Course Descriptions

Frequency of Course Offerings The courses listed on the following pages have been offered in recent academic years; not all courses are offered each year. The nature of the Law School curriculum allows significant variations in course titles and course content depending on the interest of the faculty members.

LAW1 603 - (4)
Civil Procedure
This course covers the procedures courts use in deciding lawsuits that do not involve criminal misconduct. Much of it is concerned with the process of litigation in trial courts, from the initial documents called pleadings, through the pre-trial process, especially the process of discovery in which parties obtain information from one another, to trial itself. Another important topic concerns the jurisdictional rules that determine in which court a lawsuit may be brought.

LAW1 605 - (4)
Constitutional Law
This course is an introduction to the structure of the United States Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses.

LAW1 606 - (4)
Contracts
This course is an examination of the legal obligations that attach to promises made in a business contract or otherwise, including the remedies that may be available for promises that are not kept. The course examines the legal requirements for enforceable contracts, including consideration, consent and conditions, and the effect of fraud, mistake, unconscionability, and impossibility.

LAW1 609 - (3)
Criminal Law
This course explores the basic principles of Anglo-American criminal law, including the constituent elements of criminal offenses, the necessary predicates for criminal liability, the major concepts of justification and excuse, and the conditions under which offenders can be liable for attempt. Major emphasis is placed on the structure and interpretation of modern penal codes.

LAW1 620 - (2)
Legal Research and Writing
The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, the course covers fundamental legal research techniques and two styles of legal writing. The fall semester focus is on preparing objective office memoranda and in the spring semester students produce an appellate brief. Students also present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and upper-class students.

LAW1 623 - (4)
Property
The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered.

LAW1 629 - (4)
Torts
The course in Torts examines liability for civil wrongs that do not arise out of contract. It explores three standards of conduct: liability for intentional wrongdoing, negligence, and liability without fault, or strict liability. The course also examines other issues associated with civil liability, such as causation, damages, and defenses. Particular areas of tort law such as battery, medical malpractice, and products liability, as well as debates about tort reform, are also part of the standard coverage of the course.

LAW2 600 - (3)
Schools, Race, and Money
This course examines the "right" to equal educational opportunity, and considers the various legal efforts, at the state and federal level, to improve the educational opportunities available to elementary and secondary students. We will concentrate primarily on school desegregation, school finance litigation, and school choice, but will also consider, as time permits, the federal government’s role in expanding the educational opportunities of low-income and disabled students. In addition to examining the relevant cases and legislative responses, we will also study selected readings by historians, education policy experts, economists, and legal scholars, including critical race theorists. Issues to be addressed include the educational ramifications of desegregation and school finance litigation; the institutional capability of courts, either state or federal, to achieve change in these areas; the influence of race on school finance reform; and market-based alternatives to improving the equity and adequacy of the public education system.

LAW2 604 - (3)
Quantitative Methods
This course will provide an introduction to the basic mathematical tools that a lawyer needs. The topics covered will be drawn principally from probability, statistics, and finance. The course will emphasize the use of statistical and quantitative reasoning in litigation (such as employment discrimination, toxic tort, and voting rights cases) and in policy debates.

LAW2 609 - (3)
Mergers and Acquisitions
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This course focuses on the role of law and lawyers in the evaluation, design and implementation of corporate acquisitive transactions, including mergers, asset sales, share exchanges and tender offers. Primary attention will be devoted to corporate and securities law issues relevant to mergers and acquisitions, including the Williams Act, state statutory and case law, as well as important forms of private ordering, such as poison pills, lockups, earnouts and the allocation of risks by the acquisition agreement. Relevant accounting and tax issues will be covered, albeit more briefly.

LAW3 602 - (3 or 4)
Administrative Law
This course is an introduction to the federal regulatory and administrative process. Many elective courses in the curriculum build upon this introduction, or provide intensive treatment of substantive regulation in specific areas, e.g., Labor Law, Securities Regulation, Communications Law, and Environmental Law. The course begins with a brief examination of the reasons for creating regulatory agencies and the constitutional constraints on Congress’s authority to delegate lawmaking power. It also explores the limits of presidential power to control how delegated functions are performed by subordinate officers. It then turns to the procedures by which regulatory agencies and administrative bodies operate. The course concludes with a comprehensive examination of judicial review of administrative action, examining private as well as governmental means of implementing and enforcing federal regulatory requirements.

LAW3 603 - (3)
Admiralty
This course will examine the basic substantive and procedural doctrines in federal admiralty law and compare them to analogous doctrines in other areas of law. Among the topics to be covered are: jurisdiction in admiralty, carriage of goods by sea, salvage, general average, collision, maritime torts for personal injury and death, and environmental law on navigable waters.

LAW3 605 - (3)
Agency and Partnership
This course is a basic component of the business law curriculum. It deals first and foremost with the agency relationship and its consequences, focusing on such topics as contractual authority, vicarious liability, and fiduciary obligation. The course also serves as an introduction to the partnership as the primary noncorporate business organizational form involving co-ownership. The course will include discussion of limited liability partnerships and limited liability companies as time permits. Although the course uses litigated cases as the primary material, it aims to provide future transactional lawyers with the basic tools necessary to help clients structure their affairs in a manner consistent with their business goals, including minimizing unwanted liability.

LAW3 606 - (3)
Substantive Due Process
This course examines the recurrent effort to articulate substantive constitutional rights under the rubric of the Constitution’s due process clauses. We will focus on the reasons why substantive due process is both threatening to and required by liberal theories of constitutionalism. Among the topics we will cover are economic liberties, abortion and procreative rights, the right to sexual autonomy, and the right to die.

LAW3 608 - (2)
Alternative Dispute Resolution
This course is an overview of dispute resolution processes alternative to litigation, including negotiation, mediation, mini-trial and others. Particular emphasis will be given to arbitration, its theoretical and statutory foundations, and its procedures. The role of lawyers in ADR applications will be examined. Comparisons will be made of various ADR methods with traditional litigation and with one another, particularly regarding effectiveness in specific context. Negotiation and mediation simulations will be conducted by students.

LAW3 609 - (3)
American Legal History
This course examines principally non-constitutional dimensions of American legal development between the late 18th and early 20th centuries. Topics to be considered may include private law and economic development; crime and punishment; the law of slavery; family law; immigration and citizenship; and legal education, culture, literature and reform.

LAW3 611 - (3)
Bankruptcy (Law & Business)
Prerequisite: Accounting, Corporate Finance, Corporations.
This course concerns corporate bankruptcy and reorganization, and focuses on the reorganization of financially distressed firms under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Compared to traditional bankruptcy courses, the emphasis of the readings and class discussion is less on bankruptcy case law and more on the economic fundamentals of financial deal-making and restructuring. Students enrolled in the course are expected to participate actively in class discussion. They should also be comfortable with the basic skills involved in reading financial statements and performing valuations of financial assets.

LAW3 612 - (3)
Antitrust
This course focuses on the Sherman and Clayton Antitrust Acts (other than the Robinson-Patman Act) and the principal Supreme Court opinions construing these statutes. The purposes of the course are three-fold. First, to prepare a student to provide counsel or conduct litigation in the antitrust area. Second, to introduce the student to the history of the law’s efforts to identify those private arrangements or practices inconsistent with competition. Third, to explore the relevance of economic analysis to these problems.

LAW3 616 - (3)
Civil Procedure II
Prerequisite: Civil Procedure.
This course picks up where the first semester of civil procedure leaves off, and is designed to acquaint the student with some of the more complex aspects of private and public law litigation. The class will pay particular attention to multi-claim multi-party litigation, including class actions, as well as the problem of parallel state and federal court litigation. The course will also consider other aspects of the civil litigation process, such as the right to trial by jury. In addition, the course may explore in greater depth some of the topics that may have been introduced in the first semester, including issue and claim preclusion, and appeals.

LAW3 617 - (3)
Contracts II
Prerequisite: Contracts.
This course constitutes a continuation of the study of basic contract law and theory, but coverage will be both broader and deeper than first-semester contracts. Some first-semester material will be reviewed and developed further to insure all students have a common background in contract law and theory. The bulk of the course will be devoted to covering material that is not covered, or covered only briefly, in a standard first-semester contracts course. Topics to be given attention may include: the identification and interpretation of the terms of agreement (e.g., the parol evidence and plain meaning rules), defining the terms of performance (e.g., implied and express conditions), mistake and excuse (e.g., unilateral and mutual mistake, impossibility, commercial impracticability, the right to cure), conduct constituting breach (e.g., anticipatory repudiation, the right to adequate assurances), remedies (e.g., foreseeability, mitigation, liquidated damages, sales of goods remedies), and third party rights (e.g., intended and incidental beneficiaries, assignment and delegation, and novation). Although considerable emphasis will be placed on doctrines in both the common law and Uniform Commercial Code, this course is not intended as a substitute for a course on the sale of goods (Article 2 of the U.C.C.).

LAW3 618 - (3)
Civil Rights Litigation
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course will examine the arc of federal civil rights law. We will begin with the Reconstruction statutes, 42 U.S.C. 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981, 1982, 1983, and 1985, with particular emphasis on § 1983. We will study the following issues in some detail: constitutional and non-constitutional rights enforceable under § 1983; qualified and absolute immunities; governmental liability for the acts of individual officials; monetary and injunctive relief; and attorney’s fees. We will then examine the civil rights legislation enacted during the 1960s and 1970s, focusing on Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and Titles IV and IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Finally, we will briefly consider more recent civil rights statutes including the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Equal Pay Act. The course will emphasize similarities and differences among these approaches to federal civil rights protection.

LAW3 619 - (3)
Communications Law
This course surveys the field of electronic communications—a.k.a. the law of the information highway. Historically the field of communications has been divided between the traditional mass media—broadcasting, cable, satellite broadcasting—and telecommunications media—wireline and wireless telephone carriers. Today the two general divisions are converging. One of the vehicles of that convergence is the Internet–which straddles the historic divide between mass media and telecommunications media. This course will examine legal issues affecting all of these media. Major themes of the course include: how to manage a "scarce" resource (the scarce is a contested label); the conflict between firms and between media; the conflict between competition and monopoly, (and the role of regulation and antitrust in creating both); the conflict between free speech and regulation; the conflict between self governance (in the case of the Internet, anarchy) and regulation; and, the conflict between different regulators (federal, state and local).

LAW3 620 - (3)
Sales
This course examines the law governing the domestic and international sale of goods. These relationships will primarily be explored through Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code and the United Nations Convention on contracts for international sales of goods. The course will emphasize the use of statutory default rules to define the commercial relationship and to allocate commercial risks, and the capacity of contracting parties to bargain around those rules. There will be explicit consideration of whether legal doctrine should distinguish among different types of commercial relationships, e.g., long-term relational contracts versus one-shot, discrete transactions. Thus, we will discuss whether contracts that create different organizational forms (franchise relationships, joint ventures, independent buyer-seller) should be governed by different rules. The relative desirability of alternative damage rules will be explored in depth. Other topics will include the scope of Article 2, different forms of warranty liability, risk of loss, and commercial impracticability. There will be some attention to federal and state legislation and regulations that alter the principles of Article 2 where commercial parties enter into transactions with consumers.

