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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 112 courses found.
Number Course Title Credits Degree Requirements Semesters Taught Methods of Evaluation

201

Legal Writing: Craft & Style 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Spring 25
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

Legal Writing: Craft & Style is for students who want to work towards acquiring professional-level writing and editing skills. Through weekly writing projects, students will master the line-editing techniques for creating optimal sentences and paragraphs. Through intensive study, practice, and an exit exam, students will master the essentials of grammar, usage, and copyediting expected of professional writers. Finally, each student will deploy these skills by creating two pieces of original writing commonly expected of young lawyers: a client letter and a client update on a development in the law. Throughout the course, students will have individual support and feedback for their work.

202

Art Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam, option
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

This course will cover a number of intersections between the law and the people and institutions who constitute the world of the visual arts, including artists, museums, collectors, dealers, and auctioneers. The course will also cover non-legal material geared to shaping practices of art market participants, such as codes and guidelines adopted by art-museum associations, as well as some relevant literature from other academic disciplines. Specific topics will include: (1) contexts in which a legal institution must determine whether a particular object is a work of "art" or art of a particular type; (2) artists' rights, including statutory and non-statutory moral rights and resale rights; (3) problems of authenticity; (4) the legal rights and duties of auctioneers, art dealers, and other intermediaries; (5) the legal structure of art museums, including issues of internal management and governance; (6) stolen art, including objects looted during World War II; and (7) developments in law and industry practice relevant to "cultural heritage," the association of particular objects with particular places or societies.

Students will be required to participate in class discussions, and will have the option of writing a 25-30-page research paper OR taking a take-home exam. Paper topics must be approved by the instructor, who will be glad to make suggestions (some of which will involve local field research).

There are no prerequisites for the course. Although some background in intellectual property (copyright and trademark law) would be helpful, none is required. A set of readings will be distributed prior to the first meeting of the class. Before then, a complete updated syllabus will be posted.

225

Criminal Procedure: Adjudication 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam

A study of the basic rules of criminal procedure, beginning with the institution of formal proceedings. Subjects to be covered include prosecutorial discretion, the preliminary hearing, the grand jury, criminal discovery, guilty pleas and plea bargaining, jury selection, pretrial publicity, double jeopardy, the right to counsel, and professional ethics in criminal cases.

227

Use of Force in International Law: Cyber, Drones, Hostage Rescues, Piracy, and more 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 20+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This fall-only seminar is designed to introduce students with limited (or no) familiarity with international law to principles involved in using force during periods of putative peace.  As a jus ad bellum seminar it will explore, for example, what circumstances constitute an “act of war” in various situations, including cyberspace. It will address some jus in bello issues but will not overlap significantly with the LAW 546 International Law of Armed Conflict which is expected to be offered in the Spring of 2025.

The structure of classes may vary, and students may be divided into sections, discussion groups, and panels. The course may include guest speakers (in-person or via Zoom).

This course is a deep dive into the use of force in international law. It will analyze the circumstances under which force can be used in self-defense and survey topics such as humanitarian intervention, hostage rescue, targeted killings, selected maritime law issues, selected neutrality law issues, potential flashpoints associated with air defense identification zones, and freedom of navigation operations.

We will also explore the legal aspects of international counterpiracy and counterterrorism operations. The course will also delve into efforts to limit the use of force in outer space, the implications of nuclear weapons, and the emergence of autonomous weaponry.

Each class will begin with a brief “in the news” section examining selected seminar-related issues of current interest that appear in the media.

There will be no class on Tuesday, November 5th, 2024. Instead, on Sunday, November 3rd, 2024, the class will meet from 3:30 to 6:00 pm at the Law School to view and discuss the film Eye in the Sky, a dramatic representation of a drone strike. Refreshments and snacks will be served.

The course requires a 20-page paper on a topic approved by the instructor.  It will comprise 60% of the grade; the other 40% will be based on class participation (which may also include some written products, e.g., reaction papers).

This seminar is designed to help students gain a comprehensive understanding of the practical aspects associated with the use of force. This includes an overview of weaponry, planning, and military techniques. By the end of the course, students should be equipped with practical knowledge that can be applied in real-world scenarios.

Students do not need to buy any books for this seminar, as all the texts are available online from the law library. The instructor may also provide other readings electronically.

This course obviously addresses the use of force in international law. Accordingly, class instruction will inevitably include written, oral, and visual depictions of physical force and violence—and occasionally extreme representations.

231

Ethics in Action: Large Law Firm Practice 2
  • JD elective
  • JD ethics
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Simulated Writing, Litigation
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

Large, multi-jurisdictional law firms face complex issues of regulation and professionalism. Managing and solving those issues require high-level analytical, written, and presentation skills. As in practice, quality written analysis will be paramount, and students will need to perform individually as well as working together with a team.

236

International Human Rights 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 23
  • Final Exam
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This course critically assesses the international and domestic laws, institutions, and legal and political theories that relate to protecting the fundamental liberties of all human beings. The course emphasizes (1) specific "hot button" topics within international human rights law, such as extraordinary renditions, hate speech, and lesbian and gay rights); (2) the judicial, legislative, and executive bodies that interpret and implement human rights; and (3) the public and private actors who commit rights violations and who seek redress for individuals whose rights have been violated. Course requirements include a final exam, a negotiation exercise, and student participation in class discussions.

238

Ethics and the Law of Lawyering 2
  • JD elective
  • JD ethics
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Reflective Writing
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This course examines in detail the "law of lawyering" relating to such issues as the formation of the attorney-client relationship, confidentiality, communications with clients, conflicts of interest, regulation and discipline of attorneys, and numerous other areas relating to the lawyer's role in American society. In addressing these issues, we will consider the extent to which the law governing lawyers derives from the concept of a learned profession, as well as the degree to which the ethics of lawyering may differ from personal ethics and morality. While particular attention will be paid to the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the class will also examine other sources of relevant law, including the Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers, court decisions and rules, statutes, and administrative regulations.  Grading may be is based on a final examination or paper (depending on the instructor), written work relating to casebook problems and reflections on current issues in legal ethics, and class participation.

 

242

Social Justice Lawyering 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Group project(s)
  • Class participation
  • Other

Working for social justice is an important part of the professional obligations of all lawyers, and for many law students, their initial motivation for pursuing a legal education. This course is designed to introduce students to the ways in which lawyers committed to social justice engage with communities, individual clients, social and political causes and legal systems to help effect social change. We will examine the types of lawyers working toward social justice, the ways in which lawyers help shape claims in social justice cases, and finally, how lawyers use their skills and training to engage in political struggles and movements to achieve social justice for the communities, causes, or individual clients that they represent.

Through readings, discussion, and independent studies of legal cases and movements in social justice, students will explore different models of social justice lawyering and the barriers present both in the representation of under-served communities and in pursuing a career in public interest law. Students will also have an opportunity to explore more deeply how they plan to be a lawyer engaged in social justice work, either in their pro bono or full-time future practice.

250

Family Law 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam
  • Class participation

A study of how law regulates intimate adult relationships and relationships between parents and children. We will discuss constitutional and statutory rights and restrictions on marriage, adult relationships, adoption, parentage, child custody, dissolution of adult relationships, and financial support for children. We will explore the evolution of family law in relation to racial and gender equality and consider issues of socioeconomic inequality and access to justice.  Grading is based on a final examination and class participation. 

288

Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This course uses consumer bankruptcy as a lens to study the role of consumer credit in the U.S. economy and society. The class will focus on the key aspects of the consumer bankruptcy system, including who files bankruptcy, what causes bankruptcy, the consequences of bankruptcy, and the operation of the bankruptcy system. We will discuss each of these issues in the larger context of consumer debt and consumer law, and will also cover the foreclosure crisis, student loans, and issues related to debt, race, and gender. The readings will come from law and non-law sources, including the work of a variety of social scientists.

Due to substantive overlap in material, students may not concurrently enroll in Law 288: Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt and Law 586: Current Debates in Bankruptcy Law. However, if you've taken one of the courses in a previous semester and wish to take the other, that will be permitted. Students may not enroll in both Law 288: Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt and Law 555: Law and Financial Anxiety without instructor permission. 

300

Legal Analysis, Research and Writing for International Students 2
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM required
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages

In this foundational course, students learn legal reasoning, research skills and predictive legal writing. The course trains students to research, analyze, and present issues in the US common law style, preparing them for law school exams and any future work they might do with US attorneys. It challenges them to write in the direct, succinct style preferred by US lawyers and business people. Students complete two office memoranda that focus on questions of both state and federal law. Students improve their written English through numerous opportunities to review and revise their work. Taught in small sections by faculty who have practiced law and have extensive experience with international lawyers, the course prepares international LLM students for a transnational career.

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.

309

Children and the Law 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 23
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation

This course will explore the relationship between the law and children’s status, rights, and well-being from a child-centered perspective. The course will introduce students to some of the foundational legal doctrines which govern the relationships among children, their parents, and the state. Through lecture, class discussion, and group presentations, this course will apply those foundational principles in specific contexts, including at school, home, healthcare, and community settings, with a focus on emerging and current issues in children’s law. This course will grapple with the ways in which current legal frameworks do or do not promote children’s rights and health, with a focus on the experiences of vulnerable groups, including LGBTQ+ children, children living in poverty, children of color, children involved in the child welfare and delinquency systems, and children with disabilities. This class will require collaboration in small groups as students work towards a final presentation.

312

Cybercrime 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

The course will survey the legal issues raised by cyber-related crime. The bulk of the course will be organized around two overarching themes: (1) substantive criminal law (i.e., the scope, structure, and limitations of the criminal laws that reach cyber-related crime); and (2) criminal procedure (i.e., the scope, structure, and limitations of the privacy laws and constitutional principles that regulate law enforcement investigations of cyber-related crime).  Along the way, we will also consider topics that frequently arise in cyber-related investigations and prosecutions, such as:  jurisdictional issues (e.g., federal/state dynamics and international cooperation in collecting evidence); national security considerations (e.g., state-sponsored intrusions and IP theft, terrorists’ use of the internet, government surveillance); and encryption.  We will make regular use of contemporary case studies, including several drawn from my own experience in the national security arena. 

314

Federal Habeas Corpus 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Final Exam
  • Midterm
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

What is habeas corpus and why has it earned the title of the “Great Writ”? Habeas corpus allows prisoners to challenge their detentions and it empowers judges to free prisoners that are unlawfully detained. The writ reaches the most unpopular prisoners: enemies of the state, war criminals, and those convicted of the most heinous crimes. Due to its historic role as the last resort for prisoners to obtain judicial review, the U.S. Supreme Court has called the Great Writ one that is “indispensable” and one that “indisputably holds an honored position in our jurisprudence.” Thus, prisoner litigation is the subject of this course, and in particular, the rights and remedies available to prisoners who seek to challenge their detention.

We will use the co-authored casebook: the first to cover federal habeas corpus comprehensively, presenting post-conviction review and executive detention litigation in an accessible way. It is available on Sakai, along with the rest of our course materials. We will begin with an examination of the writ of habeas corpus, under which federal courts examine whether detentions are authorized. We will explore the historical evolution of the writ from a common law prerogative writ to the U.S. federal system and the meaning of the enigmatic Suspension Clause of the U.S. Constitution. We will then focus on habeas litigation by state prisoners convicted of crimes. We will study the 1996 Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) and how it intersects with the key Supreme Court decisions that define the limits and procedures for habeas corpus, including through the doctrines of exhaustion, procedural default, non-retroactivity, and miscarriage of justice innocence “gateway” claims.

In the second part of the course, we will examine the Suspension Clause and how Article III of the Constitution shapes the power of judges to use habeas corpus. We will explore the use of habeas corpus to remedy unlawful executive detention, including immigration detention, military detention, and national security detention. We will study recent statutes and Supreme Court decisions relating to persons indefinitely detained or facing military commission trials post-9/11. We will conclude by studying the intersection of habeas corpus and civil litigation, and with a broader look at the future of habeas corpus.

We will conduct a series of practical exercises based on real cases, during synchronous classes and offline. Short lectures will often be recorded in advance to focus our synchronous time on engaging with the material. The goal is for you to understand the doctrine and theory but also develop practical litigation skills, directly applicable to prisoner litigation, and also to litigation generally. Some will be in-class exercises, while others will be written exercises outside of class. You will be given feedback on your work throughout the semester. Similarly, grading will be based not just on a final exam, but on class participation (in synchronous classes, in comments on each other’s work, and on the Sakai forum discussion pages), written answers to three review exercises, written comments on classmates’ answer to review exercises, a midterm exam, and a final exam. All midterm and final exam grading is blind.

