the enslaved and between the enslaved and non-slaveholders, and codified the conditions under which enslaved people could live, be manumitted, or become free.  This seminar is concerned with how the law created, addressed, and sustained the category of “slave,” how the courts interpreted the laws of slavery, and how the status of slave was determined in everyday social life. It looks at the structures and practices of law that codified the ownership of property in human beings, their evolution across time and space, the interaction of law, slavery and race, specifically the production of racial slavery. It examines how enslaved and free black people interacted with the law, including initiatives by enslaved people to secure freedom and citizenship rights in the courts.  The course emphasizes close readings of primary documents—including congressional and state legislation, trial transcripts, appellate opinions, treatises, and codes—and books and journal articles by legal scholars and historians. Beginning with the adoption of slavery in the 16th century Atlantic world, it traces slavery’s evolution on the North American continent and concludes with the adoption of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution.

794W

Slavery and the Law/Writing Credit 1
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 23
  • Research paper, 25+ pages

Students enrolled in Law 794 Slavery and the Law, may earn an additional credit by writing an additional 25+ page paper, due at the end of the semester . *LAW 794W must be added no later than 7th week of class.*

Course Credits

Semester

JD Course of Study

JD/LLM in International & Comparative Law

JD/LLM in Law & Entrepreneurship

International LLM - 1 year

Certificate in Public interest and Public Service Law

Areas of Study & Practice