LAW3 621 - (3)
Secured Transactions
This course will cover the essential provisions and structure of Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The law of secured transactions facilitates the taking of security interests by creditors to secure loans they make to debtors. Unlike a creditor who asserts a common law contract claim only, the secured creditor potentially has a right to seek payment on his contract claim by directly seizing certain agreed upon items of debtor’s property that serve as collateral for the creditor’s loan. Among the issues covered in this course are (1) how creditors receive security interests in debtor’s property ("the attachment" process), (2) how they obtain priority over competing creditors asserting interests in the same collateral (the "perfection" process), and (3) how creditors maintain security interests in collateral transferred by the debtor, acquired by the debtor, and acquired by debtor after debtor’s name or corporate status changes, and (4) how creditors maintain security interests in proceeds of collateral. The aim of the course is to provide students with knowledge of the Code sufficient to enable them to structure secured transactions and litigate secured claims successfully. The course is taught with an emphasis on Code mastery, while underscoring the policy objectives and business contexts relevant to secured transactions generally.

LAW3 623 - (3)
Bankruptcy
This course will explore in detail some of the legal, theoretical, and practical issues raised by a debtor’s financial distress. Principal emphasis will be on how the Federal Bankruptcy Code uses or displaces otherwise applicable law as the provider of rules that govern the relationships among debtors, creditors, and others.

LAW3 626 - (3)
Nonprofit Organizations
The course will survey the role of nonprofits, reasons for use of the nonprofit form, and the different types of nonprofit organizations, with particular attention to the statutes governing nonprofit corporations. The course will examine the formation, dissolution, and governance of nonprofits, consider state regulation of charitable solicitations, and analyze tax and tax policy issues related to nonprofits.

LAW3 627 - (3)
Complex Civil Litigation
This course will address the dramatic expansion of the role of civil litigation in our society in recent years, and the accompanying development of new and often innovative procedural mechanisms for coping with that expansion. The class action will be given primary attention; other topics will include discovery, judicial control of complex cases, trial, and preclusion. The professional and social context of this type of litigation will be emphasized. The course would be particularly useful to students interested in litigation concerning products liability, securities regulation, and civil rights.

LAW3 628 - (3)
Constitutional History II: From Reconstruction to Brown
This course will examine, from an historical perspective, constitutional developments from the enactment of the Civil War amendments to the Brown decision involving school desegregation. Though the subject matter of the course necessarily overlaps that of the basic constitutional law course, the emphasis here will be on the historical perspective and the integration of social and political history with legal developments. Some of the issues to be addressed include: the enactment and early judicial interpretation of the Civil War amendments, the rise and demise of the Lochner era, the Court-packing crisis, the origins of the modern judicial concern with civil rights and civil liberties (including rights of free speech, criminal procedure, and free exercise of religion), and the Brown decision. In addition to placing constitutional developments into their broader historical perspective, the course will focus on the consequences of Supreme Court decision making–how influential were particular Court rulings at transforming social reality.

LAW3 629 - (3)
Comparative Constitutional Law
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law or the consent of the professor.
The seminar will explore the idea of a constitution and of constitutionalism. What are the purposes of a constitution? What is entailed in the drafting of a constitution? To what extent do constitutions reflect universal values (such as human rights), and to what extent are they grounded in the culture and values of a particular people? How much borrowing goes on in the writing of a constitution? In particular, in what respects do the United States Constitution and American constitutionalism serve as models for newer democracies? What are the historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts necessary to the success of liberal constitutional democracy?

LAW3 631 - (3)
Constitutional Law II: Church and State
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course examines the two clauses in the Bill of Rights which define and safeguard religious freedom-the one barring laws "respecting an establishment of religion" and the other protecting the "free exercise of religion". The interaction of these two provisions takes place in many and varied settings, from public school classrooms and assemblies to government support of church-related schools, to religious symbols and seasonal displays on public property. Tensions also arise in such special contexts as prisons, health care, the military, and government benefit programs.

LAW3 634 - (3)
Constitutional Law II: Speech and Press
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course offers an intensive, albeit introductory, study of First Amendment law relating to freedom of speech and press (and corollary freedoms, such as freedom of political association and the right to petition). In addition to learning about and discussing a variety of theoretical/philosophical perspectives, we will study the many specific First Amendment doctrines that have developed since the Court became active in the area during and after WWI, starting with the clear and present danger test relating to seditious speech and proceeding on to such topics as defamation, commercial speech, "low value" speech, obscenity, child pornography, and hate speech. We will study the gamut of First Amendment methodologies, such as overbreadth, vagueness, the rule against prior restraints, the prohibition on content regulation; and a variety of context-specific issues, such as campaign finance regulation, access to the public forum, and broadcasting.

LAW3 637 - (3)
Constitutionalism: History and Jurisprudence
This course focuses on various ways of thinking about constitutions and constitutionalism - as a restatement of ancient right (the tradition associated with England’s Magna Carta), as being based upon a social compact (as in the thinking of John Locke), as reflecting community values, etc. In developing the ways of looking at constitutions, we will draw in part upon the various schools of jurisprudence (natural law, historical jurisprudence, etc.) as well as upon historical sources. We will pay particular attention to the founding period in the United States, as well as to important moments in the history of constitutionalism elsewhere (the French Revolution, etc.).

LAW3 639 - (3)
Corporate Tax
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
This course deals with the problems and considerations involved in the formation, operation, reorganization, and liquidation of corporations. It analyzes the relevant sections of the Internal Revenue Code and regulations and explores alternative directions that the law might have taken. From policy and practical perspectives the course examines the tensions between large and small businesses, corporations and individuals, managers and shareholders, profitable and unprofitable enterprises, and tax avoiders and the government.

LAW3 640 - (2)
Corporate Finance
This course takes a financial and economic perspective of the corporation. The central theme is determining the value of the firm from the perspective of the manager who must make financing choices (sources of funds) and investment choices (uses of funds) to maximize the value of the firm. The major topics of the course include: time value of money, discounted cash flow analysis, financial statement analysis and projections, capital markets, market efficiency, cost of capital, capital structure theory and practice, capital budgeting decisions, and firm valuation.

LAW3 641 - (4)
Corporations
This course will consider the formation and operation of corporations and will compare corporations to other business forms. It will examine the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence and litigate against those in control. The course will also address the special problems of closely held corporations and issues arising out of mergers and attempts to acquire firms. The course will use both new tools derived from the corporate finance and related literature and traditional tools to explore a wide range of phenomena and transactions associated with the modern business enterprise.

LAW3 642 - (3)
Criminal Adjudication
This course examines the adjudication of criminal cases from "bail to jail." Topics will likely include bail and preventive detention, prosecutorial discretion, case screening by preliminary hearing and grand jury, the right to effective assistance of counsel, discovery, the right to jury trial, double jeopardy, guilty pleas and plea bargaining, sentencing, and habeas corpus. Although some attention will be given to statutory federal rules, the course will emphasize the constitutional doctrines that govern the adjudication process.

LAW3 644 - (3)
Criminal Investigation
This course examines the constitutional doctrines that surround and control the investigation of crime - in particular, the doctrines that define what the police can and cannot do. The primary topics will be the law of searches and seizures, police interrogation, and the fifth amendment privilege against self-incrimination. With respect to each of these topics, we will aim both to cover the basic doctrine and to explore underlying themes.

LAW3 646 - (3)
Employment Law
In contrast to the traditional labor law course, which focuses on collective bargaining, this course offers students an introduction to the diverse body of law that governs the individual employment relationship. The course examines a selection of the important issues that employment lawyers face in practice. Although course coverage varies somewhat from year to year, we will consider such topics as contract & tort protections against discharge, trade secrets and non-competition clauses, ERISA, vicarious liability, alternative dispute resolution, and wage and hour laws such as the FLSA. We may also discuss other topics in this exceptionally broad field including FMLA, COBRA, WARN, OSHA, UI, workers’ compensation and much more.

LAW3 647 - (3)
Employment Discrimination
This course will focus upon the principal federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex, especially Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It will also examine the federal constitutional law of racial and sexual discrimination, primarily as it affects judicial interpretation of the preceding statutes.

LAW3 648 - (3)
Intellectual Property: Copyright
Prerequisite: Property.
In this course we study the federal copyright statute which protects rights in intellectual and artistic property. Some of the specific topics we will cover are subject matter of copyright; infringement; fair use; ownership; duration and transfer; rights and remedies of copyright owners; copyright protection of computer software; and copyright issues peculiar to the internet, with particular reference to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Particular issues we will address include database protection; the legality of videotaping or photocopying copyrighted material including television programs, books, individual journal articles; the propriety of reverse engineering of copyrighted computer programs; peer-to-peer file sharing (i.e., Napster); and access controls and technological protection measures.

LAW3 650 - (3)
Contemporary Political Theory
This course provides students with the analytic tools for understanding the structure and role of political philosophy in normative debate. Toward that end, we will explore the foundations of contemporary liberalism as it finds expression in the work of John Rawls. At least half of the course will be devoted to understanding Rawls’ liberal theory of the state. The remaining portion of the course will be devoted to a number of critiques and alternatives to liberalism. Among the authors we will discuss are Ronald Dworkin, Will Kymlicka, Thomas Nagel, Robert Nozick, Susan Okin, John Rawls, Michael Sandel, and R. P. Wolff.

LAW3 651 - (3)
Environmental Law
The environmental movement of the last several decades has produced a complicated array of laws that continue to evolve daily. This introductory course is designed to give students a basic grasp of those laws, the policies that underlie them, and the legal practice that has grown up around them. We will address both conservation (e.g., Endangered Species Act) and pollution control (e.g., Clean Air and Clean Water Acts). Although the primary focus will be on federal legislation and regulatory programs, we will also explore some local, state and international dimensions. The materials and class discussions will seek to illuminate not only current environmental law and policy, but also likely future developments such as increased use of emissions trading. Our inquiry will include attention to the interactions among key players - e.g., industry, agriculture, NGOs, courts, Congress, agencies and departments - in the development and application of the law.

LAW3 652 - (2)
European Legal Systems
This course will trace the development of European legal systems and methods from Roman law (the classical Roman jurists’ law or property, torts and contracts as transmitted in Justinian’s Digest) to modern civil codes (Austrian, French, German, Swiss and Russian). It will include a study of contemporary scholarly doctrine and jurisprudence of the courts. The course will also examine the ongoing process of harmonization of private law in the European Union.

LAW3 653 - (3 or 4)
Evidence
The law of evidence is more than a set of rules to be assimilated. It is a dynamic which is inseparable from the context in which evidentiary questions arise. The course will cover questions of relevance, hearsay, privilege and expert testimony, among others, and it will focus largely on problems arising in concrete factual settings, as opposed to traditional case analysis. Major emphasis will be placed on the Federal Rules of Evidence, which now apply in the courts of roughly 30 states as well as the federal system.