316

Intro to Cyber Law and Policy 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages

This course will provide an introduction to the dynamic and evolving field of cyber law and policy.  The course will be team-taught by multiple instructors with expertise in various government and industry sectors. The goal is to introduce students to the legal and policy frameworks that guide lawyers and decision-makers in a world of rapid technological change, with a primary emphasis on cybersecurity and privacy. We will discuss today’s threat landscape and approaches to data breaches, cybercrime by state and non-state actors, and cyberwarfare. We will also consider the legal and policy issues surrounding the collection and use of personal data, with a focus on both domestic and international data privacy protections. Other topics will also be explored, such as the impact of emerging technologies and markets (e.g., machine learning, digital currencies, platform media) and the ethical responsibilities of lawyers. Real-world case studies will be employed to allow students to weigh in on some of the most pressing issues of our time.   This course is introductory in nature and no technical background is necessary.

Note: Students who have taken Law 609, Readings in Cyber Law with Stansbury, may not take Law 316, Intro to Cyber Law. 

317

Criminal Justice Ethics 2
  • JD elective
  • JD ethics
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15 pages
  • Class participation
  • Other

Criminal Justice Ethics (2 Credit Seminar) focuses on the professional and ethical laws governing attorneys in the criminal justice system. The course focuses on issues affecting both prosecutors and defense attorneys and the applicable rules of professional conduct. The course will work to deepen students’ understanding of the role and responsibilities of criminal justice attorneys in society. This is a specialized ethics course with a focus on lawyers working in the criminal justice system, as such our focus will not cover the Rules of Professional Conduct in their entirety. The class is discussion-based. The primary methods of assessment will be three (3), two-page reflection papers throughout the semester and a final 15-page research and/or analytical paper.

319

Analytical Methods 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) required
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

Lawyers face non-legal, analytical issues every day. Business lawyers need to understand a business in order to represent their client properly. Litigators need to judge the best route in adopting a litigation strategy. Family lawyers routinely need to value a business. Environmental lawyers need to understand economic externalities. Social lawyers need familiarity with financial instruments that have positive and negative attributes. Students taking this course will find it foundational in running a business, advising a business, or litigating business matters that go beyond the strict letter of the law. In this sense, this is not your standard doctrinal law school course. Rather, it is designed to give students the tools necessary to interact with the business community and run a company or firm.

The areas of focus include:

  • Decision Analysis, Games and Information: We will explore a standard technique that has been developed to organize thinking about decision-making problems and to solve them.
  • Accounting: Basic accounting concepts will be introduced, and the relationship between accounting information and economic reality will be examined.
  • Microeconomics: This unit presents basic economic concepts--the operation of competitive markets, imperfect competition, and market failures--that are necessary to this understanding.
  • Statistics and Artificial Intelligence: We will address the basic statistical methods, including regression analysis, as well as issues that commonly arise when statistics are used in the courtroom. We will also have a brief introduction to statistical learning, which forms the basis for machine learning and artificial intelligence.

This basic introductory survey course is aimed at students who have only a basic background in math (basic high school algebra) and may have majored in humanities and social science as an undergraduate.

320

Water Resources Law 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper, 25+ pages

This survey course examines the legal and policy issues governing water quality and resource allocation in the United States. Students will be introduced to both the Prior Appropriation systems of the western United States and the Reasonable Use systems dominating the eastern states. We will study key laws that affect water quality and quantity, including the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act, and others.  Students will also explore emerging issues in water policy, including the regulation of "forever chemicals," protection of wetlands, and mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, among other policy issues.  Throughout the course, students will study how environmental justice relates to water resource management.

323

Bankruptcy and Corporate Reorganization 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam

The course will focus on the process by which a corporate debtor reorganizes under the provisions of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Prior familiarity with bankruptcy principles and debtor-creditor law is not required. These will be incorporated in the course as it unfolds. Some familiarity with business organization is helpful but not necessary.

The subject will be covered primarily from three perspectives: the underlying business and economic dynamics that lead both to the debtor's financial crisis and to its potential to rehabilitate through a plan of reorganization; the supervision of a debtor by the bankruptcy court; and the reality that virtually all commercial transactions and financial contracting occur in the “shadow” of bankruptcy law and its potential to alter rights and obligations.

Topics to be covered include historical, Constitutional, and policy issues underlying Chapter 11's provisions and goals; overview of basic business structures and transactions bearing on Chapter 11 reorganization; alternatives to avoid Chapter 11; the powers and oversight role of the bankruptcy court and the obligations and governance of a corporate debtor when under the protection of the bankruptcy court; the major phases of a Chapter 11 case from initial filing to consummation of a plan of reorganization (e.g., formulation of a business plan and the plan of reorganization, claims procedures and classification, plan disclosure and voting, plan confirmation, discharge, and consummation); recovery and disposition of assets in Chapter 11, including asset sales, and avoidance remedies; and numerous special topics encountered in Chapter 11 practice.

 

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.

330

Federal Criminal Law 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 24
  • Take-home examination
  • Oral presentation
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This course will study the substantive law, policy, and practices of the federal criminal justice system. Students will learn the constitutional and statutory bases for federal jurisdiction and study the federal justice system’s unusual legal and institutional features. We will discuss major categories of federal crimes including firearms, fraud, drugs, conspiracy, violent crime, immigration, terrorism, civil rights, and sexual offenses, focusing on substantive law as well as policy objectives and controversies. We will conclude by learning about federal sentencing and—time permitting—restitution and forfeiture.

This class will be heavily discussion based. Learning objectives include understanding what makes the federal system unique, becoming familiar with major federal crimes and their elements, and engaging in broader debates around federal criminal enforcement. We will probably touch on some current cases percolating in the federal system and the Supreme Court. And hopefully a guest visitor or two will discuss their real-world experiences.

Course evaluation will consist of a short, midsemester writing assignment; a take-home exam; and class participation. (The expectations for the writing assignment and exam will reflect that this is a two-credit class.) The course will touch on topics like criminal policy, incarceration, racial disparities, sexual assault, and drug abuse and overdoses. Students enrolled in this class should be prepared to discuss sensitive and controversial topics professionally.

336

Mergers & Acquisitions 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Class participation

This two-credit course will consider and analyze corporate mergers and acquisitions and the process of initiating and completing a corporate acquisition. Topics covered will include the structures commonly used in M&A transactions (and the factors affecting choice of deal structure); strategies employed by the acquiring party and the target firm in negotiating an acquisition and the differing roles played by the various parties involved in a transaction; the different types of agreements and other documents an attorney will encounter and negotiate over the course of a transaction; the critical role of information in M&A deals; conducting due diligence; the elements, structure and key terms of a typical acquisition agreement; the roles and responsibilities of management, Boards of Directors and shareholders in connection with transactions; securities laws affecting transactions; an introduction to private equity M&A; acquisition financing; and getting the transaction to closing.

338

Animal Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • 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.

340

Estate and Gift Taxation 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam

A study of the rules governing federal taxation of gratuitous wealth transfers. The course will examine the trio of related federal taxes: the estate tax, the gift tax, and the generation-skipping transfer tax, as well as the policies, history, and concepts involved in the taxation of wealth transfers.

345

Gender & the Law 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Reflective Writing
  • Oral presentation
  • In-class exercise

This course will explore the relationship between gender and the law, understanding gender in its broadest sense including sex, sexuality, gender identity, and gender queerness. It will focus on sex discrimination doctrines under the Equal Protection Clause of the United States Constitution as well as under federal and state statutory frameworks such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, and cognate state statutes. It will also address the shifting scope of substantive due process doctrine, particularly given the recent Supreme Court Dobbs opinion. Attention will be paid to the recently argued Skrmetti case challenging a state law prohibiting health care for transgender minors with an eye towards its impact on future gender and LGBTQ+ law and policy. Other statutes such as the Americans with Disabilities Act will also be explored. Constitutional Law is highly recommended as a prerequisite.

The course will center around legal case studies to evaluate the relationship between law and justice in many areas that affect gender minority lives, including: employment, schools, health care, prison, public accommodations, family, youth and aging, and beyond. The emphasis will be on social justice lawyering strategies and the possibilities and limits that litigation, legislation, and policy developments present for work in these areas. The class will consider ways in which different federal administrations impact the work, as well as the relationship between law and policy. Some film is used in class. Evaluation is by an end-of-term, untimed, open book examination, as well as 3 reaction papers assigned throughout the class. Other individual or group projects may also be required. Engaged student discussion and open-mindedness to new, different, and challenging ideas is invited and valued.

356

Effective Communication Outside of the Courtroom 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

Good lawyering requires advocacy outside of the courtroom. Lawyers regularly communicate with current and prospective clients, governmental officials, the media, and other general audiences. They also must advocate for themselves—whether in their job searches or within their professional settings. Accordingly, this seminar will introduce skills to make students more effective in their interpersonal communication, teamwork, and persuasive public speaking. Each class session will focus on a specific set of interpersonal communication, teamwork, and/or persuasive speaking skills. Class sessions will feature a combination of lectures, individual and group presentations, discussion, and in-class exercises. Students will routinely receive feedback on their performances through self-reflections, peer evaluations, and instructor evaluations. This seminar will also provide students with opportunities to meet with current lawyers and hear examples of how they advocate for themselves, their clients, and/or positions they support. Each guest will also discuss how interpersonal communication and public presentation skills shape their day-to-day responsibilities.

Meets for first 8 weeks of the semester, Wednesdays from 2:00-5:00 PM. The course will meet at Fuqua. Room TBD.

359

Introduction to Law and Economics 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam

Law and economics is one of the most influential schools of thought in modern legal theory. The ideas propounded by the economic analysis of law are gaining increasing traction in court decisions as well as in legal policy. This course explores the methodology of economic analysis in the legal context and discusses several of its provocative insights. This course will examine the major contributions of the economic analysis of law in the classical common law categories of contract, tort and property, as well as in other areas that may not initially appear to be amenable to economic reasoning. The course does not require any background in economics.

Grades: 100% of the grade will be based on the final exam.

368

Natural Resources Law and Policy 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

The law of how we use nature - timber, mining, bioversity, fisheries, water rights, and agriculture. Also an introduction to the historical and constitutional geography of American public lands: the national parks, forests, wilderness system, and grazing lands, and disputes over federal versus local control of these. There is special attention to the historical and political origins of our competing ideas of how nature matters and what we should do with it, from economically productive use to outdoor recreation to preserving the natural world for its own sake. Attention also to the complicated interplay of science and law.

389

Insurance Law 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages
  • Group project(s)
  • Class participation

Insurance is a trillion dollar per year industry and serves significant social and economic functions across society. Insurance is premised on the fundamental concepts of risk management and risk transfer. Attorneys specializing in a wide-variety of practice areas should appreciate the importance of insurance when advising on commercial transactions and seeking to resolve all types of disputes. This course is designed to provide students with an understanding of basic insurance law concepts, particularly in the context of Commercial General Liability (CGL) insurance, the most common type of liability insurance maintained by businesses of all sizes and in all industries across the United States. Students will gain a practical understanding of insurance theory and the significance of insurance in risk management and risk transfer; the business of insurance, including the roles of the various players and the nature of various insurance products; principles of insurance contract construction and application; and some of the more frequently disputed insurance coverage issues in the context of CGL insurance policies. The course will also cover basic regulatory concepts and London Market/Bermuda Market-specific topics, as well as the emergence of specialty-related insurance products (cyber, media, pollution liability, etc.)

The final exam will be in the form of a take home writing assignment – it will consist of researching various insurance coverage issues and writing an opinion memorandum to a client (10-12 pages; open book/research using Westlaw/Lexis). Students will have at least a week to prepare.

393

Trademark Law and Unfair Competition 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam

This class offers an introduction to the law of trademark and unfair competition. Whether or not students intend to specialize in trademark law, a basic understanding of its rules will better enable them to advise clients who wish to protect their own marks, as well as those facing claims that they have infringed someone else’s mark. No technical background is needed. Trademarks include brand names and logos, and can also extend to other features that identify the source of a product for its consumers – including colors, packaging, and design – when they meet certain requirements. The course will begin with the requirements for obtaining trademark protection: distinctiveness, use in commerce, special rules for trade dress, and various bars to protection such as genericity and functionality. It will then cover confusion-based trademark infringement, secondary liability, anti-dilution, statutory and common law defenses, false advertising, and cybersquatting. Could a Utah theme park called “Evermore” stop Taylor Swift from calling her album “Evermore”? Did Lil Nas X’s Satan shoes infringe Nike’s trademarks? With the proliferation of craft brews, are we running out of brand names for beer, particularly pun-based “hoptions”? The course will address these and other pressing questions.

395

Distinctive Aspects of U.S. Law 2
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM required
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Final Exam

This course is intended to provide a broad introduction to key elements of American law. Emphasis will be placed on exploring contemporary constitutional issues and other issues involving fundamental principles of American law. Much of the focus will be on recent, and controversial, Supreme Court cases dealing with property law rights, affirmative action, the death penalty, punitive damages, the commerce clause, federalism, and separation of church and state. Special focus will also be given to developing a working understanding of the American litigation system, including reliance on pre-trial discovery, experts, and the jury system.

399

Forensic Psychiatry 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Project(s)
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This course is designed to provide students with a working knowledge of the major areas of interface between psychiatry and law. Basic concepts of clinical psychiatry and psychopathology will be highlighted throughout the course. The attorney and the psychiatrist roles in the commitment process, right to treatment and right to refuse treatment, competency to stand trial, and criminal responsibility will be explored using a number of methods. Discussion of assigned readings, short lectures, interviews and observation of patients involved in legal proceedings, films, guest speakers, and field trips will form the basis of the course. The students will periodically be asked to use the information from the course together with independent and group research to complete short projects and class exercises.

428

Advanced Community Enterprise Clinic 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • PIPS elective
  • PIPS experiential
  • Fall 24
  • Group project(s)
  • Practical exercises
  • Live-client representation and case management
  • Class participation

This two-credit course is available to students who have participated in one semester in the community enterprise clinic and wish to participate for a second semester. Students may enroll only with approval of the Director of the Clinic. Placements may be available in the event that the clinic is not fully enrolled with first-time participants, and in exceptional situations, when the clinic director determines it would be in the best interest of the clinic to make an exception to the usual maximum enrollment. Students enrolled in Advanced Clinical Studies are required to participate fully in the case work portion of the clinic, performing 100-120 hours of client representation work, but will not be required to attend the class sessions.

435A

Advanced First Amendment Law Clinic 2
  • JD elective
  • PIPS elective
  • PIPS experiential
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Spring 25
  • Live-client representation and case management

This two-credit course is available to students who have participated in one semester in the First Amendment Law clinic and wish to participate for a second semester. Students may enroll only with approval of the Director of the Clinic.. Students enrolled in Advanced Clinical Studies are required to participate fully in the case work portion of the clinic, performing 100-120 hours of client representation work, but will not be required to attend the class sessions.

474

Corporate Governance and Deals Lab 2
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM experiential
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 25
  • Simulated Writing, Transactional
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This experiential course applies business law concepts and theory to the practice of corporate law.  Through a series of simulations, students will encounter real-world scenarios and use practical lawyering skills as they learn to negotiate, draft and design the different deal documents in complex mergers and acquisitions and leveraged buyouts; negotiate and draft Private Equity fund formation documents; and simulate real-life cases of shareholder activism and other corporate governance issues. Student will be expected to submit several short written assignments as well as participate in a larger final project. The course is designed to be accessible to students without a business background.

475A

Law & Policy Lab: Data Governance 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 25
  • Simulated Writing, Transactional
  • Reflective Writing
  • Group project(s)
  • Class participation

In an age where nearly every organization collects and uses data, lawyers must be data-savvy. Modern data challenges ask clients to navigate legal, technical, and mission considerations, often all at once. Machine learning and artificial intelligence add still more questions, even as organizations race to realize data’s potential.

This course focuses on data governance: how organizations and communities make decisions about data, code, and their missions, and the wide-ranging impact of those decisions. Students will learn about three foundational data governance models: how companies protect and manage access to data; how data is shared and reused for research purposes; and how public datasets are assembled and managed. The course will feature simulations and interactive exercises to help students apply these models and skills to real-world scenarios.

At the end of the class, students will gain an understanding of how the law defines and regulates data, and how regulatory frameworks for data differ from field to field. They will also gain foundational knowledge in organizational and multi-stakeholder governance, and how good governance principles might apply to data. Finally, they will gain experience designing and applying governance models for organizations and multi-stakeholder collaborations.

No technical background is necessary to take this class. The first few weeks will include an introduction to data, databases, and governance best practices. 

504

Critical Race Theory 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

Critical race theory (CRT), a scholarly movement that began in the 1980s, challenges both the substance and style of conventional legal scholarship.  Substantively, critical race scholars (“race crits”) reject formal equality, a heavy focus on individual rights, and color-blind approaches to solving legal problems.  Stylistically, race crits often employ new methodologies for legal scholarship, including storytelling and narrative.  This course introduces CRT’s core principles and explores its possibilities and limitations.  With emphasis on writings that shaped the movement, the course will examine the following concepts and theories: storytelling, interest convergence, the social construction of race, the myth of the model minority, intersectionality and anti-essentialism, working identity, covering, whiteness and white privilege, colorblindness, microaggressions, and implicit bias.  Students will apply these theories and frameworks to cases and topics dealing with, among other things, voting rights, educational access, affirmative action, employment discrimination, immigration, and criminal disparities and inequities.  The course affords students an opportunity to examine the ways in which racism, sexism, classism, and heterosexism are inextricably interwoven as well as an opportunity to challenge critically our most basic assumptions about race, law, and justice.  All students enrolling in the seminar must attend the first class.

506

Alternative Dispute Resolution 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This survey course will provide you with a comprehensive overview of the various alternatives to traditional litigation that are used to resolve civil disputes, including negotiation, mediation, arbitration, collaborative law, and other innovative processes. It is designed primarily for students who wish to gain a basic understanding of the variety of dispute resolution processes available when representing a client. Each week, you will have the opportunity to explore the theoretical basis for and practical operation of different ADR processes through class discussion and in-class exercises. We will also discuss ADR and culture, ODR, drafting ADR clauses in contracts, and dispute resolution system design. Required coursework will include readings, participating in in-class exercises, preparing entries in a weekly conflict resolution journal, and an end-of-semester project. By the conclusion of the course, you should be able to assist a client in choosing the most appropriate ADR process in light of the advantages and disadvantages of each, and will better understand a third-party neutral’s role in facilitating or fashioning a just resolution of a dispute. 

508

Democracy, Markets, and the Rule of Law 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

This seminar will explore three intersecting issues relating to democracy, markets, and the rule of law.  First,  we will consider whether and how democracy needs the rule of law for stability and legitimacy.  Second, we will consider how far law can help to constitute and maintain the conditions of relatively stable and vital democracy.  Third, we will explore the relationship of a market economy to a democratic political order that maintains the rule of law. Readings will be drawn from classic treatments of these issues as well as contemporary scholarship. Can satisfy SRWP with Law 508W add-on credit.

509

Police Accountability 2
  • JD elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing

This seminar focuses on lawyers working in the criminal justice system and law enforcement. Through historical and practical considerations of policing in the U.S., existing and proposed legislation, articles, and opinions, the course will work to deepen students’ understanding of some of the intricacies of police accountability and transparency.  After beginning with foundational concepts on policing, the course then delves into some of the specific legal issues relating to police accountability and transparency in the United States, such as reporting misconduct, internal investigations, internal disciplinary processes, the process and challenges of prosecuting police, and the interplay between local governmental entities and prosecutorial offices. Students who took Law 611.59, Readings: Police Accountability may not take this course.

510

Legal Interviewing & Counseling 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This course will provide students a framework for effective client interviewing and counseling, skills which are foundational to successful lawyering. While lawyers must master substantive and procedural law to gain the confidence of their clients, they must be able to exercise effective communication skills in “real time.”  Legal Interviewing and Counseling will help students learn to plan effective interviewing and counseling sessions, to identify and solve problems collaboratively with clients, and to further develop their abilities to effectively communicate difficult legal and factual information. This course seeks to further understanding of a broad range of communication skills, to facilitate client decision making and implementation of solutions, to manage the professional relationship, and to navigate common ethical issues that arise in the context of legal interviewing and counseling. Structured in-class simulation exercises will allow students to develop and practice these skills in real-world contexts . While each of these skills will be developed over the entirety of any lawyer's career, Legal Interviewing & Counseling aims to help students to jumpstart this development and to gain additional tools needed to ensure effective client relationships when they enter practice. Students will be evaluated on their participation in structured, in-class simulation exercises and discussions; video-taped skills exercises done outsides of class; guided self-assessments; guided reviews of other students' simulation exercises; and a final capstone simulation interview and counseling projects. Students will be required to attend class regularly and to participate consistently in all exercises. Students will be assessed on a C/NC basis. 

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.

519

Contract Drafting 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Spring 25
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation
  • Other

Contract Drafting is an upper-level simulation course that teaches basic practical skills by having students work “in role” as lawyers undertaking various drafting tasks in a series of exercises. While the skills taught will be basic, they will also be translatable to more sophisticated contracts. The course will feature lectures, class discussions, and in-class business issue-spotting and drafting exercises, with an emphasis on the exercises. There will be pre-class reading assignments from the text, sometimes supplemented with other outside reading, including various sample contracts. Some exercises will be group projects, and regular peer feedback, along with feedback from the instructor, will be a feature. Grading will be on the basis of written drafting assignments, at least one graded peer-feedback assignment, and class participation.

Students who take Law 519 Contract Drafting may not take Law 522 Contract Drafting: The Next Generation.

521

International Investment Law: The Protection and Financialization of Foreign Investments 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 25
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages

This course explores how these stakeholders derive financial value from international investment law. Since the value of claims depends on their legal merit, the course begins with key jurisdictional and substantive legal principles, which are key to these stakeholders. It then turns to how foreign investors can use international investment law as another tool to protect their investments abroad. The course covers a variety of techniques that investors and their counsel can use to preserve and recover value from international investment law claims, including incorporating in jurisdictions affording treaty rights, securing third-party funding, monetizing claims (such as through the assignment of claims or divestitures), and acquiring insurance policies

522

Parental Rights and Responsibilities 2
  • JD elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Class participation

Parental rights and responsibilities are among the most prominent “culture wars” issues in the United States today. To understand them and the contest between parents and the state over how children are raised, it is necessary to examine the key constitutional decisions in the three areas that have seen the most legal intervention over the years: education, religion, and medicine. In doing so, we learn that this contest isn’t new and fealty to the doctrine isn’t partisan proposition. We also learn how the current iterations of the contest between parents and the state – over race and gender in the curriculum of the public schools, religious exemptions to Covid-related mandates, and gender affirming medical care – simultaneously reflect and press some of the assumptions in the earlier cases. This will be a small discussion course. Reading will be primarily of Supreme Court cases—there are no materials to purchase. Students will be graded based on careful preparation, regular substantive participation, and a final exam.

525

Artificial Intelligence Law and Policy 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Research paper, 30 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

Artificial intelligence is on a tremendous growth trajectory and is being developed, adopted and used for many purposes throughout society.  From a legal and policy perspective, AI presents many interesting and complex issues because the technological developments have greatly outpaced the legal, ethical, and policy developments.  One of the important questions centers on what legal and policy frameworks and practices are appropriate to build an ecosystem of trust that will help ensure citizens and other stakeholders that artificial intelligence will benefit them and is being developed and deployed in an ethical, safe, reliable and responsible manner (the “Legal and Policy Framework Question”).  Policymakers and other stakeholders around the globe are grappling with this Legal and Policy Framework Question.  As the discussions unfold, organizations also are designing their own practices for operationalizing trustworthy or ethical artificial intelligence.

The goal of the seminar is to give students a foundation in the emerging AI laws and policies and insight on the broader process of how laws and policies need to adapt for significant technological changes.  This seminar will explore in detail several approaches currently being considered to answer the Legal and Policy Framework Question, including regulatory approaches, standards, soft law, and self-regulation. As the students study various approaches, they will be asked to consider several sub-questions, such as (a) how the AI legal and policy framework should be calibrated to address risk, (b) the extent to which the framework should be sector specific or apply across industries, (c) which frameworks enable society to capitalize on AI’s benefits and mitigate potential risks, and (d) what is the optimal level of cross-border harmonization and how best to achieve it.   The course also will explore certain other legal issues arising in connection with AI, such antitrust and competition law and intellectual property and proprietary rights matters.