LAW3 655 - (3)
Family Law
This basic offering will focus on the legal regulation of marriage and other intimate relationships, and the parent-child relationship. Substantial time will be devoted to antenuptial agreements, divorce jurisdiction and grounds, economic aspects of marriage dissolution (including spousal support and division of property by courts as well as private ordering through contracts), the establishment and termination of non-marital relationships, establishing parenthood, child support, child custody, and adoption.

LAW3 657 - (4)
Federal Courts
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course is about the federal judicial system and its relationship to various other decisionmakers, including Congress and the state courts. We will examine the jurisdiction of the federal courts; the elements of a justiciable case or controversy (including the doctrines of standing, ripeness, mootness, and political questions); the role of state law and so-called "federal common law" in federal courts; implied causes of action; and state sovereign immunity. We also will consider the extent to which state courts are obliged to adjudicate questions of federal law, and we will discuss some of the ways in which the state and federal judicial systems interact (including various abstention doctrines applied by the federal courts, review of state-court judgments in the federal Supreme Court, and the law of habeas corpus).

LAW3 660 - (3)
Federal Criminal Law
This course explores the scope and structure of federal crimes. Though based on the same sources, federal crimes are different in important respects from the much larger body of state criminal law. The course will cover four topics: (1) the jurisdiction of the federal government over crime, including constitutional limitations; (2) the emerging law of federal mens rea; (3) four crimes that illustrate the enormous reach of the federal criminal law (the Mann Act, mail fraud, the Hobbs Act, and the Travel Act); and (4) RICO, the most important organized crime statute in history. RICO will be compared to the law of conspiracy, and its important consequences in civil litigation will also be explored. Broader policy questions, such as federal enforcement policies and the merits of the federalization of crime, will be emphasized throughout the course.

LAW3 662 - (3)
Federal Taxation of Gratuitous Transfers
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax, Trusts and Estates.
This course is an introduction to the federal taxation of gratuitous transfers made by individuals during life and at death. Federal taxation of estates and gifts and generation-skipping transfers will be examined separately and as they interrelate with each other by drawing together legislation, administrative interpretations, and judicial decisions. Federal income taxation of trusts and estates will also be considered as will income tax considerations unique to decedents.

LAW3 663 - (4)
Federal Income Tax
The course is intended to provide grounding in such fundamental areas as the concept of income, income exclusions and exemptions, non-business deductions, deductions for business expenses, basic tax accounting, assignment of income and capital gains and losses. Further particular attention will be paid to the processes for creating law and determining of liability in the tax area, the role of the Treasury and the taxpayer in the making of tax law and formulation of policy, and the significance of the income tax in government and business.

LAW3 668 - (3)
Food and Drug Law
This course considers the Food and Drug Administration as a case study of an administrative agency that must combine law and science to regulate activities affecting public health and safety. The reading and class discussion will cover issues such as regulation of cancer-causing substances in foods, the use of risk-assessment techniques in regulatory decision making, the effects of FDA drug approval requirements on research and competition in the pharmaceutical industry, regulation of new medical technologies - such as gene therapy, human tissue transplants, and cloning - and the ethics of drug testing.

LAW3 669 - (3)
Health Care Law
This course provides an introduction to the landscape and government regulation of the healthcare market. The course first examines the three groups–healthcare providers, health insurers, and patients–around which the modern U.S. healthcare system is organized. It then examines how the government regulates relationships within and between these groups. For example, the government subsidizes hospitals with tax exemptions; it subsidizes consumption with Medicare, Medicaid and tax deductions; and regulates health insurers via insurance laws. The government regulates the relationship between providers and patients with licensing laws, malpractice liability, privacy rules, and informed consent requirements; the relationship between providers and insurers via antitrust law and mandated-provider laws; and the relationship between insurers and patients with mandated-benefits and external-review laws. Important themes that are covered include federal v. state authority over health care and the rising cost of health care. This course is not intended as an introduction to bioethics; rather it focuses on health care institutions and statutes.

LAW3 670 - (3)
Immigration Law
This course will provide an introduction to the complex substantive provisions of U.S. immigration laws and the procedures used to decide specific immigration-related issues. Considerable attention will be given to underlying constitutional and philosophical issues, to selected questions of international law and politics, and to the interaction of Congress, the courts, and administrative agencies in dealing with major public policy issues in the immigration field, including the struggle against terrorism.

LAW3 672 - (3)
Insurance
This course provides a working knowledge of basic insurance law governing insurance contract formation, insurance regulation, property, life, health, disability, and liability insurance, and claims processes. The emphasis throughout the course is on the link between traditional insurance law doctrine and modern ideas about the functions of private law.

LAW3 674 - (3)
International Taxation
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
A survey of the income tax aspects (1) of foreign income earned by U.S. individuals and entities, and (2) of U.S. income earned by foreign individuals and entities. The principal focus will be on the U.S. domestic law, but some attention will be devoted to the varying approaches that countries adopt towards common questions of international tax policy as well as to the application of bilateral income tax treaties. The course will seek to develop a contextualized understanding of the relevant rules through an examination of the political and economic forces underlying these rules and through the analysis of case studies and problems modeled on real world transactions.

LAW3 675 - (3)
International Business Transactions
This course deals with domestic and international legal regimes that affect or regulate transnational business transactions. Topics to be discussed include: institutional relationships, finance and capital markets, the regulation of technology transfer and international investment, and competition law.

LAW3 677 - (3)
International Human Rights Law
This course offers a thorough introduction to the theory and practice of international human rights law, with particular emphasis on the changing ways in which human rights law is made and used. Topics to be covered include: an introduction to basic principles of international law; the philosophical foundations of universal human rights; core international human rights norms and their foundations in the UN Charter and other treaties, how states incorporate human rights principles domestically (with particular focus on human rights law in US courts); recent human rights-based challenges to the idea of state sovereignty, an overview of international humanitarian law and the law of war, human rights and development. We will also focus on international systems and procedures for the protection of human rights, including the incorporation of human rights objectives into national diplomacy, the role of non-governmental organizations in human rights advocacy, humanitarian interventions, and recent efforts to enforce international humanitarian law through ad hoc criminal tribunals and the International Criminal Court.

LAW3 678 - (3)
International Law
This course examines foundational subjects in public and private international law. Topics include the nature and sources of international law, the relationship between international law and domestic U.S. law, the role of international organizations such as the United Nations, and the basis of international jurisdiction and sovereign immunity. Where relevant, the course will include a focus on current events.

LAW3 679 - (3)
Employment Law: Principles and Practice
Prerequisite: Employment Law, Employment Discrimination Law.
This course examines employment law doctrine and theory from a practical perspective. Problems drawn from litigated cases and counseling practice will illustrate how attorneys use these doctrinal rules and theoretical principles to control the legal consequences of their clients’ employment relationships. Class discussion and weekly assignments will focus on topics such as: the standards governing vicarious liability for employment discrimination and employee torts, the task of designing internal complaint procedures, handling harassment and discrimination complaints, and responding to EEOC investigations, problems associated with drafting and litigating severance agreements, FMLA compliance issues, the interactions between the ADA and other statutes, and drafting, enforcement, and preclusion issues surrounding arbitration agreements.

LAW3 682 - (3)
Judicial Role in American History
A survey of leading American Supreme Court judges from Marshall through the Burger Court. The course will consist of lectures and readings, along with discussions of topics on contemporary issues.

LAW3 683 - (2)
Jurisprudence
The course focuses on selected issues mostly within what is broadly termed analytical and normative jurisprudence. Treatment will range from traditional topics such as the nature of law, legal systems, and legal rights, to the role of moral theory in private law and legal justification. Recent contributions to such topics (e.g., legal pragmatism) are considered and assessed.

LAW3 684 - (3)
Labor Law
This course examines the federal framework for collective bargaining in the private sector, including regulation of the organizing process; determination of representative status; the balancing of economic weapons; negotiation, administration, and enforcement of collective agreements; and protection of individual workers within the collective structure. Coverage includes the basic unfair labor practices committed by employers and unions, and special attention is given the overall question of remedies, including the relationship of the NLRB and the courts.

LAW3 685 - (3)
Labor Arbitration
This course examines the law and practice of labor arbitration, which is the principal means for resolving disputes over the meaning and application of collective bargaining agreements. The main focus is the grievance-arbitration machinery, created by private agreement, and its coordination with courts and public law generally. The "common law" of arbitration is presented through contractual disputes involving such topics as discipline and discharge, management rights, seniority and subcontracting. The impact of law on the arbitral process is then considered, most notably the development of a federal common law of labor arbitration. The course will take account of the fact that arbitration under collective agreements has come to serve as a model for resolving employment disputes outside the union-management setting.

LAW3 687 - (3)
Law and Economics
Illustrates the uses—and the limitations—of economic analysis in representative areas of the law, ranging from trial advocacy to abstract legal theory. A structured set of legal problems with significant economic content is used to acquaint the student with those technical economics tools most likely to be of use to a lawyer.

LAW3 689 - (2)
Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements
The principal goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts of financial accounting and the resulting published financial statements. Attorneys need a basic understanding of financial statements in order to work with corporate clients and certified public accountants. This knowledge is particularly important if the practice involves investment banking, initial public offerings, and the issuance of securities. Course content will include the conceptual framework of accounting, specialized accounting terminology, generally accepted accounting standards, and the distinction between financial accounting and income tax accounting. The roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Internal Revenue Service will be delineated. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to understand how components of financial statements such as inventories, plant and equipment, bonds, leases, sales revenues, cost of goods sold expense, and depreciation expense are measured and reported. In addition, the student should be able to analyze financial statements to derive more information about a corporation.

LAW3 690 - (2)
Advanced Legal Research
Prerequisite: Legal Research and Writing.
Legal research is a basic part of the practice of most beginning attorneys. This course explores recent developments in the field and provides an overview of print and electronic research approaches. Topics to be discussed include basic primary and secondary sources, including legislative history and administrative law; cost-effective use of online systems; research in specialized areas and transnational law; the use of business and social science resources; the role of the World Wide Web in legal research; and nontraditional approaches to finding legal information.

LAW3 692 - (3)
Law and Political Participation
This course examines the way law structures political participation. Much of it is concerned with voting, including the franchise itself, access to the ballot by candidates, and the design of electoral districts. Issues concerning the latter include the choice between single-member and multi-member districts, the relative and absolute size of districts, and the drawing of district lines (often known as gerrymandering when done with an eye to some political result). The course also deals with the legal regulation of political campaigns, including especially campaign finance and the role of political parties.

LAW3 693 - (3)
International Criminal Law
Introduces students to a variety of problems posed by the investigation or prosecution of criminal laws in the international arena. It first explores the foundations of international criminal law, including the bases for criminal jurisdiction. It then covers in depth two issues central to international criminal law, the extradition of fugitives and mutual legal assistance (i.e. international evidence gathering). Coverage of those issues includes the criminal procedure and U.S. Constitutional issues implicated. It also touches upon other topics, including money laundering, the forfeiture of illegally obtained assets, U.S. laws impacting on U.S. business overseas (e.g., the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the export control laws), the relationship between the intelligence and law enforcement communities, the recent establishment of war crimes tribunals and the move to create an international criminal court, diplomatic immunity, and international prisoner transfer. Primary source material is emphasized, including international treaties, decisions of United States and foreign courts, and federal statutes.