526

Jury Decision Making 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 20+ pages
  • Class participation

This course is intended as an introduction to experimental research, legal theory, and caselaw on jury decision making.  Although the topic overlaps considerably with areas of basic decision making--e.g., the heuristics and biases literature--the focus will be mostly on applied research looking at the decisions of real (or simulated) jurors.

528

Corporate Compliance and Ethics 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation

This seminar merges insights from legal ethics and behavioral ethics to help form an analysis of corporate compliance failures. The seminar will examine the basics of compliance, the roles of different compliance actors, and specific compliance areas, using case studies to explore these issues

531

In House Law Practice 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation

This course explores the substantive and procedural aspects of inhouse law practice. Class sessions often include guest general counsels to survey in-house legal topics, engage with real world challenges, discuss current relevant events, and distill best practices for the role. Students will have team-based interdisciplinary project assignments that draw from topics discussed in the class, reflecting real-world scenarios and providing legal representation experience. Guest general counsels are typically leading practitioners who engage with the class from a variety of perspectives, ranging from Chief Legal Officers of Fortune 50 companies to general counsels who helped grow entrepreneurial startups into household names.

The course is designed for any student interested in inhouse practice – those who wish to work in a law firm or governmental role and interact with inhouse counsel, those who would like to practice inhouse, and those who are interested in exploring different career paths.  It is intended to provide law school students with an understanding of and practical skills for inhouse practice, legal issues unique to that role, and practical issues that face inhouse lawyers. 

20%: Reflection Message Board Posts
Each student will publish five brief message board posts during the semester reflecting upon insights or thoughts of interest from guest general counsel presentations.

30%: Memo
Student assume the role of attorney with an inhouse legal department and prepare a 5-page memo responding to a fact pattern and scenario; the memo provides an opportunity to demonstrate legal analysis and practical approaches to the issues.  They will also record and upload a five-minute presentation of their memo's findings to the "general counsel" of the company.

40%: Project
Halfway through the semester, students divide into teams of 4 persons. Each team will receive a fact pattern for a significant business-level-event problem which they will analyze and present their findings, legal analysis and recommendation to the CEO and board of directors for said company.

10%: Class Engagement

No prerequisites are necessary.

533

Government Enforcement and Global Corporate Compliance 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

Students will learn about white collar criminal law principles, today’s climate of government enforcement against corporate wrongdoing and the important role that compliance programs can play in preventing, detecting and resolving those compliance issues.  The course will involve substantive lectures and classroom exercises.  The Foreign Corruption Practices Act (FCPA) will be utilized as the substantive basis to discuss the various principles and conduct the practice simulations. The FCPA will also help demonstrate the global nature of white collar and compliance and the legal issues multi-national corporations face. 

Students will engage in classroom exercises to develop skills frequently used in practice – analysis, drafting materials, preparing for and conducting interviews, and developing a work plan.  Students will learn to advise a client on dealing with a government enforcement action, conduct a global internal investigation, and build a corporate compliance program.  This learning combination of substantive lectures and doing simulation exercises regarding “real world” issues will provide students with practical skills in an area that is in high demand for lawyers.

535

Corporations and American Democracy 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s) option, 10-15 pages

Lawyers, scholars, business executives, and ordinary people have consistently asked a fundamental question: what is the role of the corporation in society? One way of answering this question is to look to corporate law and consider corporate purpose and its accompanying debates. Yet another way of answering this question involves debates around corporate personhood, especially as they arise in the context of corporate constitutional rights. At bottom, we are continually confronted with the same questions: What rights does the corporation have? How should government regulate the corporation and the power it wields? What is the role of the corporation in American democracy specifically? What does it mean for corporations to engage in social and political activism? Should they do so at all? This course will explore these questions from both a public law and private law perspective, including the ways in which corporate governance can respond to some of these questions. In doing so, this course will bridge a gap between constitutional law and corporate law by focusing on where the doctrines intersect. Students will analyze case law, scholarly literature, and selected popular and practitioner-focused readings in this space.

Throughout this course, there are two overarching questions that we will consider: (1) What should corporate decisionmakers be mindful of when it comes to corporate social and political activity, including the assertion of corporate constitutional rights? and (2) What does the assertion of corporate constitutional rights mean for American democracy and its survival?

The course will be taught as a two-hour weekly seminar, focused on class discussion of assigned readings. Students will complete five three-page response papers and one final fifteen page paper. For an additional credit, students may also fulfill their SRWP requirement with this seminar with my permission and receive an additional credit that counts as an independent study on a credit/no-credit basis.

537

Human Rights Advocacy 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

This course critically assesses the field of human rights advocacy, its institutions, strategies, and key actors. It explores how domestic, regional, and global human rights agendas are set using international law frameworks; the ethical and accountability dilemmas that arise in human rights advocacy; and human rights advocacy concerning a range of actors, including governments, international institutions, and private actors. It addresses the role of human rights in social movements, including in addressing systemic racism, as well as the development of transnational human rights networks. It also considers issues such as how to resolve purported hierarchies and conflicts between internationally-guaranteed rights, efforts to decolonize the practice of human rights, and the ways in which populist and other forces also invoke human rights to further particular agendas. Drawing on case studies within the United States and abroad, it will examine core human rights advocacy tactics, such as fact-finding, litigation, standard-setting, indicators, and reporting, and consider the role of new technologies in human rights advocacy. In examining the global normative framework for human rights, this course focuses on how local, regional, and international struggles draw on, and adapt, the norms and tactics of human rights to achieve their objectives. Evaluation will be based on class participation and a final paper.

This class is a pre-requisite or corequisite for Law 437 International Human Rights Clinic.

538

Transitional Justice 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) writing, option
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 20+ pages

This 2-credit seminar will provide an introduction to the field of “transitional justice,” which refers to a broad range of processes and mechanisms that have been developed to respond to major violations of human rights that often occur during armed conflicts, under the rule of authoritarian regimes, or in divided societies where a dominant ethnic, racial, or religious group has systematically persecuted members of a minority or other marginalized group. Transitional justice seeks to achieve one or more of the following objectives depending on the context: providing redress for victims and accountability for perpetrators through judicial or non-judicial mechanisms (while recognizing that these are not binary categories and the same person can be both a victim and a perpetrator), repairing damaged relationships between offenders and victims (also known as “restorative justice”), promoting peaceful coexistence between previously adversarial groups, truth-telling and memorialization of the historical record of human rights violations, and legal or political reforms that address the root causes of the conflict in order to prevent its recurrence in the future. The seminar will also explore the importance of different types of data or evidence both for documenting international crimes and other forms of injustice and harm that transitional justice processes seek to address, and for empirically evaluating the effectiveness of peacebuilding programs that have been implemented in Iraq, Chile, and other contexts.

The seminar will also engage with important critiques and limitations of the field of transitional justice, which has historically been dominated by scholars and institutions from the Global North, and by Eurocentric concepts of justice that are not necessarily universal. Contemporary transitional justice efforts have focused disproportionately on what are often described as “tribal,” “ethnic,” and “sectarian” conflicts in the Middle East and Africa, but have paid considerably less attention to the enduring legacies of colonial and white supremacist violence in North America. Transitional justice also tends to prioritize accountability for some forms of violence, conflict, and crime over others. For example, compensation is often provided for victims of lethal violence (e.g., “condolence” payments made by the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan to family members of civilians killed in airstrikes) but not for other forms of non-lethal harm such as sexual violence. Students will come away from the seminar with a strong understanding of the primary tools and mechanisms for transitional justice (e.g., trials, truth and reconciliation commissions, compensation), key historical case studies including Iraq, Rwanda, and the United States, and important debates and critiques that have shaped the field.

Students can choose one of three options to fulfill the course requirements: 

  • A research paper of approximately 20-25 pages* 
  • 5 short response papers on weekly readings (approximately 1,500 words each)
  • POLSCI or LAW: 1 research design proposal for an original research project using any empirical methods (e.g., qualitative, quantitative, archival) including draft Institutional Review Board (IRB) protocol (required for research with human subjects such as interviews, surveys, or participant observation)

*LAW students will have an option to satisfy the JD Upper Level Writing Requirement through extension of the paper to 30 pages. 

539

Ethics in Action 2
  • JD elective
  • JD ethics
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23

The class will function as an ethics committee considering current issues and ethics inquiries based upon actual disputes. The participants, working in small groups, will draft detailed ethics opinions that the full class will consider, revise, and the like.

542

AI and Criminal Justice 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages
  • Oral presentation

Artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly is used to make important decisions that affect individuals and society. A particularly pressing area of concern has been in criminal cases, in which a person’s life, liberty, and public safety can be at stake. In the United States and globally, despite concerns that technology may deepen pre-existing racial disparities and overreliance on incarceration, black box AI has proliferated in areas such as: DNA mixture interpretation; facial recognition; recidivism risk assessments; and predictive policing.

This two-credit seminar will include academic work regarding several of those types of uses of AI in criminal justice, as well as some of the early judicial opinions ruling on such evidence. We will read leading work on the rules of evidence implicated by AI, what constitutional criminal procedure rules are at stake, and we will engage with how these technologies work and are evolving. We will also attend, and comment on, a portion of a timely judicial conference on expert evidence on Friday, Jan. 26, and a longer set of discussions with EU experts on AI on Saturday, January 27.

There are no prerequisites, but a course in evidence or in criminal procedure would be helpful. Students will write a 3-5 page response paper to the portion of the conference that they attend and a 20- page research and policy paper, with presentations in class on each student’s work at the end of the semester.

549

Corporate Counseling and Communication 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

The goal of this class is for students to develop skills working with sophisticated clients on complex issues that lack easy answers and to simulate the practice of law in a way that a young associate is likely to experience it whether at a large law firm or in a small legal office. The primary focus is interviewing and counseling business clients and drafting client-related communications.

The first part of the class is split into five two-week segments. In the first week of each segment, the class will study a legal issue and prepare to interview the client. Then, one student interviews the client about a simulated scenario in a conference call as the rest of the class observes.  After the call, the class assesses the legal issues and strategies for responding. Students must then decide what advice to give.

In the second week of each segment, the class evaluates potential responses and prepares to advise the client. Another student counsels the client as the class observes. The focus of the class is on client communications, legal strategy, and developing professional skills, and students will gain exposure to the types of issues commonly faced by corporate counsel, including contract negotiations and potential claims.

Students will also practice working in a law office environment by sending emails to the professor that simulate reports to a supervising attorney and by submitting timesheets showing work they have completed. The final three weeks focus on a 15-page paper that will require independent research on a complex legal topic assigned by the professor. Through these exercises, students will learn to speak confidently with experienced business executives, collect information efficiently from busy professionals, and deliver practical, business-oriented legal advice orally and in writing.

552

Law and Governance in China 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) writing
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Research and/or analytical paper
  • Class participation

China’s development without a western-style rule of law raises numerous questions. Does law matter in China? If yes, how does it work? What roles has law played in China’s economic, social and political development? This seminar covers both law on the books and law in action, emphasizes change and development in understanding law and governance, and takes China as a comparative case study to deepen our understanding of the fundamental nature of legal institutions. This seminar also features guest speakers from Yale, Princeton, Harvard, and other institutions. 

Evaluation: class participation: 30%, students should read assigned readings in advance and be prepared to be on call every week; paper(s): 70%. Students can choose to write five response papers (four pages each) or a research paper (20 pages minimum). The instructor keeps the discretion of approving or not approving a research paper proposal. Research papers are also qualified to satisfy JD students’ writing requirements (30 pages minimum), if they so choose.

555

Law and Financial Anxiety 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This course identifies and explores aspects of the American legal system that have effects – both negative and positive – on the ability of people and society to prevent the onset of financial anxiety and economic insecurity.   Set in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic but with analogues in laws that were enacted and implemented in other contexts,  the class will explore the meaning of financial anxiety and economic insecurity and discuss why they matter.  The class will then explore various laws. and their implementation by federal and state agencies, as relevant to financial anxiety and economic insecurity.   Subjects that bear upon financial anxiety that will be explored through the prism of law include housing finance, student loan finance, personal information security and climate security. The legislative response to the COVID-19 pandemic, in particular the CARES Act, will be analyzed in relation to how laws regarding financial anxiety and economic insecurity have been crafted by Congress in the last decade as a response to crises such as the financial and foreclosure crisis of 2008,   With these comparative laws and financial contexts, the class will engage in discussions about the extent to which the American legal system is equipped to handle the challenges of dealing with financial anxiety in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.  We will discuss financial anxiety in the larger context of consumer debt, agency and regulatory action, and legislative responsiveness as well as differential impacts related to debt, race and gender. The readings will come from law and non-law sources. The class will discuss issues relevant to the legal system and the study of business law and finance generally, including the use of data to illuminate legal problems, the role of lawyers and business actors, and the nature of modern policymaking.

Due to substantive overlap in material, students may not concurrently enroll in Law 288: Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt and Law 586: Current Debates in Bankruptcy Law. However, if you've taken one of the courses in a previous semester and wish to take the other, that will be permitted. Students may not enroll in both Law 288: Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt and Law 555: Law and Financial Anxiety without instructor permission. 

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.

557

Space Law / Law of Mars 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

This course will address the past, present and future of space law – from its origins five decades ago, to the current era of explosive growth in spacefaring, to potential future human settlements on Mars and other planets. How well does current space law govern this expanding arena, and what kinds of new governance regimes are needed? The Outer Space Treaty (OST) was signed in 1967 when space exploration was just beginning and focused on the Cold War rivalry between the US and USSR. Today, 114 states are parties to the OST (with smaller numbers having signed its related accords on registration, liability, and other topics), and space activities are booming. Missions to the Moon have now been undertaken by the US, Russia, EU, China, India, and Israel, and missions to Mars by the US, EU, China, and the UAE. The US and Japan have each excavated materials from asteroids and brought samples back to Earth. In 2022, the US and EU launched DART, the first ever asteroid deflection test. Thousands of satellites are now orbiting the Earth, with many more to be added soon – for scientific, navigation, weather, military, intelligence, communications and commercial uses – including many operated by private actors such as SpaceX/Starlink and Amazon/Blue Origin. Non-state actors are developing their own terms for space rules. New space law is being developed, such as the Artemis Accords (2020; signed by 29 countries as of 2023), and the US statute on space resource ownership (2015). States and private actors are mulling plans to settle human communities on the Moon and Mars. Is the OST still adequate? What new approaches are needed?

We will investigate what current laws say about these efforts, and what will or should be the legal rules and norms for future missions and settlements off the Earth. Among the challenges for space law today are: reducing dangerous space debris in Earth orbit, and environmental impacts of launches; defining property rights to space resources, and liability for harm, thus motivating investment while avoiding resource depletion and ensuring equitable access; managing international space relations, space-based energy systems, climate engineering, and avoiding war in space; defending against large asteroid collisions and space weather; protecting against harmful contamination of the Earth and of other planets; considering whether to terraform other planets; and charting the legal rules for potential human settlements on the Moon, Mars, or other off-Earth locations (including laws for accidents, crimes, health, environment, marriage, divorce, citizenship, etc.). Envisioning and debating future space law off-Earth may also offer a useful lens for reforming laws on Earth today. And we will discuss who should decide these laws – e.g., each government that sends settlers, or each private company, or an international agreement, or the settlers themselves in their new home.

Students will write short and medium length papers (no exam). Grad/prof students outside the Law School may enroll if ‘space’ allows. No prerequisites.

558

Foreign Anti-Bribery Law 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing option with additional credit
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

Corruption is one of the major factors inhibiting economic development and undermining governmental legitimacy.  Developed governments generally enforce rules prohibiting domestic corruption, but have historically been less concerned with (and even encouraging of) foreign government corruption.  The United States passage of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977, which prohibits covered entities from bribing foreign officials, represents a major shift in this policy.  In the last fifteen years, most other major economies and economic institutions (the IMF, the World Bank) have followed suit, although enforcement has been inconsistent.  This seminar will examine the origins and evolution of this effort to regulate firms' relationships with foreign government officials.  The seminar explores the history, economics, and policy behind anti-corruption efforts and the major challenges ahead.  The seminar will engage academic articles that address the economic effects of corruption, the politics of anti-corruption enforcement, the variation in current anti-bribery agreements (the UN Convention Against Corruption and the OECD Anti-Bribery Convention), and influence of these rules on foreign investment and trade.  The seminar is designed to be very participatory, with students leading discussion. 

Students will be evaluated on a series of critique papers, leading a class discussion, and class participation. If students wish to write a paper on a topic related to the course materials, they may request the opportunity to complete an additional  two credit independent study.  A final paper cannot replace the critique papers.

NOTE: An additional 2 credits are available for students who wish to write a longer paper in order to satisfy the JD or JD/LLM Upper-Level Writing Requirement. Students wishing to take this option should enroll in Law 558W Foreign Anti-Bribery Writing Credit. These credits will count towards the Independent Study Research Credit Limit (Rule 3-12) *LAW 558W MUST be added no later than 7thweek of class.*

558W

Foreign Anti-Bribery Law, Independent Study 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Add on credit

While enrolled in Law 558 Foreign Anti-Bribery Law, students have the option to take 2 additional credits in order to satisfy the JD or JD/LLM Writing Requirement. These credits will count towards the Independent Study Research Credit Limit (Rule 3-12). This section will meet in-person on schedule to be determined. The instructor will meet online with any student who prefers that. Students will be placed in groups of 2 or 3 students for a writing group. The instructor will meet with each writing group separately. *LAW 558W MUST be added no later than 4th week of class.*

561

Tax Policy 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reaction Papers
  • Class participation

This two-credit seminar will feature presentations (eight in total) of works-in-progress on a wide range of tax policy topics, by leading tax academics from law schools around the country. Although this is a two-credit seminar, it is scheduled for three hours per week on the weeks in which it meets. The first meeting will be February 6. Students will write reaction papers (of approximately three double-spaced pages) for seven of the eight works-in-progress. (Each student can choose which week not to write a reaction paper.) Grades will be based on the reaction papers and on contributions to the seminar discussions.

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.

563

Corporate Restructuring and Chapter 11 Bankruptcy - In Practice 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Simulated Writing, Transactional
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This experiential learning course is designed to expose students to the practical, “on-the-ground,” and “real world” skills needed to advise clients in complex and fast-paced corporate restructuring and Chapter 11 business reorganization matters, and to develop an introductory working knowledge of key issues and topics often presented in modern-day restructuring practice. The course will involve several substantive lectures, thoughtfully selected reading assignments to be discussed in depth during class sessions, simulations in which students take on different role-play exercises involving a distressed company and its stakeholders, preparation of written strategy memoranda as part of the simulation exercises, and guidance and constructive feedback from the course instructors. Students will also hear from prominent guest speakers who will provide practical insights and observations from their careers in the restructuring industry. 

 

566

International Environmental Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 24
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 20+ pages
  • Class participation

This class explores international environmental law, one of the fastest growing fields of international cooperation. In 1972, there were only a smattering of international environmental treaties. Today, hundreds of agreements have been negotiated, covering such diverse topics as acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, climate change, protection of biological diversity, desertification, and transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and chemicals.

This course will provide a general introduction to the basic concepts and mechanisms of international environmental law. The overarching question we will examine is: What role can law play in addressing international environmental problems? More specifically, we will ask:

  • Why do states cooperate in developing international environmental norms? What factors promote or hinder cooperation?
  • What legal mechanisms or approaches facilitate the development of international environmental standards?
  • What role do science and expertise play in international environmental cooperation?
  • What types of international environmental standards are most effective? How do we evaluate effectiveness?
  • What incentives do states have to comply with international environmental standards? What disincentives?

The course will be structured in roughly two parts.  In the first part of the course, we will discuss the background, history, and political economy of international environmental law, as well as some of the main principles of international environmental law.  In the second part of the course, we will examine in detail a number of environmental treaties—from areas such as ozone protection, climate change, marine pollution, fisheries protection, and biodiversity—in an effort to understand how international environmental law works, and doesn’t.  Students will be expected to participate in class discussions and write a 20+ page research paper on a topic of their choice. 

570

Criminology and Criminal Procedure 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Class participation

In this seminar, we will read social science research to examine the empirical assumptions of rules, systems, and practices of criminal law and procedure. We will cover a series of empirical questions, which may include: (1) Does stop and frisk policing reduce crime? (2) Can body cameras change police behavior? (3) Does the death penalty deter? (4) Are there alternatives to incarceration that can keep us safe? (5) Is there racial disparity in sentencing, and if there is, what can we do about it? (6) What is the right age of majority to separate the juvenile and adult justice systems?

While some background in social science and statistics may be helpful, it is not a requirement for the course. Students will be evaluated based on class participation and a series of reaction papers. Students will also be asked to lead discussion of some of the readings.

571

Future of Contracts 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Simulated Writing, Transactional
  • Practical exercises

What does it take to thrive as a transactional attorney today and tomorrow? Future of Contracts aims to expose students to current issues in the digital transformation of legal services—e.g. harnessing data, facilitating operations and project management with design and technology, applying artificial intelligence to key functions, etc.—in order to help our approaches to transactional law and contracts practice be “future friendly.”

There is no question that a sea change is underway and that new are key forces for change. Legal professionals are increasingly turning to accessible and impactful technologies that help them achieve better outcomes and offer higher value through data-driven analytics and insights, higher efficiency and productivity, and greater and more equitable access. Students interested in preparing for tomorrow should be exposed to this world as much as possible.

With guest experts and current materials, the focus of all deliverables will be on realistic experiences of being a transactional attorney today and tomorrow. Graded work product will include a series of individual and team assessments—of legal tech companies, modern business challenges, and opportunities for greater access to justice.

Class will meet on a regular schedule except that one class will be canceled in order for students to take part in the Duke Center on Law & Technology’s Future of Contracts Design Derby. That will likely happen on Friday 23 February 2024. If registering, please calendar that date. (see story from 2023 Future of Contract Design Derby: https://law.duke.edu/news/students-seven-law-schools-participate-2023-future-contracts-design-derby/)

No textbook required.

573

Shaping Law And Policy: Tools And Trends Of Health Care Advocacy 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages
  • Class participation

This seminar will examine how legal advocacy shapes law and public policy at the federal level, with an evolutionary focus on the strategic use of litigation and regulation opportunities to develop various legal doctrines. It will draw upon case histories of public interest litigation, administrative law advocacy, legislative development, and popular opinion strategies. Each weekly seminar will focus on one or two legal concepts that resonate beyond health law alone but have been developed and adapted by the various tools of health care advocacy. It will trace progression from an initial foundational case to more contemporary echoes in litigation and regulation. Topics will include the commerce power and federal mandates, standing, severability, statutory interpretation, federalism, antitrust application to health care professions, judicial review of administrative practices and policies, waivers and administrative discretion, public health mandates, ERISA, information transparency, religious freedom, and the power of the purse. Our class will examine how attorneys and their allies can play either offense or defense, or even switch roles, as the stages of policy debates shift. It will include an introduction to a host of contemporary issues in health law and policy that carry broader lessons for other advocacy efforts. The seminar will provide a balanced representation of competing viewpoints while showing how respective sides can engage in various regulatory and litigation activities to advance, negate, or alter the status quo. Study of the diverse and often-shifting legal problems encountered by a single industry, particularly one as important and complex as health care, may appeal to students generally interested in public policy and in law and economics, not just health care, as well as those interested in sharpening their skills in legal advocacy through involvement in litigation and administrative rulemaking. Relatively early selection of potential paper topics is advised.