LAW3 694 - (3)
Intellectual Property: Patent
Prerequisite: Property.
This course will examine both the theory and practice of patent law. In particular, it will cover the central elements of this branch of intellectual property: patentable subject matter, utility, statutory bars to patentability, novelty, non-obviousness, disclosure and enablement, infringement, defenses, damages, remedies, the examination process, and more. In addition to legal and policy analysis, the course will teach some practical aspects of patent litigation and interpretation.

LAW3 696 - (3)
Constitutional History I: Articles of Confederation Through the Civil War
This course will trace the history of American constitutional law development from the Articles of Confederation through the Civil War. Topics to be covered include the framing and ratification of the Constitution, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the landmark decisions of the Marshall Court, the constitutional ramifications of slavery, and various constitutional issues raised by the Civil War.

LAW3 701 - (3)
Genetics and the Law
This class will explore various legal issues that arise in the context of the new genetic technologies. The initial sessions will provide an introduction to the basic biology of human genetics and the objectives of the Human Genome Project. We will review the history of genetic research in the United States, with particular attention to the incorporation of "hereditarian" and "eugenic" concepts into the law, as well as the state and federal cases in which those concepts were challenged. The bulk of the semester will survey five topical areas: (1) Genetic Privacy and Access to Genetic Information, including questions of population screening and use of DNA as a unique identifier; (2) The Forensic Use of Genetic Information, particularly in the context of litigation; (3) Reproductive Issues, including legal "regulation" and monitoring of genetic diseases, and the implications of novel techniques of reproduction that make use of genetic technology, such as cloning; (4) Alteration and Ownership of Biologic Forms, where genetic engineering raises intellectual property issues; and (5) Genetic Risks in the Context of Employment and Insurance, focusing on public policy foundations of genetic anti-discrimination law.

LAW3 703 - (3)
Land Use Law
This course will explore the legal regulation of how land may be used, with an emphasis on the constitutional and environmental dimensions of land use law. The course will begin with the basic elements of the land development and regulation process, including the basics of zoning and planning. We will then address the following topics, among others: constitutional constraints on land use regulation, including those imposed by the First Amendment and the Fifth Amendment’s Taking Clause; housing discrimination on the grounds of race, income, lifestyle, and disability; "environmental justice" issues, including regional obligations of municipalities for noxious facilities; environmental law as a constraint on land use; and land use law as environmental regulation. Although the course will focus primarily on the public regulation of land, we will also address public ownership and private, market-based alternatives to regulation.

LAW3 721 - (3)
Business Planning for Mergers and Acquisitions
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This course first focuses on various topics that are important in M&A transactions involving both closely-held and publicly-held corporations, including directors’ duties, shareholder voting and dissenters’ rights, basic issues under the Federal securities laws, fundamentals of Federal income taxation and accounting, and basic issues in antitrust and pre-merger notification. The course then turns to an analysis of various forms of acquisition, including acquisitions of stock and assets of closely-held corporations and acquisitions of publicly-held corporations in negotiated and hostile transactions.

LAW3 725 - (3)
Negotiation Institute
Prerequisite: Second- or third-year status.
This course examines the negotiation process employed regularly by legal practitioners. It covers the different stages of the negotiation process, negotiator styles, verbal and non-verbal communication, negotiation techniques, the impact of gain/loss framing on participant risk aversion, and other factors that influence negotiation interactions. The course evaluates the negotiation process from both a theoretical and a practical perspective. Distributive and cooperative bargaining encounters are explored to demonstrate the relevance of both. The impact of cultural stereotypes is explored, with an analysis of public and private international negotiation transactions. Students will engage in a number of negotiation exercises designed to highlight various factors relevant to bargaining interactions.

LAW4 601 - (3)
Legislation
While much basic American law is unwritten, statutes, constitutions, and other forms of written law are pervasive, especially at the federal level. This course is concerned with statutes, and in particular with the process that creates them, the methods used to interpret them, and the relationship between the legislative process and statutory interpretation.

LAW4 602 - (3)
Local Government Law
Local government law examines both the theoretical bases for decentralized government and the specific functions of local governments in the American legal and political system. The course utilizes legal cases as well as political and social theory in considering the proper distribution of powers among federal, state, regional, and local institutions. Specific topics include: the formation and constitutional status of local and other non-State governments; the capacity of local governments to provide essential government services such as education and policing; the environmental impacts of local land use regulations paying special attention to issues of urban sprawl; the existing distribution of resources across metropolitan areas; and the impact of race on the structure of metropolitan governance.

LAW4 603 - (3)
Mass Media Law
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
A survey of the constitutional implications of mass media enterprises, including newspapers, radio, and television. Attention will be paid to First Amendment issues, but there will be some discussion of the regulatory economics of the broadcasting and newspaper industries.

LAW4 604 - (3)
Mental Health Law
In this course, students will address legal issues that pertain to the treatment of individuals with mental illness or mental retardation. The course will explore the delivery of mental health services, the regulation of the mental health professions, and the relationship between society and people with mental disability. The course’s interdisciplinary approach will include periodic guest lecturers from the disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, social work, and social services, as well as presentations by relevant legal practitioners. Likely topics include: (1) the nature of psychiatric diagnoses and mental disorders, (2) the right to treatment and community services, (3) professional liability for malpractice, (4) civil commitment, (5) relationships between criminal and civil justice systems, (6) benefits eligibility, (7) protection against discrimination, and (8) client competence and surrogate decision making for incompetent clients.

LAW4 608 - (3)
National Security Law
This course, taught by the principal founder of the field, is a comprehensive introduction, blending relevant international and national law. It defines national security and presents information about the causes of war and traditional approaches to preventing war, including information about the "democratic peace" and other newer approaches. The course examines the historical development of the international law of conflict management. It then takes up institutional modes of conflict management, including the United Nations system and the role of the Security Council. Addressing the lawfulness of using force in international relations, the course discusses the prohibition of war as an instrument of national policy, the Rio Treaty and the revised charter of the Organization of American States, and low-intensity conflict, intervention, anticipatory defense, and other continuing problems. It then examines several case studies of specific national security issues, including the Indochina War, the "secret war" in Central America, the Gulf War, and Kosovo, as well as case studies in United Nations peacekeeping and peace enforcement (including the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Haiti, and Rwanda). It examines human rights for contexts of violence, that is, the norms concerning the conduct of hostilities, providing an overview of the protection of non-combatants and procedures for implementation and enforcement. It looks at war crimes and the Nuremberg principles, and the new international criminal court as well as the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals. It examines terrorism and the post 9-11 war against terrorism. It briefly reviews American Security Doctrine, then turns to the general issues of strategic stability and arms control, examining nuclear weapons and their effects, and general arms control negotiations. It briefly addresses the security aspects of oceans law, then examines in detail the national institutional framework for the control of national security, including the authority of Congress and the president to make national security decisions, and the war powers and constitutional issues in the debate on interpretation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The course then examines the national security process including the national command structure, and looks at secrecy, access to information, and the classification system. It reviews intelligence and counterintelligence law, and ends with a review of individual rights and accountability as they interface with national security.

LAW4 609 - (3)
Indian Law
The legal relationships between the Indian tribes and the national government and between the tribes and state governments define a distinctive but growing body of federal law. This body of law is powerfully influenced by the history of European "invasion" of North America and anchored in decisions rendered by the Supreme Court in the early days of the Republic - three of them authored by the same Chief Justice, John Marshall, who is one of the early architects of Constitutional Law. Accordingly, the course can be viewed as a study of legal history. But Indian Law is also a story about contemporary legal conflicts that spill over into Congress and the federal courts with increasing frequency. As tribes seek to exploit both their natural resources, including in some cases their isolation, and their seeming independence from state and much federal regulation, they and their members are brought into conflict with other governments and other citizens. The availability of legal remedies, both for tribal members and others, is thus a second theme of the course. Indian Law will appeal to those interested in U.S. history, in federal courts, in human rights and community autonomy, and civil litigation.

LAW4 610 - (3)
Oceans Law and Policy
This course is taught by the former U.S. Ambassador and Chairman of the National Security Council Interagency Task Force on the Law of the Sea, which coordinated United States oceans policy during the critical negotiations leading to the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. The course begins by examining the goals of oceans policy, outlining both community and United States’ interests; providing several frameworks for analysis; then defining oceans claims and their political, economic, and strategic context. After a brief introduction to oceanography, the course moves into a detailed discussion of issues in international oceans policy, including the Law of the Sea and U.S. policy, the Third UN Conference on the Law of the Sea and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, sources of current oceans law, navigation and communication, the economic zone, straddling stocks and highly migratory species, the continental margin, protection of the marine environment, marine scientific research, boundary disputes and dispute settlement, deep seabed mining, national security and international incidents, and polar policy. This section ends with an examination of several case studies on illegal oceans claims and strategies for their control. In its final section, the course explores issues in national oceans policy, focusing on Merchant Marine development, fisheries management and aquaculture, continental shelf development, coastal zone management, and organization of the national oceans policy process and the future of oceans policy.

LAW4 614 - (3)
Presidential Powers
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course will consider a variety of issues involved in the application of law to the President’s functions. Many such issues present questions of constitutional law that fall under the general rubric of "separation of powers" or "checks and balances." Therefore we will necessarily examine as well the reach of powers vested by the Constitution in other branches of government. Other issues primarily involve statutory construction or public administration. The course will include a review of such processes as law enforcement (including the institution of the independent counsel), program administration (including relations with the so called independent federal agencies), budgeting and accounting, the line item veto, executive privilege, and presidential claims of immunity. To a limited extent, we will also cover presidential authority under the war powers and in the field of foreign affairs. We will consider the major judicial decisions on these subjects, but one objective of the course is to derive an appreciation for how few of these questions have been (or could be) litigated and thus governed by clear judicial guidance. We will attempt to develop an approach for making sound judgments on the distribution and exercise of governmental powers, even when traditional sources are lacking.

LAW4 615 - (2 or 3)
Professional Responsibility
This course presents an overview of the law of lawyering, focusing on the problems presented by the various roles of a lawyer as an agent of his or her client, an officer of the court, and a member of the legal profession. Topics include prohibited assistance, competence, confidentiality (including the attorney-client privilege), and conflicts of interest, and may include duty to the court and the lawyer-client relationship. Although the course will cover the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct, a major theme of the course is the relationship, and often the tension, between the duties imposed by ethics rules and the lawyer’s obligations under "other law," including criminal law, tort law, contract law, constitutional law, procedural law, and agency law.