576

Agency Law in a Changing Economy 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM NY Bar
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

Agency law encompasses the legal consequences of consensual relationships in which one person (the “principal”) manifests assent that another person (the “agent”) shall, subject to the principal’s right of control, have power to affect the principal’s legal relations through the agent’s acts and on the principal’s behalf. As the principal’s representative, an agent owes fiduciary duties to the principal. Agency doctrine applies to a wide range of relationships in which one person has legally-consequential power to represent another, populating the category, “agent,” with a variety of exemplars: lawyers, brokers in securities and other markets, officers of corporations and other legal entities, talent and literary agents, auction houses, and more. Usually, agency relationships contemplate three distinct persons: agent, principal, and third parties with whom the agent interacts, with legal consequences for all three. Agency law also governs the relationship between a principal and its agents, including its employees. The pervasiveness of agency means that its implications remain relevant despite changes in business structures and economies more generally.  This seminar covers the legal doctrines that make agency a distinct subject with in the law, in particular those differentiating agency from general contract and tort law. It also covers a number of contemporary examples in which agency doctrine may—or may not—apply with significant consequences. These may include the status of Uber drivers and other actors who perform services via platforms; the duties of commodities brokers, including merchants in financial derivatives products; the consequences of imputing an agent’s knowledge to the principal; agency as a vehicle for the imposition of vicarious liability; and the consequences for the agent and third party when a principal is undisclosed, unidentified, or undetermined.

The seminar will meet weekly with assigned readings. Each student will write a research paper on a topic to be chosen with the instructor’s consent and will make brief presentations to the seminar as work on the paper proceeds

577

Emerging Issues in Sports and the Law 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

The course will examine the regulation of NCAA athletics and the enforcement of NCAA rules. It will examine in detail several high profile NCAA cases including those involving Penn State, Miami and UNC-Chapel Hill.

580

Law and Social Science Colloquium 2
  • JD elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing

This research seminar will involve discussing some of the latest research at the intersection of the fields of law and social science. Over the semester, we will host outside speakers presenting cutting-edge interdisciplinary work involving a variety of methods, including quantitative, qualitative, and experimental.  Topics will cover both public and private law subjects.  We will read introductory material to better understand the relevant social science methods. Students will be asked to prepare, in advance, short and critical reaction papers of the speakers’ work, including both the methodology and contributions of the research.  The requirements for the class are completion of the reaction papers and active participation in the seminar discussions. There will be one class meeting each week. On dates that speakers are invited, the class will meet at lunch.

580x

Law & Economics Colloquium 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation

This research seminar will involve discussing some of the latest research at the intersection of the fields of law and economics. The research papers will deal with a wide variety of topics, depending on the speaker’s interests, such as the law and economics of contract law, corporate law, intellectual property, tax, constitutional law, or legislation. We will invite speakers who are doing some of the most cutting-edge interdisciplinary work in law to present their ongoing work to the seminar. Students will be asked to prepare, in advance, short reaction papers to the speakers’ work. The requirements for the class are completion of the reaction papers and active participation in the debates over the papers being presented. There will be one class meeting each week.

581

Blockchain, Fintech Law and Policy 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

The Internet, the increased power of computing and new technology are driving the decentralization of all aspects of the global economy, including financial services. Today, we can surf the Internet, download apps, listen to music, shop, send money to friends and family, manage our financial accounts, and buy bitcoin – all from our smartphones.

For decades, banks had been one-stop shops for financial services. Financial technology firms (fintechs), leveraging the sharing of personal customer bank account data, have quickly emerged to unbundle aspects of financial services and rebundle them on platforms. The pace of platformization has picked up since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008, yet financial laws and regulations have not kept pace. Data protection laws were passed in the 1970s long before the advent of fintech services and products, and customer liability protections do not fully extend to nonbank-provided mobile payment transactions.

Meanwhile, money is making a leap in evolution. From commodity-based currencies to fiat-based currencies that support commercial bank money and mobile payments, we now see an emergence in cryptocurrencies beginning with Bitcoin launched in 2009. Questions about whether central banks should issue their own form of digital currency became more pressing when Facebook announced its plans in 2020 to issue a digital currency: Libra. Now central banks around the world are exploring issuing central bank digital currencies or CBDCs. These developments raise important questions of how best to design CBDCs and what kinds of personal data can be collected on users transacting in CBDCs.

New technologies such as blockchain are driving further innovation in financial services. After the advent of native cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum with high price volatility, stablecoins were developed with the goal of being more “stable”. However, it is uncertain under US laws or regulations if these digital assets are commodities, securities, or currency. These blockchain technologies are driving decentralization of financial services, and perhaps the largest legal and policy question of all is how should decentralized finance, or DeFi, fits in our current framework of laws and regulations.

This course aims to provide you with an understanding of legal and policy issues raised by tech-driven financial innovation. You will learn about the critical legal, regulatory, and policy issues associated with cryptocurrencies, initial coin offerings, online lending, new payments technologies, and financial account aggregators. In addition, you will learn how regulatory agencies in the U.S. are continually adjusting to the emergence of new financial technologies.

This course will be delivered online.  Students will be assessed on class participation and a 25-30 page research paper. This paper may not be used to satisfy the JD SRWP requirement without permission.  The paper will satisfy the LLM writing requirement.

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.

586

Current Debates in Bankruptcy Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Is bankruptcy broken?  For some years, many academics and practitioners have argued that the nation's business and consumer bankruptcy systems are outdated or otherwise not fit for their intended purpose.  The course will examine selected topics in bankruptcy law relating to this theme (but focusing most heavily on chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code).  Key reading materials will include recent major reports proposing reforms to bankruptcy law, as well as excerpts from the scholarship and leading judicial decisions.  We will consider questions including: what is bankruptcy for? Is it simply a procedural remedy for enforcing substantive rights that exist independent of the bankruptcy case, or an opportunity more fairly to redistribute assets (or losses)? Is bankruptcy special?  Should be Bankruptcy Code be read like any other statute, or do we need special principles for bankruptcy law, and broad equitable powers for bankruptcy courts, to encourage businesses and consumers to reorganize?  We will use case studies like the Purdue Pharma opioid-crisis bankruptcy to assess this.  In the final, consumer bankruptcy component of the course, we will grapple with the reality that most consumer reorganizations are unsuccessful and consider whether the current system strikes the appropriate balance between debtors’ rights and creditors’ protection. 

We will begin each topic by covering the relevant features of bankruptcy law, and you do not need to have taken a bankruptcy class to take this seminar. The objective of the seminar is to provide insight and into and allow for debate of bankruptcy theory and policy; in the process, we will consider the extent to which abstract theories of bankruptcy hold up in the real world, and the topics we cover will include issues of pressing interest to current bankruptcy practitioners. 

Students will be required to participate in class discussions. Students may complete either a series of reflection papers examining the reading materials and topics discussed, or one longer 25-30 page paper designed to satisfy the SRWP. 

Due to substantive overlap in material, students may not concurrently enroll in Law 288: Consumer Bankruptcy & Debt and Law 586: Current Debates in Bankruptcy Law. However, if you've taken one of the courses in a previous semester and wish to take the other, that will be permitted. 

588

Investigating and Prosecuting National Security Cases 2
  • JD SRWP with add-on credit
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing option with additional credit
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

National security cases present unique challenges to prosecutors and defense attorneys. From the outset of an investigation, and before charges are brought, prosecutors and investigators must take into account a number of considerations, including coordination with the intelligence community and potential conflicts that may arise between law enforcement and intelligence gathering. After a case is charged, such cases frequently present other challenges, such as complying with discovery obligations while protecting classified information and obtaining testimony from foreign witnesses who may be beyond the reach of the U.S. government. This course will provide an in-depth examination of the unique issues that lawyers face in national security prosecutions and the substantive and procedural tools used to navigate those issues.  We will also examine the advantages and limitations of civilian prosecutions and consider the effectiveness of current procedures and criminal statutes in addressing modern national security threats.  An emphasis will be placed on case-specific examples and hypotheticals, drawing in part on the instructor’s experience and pending public cases.  The course will culminate in a simulation in which students are presented with a rapidly unfolding national security incident in which they are asked to address various hypotheticals at different stages of the case.

Students will be expected to complete a final paper of 10-15 pages in length on a topic approved by the instructor. JD or LLM students who wish to use the paper to satisfy the substantial writing requirement of their degree should enroll in a 1 credit independent study with Professor Stansbury and will be expected to write a final paper of 25-30 pages in length. The Independent Study will be graded on a credit/no-credit basis.

589

Legislative Advocacy 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Group project(s)
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This course is designed to introduce students to the state legislative process and prepare them to be competent, thoughtful advocates on behalf of community groups and coalitions. Through simulation activities, students will have multiple opportunities to learn how to engage in effective legislative and policy advocacy, including drafting legislative language, analyzing bills, creating advocacy materials, communicating with key stakeholders, and presenting testimony before a legislative body. Students will explore the legal and ethical dimensions of legislative advocacy and examine the different roles that lawyers can play in effecting change.

During the semester, students will take on the role of legislative advocate on behalf of a community group or coalition. They will follow the development of a piece of legislation from the idea phase through a public hearing. This process includes: (1) understanding a bill from the perspective of a community group/coalition; (2) defining the problem that may be solved (or created) by this bill’s passage; (3) drafting and re-drafting legislative language to strengthen and/or change the bill; (4) drafting a “backgrounder” for legislators and the general public; and (5) developing and presenting arguments in support of the bill. 

Students will work in teams of three or four to represent the interests of a simulated community group or coalition – their “client” – throughout the legislative process. Each student team’s client will represent a different perspective on the proposed bill. Class sessions will break down each procedural component and provide students with multiple opportunities to develop and practice their legislative advocacy skills simulated activities, written assignments, and reflections. Students will receive contemporaneous and written feedback from their professor and peers; students also will engage in regular self-assessment.

This course is open to 2L and 3L JD students. LLM students may enroll with permission of the instructor.

590

Risk Regulation in the US, Europe and Beyond 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Faced with myriad health, safety, environmental, security and financial risks, how should societies respond?  This course studies the regulation of a wide array of risks, such as disease, food, drugs, medical care, biotechnology, chemicals, automobiles, air travel, drinking water, air pollution, energy, climate change, finance, violence, terrorism, emerging technologies, and extreme catastrophic risks. (Students may propose to research other risks as well.)

Across these diverse contexts, the course focuses on how regulatory institutions deal with the challenges of risk assessment (technical expertise), risk perceptions (public concerns and values), priority-setting (which risks should be regulated most), risk management (including the debates over "precaution" versus benefit-cost analysis, and risk-risk tradeoffs such as countervailing harms and co-benefits), and ongoing evaluation and updating.  It examines the rules and institutions for risk regulation, including the roles of legislative, executive/administrative, and judicial functions; the challenge of fragmentation and integration; the roles of oversight bodies (such as judicial review by courts, and executive review by US OMB/OIRA and the EU RSB); and the potential for international regulatory cooperation.

The course examines these issues through a comparative approach to risk regulation in the United States, Europe, and beyond (especially those countries of interest to the students in the course each year).  It examines the divergence, convergence, and exchange of ideas across regulatory systems; the causes of these patterns; the consequences of regulatory choices; and how regulatory systems can learn to do better.

This is a research seminar, in which students discuss and debate in class, while developing their own research.  We may also have some guest speakers.  Students' responsibilities in this course include active participation in class discussions, and writing a substantial research paper.  Students’ papers may take several approaches, such as analyzing a specific risk regulation; comparing regulation across countries; analyzing proposals to improve the regulatory system; or other related topics.

This course is Law 590, cross-listed as Environ 733.01 and PubPol 891.01.  Graduate and professional students from outside the Law School should enroll via those Environ and PubPol course numbers, and may contact the Nicholas School registrar, Erika Lovelace, e.love@duke.edu, or the Sanford School registrar, Anita Lyon, anita.lyon@duke.edu, with any questions about enrollment.  (The Law School does not use “permission numbers.”)

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.

594

Mergers & Acquisitions in the Real World: Practical Knowledge and Skills for an M&A Lawyer 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM NVE Cert
  • IntlLLM experiential
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Fall 24
  • Group project(s)
  • Oral presentation
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This seminar is designed to provide students with a core foundation of practical knowledge and skills to succeed as an M&A lawyer. The course will involve interactive discussions focused on relevant, real-world M&A topics, a negotiation simulation, and hands-on assignments designed to mirror the types of things young M&A lawyers will be asked to do.

599

Race, Bioethics and the Law 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s) option, 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

Much of the mainstream dialogue regarding medicine, technological advances, and healthcare has relied on the premise of fairness and equality. However, this is not the entire story. Many of the advancements we take for granted were produced at the expense of racially marginalized individuals. Though these challenges can feel insurmountable, we have the tools to develop solutions. The goal of this course is to teach students the shared history of racism in medicine and to empower them to address these disparities through bioethics and the law. The course will cover historical bioethical incidents that shaped racially marginalized individuals’ relationships with healthcare and science. It will also examine healthcare, bioethics, and the law through the lens of racially marginalized peoples and anti-Blackness in law and policy. Lastly, it will also cover various approaches to integrating anti-racist principles into the practice of law.