LAW4 618 - (2)
Employee Benefits Law (ERISA)
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax is recommended.
"Employee benefits" are the inventions of employers, unions, lawyers, actuaries, and other consultants and can represent a major portion of an employee’s compensation package, including pensions, profit-sharing and thrift plans, employee stock ownership plans, other forms of deferred compensation, medical/health plans, disability benefits, life insurance, severance pay, and all sorts of minor fringes ranging from free parking to extended leave. This benefit "package" grows significantly each year as the population ages and medical costs rise. In addition, private and governmental pension plans now own nearly 8 trillion dollars and represent a major part of the U.S. economy. The course will examine the regulatory policies and statutory rules governing the design and operation of these plans, now covered by a comprehensive statute, ERISA, and correlative tax provisions. Attention will be paid to the federal tax rules which provide favorable tax benefits to accumulations in private (and governmental) plans, including various types of tax favored savings accounts (IRAs), contributions and payment of benefits. The course is not predominantly a tax course, however, and emphasis will be placed on the labor provisions of ERISA in relation to the growing amount of litigation involving employee benefits. Other federal statutes barring discrimination on account of age, sex, and disability, bearing on the design and delivery of employee benefits will also be considered. The Social Security system will be examined for comparative purposes, and proposals to "privatize" Social Security by requiring contributions to individual savings accounts will be analyzed. Subjects covered in the course include protection of employee rights to benefits; standards for the behavior of plan assets managers and other plan fiduciaries; tax restrictions on qualification of pension plans, amounts which may be contributed to such plans, and distributions to participants and their beneficiaries; preemption of state laws; the interests of spouses and third parties in funded pensions; and judicial review of the scope of fiduciary decision-making. Materials include Langbein & Wolk, Pension and Employee Benefit Law, 3d edition (Foundation Press) with 2002 Supplement, statutory and regulatory prints, and photocopied supplements.

LAW4 619 - (3)
Refugee Law
Prerequisite: Immigration Law or permission of the instructor.
This course will provide an opportunity to learn in detail the basics of refugee law and the procedures involved in adjudicating claims to political asylum, as well as to explore selected advanced topics. Those topics will include some or all of the following: theory and philosophy of refugee protection, comparative refugee law and procedure, the special dimensions of gender-based persecution claims, U.S. overseas refugee programs, restructuring the asylum adjudication process, "temporary protected status," the role of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, regional and universal treaties concerning refugees, closer study of how the world community has coped and should cope with selected refugee situations (such as the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone, or Afghanistan), and extradition law (including the political offense exception).

LAW4 620 - (3)
Remedies
Much of law is concerned with the substantive standards that govern conduct, such as the standards that determine whether a breach of contract, a tort, or a crime has taken place. Another set of questions concerns the consequences of wrongful conduct and in particular the relief provided to the victim through the courts. The law of remedies addresses the second set of questions. This course is about the consequences of civil liability and the legal and equitable actions courts take for litigants who have been wronged or who are about to suffer wrong. (It does not deal with the substantive standards that determine whether conduct is wrongful.) Topics will include damages measurement, injunctive relief, declaratory judgments, restitution, and punitive civil remedies.

LAW4 622 - (3)
Social Science in Law
This course deals with the uses of social science by practitioners and courts. The roots of social science in legal realism are considered, and the basic components of social science methodology are introduced. No background in methodology or statistics is necessary. Both applications in the criminal context (e.g., obscenity, parole, sentencing) and in civil law (e.g., desegregation, trademarks, custody) will be considered. Psychology and sociology are the social sciences emphasized.

LAW4 623 - (3)
Securities Regulation
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This course covers the federal regulation of the issuance and trading of securities. It examines the issuance process in detail, with attention to the Securities Act of 1933 and the intricate regulations and rules promulgated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. The definition of a security, selling process in public offerings, disclosure obligations, exemptions from registration, civil liability, and Rule 10b-5 of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 will be studied. The course will apply basic principles of financial economics as analytic tools.

LAW4 624 - (3)
Sex Discrimination
This course covers the full range of issues involving sex discrimination and gender equality in public life, at work, and in the home. The emphasis in the course, however, is on constitutional law and the federal statutes, such as Title VII, prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex. The different treatment of race and sex, the proper definition of gender roles (if any), and the appropriate remedies for past discrimination also figure prominently in the course.

LAW4 627 - (3)
Sports Law
This course explores the legal rules regulating professional and amateur sports. There is a substantial treatment of both Labor Law and Antitrust regulation, but neither course is a prerequisite.

LAW4 629 - (3)
Personal Injury Law
Prerequisite: Torts.
This course begins by examining in detail the trial of a typical personal injury case, tried by a young lawyer right out of law school, from claim investigation, pleadings, discovery, trial, post trial motions, and appeal, focusing on both legal doctrines and tort litigation strategy. The course further examines both tort law theory (e.g., deterrence versus compensation) and its practical operations (e.g., jury selection) as a means of understanding both the workings of tort law, and its merits as well as its demerits. The course then takes up the merits and demerits of both relatively limited and more extensive proposals for tort reform as applied to not only auto accidents but medical malpractice and product liability.

LAW4 630 - (3)
Trusts and Estates
Prerequisite: Property.
The course covers intestate succession (when a decedent dies without a will); the execution, revocation, republication and revival of wills and codicils; probate procedure and grounds for contest of wills; requisites for the creation and termination of private trusts; problems with charitable trusts; basic material on interrelating testamentary and inter vivos transactions including contracts to make wills; the effect of change on dispositive descriptions and limitations in wills including problems pertaining to common law lapse and the anti-lapse statutes. Relevant tax aspects are considered but the course is not a substitute for courses in Estate and Gift Taxation or the Income Taxation of Trusts and Estates.

LAW4 632 - (3)
Virginia Practice and Procedure
The course is organized and presented primarily for students who intend to practice law in Virginia. Since the course deals with the procedure of one jurisdiction, there is considerable practical depth in the study of the workings of litigation in Virginia. The course includes a study of the Virginia judicial system and problems of jurisdiction and venue within that system; pleading and practice both at law and in equity, involving a study of the Rules of Court and the procedural statutes as well as the applicable case law.

LAW4 633 - (3)
Real Estate Transactions: Principles and Practice
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax recommended, but not required.
This course is about making deals to acquire or develop long-lived income producing assets, focusing specifically on financing techniques for the equity piece of investment in income producing real estate. Substantial attention is paid to the use of present value analysis and the use of spreadsheets to perform this analysis. Financial structures used to invest in real estate, principally pass-thru entities taxed as partnerships will be analyzed. Multi-family residential projects will be used for analytic purposes, including the use of low income housing tax credits. Attention will be paid to development issues, including site acquisition and evaluation, environmental regulation, market analysis and obtaining public approvals. The use of publicly held investment vehicles to finance real estate ventures will be discussed, including the use of REITs and UPREITs, investment by tax exempt institutions and issues raised by debt securitization. Attention will also be paid to debt structures and relationships between creditors and investors; protection of equity investors in troubled projects; special problems with leverage, possibly including leveraged leases; defaults and workouts.

LAW4 634 - (3)
Intellectual Property: Unfair Competition
This course will examine how legal rules affect the production and dissemination of commercial information. It will cover trademark law, trade secrets, trade dress, the right of publicity, and misappropriation law. For trademark law, the course will further examine the subject matter of trademark and trade dress protection, the need to establish secondary meaning, what constitutes likelihood of confusion, types of trademark infringement, remedies for trademark infringement, and defenses to trademark infringement claims.

LAW4 635 - (2)
Advanced Trusts and Estates
Prerequisite: Property, Trusts & Estates.
The course will cover restrictions on the power of testamentary disposition; charitable trusts; the creation, use, release and lapse of general and special powers of appointment; the classification and construction of future interests in trust, including class gifts; application of the rule against perpetuities to interests and powers in trust, including class gifts; and fiduciary administration, including the duties, powers and liabilities of trustees.

LAW4 636 - (3)
Partnership Tax
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
This course will examine the basic principles in the application of the federal income tax to partnerships and their partners. The course is taught by using problems that illustrate the principles discussed in class. Although the course material is technical in nature, operation of the rules will be related to and explained by the underlying tax theory, and the technical rules and tax theory will be applied to tax and business planning. Time permitting, the course will also examine and compare the taxation of other pass-through business entities such as S corporations, corporations filing a consolidated return, trusts, and other entities with more specialized purposes.

LAW4 639 - (3)
Administrative Law Theory and Policy
Prerequisite: Administrative Law.
This seminar will explore the theory and policy of administrative law. In particular, it will address issues of what makes administrative action legitimate, how administrative agendas get set, and how agencies respond to influence from others–both other political actors and outside interest groups. Most of the reading will consist of articles and will come from a variety of disciplines–political theory, administrative behavior theory, public choice theory, law and economics, etc.

LAW4 642 - (2)
International Sales
This course will examine sales and payments law in the context of international transactions. Topics will include the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods, documentary transactions and letters of credit under both Article 5 of the Uniform Commercial Code and the Uniform Customs and Practices, and special problems involved in dealing with foreign sovereigns (e.g., the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act). We will also take a comparative approach by looking at the way different legal systems handle similar doctrines of sales law, e.g., warranties and risk of loss. We may spend some time on Article 4A of the Uniform Commercial Code (funds transfers).

LAW4 643 - (2)
Conflict of Laws
This course examines the rules and principles that govern the resolution of multi-jurisdictional conflicts of laws in the United States. The central issue throughout the course is, simply, what law governs a multi-jurisdictional dispute? We will consider various theoretical bases for choice of law principles, as well as the principal constitutional limitations on choice of law. We will also devote some class time to advanced issues of in personam and in rem jurisdiction, the Erie doctrine, and in particular, to the recognition and enforcement of judgments.

LAW4 650 - (2)
International Trade Law and Policy
Prerequisite: International Law or International Economics are recommended, but not required.
This course introduces the institutions and rules governing trade between sovereign states. Policy perspectives are taken from international economic theory and theories of international relations. The focus is the emergent World Trade Organization, the North American Free Trade Agreement, and various institutions of U.S. trade policy. The course also considers extraterritorial aspects of major regulatory schema, such as Antitrust and Intellectual Property.

LAW4 654 - (3)
Pre-Trial Litigation: Principles and Practice
This Principles & Practice course deals with civil litigation from the initial pleadings through discovery and a wide variety of motion practice events. Students will draft pleadings, conduct discovery activities, and make a number of motions. Motion practice covered will include injunction applications, motions addressed to the pleadings (principally Rule 12 motions for failure to state a claim), venue motions, a range of discovery motions, review of Magistrate Judge decisions, and summary judgment. The course emphasizes the creation of clear and effective pleadings, and powerful briefs. Brief writing in motions at the trial court level is a central focus. Pleadings and motion papers will be submitted at intervals throughout the semester, and occasional oral arguments conducted on pending motions. Readings include leading cases on the procedural doctrines with which the students are working (pleading requirements, venue, amendment, discovery devices, dismissal motions, Magistrate Judge proceedings, summary judgment), along with illustrative samples of actual briefs and discovery paperwork for critique and discussion. Case files with detailed and realistic background materials will also be provided for use in drafting pleadings, discovery and motion papers.