636

Food, Agriculture and the Environment: Law & Policy 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

“Food,” “agriculture,” and the “environment” are distinct American mythologies tied to our basic physical needs and imbued with significant cultural meanings. They are also deeply entwined. We all eat three or so times a day, and each of those meals arrived on our table at the very end of a dizzying journey through our national—and increasingly global—food and agriculture system. It’s a system that causes startling environmental harms; think water and air pollution, pesticides, greenhouse gases, non-human animal welfare, deforestation, soil depletion, wetlands destruction, fisheries collapse, and on and on. Yet notions of “agricultural exceptionalism” exempt agriculture from many of our nation’s environmental laws.

Undergirding the system are the people who help put food on our tables. The food and agriculture system depends on immigrants who toil in the field and on slaughterhouse lines even as it romanticizes the Jeffersonian ideal of the solitary yeoman. It co-opts the knowledge of Black, Indigenous and people of color under terms like “sustainable” and “regenerative” without reckoning with land theft, enslavement, or the patterns of discrimination and land loss that persist today.

This course will survey how law and policy created and perpetuate the interrelated social, economic and environmental iniquities of our modern food and agriculture system. More optimistically, we will study how law and policy can address systemic issues and move us toward values of equity and environmental justice, conservation, restoration, community health and economic sustainability. We will pay special attention to the federal farm bill, which is due for reauthorization in 2023.

Course format and expectations: Students will be expected to stay up on all readings, participate in weekly discussion boards, prepare several presentations and written assignments throughout the semester, and engage in the seminar each week. As a final assignment, each student will write a 10-15 page law or policy paper on a topic that they will develop in consultation with the rest of the class and the instructor. There will be an additional, optional opportunity to visit a local farm.

 

640

Independent Study 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • Fall 22
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Spring 24
  • Fall 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages

Per Rule 3-12, the Law School permits students to pursue independent study, approved and supervised by a member of the faculty. For more information, please visit https://law.duke.edu/academics/independentstudies/. With permission only.

 

655

Spanish for Legal Studies 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25

The purpose of the course is to introduce students to Spanish legal concepts and technical language used in the civil law tradition as applied in Latin America. The course seeks to improve the Spanish oral and written communication skills of the students.

The course seeks also to expose students to some of the main issues that may arise in the practice of law dealing with Latin America. Thus, there will be discussion of cultural, historical and political traits of the region in order to provide students with better tools as facilitators of human international relations between English and Spanish speakers. The overall objective of the course is to enrich the possibilities that Spanish as a second language brings to the profession.

Prerequisite: Spanish language skills sufficient to follow a class, participate and understand the written materials. If you have questions about the degree of Spanish required please consult with the instructor before registration.

El objetivo del curso es familiarizar a los estudiantes con los principales conceptos juridicos y lenguaje tecnico que se utiliza en la tradicion del derecho civil en la America de habla castellana. Se busca mejorar las habilidades de comunicacion oral y escrita en el idioma castellano.

El curso busca tambien explorar algunas de las cuestiones principales que se le pueden presentar a un abogado extranjero en su practica con America Latina. Por lo tanto, se hablara de cuestiones culturales, historicas y politicas de America Latina para dar mayores herramientas al los estudiantes como futuros facilitadores de la comunicacion humana para una utilizacion mas enriquecedora de las posibilidades que brinda el castellano como un segundo idioma.

Pre-requisito: Dominio suficiente del idioma castellano para poder seguir una clase, intercambiar opiniones y comprender los materiales. Si tiene preguntas sobre el nivel de dominio del lenguaje necesario, por favor consulte al instructor antes de registrarse.

715

Law and Morality 2
  • JD elective
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

This seminar will introduce students to four interrelated topics at the foundation of law and morality: (1) metaethics, which analyzes the content of moral statements and the nature of moral facts; (2) the structure of morality, namely the debate between “consequentialists” and “deontologists”; (3) the nature of law, specifically whether law in a given legal system is derivable from a rule of recognition, or whether law instead is a synthesis of enacted legal texts and other legal materials with a positivist pedigree and moral principles; and (4) the moral authority of law, namely whether individuals have a conclusive or at least prima facie moral duty to obey the law. Readings will be drawn from foundational texts by H.LA. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, and Shelly Kagan.

717

Comparative Constitutional Design 2
  • JD SRWP
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • 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.

718

Social Choice Theory: Cost-Benefit Analysis and Beyond 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Class participation

Social choice theory is the systematic study of how to combine individual preferences, or some other indicator of individual well-being, into a collective ranking. Although scholars have worried about this problem for centuries, most intellectual progress in social choice theory has occurred in the last century, with Arrow's stunning "impossibility theorem," and the development of the notion of the "social welfare function." This latter construct serves as the foundation for many disciplines within economics (such as optimal tax theory or the economics of climate change). It also provides a rigorous and comprehensive framework for thinking about cost-benefit analysis--currently the dominant policy tool in the U.S. government.

This course will provide an introduction to social choice theory, with a particular focus on the social welfare function and on cost-benefit analysis. In the course of addressing these topics, we will also spend substantial time discussing the philosophical literatures on well-being and on inequality. What is the connection between someone's well-being and her preferences, her happiness, or her realization of various "objective goods"? And--on any conception of well-being--how should we structure policy choice to take account of the distribution of individual welfare? Addressing these questions is essential for thinking clearly about collective choice and, in particular, social welfare functions and cost-benefit analysis.

The book Measuring Social Welfare: An Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2019) will serve as the main text for the course, with additional readings from philosophy, economics, and law.  The course does not require advanced mathematics. However, students should not be "math phobic". The readings and our discussion will use some mathematical notation to communicate key ideas--as does, of course, any economics text on cost-benefit analysis--and students should not be afraid of seeing this notation. Students should also be prepared to engage in philosophical discussion.

The course will be taught as a 2-hour weekly seminar. Students will be asked to do the reading for each seminar; to write short (1 page) reaction papers each week; and to participate in class discussion. Students will also write a 10-page final analytical (not research) paper.  This final paper can either be (a) a critical discussion of one or more chapters from Measuring Social Welfare, or (b) a critical discussion of some other book or article relevant to the topics of the seminar.

732

Topics in Access to Justice 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM writing, option
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation
  • Other

“Access to justice” (sometimes denominated “A2J”) is a multidimensional concept that eludes easy definition. This course will use the term expansively, to capture the ways in which our civil legal system does or does not respond to the legal needs of ordinary people.
This course will examine the structural obstacles that impede access to civil justice as well as contemporary opportunities for reform. Access barriers can have a variety of sources. Barriers can be doctrinal (e.g., the civil right to counsel), practical (e.g., courts’ ability to accommodate non-English-speaking litigants), economic (e.g., the rise of binding arbitration), or political (e.g., limited funding for legal aid offices), and nearly all are multifactorial. Similarly, opportunities for improvement can be found in doctrine, institutional design, community engagement, and technology. Compared to a course on substantive law, our focus will be on the institutional, procedural, and practical dimensions of the access problem.

The course will be divided into roughly three components. In Part I, we will consider theories and doctrines of civil legal access. In Part II, we will consider institutional and procedural features that shape access to our civil legal system, as well as the roles of different actors and constituencies in the civil justice system, including: lawyers and the legal profession; self-represented litigants; community organizations; courts; and non-judicial government institutions. In Part III, we will consider a handful of “pressure points” in access to civil justices—that is, areas of the law where legal needs are especially significant, and where access is especially challenging. Among the areas will consider will be family law, housing law, consumer law and consumer bankruptcy, and immigration law. Solutions and opportunities for change will be discussed throughout all three parts of the course.

Students will be evaluated on the basis of class participation, four response papers and a research proposal.

737

Environmental Litigation 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 25
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

During the past 40 years, environmental litigation in the federal courts of the United States has played an important role in shaping our quality of life.  Federal statutes designed to improve air and water quality, manage waste, protect species, and establish rules for the management of ocean resources have spawned numerous federal cases – some filed by affected industry, some by the government, and others filed by conservation groups and private citizens.  The resulting precedents affect many aspects of the environment in which we live.

This course introduces students to the progression of a hypothetical environmental case in United States federal courts.  The course begins with the appearance of a potential client, addresses several considerations relevant to a decision whether to file a complaint, examines discovery planning and execution, studies the preparation of dispositive motions, and concludes with an overview of the appeal process.  The course assumes that the hypothetical case will be decided on motions for summary judgment or for injunctive relief.  Therefore, class discussions focus on the manner in which such a case unfolds, with particular attention to developing both the facts and the theory of the case, framing pleadings, and designing and managing discovery.  The course explores these subjects from the perspective of counsel for defendants as well as for plaintiffs.  Students should emerge from the course better equipped to handle various practical aspects of litigation.

Only Law students may take this course for a grade.  Non-Law students may be added as auditors if space remains available after drop add.

738

Financial Law and Regulation: Practitioner's Perspective 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation

Every aspect of financial law and regulation depends heavily on its daily practice.  The environment changes all the time, and the scope of regulatory discretion, at every level of government (state, federal and international) is so large that successful practitioners must understand the current trends in regulatory thinking and practice.  This course will allow students to dive deep into a different aspect of modern financial regulation every week by bringing in prominent alumni practitioners who are experts in specific areas of the field.

The course will be structured as follows:

  1. Six 4 hour components, focusing on specific aspects of financial practice according to the expertise of the teacher. Lee Reiners will hold an opening 2 hour class session.
  2. Taught by a series of expert practitioners, who will spend two days at the school. Classes will be held on Thursday and Friday.
  3. The course is a seminar based on a compilation of readings provided during the course.
  4. Students will be graded based upon class participation and six, 1,500-word, writing assignments pertaining to each of the six topics discussed by our guest lecturers.

Likely topics to be covered include:

  • Derivatives regulation
  • High frequency trading
  • FDIC resolution and the insurance fund
  • Volcker Rule and Regulation W
  • Bank capital requirements

741

Climate Change and Financial Markets 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntlLLM Environ Cert
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This course will focus on one of the most important elements in combatting, adapting to and mitigating the impact of climate change, namely the role of finance.  We will review the status of climate change science to gain an understanding of the challenge facing all of us.  Recognition and commitments by governments, including most particularly the United States, China, and Europe, will then be reviewed, before we consider the multiple linkages between finance and climate change, including the adverse impact of cryptocurrency.

Against this introduction the course will then delve into the various dimensions of financial markets and the players involved.  This is important to understand the broad ranging impact and opportunities for addressing climate change.  Once the markets and market participants are understood, the course will review the diverse roles of government agents and regulators, each of whom can have a far-reaching impact in shaping the markets and market behavior.  We will also assess the recognition of the challenge by financial market participants and their actual and potential responses to it.

A particularly thorny area is that of market analytics.  Many market operators claim to be “green,” but at this point the methods for determining the veracity of the claims remain very underdeveloped and often contradictory.  We will consider what has still to be done before we can really evaluate the “green” performance of firms and funds.  We will also face the real challenges that such firms face when trying to adapt.

The course will conclude with an assessment of the overall state of financial markets as one of the most important arenas in the struggle to meet the great challenges posed by climate change.

745

Trade Secrecy: Doctrine, Policy, Frontier Issues 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 23
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This seminar introduces trade secrecy doctrine and examines the most important policy contexts in which trade secrecy are arising today. No background knowledge is required. However, students must be prepared to be quick studies of various areas of technology and law. Of the various U.S. intellectual property regimes, trade secrecy is perhaps the most doctrinally elusive. Historically a common law tort that also borrowed from property and contract, trade secrecy has become codified in state, federal, and international regimes. The codification of trade secrecy doctrine has coincided with increasing recognition that it is often the most important mechanism by which firms protect returns on innovation and/or business investment. Notably, trade secrecy (and secrecy more generally) is becoming increasingly important not only for private firms, but also for national and regional innovation and security strategies. This seminar begins with an introduction to the trade secret doctrinal canon (including a discussion of how trade secrecy intersects with patent, copyright, and data exclusivity protection). It then discusses empirical evidence on uses of trade secrecy. Next, it considers various policy contexts, ranging from cybercrime and data regulation to employment and public administration. The seminar concludes by examining frontier technology areas in which trade secrecy plays a prominent role. These include machine learning and biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

754

IP Transactions 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Class participation

Patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets are the currency of an innovation economy. Each of these forms of intellectual property may be bought and sold, licensed, or used as security. How each is used will depend on the business context; the needs of a start-up company being far different from those of a multinational corporation. This course will focus on intellectual property transactions in various business contexts, including: maximizing value and assessing risks; using intellectual property in financing start-ups; protecting trade secrets; employment issues related to intellectual property; intellectual property licensing; and intellectual property in mergers, acquisitions and bankruptcy.