LAW4 656 - (3)
Ideas of the First Amendment
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
The principal goal of the course is to develop skills of close critical reading, as well as an understanding of the central ideas of the First Amendment tradition. The emphasis is on how those ideas emerged in various historical periods from particular political, legal, and intellectual struggles. Each week is devoted to one major thinker in the tradition. Philosophical and polemical essays are studied as well as judicial opinions. We will read essays and opinions by, among others, John Milton, , James Madison, John Stuart Mill, Learned Hand, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Louis Brandeis, and Alexander Meiklejohn. Throughout the semester, we will explore how the ideas of these thinkers bear on issues of contemporary First Amendment controversy.

LAW4 659 - (3)
Foreign Relations Law
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law. International Law recommended, but not required.
This course examines the constitutional and statutory doctrines regulating the conduct of American foreign relations. The topics to be discussed include the distribution of foreign relations powers between the three branches of the federal government, the status of international law in U.S. courts, the scope of the treaty power, the validity of executive agreements, the preemption of state foreign relations activities, the power to declare and conduct war, and the political question and other doctrines regulating judicial review in foreign relations cases. Where relevant, we will focus on current events, such as events relating to the post-September 11 war on terrorism and the 2003 war in Iraq.

LAW4 661 - (3)
Employment Law Clinic
Prerequisite: Employment Law or Employment Discrimination Law recommended, but not required.
This yearlong clinical course is designed to give students first hand experience in the practice of employment law, from client interviewing and counseling through formal and informal fact gathering, drafting administrative charges of discrimination, Complaints, discovery, participating in simulated mediation, depositions, Motions arguments, opening statements and closing arguments, all of which will be considered in grading. Motions and trial advocacy skills will be taught and refined in the context of an employment discrimination case. In cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center and local attorneys, students will participate throughout the year in litigating actual employment cases. These cases may include wrongful discharge actions, unemployment compensation claims, employment discrimination charges, or any other claims arising out of the employment relationship. Specific assignments will vary according to the inventory of cases available at the time, but students should be able to conduct client interviews, participate in discovery, draft motions, and assist with trial preparation. It may also be possible for students to argue some motions (with appropriate Third Year Practice Certification).

LAW4 662 - (2)
Environmental Health
The course will cover laws and programs whose central aim is to protect human health from exposure to toxic chemicals, pesticides, air and water pollutants, and industrial chemicals. The course will touch on statutes also examined in Environmental Law–including the Clean Air Act and the Water Pollution Control Act–but it will focus on laws designed specifically to regulate toxics. A major objective of the course will be to acquaint students with the scientific research methods and the analytical tools that agencies such as EPA, OSHA, and FDA rely upon to determine which chemicals are dangerous and at what levels.

LAW4 663 - (3)
Federal Land and Natural Resource Law
Prerequisite: Environmental or Administrative Law recommended, but not required.
The seminar will survey the laws and policies governing the management of lands and natural resources under Federal ownership (some one-third of the nation’s continental land area). Beginning with a brief review of the history of federal land policy, the seminar will focus on issues relating to public lands in the east and west including national forests and parks, minerals, timber, fish and wildlife, endangered species, water, recreation, preservation of unique values, and occupancy uses. Various resource development issues will be discussed in the context of federal-state jurisdictional powers over federal lands and resources and the applicability of the National Environmental Policy Act to activities on the federal lands.

LAW4 664 - (3)
Prosecutorial Function: Principles & Practice
Prerequisite: Criminal Investigation.
The course will examine the theoretical, ethical and doctrinal principles and the practical constraints governing the exercise of the prosecutorial function at both state and federal levels. We will focus on such topics as the interplay between prosecutors and investigators, the nature of "prosecutorial discretion," the political dimension of the prosecutorial function, issues and controversies surrounding the independent counsel statute, the use and abuse of the grand jury, criminal discovery, and the special obligations of the prosecutor as trial counsel.

LAW4 678 - (3)
Internet Law
This team-taught course will explore many of the different legal issues surrounding the internet. Particular consideration will be given to whether and how the internet challenges existing legal categories and concepts. For example, how well do traditional notions of property fit the new territory? Will existing legal doctrine channel the development of the internet or will the sometimes novel demands of the internet force change in existing legal doctrine? Or both? We will likely look at most of the following substantive areas, among others: copyright, patent, trademark, privacy, personal jurisdiction, torts, cyber crime, antitrust, sales, communications law, and taxation.

LAW4 680 - (3)
Legislative Process & Statutory Interpretation
Focusing on the federal level primarily, students will examine the contemporary legislative process, including the role of interest groups and the effect of lobbying, and the legal issues implicated by recent legislative reform proposals. Some state issues will also be explored such as single-subject requirements, line item veto dynamics, and constitutional provisions designed to reduce interest group influence. Students will discuss topics such as the constitutional and political theories of representation, campaign finance reform, ballot initiatives and referenda, term limit proposals, the federal budget process, unfunded federal mandates reform, due process of lawmaking theories, and ballot access requirements. These issues are discussed from legal, economic, and political perspectives, and theoretical conclusions will be applied to practical examples of actual legislation. In addition, the course will cover theories of statutory interpretation, including the respective role of statutory text, canons of construction, legislative history, administrative regulations, and other interpretive sources.

LAW4 681 - (2)
Professional Sports and the Law
This course examines the application of a variety of legal principles to the business of professional sports. The course focuses on the application of contract law, antitrust law, and to some extent arbitration and labor law, on disputes and legal issues relating to the sports industry. Particular attention will be given to professional sports leagues and individual sports. Neither the application of law to amateur sports nor the application of tax law to sports is covered in this course.

LAW4 683 - (3)
Duty to Obey
This course will examine debates concerning our (alleged) moral duty to obey the law (and, more generally, our "political obligations"). We will explore in the process the justifications that have been offered for the various kinds of legal disobedience. Readings will be from contemporary sources in political philosophy and legal theory, and we will consider (among other things) arguments concerning consent, fairness, justice, associative responsibilities, civil disobedience, conscientious refusal, violent resistance, and revolution.

LAW4 686 - (3)
Products Liability
This course will cover the law governing liability arising from the manufacture, distribution, and sale of products. The course will tie the theoretical to both the doctrinal and practical aspects of this area of law. It will consist largely of an overview of the relevant case law, statutes, and administrative regulations, including the relatively new Restatement (Third) of Products Liability.

LAW4 688 - (3)
Biomedical Ethics
This course will provide a thorough grounding in some important areas at the intersection of law and bioethics. Some of these topics include: the physician-patient relationship (autonomy, informed consent, competency, confidentiality, divided loyalties), medical research, organ transplantation, death and dying (brain death, forgoing life-sustaining treatments, "duty to die", advance directives, medical futility, and physician-assisted suicide), abortion (philosophical arguments and legal frameworks), and maternal-fetal conflicts (late abortion, forced C-sections, drug-using mothers). At times we will compare medicine to law, e.g. a comparison of the attorney-client relationship to the physician-patient relationship, to help us examine the issues involved.

LAW4 689 - (3)
Environmental Lawyering: Principles and Practice
Prerequisite: One of the following: Administrative Law, Environmental Law, or a course in litigation.
This is a course about the tasks of lawyers representing clients in environmental disputes, from rulemaking to litigation to negotiation. Although focused on environmental problems, the course will develop skills that will be of general use in crafting and implementing strategies for clients in high visibility matters affecting the public interest. The course will develop several case scenarios based on actual proceedings. These will include a rulemaking interpreting requirements of the Clean Water Act for local watersheds, litigation over threats to an endangered aquatic species (Bull Trout), and an enforcement action under the Clean Air Act. The cases will involve a range of parties, including property owners, developers, and environmental groups as well as governmental agencies at the local, state and federal levels. You will draft documents (memoranda, pleadings, etc.) and engage in simulated hearings, negotiations and interviews of scientific experts on behalf of clients whom you will be assigned to represent. The simulations will require that you devise and carry out a strategy that advances the interests of your client within a complex legal and political setting.

LAW4 698 - (3)
Introduction to Jewish Law
In this course we study the development of Jewish law; its moral, socioeconomic, and political underpinnings; and its jurisprudential tradition in two areas: family law and criminal law. We cover several specific topics in Jewish law, including moral rights and duties; marriage and divorce; capital punishment and self-incrimination; the impact of the Holocaust on Jewish law; and Jewish law in modern Israel. Many of the reading assignments will come from case law. In addition, we will examine the law of capital punishment directly from Tractate Sanhedrin of the Talmud, the authoritative classical source of Jewish law.

LAW4 700 - (3)
Regulation of the Political Process
This course considers regulation of the right to vote and otherwise to take part in the political process. The course looks at three sorts of interests: participation, aggregation, and governance. Examples of participation issues include various restrictions on the franchise itself. Examples of aggregation issues include constitutional and statutory constraints on apportionment and districting, as well as the more mechanical question of how we decide who has won an election (e.g., the litigation surrounding the 2000 presidential election). And issues of governance include, for example, the constitutionally and desirability of direct democracy and the role of political parties.

LAW4 701 - (3)
Securities Fraud
Investors who have purchased securities based on false information have a wide range of remedies against numerous parties, including the corporate issuer, corporate officers, investment bankers, stock analysts, accountants, lawyers and others who are involved in the marketing of securities and the dissemination of information about the value of securities. The most important of these remedies arise under remedial provisions of the federal securities statutes. This course will cover the requirements of those federal causes of action, with particular attention to the cause of action under Rule 10(b)(5) and the role of class actions. One objective of this course will be to evaluate the effectiveness of the available remedies in light of the problems suggested by recent events such as the Enron debacle, the controversy over the role of stock analysts, and the significant decline in stock market values.

LAW4 705 - (3)
International Health Policy
What is a good health system? How do we know whether a health system is performing well? What makes a health system fair? These questions will be addressed through a comparison of the financing, delivery and operation of health systems in different countries throughout the world. The course will focus on both the differences in health system performance, as measured by death, disability, morbidity, access, and patient satisfaction, and the differences in health system inputs, including personnel, facilities, and infrastructure. The course will use the U.S. health care system as a basis for comparison. Throughout the course, the legal and economic systems, as well as particular case studies, will be examined. Topics will include insurance, reimbursement mechanisms, the management of data and privacy, and public-private mix.

LAW4 710 - (3)
Aging and the Law
This course will address significant legal and policy issues relating to health and financial needs of the elderly. Representative topics include ethical issues raised in representing elderly clients, financing of health care (Medicare and Medicaid) and the estate planning and legal questions that health care costs pose for elderly clients, guardianship and other mechanisms of surrogate decision-making, nursing home regulation, special housing needs for elderly individuals and the availability of assisted living facilities, elder abuse and neglect, end-of-life medical care (including physician-assisted suicide), employment discrimination, and income security (Social Security and employer-provided pensions).

LAW4 711 - (3)
Bioethics and Jewish Law
This course will examine the approach of Jewish law to bioethical issues. After an introduction to the basic concepts, values, and sources of Jewish law, we will study the application of Jewish law to several bioethical topics including the duty of medical treatment, abortion, artificial insemination, euthanasia, organ transplantation, and cloning. Reading assignments will come from classical sources of Jewish law, rabbinic response, modern scholarly discussions, and Israeli case law. We will compare the treatment of these issues in Jewish law and American law. Experts in these areas will be invited to address the class. This course assumes no prior training in either Jewish law or bioethics.

LAW4 712 - (3)
Corporations (Law & Business)
Prerequisite: Accounting, Corporate Finance.
This course will consider the formation and operation of corporations and will compare corporations to other business forms. It will examine the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence and litigate against those in control. The course will also address the special problems of closely held corporations and issues arising out of mergers and attempts to acquire firms. The course will use both new tools derived from the corporate finance and related literature and traditional tools to explore a wide range of phenomena and transactions associated with the modern business enterprise.

LAW4 714 - (3)
Legal Issues in Corporate Finance
Prerequisite: Accounting, Corporate Finance, Corporations.
This course examines legal issues associated with financing choices made by corporations. The main objective is in understanding how and why different financing choices affect the value of the firm, how the courts have viewed such choices, and what, if any, changes may be necessary in our and the courts’ perspectives. The topics include debt securities and the role of protective covenants, the impact of bankruptcy in firm valuation, firms’ choice over different dividend policies, and legal and financial issues in change of control transactions.

LAW4 722 - (3)
First Amendment Freedoms
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This elective sequel to the required introductory course will focus significantly on First Amendment doctrine and theory including free speech, freedom of the press, and religion.

LAW4 724 - (3)
Germs and Justice: Law and Disease
In this course we will examine legal issues associated with efforts to prevent or limit the spread of infectious diseases. We will have a number of guest speakers from the medical, legal, and public health sectors assisting us with our discussions. We will begin with a historical overview of early infectious disease treatment and prevention methods, how the existence of infectious diseases has influenced the development of public health law, and the effectiveness and impact of public health law measures designed to control infectious diseases. We will then move on to current issues such as the use of voluntary and mandatory quarantine; identification and notification requirements; and mandatory screening, testing, and treatment. We will also consider the government’s role in combating infectious diseases, including its regulation of vaccine and medication research and development and proprietary rights to the products of this research and development. We will compare public health responses to AIDS with previous responses to infectious diseases such as tuberculosis and compare both to current responses to diseases like SARS. We will examine the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program and new pending legislation, and study the various interest groups concerned with that legislation. We will also address some international issues such as access to vaccines and medications, how international agreements affect that access, and ethical issues associated with research on infectious disease among international populations. Finally, we will delve into issues of bioterrorism and how proposed responses to bioterrorism comport with existing public health measures and related law.

LAW5 601 - (3)
Indochina War: Legal and Policy Issues
Prerequisite: International Law or National Security Law recommended, but not required.
Few national security law issues have been more controversial or more misunderstood than America’s tragic involvement in Indochina, and to profit from our past mistakes we must first ascertain what really happened and what went wrong. Not only is it useful to review the old Indochina debates in the light of recent evidence (e.g., what really happened in the Gulf of Tonkin in August 1964?), but the conflict provides a rich case study for examining a diverse range of broader national security legal and policy issues, including the legal regulation of the initiation of coercion and the conduct of military operations, the role of Congress in the use of military force (e.g., the 1973 War Powers Resolution), and legal regimes governing war crimes and the treatment of prisoners of war).

LAW5 602 - (3)
American Legal History
This seminar provides students with an opportunity to investigate problems in American legal history and to learn from one another. Each student will write a 40-page research paper, evaluate five or six papers written by classmates, and participate in weekly discussions of important works written from different historiographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. Each student will also have a weekly appointment time to discuss (and establish) with the instructor a topic, an appropriate method, and a plan of work. Papers may focus on the eighteenth, the nineteenth, or the twentieth centuries.

LAW5 605 - (3)
Antitrust Practice
The seminar covers problems involved in dealing with Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission proceedings and in dealing with private suits, including mergers, joint ventures, intellectual property matters, and international trade matters. There is coverage of bread and butter advice that companies need for distribution, pricing, and other aspects of their regular business planning. The seminar also discusses the economic theories that provide much of the underpinning of antitrust law. The seminar concludes with a mini moot court, which consists of an appellate brief and an oral argument, and provides an opportunity to gain practical experience with a real life antitrust problem.

LAW5 606 - (3)
War and Peace: New Thinking about the Causes of War and War Avoidance
Prerequisite: National Security Law or International Law recommended, but not required.
This interdisciplinary seminar will explore some of the latest thinking about the causes of international armed conflict and the ways in which future wars might be avoided and peace preserved. This seminar builds upon work they began more than a decade ago as, respectively, the first Chairman of the Board and president of the congressionally-established U.S. Institute of Peace. Recent studies by Yale Professors Donald Kagan (History) and Bruce Russett (Political Science), and by University of Hawaii Political Science Professor Rudy Rummel, will be examined, along with a number of traditional intellectual approaches ranging from international law, arms control, and world federalism, to deterrence theory. Case studies of past wars will be examined to test competing theories.

LAW5 607 - (3)
Hallmarks of Distinguished Advocacy
Each session consists of two roughly equal parts, an instruction segment and a learn-by-doing exercise. The first hour will focus on a discreet aspect of advocacy, featuring presentations and demonstrations by one or more seasoned oral advocates interspersed with videotape selections from famous actual or movie version trials, other famous and infamous oral presentations (inaugural addresses, "I Have a Dream," and others), audio tapes from Supreme Court arguments and other materials designed to illustrate both superb and disastrous oral work. The second hour of each class will give the students an opportunity to perform short, and be critiqued on, oral advocacy exercises.

LAW5 608 - (3)
Advanced Criminal Law
Using case law and legislative materials, as well as "real" world scenarios such as pre-trial restraints, indictments, forfeitures, and parallel civil actions, we will examine the relationship between new devices and old concepts. The object will be not only to master the most novel and ambitious aspects of federal criminal law, such as RICO, money laundering, and criminal and civil forfeitures, but also to think creatively about how (or whether) these approaches can be reconciled with traditional notions of criminal responsibility, due process, and fair play. Among the topics to be covered will be the vagueness doctrine and complex criminal and regulatory offenses; forfeitures, pre-trial restraints, and due process; the distinction between civil and criminal actions; money laundering and its consequences for right to counsel and attorney-client privilege; and the tension between sentencing guidelines and enhancements and due process and jury trial guarantees.

LAW5 610 - (3)
Business Reorganization under Chapter 11
Prerequisite: Bankruptcy recommended, but not required.
This seminar will focus on the practical and strategic applications of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The seminar will examine applicable statutory and case law with particular emphasis on hypothetical and actual fact situations to demonstrate how the Chapter 11 process work. Legal and tactical considerations confronting debtors and creditors in a business reorganization will be analyzed so that students can appreciate the negotiation, litigation and transactional components of a Chapter 11 case. At the conclusion of the semester, students will participate in a mock Chapter 11 plan confirmation hearing presided over by a United States Bankruptcy Judge.

LAW5 611 - (2)
Civil Liberties
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
The seminar is a survey and discussion of selected contemporary problems in civil liberties such as freedom of speech, freedom of the press, censorship, religious liberty, rights of privacy, academic freedom, sexual orientation, and alcohol and drug abuse, using both case law and contemporary writings as base materials. There is some overlap with Constitutional Law II, as to both subject matter and particular cases addressed.

LAW5 615 - (3)
The Rule of Law: Controlling Government in Contemporary Legal Thought
The seminar reviews the growing body of information about government failure internationally and domestically; examines theoretical approaches to explaining such failure, including public choice theory; and then examines the implications for the rule of law and constitutional and legal reform as applied to controlling government. Each session seeks to develop the meaning and importance of the rule of law, and to involve the students in development of a legal framework for controlling government, empowering the individual, and celebrating human freedom. Case studies reviewed this year will include social security reform, campaign finance reform, the property rights movement, and promotion of democracy.

LAW5 618 - (3)
Securities Regulation (Law & Business)
Prerequisite: Accounting, Corporate Finance, Corporations.
The course will examine the federal statutes and regulations relating to the sale of securities and the duties of issuers, underwriters, brokers, dealers, officers, directors, controlling persons and other significant market participants. Our focus throughout will be on compliance rather than litigation (which is the subject of a separate course). Securities markets are important areas of study for accounting and finance. Moreover, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other federal regulators oversee the accounting and financial professions. We will accordingly draw on your knowledge of those disciplines.

LAW5 619 - (5)
Criminal Defense Clinic
Prerequisites: Third-year status, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law or Criminal Procedure, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, and eligibility for Third Year Practice Certification. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required.
The Criminal Defense Clinic is designed to provide for a first-hand, experience based study of the processes, techniques, strategy, and responsibilities of legal representation at the trial level. The casework component of the clinic will engage the students in the representation of defendants in actual criminal cases arising in the local courts under the direct supervision of an experienced local criminal defense attorney.

LAW5 622 - (3)
Criminal Procedure
Prerequisite: Criminal Adjudication or Criminal Investigation recommended, but not required.
The seminar aims to develop a working familiarity with the law and procedural rules governing conduct of a criminal case at the trial court level, and their practical and tactical application. Pretrial and trial stages are covered, including: grand jury proceedings, indictments, immunity grants, pretrial motions, pretrial discovery, plea bargaining, motions and objections during trial, evidentiary issues arising on direct and cross-examination, post-trial motions, sentencing, protecting the record for appeal. The seminar is based upon the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and comparable provisions of State jurisdictions, and also covers certain provisions of the Federal Rules of Evidence which have particular pertinence to criminal trials.

LAW5 630 - (3)
Environmental Practice Clinic
The Southern Environmental Law Center will supervise up to three students per semester. These students will engage in supervised environmental practice activities at the Center, which is located at 201 West Main Street in Charlottesville, VA. Deborah Murray, David Carr and other attorneys at the Center will participate in the supervision. Examples of cases which may be pending are Clean Water Act citizen suits, wetlands cases, air permit appeals, road project cases, NEPA challenges, and forest management cases. Students will be involved in legal and factual research, as well as writing pleadings, briefs and other significant documents.

LAW5 638 - (3)
First Amendment and the Arts
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This seminar focuses on the varied and complex interaction between constitutional protection for freedoms of expression and the creative and performing arts. Topics covered include the impact on the arts of obscenity laws, and of civil suits seeking damages for the consequences of creative activity; special problems in the display and performance of controversial works; constitutional issues raised by restrictions on government funding of the arts; and current policy issues such as regulating violence in entertainment and on television.

LAW5 642 - (3)
Historic Preservation Law
The seminar reviews the structure of historic preservation law in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local level, and the policy issues facing governmental units regarding the preservation of historic buildings and sites. Comparisons are made to programs in other countries and to efforts undertaken at the international level to foster preservation. The course includes visits to area preservation sites.