755

Data Governance and Data Sharing 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 23
  • Research paper option, 25+ pages
  • Class participation

Data often is referred to as the “new oil” or the “new gold,” given its potential to help unlock many economic and social benefits ranging from making industries more innovative and efficient to aiding in drug discovery, combatting climate change, and identifying and addressing social disparities.  The exponential growth of data has enhanced the need to develop robust data governance and data sharing practices, which can implicate a broad range of legal and policy issues, including privacy, cybersecurity, intellectual property, antitrust, corporate, and emerging AI policies.  Since many U.S. organizations collect and process data in multiple countries, data governance and sharing systems often need to factor in the laws of multiple jurisdictions.The goal of the seminar is to give students a foundation in the key legal and policy issues shaping data governance and data sharing practices, and insight on how organizations are operationalizing data governance and data sharing in the quickly evolving legal environment.  The course addresses relevant US laws and policies as well as select international laws and policies in order to help prepare students to address data governance and sharing practices that extend across certain jurisdictions.  To accomplish these learning objectives, the seminar begins with an overview of data governance and a series of classes focusing on legal and policy issues implicated by data governance.  Next, the seminar includes a series of classes focused on data sharing, including emerging laws and policies promoting data sharing and contractual strategies and challenges for implementing data sharing.  Finally, the course will explore how policymakers are turning to certain technology solutions to help address competing legal and policy concerns such as protecting privacy, on the one hand, and promoting data sharing and transparency, on the other.

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.

764

Privacy in a Post-Dobbs World: Sex, Contraception, Abortion and Surveillance 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This two-credit seminar will examine the extent to which the criminalization of abortion in the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization (2022), together with 21st century surveillance, compromises or eliminates the physical, decisional, and informational privacy of women and people who can become pregnant.

We will review the history of the Supreme Court’s contraception and abortion cases and carefully read Dobbs. We will learn about the historical criminalization of abortion and pregnancy outcomes in the US and related surveillance. We will then examine current state laws criminalizing abortion, defining a fetus as a person, and creating civil liability schemes, and discuss how these laws affect privacy. We will learn about the laws that protect (and fail to protect) privacy in our modern information economy and consider the ways privacy law intersects with abortion law. In this context, we will consider both commercial surveillance and surveillance by law enforcement.  Other topics will include: the privacy implications of medication abortion and the current litigation that threatens its continued availability in the US; the extent to which providers, aiders and abettors, and women who self-manage abortion may be subject to prosecution in ban states; the increasing legal conflicts between shield states and ban states; the effects of criminalization on the privacy of the physician-patient relationship and the associated disincentives for seeking reproductive health care; the implications of laws purporting to control, limit or prohibit access to or dissemination of information about abortion in ban states; and attempts to affect or restrict individuals’ movement within and between states to obtain care.

Both privacy and abortion law are rapidly changing environments in the United States, and attention to current developments in both arenas will be part of the class. We will make every effort to address and incorporate developments as they occur. Assignments will include interactive online comments and responses about the readings, a research project and presentation on the developing law in a particular state, and a writing assignment. There is no final exam.

This course is not open to students who took Law 611.45 - Readings: Privacy in a Post-Dobbs World in Fall 2022.

768

Race & Immigration Policy 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 23
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15 pages
  • Class participation

This two credit course will examine the role race has played since the birth of the United States in driving immigration policy both in terms of who is permitted to enter the United States and who is targeted for detention and removal. Topics will include the Chinese Exclusion Act, the national origin quota system, Japanese internment, the Bracero program, post-9/11 registration, expansion of immigration enforcement through the criminal justice system, border policy, and the narratives constructed around Latinx, Black, Asian, and White immigration. We will also analyze the roles Congress, the executive branch, the courts, and the public have played in creating and responding to these policies. Students will be required to engage with written and other documentary material through drafting regular blog posts, commenting on other students’ posts, and a final substantive research paper.

Students must take this course, or U.S. Immigration and Nationality Law (LAW 351), prior to or during enrollment in the Immigrant Rights Clinic

769

Design Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Research paper, 25+ pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 5-10 pages
  • Class participation

The law regulates the design of almost all of the artefacts that we experience. It establishes intellectual property rights that incentivize the creation of new design and that restrict the ability of other designs from being made. And a host of other legal fields regulate the shape, efficiency, safety, and accessibility of virtually everything around us. Sometimes these different laws work together; while at other times they work at cross purposes. This seminar will explore the various ways in which law regulates design. We will begin with examinations of the intellectual property doctrines that do so, including design and utility patents, copyright, and trade dress. Then we will consider other areas of the law that influence design, including, possibly, tort law, disability law, environmental law, administrative law, and tax law. We will read traditional legal doctrinal materials, including cases, statues, and regulations. And we will also read contemporary scholarship in law, design, and business. Ideally, the course will also include presentations by designers and attorneys in order to give students a richer understanding of the field.

Methods of evaluation: class participation, and either 30-page SRWP or six 4-5-page papers.

770

Research Methods in Chinese Law and Policy 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-ICL (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM International Cert
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Group project(s)
  • Practical exercises
  • Class participation

This course intends to cover three modules: researching the Chinese legal system, researching legal and political authorities in China, and specialized law and policy research topics. Students will receive a toolkit to research a wide range of topics on mainland China, covering important resources and tactics in law and policy-related fields at both the general and granular levels. Students interested in learning about the fundamental legal framework and the methodologies and tools available for carrying out theoretical and practical Chinese legal studies may find this course useful. Students will be assessed on the basis of class participation, in-class exercises, homework assignments, and a final project. JD, LLM, and other Graduate or Professional Students at Duke are welcome to take this course. 

773

Research Methods in Business Law 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM Business Cert
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Final Exam
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This advanced legal research seminar will introduce students to specific sources and strategies for researching a variety of business law topics, such as corporations, securities, and commercial bankruptcy. We will cover key primary and secondary sources for business law research: state and federal cases, statutes, regulations, and other administrative materials; subject-specific secondary sources; company disclosure documents; and sources for factual company and industry research, among others. The course will emphasize research processes, strategies, and evaluation of sources in a changing information environment. Students will develop their research skills through a variety of hands-on exercises simulating research assignments in practice. Grades will be based on review questions, research exercises, class participation, and a take-home final exam.

774

Morally Contested Markets 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 25
  • Reflective Writing
  • Class participation

This seminar explores exchanges and transactions that are morally contested and considers whether the markets supporting morally contested transactions should be allowed to function like “regular” markets. Thus, we will consider not only whether the markets for egg donation, abortion services, infant formula, and organs, among others, should exist, but also consider whether the state should seek to ensure that those markets are functioning competitively, to the benefit of consumers and workers. Students will discuss cases and reading selections from law, economics, philosophy, psychology, and sociology.

778

Law & Entrepreneurship 2
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22

This perspectives course serves as an anchor for the LLM in Law & Entrepreneurship (LLMLE) program. In addition to giving students a theoretical framework through which to understand the relationship of entrepreneurship and law, the course will feature regular opportunities to learn directly from entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial lawyers.

783

Emerging and Challenging Issues in Evidence Law 2
  • JD SRWP, option
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 15-20 pages
  • Class participation

This seminar will focus on the most important and most controversial aspects of evidence law, including new technologies like AI, and electronic/digital evidence. The seminar also explores controversial areas of the evidence rules where change has been called for (sometimes for decades) but has not yet occurred.

785

Legal Writing in Civil Practice 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • Spring 23
  • Fall 23
  • Fall 24
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation
  • Other

Writing is integral to most aspects of state and federal civil law practice including communicating effectively with clients, asserting clients' rights, and advocating for clients in litigation. This two-credit hour advanced writing course helps prepare students for the rigors of legal analysis and writing in general civil practice by providing a variety of writing experiences including opinion and demand letters, pleadings, motions, and trial briefs.  Writing assignments will involve initial drafts, instructor feedback, peer review, and final revisions with students building a portfolio of their work during the course of the semester. Research skills will be reviewed and practiced. In addition to content analysis and structure, emphasis will be placed on the ethical and professional considerations involved with each assignment.

786

Media Law 2
  • JD elective
  • LLM-LE (JD) elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntllLLM IP Cert
  • Fall 23
  • Simulated Writing, Litigation
  • Class participation

Today, thanks to the internet, everyone is a publisher. This class will examine the regulation of communications media, including newspapers, broadcast media, social media, and internet content generally. It will survey the First Amendment principles underpinning protection for speech and address current events and ongoing debates about the media, including “fake news,” blockbuster defamation cases, and social media content moderation. This class will also cover topics specific to the practice of media lawyers, such as pre-publication review, prior restraints on speech, defending subpoenas, reporters’ privilege, and access to information. Students will be assessed on their completion of three written projects.

788

Legal Writing for Non-Legal Audiences 2
  • JD elective
  • Spring 24
  • Reflective Writing
  • Project(s)
  • Class participation

Not all legal communications are directed at judges and lawyers. This two-credit seminar course focuses on communicating legal ideas to non-legal audiences with different goals, values, and knowledge bases. Over the 13-week course, students will explore how to counsel clients, engage with industry, manage media relations, and leverage platforms such as social media to communicate legal concepts in a broadly understandable manner. The course combines communication theory with practical workshops, role-playing exercises, guest speakers, and case studies. By the end of the course, students should feel equipped with the comprehensive communication toolkit needed for a modern, dynamic legal practice. Assignments and presentations will be partially based on students' individual areas of interest, and the final grade will rely on a combination of class participation, annotated short written assignments, and a final comprehensive communication strategy for either a lawsuit or legislative proposal.

789

Writing: Federal Litigation 2
  • JD elective
  • JD experiential
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 21
  • Fall 22
  • Fall 24
  • Simulated Writing, Litigation
  • Reflective Writing
  • Oral presentation
  • Practical exercises
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This writing and experiential course will provide students with the opportunity to practice several different types of persuasive writing used in federal litigation. The students will work on a hypothetical case involving an employment discrimination matter. The students will follow the case from the administrative agency level, to the filing of a complaint in federal court, through the discovery process, and culminating in the filing and arguing of a motion for summary judgment. In addition to writing, the students will have the opportunity to interview a client and a witness and to practice their oral advocacy skills in a mock meeting with a partner and a mock hearing. This course will be useful for anyone interested in practicing in federal court and/or pursuing a federal clerkship at the trial court level.

791

Judicial Writing 2
  • JD elective
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • Spring 22
  • Spring 23
  • Spring 24
  • Spring 25
  • Simulated Writing, Litigation
  • Reflective Writing
  • Oral presentation
  • In-class exercise
  • Class participation

This course is designed for students who are interested in a judicial clerkship, aspire to be a judge, or simply want to learn more about how and why judges write judicial opinions.  It will introduce you to some of the most common documents that law clerks and judges produce (such as orders, bench memos, and opinions). For the first half of the semester, you will be taking on the role of a law clerk.  For the second half, you will act as an appellate court judge.  By the end of the course, you should feel comfortable researching, drafting, and revising trial court orders and appellate court opinions. You should also feel more confident about thinking through legal questions and articulating your reasoning out loud.  During the semester, we will have guest speakers including law clerks and judges.

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.

797

Juries, Race, and Citizenship 2
  • JD elective
  • JD Standard 303(c)
  • IntlLLM-SJD-EXC elective
  • IntlLLM writing
  • PIPS elective
  • Fall 24
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s), 5-10 pages
  • Research and/or analytical paper(s) option, 10-15 pages
  • Oral presentation
  • Class participation

This seminar explores the history and impact of racial discrimination in jury selection, the constitutional rights and legal framework governing jury formation, and modern jury reform efforts.

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