LAW5 648 - (3)
Emerging Markets: Principles and Practice
This seminar explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of the so-called "emerging markets," and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Topics to be covered include: forms of foreign investment and commercial transactions, local accreditation, taxation, the privatization process, intellectual property protection, import-export regulations, currency controls, project and conventional financing, banking, the development and regulation of capital markets, securities and commodities exchanges, financing, labor law, environmental protection, and antitrust issues. The core of the seminar will be based on an actual investment project involving the development of energy resources in Russia. Russia is used throughout the course as an example of an emerging market presenting particular characteristics and problems that provide important insights into emerging markets elsewhere in the world.

LAW5 647 - (3)
International Human Rights Law Clinic
Prerequisite: Second or third-year status and a course in International Human Rights Law or International Law, or permission of the instructor.
This semester long clinical course will give students first-hand experience in human rights advocacy under the supervision of international human rights lawyers. Projects are designed to give students practical experience with the range of activities in which lawyers engage to promote respect for human rights; to help students build the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective human rights lawyers; and to integrate the theory and practice of human rights. Each student will be expected to work on two projects. Class sessions will provide the opportunity to discuss human rights law concepts and lawyering practice, and the legal, strategic, ethical and theoretical issues raised by the project work. The clinic will also provide instruction in and development of international human rights law research and writing skills. The clinic may have one or more adjunct instructors. There is no live-client representation in this clinic.

LAW5 649 - (3)
Antitrust Review Mergers in a Global Environment
Prerequisite: Antitrust, undergraduate economics coursework, or similar experience recommended, but not required.
In this seminar, students will learn how domestic and international mergers and acquisitions are reviewed under the antitrust laws, with an emphasis on U.S. antitrust law at the federal level. Topics will include market definition and measures of market concentration; theories of liability for anticompetitive horizontal, vertical and conglomerate mergers; methods for predicting anticompetitive effects; failing firm, efficiencies, and other defenses; remedies; and enforcement mechanics. We will also spend some time on extraterritorial application of U.S. merger law, merger control law in Europe, and the problems associated with mergers that are subject to challenge under the antitrust laws of more than one country. Case studies will include the recent decisions in the SBC/Ameritech and Boeing/McDonnell Douglas mergers. Assigned reading for the course will go beyond U.S. Supreme Court decisions, which are often outdated in this field, and include leading lower court decisions, government enforcement guidelines, filed complaints, consent settlements, proposed legislation, and other "nontraditional" materials.

LAW5 652 - (3)
Appellate Litigation Clinic
Prerequisite: Third year status.
This yearlong clinical course provides students the opportunity to brief and argue one or more appeals before a federal appeals court. The rules and procedure applicable in the federal appellate system will be examined. Fundamentals of oral and written appellate advocacy will be discussed, with a focus on each student’s individual work project.

LAW5 657 - (3)
Law and Higher Education
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law helpful, but not required.
This seminar focuses on the areas of the law with particular application to the operations of institutions of higher education. Topics include institutional governance and policy making; faculty and student rights and responsibilities; Constitutional issues involving application of the guarantees of the First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments; civil rights issues, including diversity and affirmative action, the rights of the disabled, and gender-based issues; liability issues in the institutional setting; research-related issues; issues concerning affiliated entities; and the legal implications of increasing technology in higher education.

LAW5 659 - (3)
Alternative Dispute Resolution: Mediation
Basic approaches to mediation will be explored through readings, exercises, discussion and role play. Topics will include styles of handling conflict, negotiation, strategies for non-adversarial problem-solving, and the role of advocates and advocacy in non-traditional dispute resolution. Techniques will be demonstrated and students will participate in role playing to sharpen their own skills both as advocates and neutrals. Mediation skills training will be conducted over a weekend in the middle of the semester and will be a requirement for completion of the course.

LAW5 660 - (3)
Government Ethics: Conflicts of Interest, Lobbying and Campaign Finance
There is increasing concern in Congress and in the various state legislatures about the rules governing conflicts of interest, lobbying and campaign finance. Particularly at the state level, where legislators generally are part-time and have vocations outside the legislature, conflicts of interest often are hard to avoid, and the appropriate remedy when they do arise is not always clear. Should the remedy for a potential conflict be disqualification from participation in the consideration of a measure, or merely a requirement to disclose the conflict, leaving it to the electorate to decide at the ballot box whether a person has engaged in inappropriate conflicts? Should the rules cover "appearances" of conflicts, or be limited to actual conflicts? Lobbying presents equally difficult issues. Particularly at the state level, where individual legislators’ staffs and committee staffs are quite small, lobbyists often play an essential role in the legislative debate on issues. Yet lobbyists can abuse their access to legislators. What is the appropriate balance and how should it be achieved? Finally, it is an unfortunate fact of politics that campaigns cost money--increasingly, a great deal of money. What restrictions have legislatures and courts placed on the financing of campaigns, and what reforms are necessary? These issues are of great importance to the fabric of our society. But they also have practical implications for lawyers. It is becoming increasingly difficult for clients to conduct business with government officials and agencies without a reasonably sophisticated grasp of the rules governing conflicts of interest, lobbying and campaign finance. Clients expect their lawyer to be familiar with these rules.

LAW5 662 - (3)
Legislative Drafting and Public Policy
Each student in this seminar will draft legislation and supporting documentation on an issue of particular interest to the student. Where possible, students will be put in touch with the staff member of the Office of the Attorney General, General Assembly, or Division of Legislative Services (Virginia’s legislative drafting office) who is interested in the issue being researched by the student. Topics researched by students in past semesters include: domestic violence, euthanasia, sexual harassment, gun control, recycling, oil spill liability, migrant farm workers, hostile corporate takeovers, sexually transmitted diseases, fetal abuse, dram shop legislation, non-tidal wetlands, animal rights, campaign finance reform, conflicts of interest, joint custody, criminal records checks for child care workers, drug testing of public employees, surrogate parenting, workfare, the State lottery, hate-violence, and landlord-tenant law revisions.

LAW5 664 - (3)
Comparative Law
This seminar examines the issues of institutional design and structure that confront the modern legal world. It will introduce the student to the fundamental features of different legal systems, especially those in Europe and parts of the developing world. The efforts of formerly communist countries to create new legal systems has provoked a critical review of the achievements and deficiencies of the Anglo-American and Continental legal traditions as well as considerable experimentation with hybrid institutions. The seminar will consider the influence of ideology on law, the reform process, this influence of various models, and the realization of institutional change in constitutional, civil, criminal and administrative law. It will also examine the impact of international institutions such as the European Union and the European Court of Human Rights on domestic law.

LAW5 670 - (3)
Legal Regulation of Research on Human Subjects
This seminar probes the ethical and legal dimensions of scientific research when human beings are research subjects. In addition to historical background on the Nuremberg Code, the Belmont Report and other sources of normative statements about the ethical and legal boundaries of research, the course will investigate: the federal regulatory apparatus under which research is currently conducted, including the role of Institutional Review Boards in approving scientific investigations under the federal rules and other statutory conditions that must be met by institutions receiving federal funds; scientific integrity and misconduct, including the legal significance of conflicts of interest and fraud in research; special entities and populations affected by research including research on fetuses and fetal tissue, children, the cognitively impaired, the aged, prisoners and other institutionalized populations; genetic research, with particularly reference to the confidentiality of genetic information it generates; and, liabilities that arise for providers and health care institutions who provide experimental treatment as part of a therapeutic regimen. The seminar will have an interdisciplinary perspective, and include presentations from faculty in medicine, bioethics and the sciences.

LAW5 671 - (3)
Psychiatry and Criminal Law
This interdisciplinary seminar will focus on intersections between the criminal justice and mental health systems, drawing on the expertise and experiences of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers, as well as lawyers and their clients. In addition to traditional seminar class sessions, the course will include the observation of live and videotaped psychiatric evaluations conducted through the Forensic Clinic at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and a visit to the forensic unit of a state psychiatric hospital. Specific seminars will explore contemporary issues in forensic psychiatry including: (1) adjudicative competency (e.g. competency to stand trial, competency to waive rights), (2) criminal responsibility (e.g. the insanity defense, diminished capacity), (3) mental health expert testimony, (4) mental disorder and violence, (5) criminality and mental illness; (6) capital cases, (7) juvenile offenders, and (8) sex offenders.

LAW5 676 - (3)Tobacco Policy Research Seminar
Participants in this interdisciplinary seminar will review and discuss recent empirical research bearing on laws and policies regarding prevention of smoking and the regulation of cigarettes and other tobacco products, including taxation and pricing, advertising and promotion, youth access, FDA jurisdiction, effects of anti-smoking media campaigns and warnings, environmental tobacco smoke restrictions, etc. Many sessions will feature presentations by UVa faculty members conducting research under the auspices of a grant from the Virginia Tobacco Settlement Foundation, as well as by other invited speakers from other universities. Students and faculty will be drawn from medicine, economics, psychology, political science and other disciplines.

LAW5 680 - (6)
The Prosecution Clinic
Prerequisite: Third-year status, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Criminal Adjudication or Criminal Investigation, Evidence, Professional Responsibility, Trial Advocacy, and eligibility for Third Year Practice Certification. Constitutional Law and Negotiation Institute are recommended, but not required.
This yearlong clinical course will expose students to all aspects of the prosecutorial function. Through a combination of classroom lectures and discussions, readings, and a field placement in one of several local participating prosecutors’ offices, students will explore a range of practical, ethical and intellectual issues involved in the discharge of a prosecutor’s duties and responsibilities including the exercise of discretion in the decision to initiate, prosecute, reduce or drop charges; interaction between prosecutors and investigative agencies and law enforcement personnel; dealing with victims and other witnesses; and relationships with defense counsel. Ethical issues may include: discovery and exculpatory evidence, duty not to prosecute on less than probable cause, cross-warrant situations, prosecution of multiple defendants and joint trial, witness recantation and preparation, and improper argument at trial.

LAW5 685 - (3)
Trial Advocacy
Prerequisite: Evidence.
In this seminar students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel.

LAW5 686 - (2)
Trial Advocacy Institute
The Trial Advocacy Institute of the National Trial Advocacy College is offered each January through the offices of Virginia Continuing Legal Education (CLE) in cooperation with the Law School. The Institute is directed by Professor Stephen Saltzburg, a former professor at the UVa School of Law, who holds the Howrey Chair in Trial Advocacy, Litigation and Professional Responsibility at the George Washington University Law School. The faculty consists of some of America’s best trial lawyers and outstanding judges. The Institute represents the most advanced advocacy training that the Law School offers, and it has been widely regarded as one of the best programs in the country for more than 20 years.

LAW5 691 - (3)
Free Expression in Cyberspace
The first part of the course will address the nature of expression in new media, potential liability for threats and incitement on the Internet, remedies against digital defamation, the status of obscenity and child pornography in cyberspace, the increasingly complex issues of "indecent" Internet material and material that is "harmful to minors", and regulation of commercial speech (including "spam" or junk e-mail) on the Internet.

LAW5 694 - (3)
Criminology
This seminar will examine the complex ways in which law is used to regulate the level of individual violence in society. Topics will include the uses of criminal law (e.g., deterrence, incapacitation, rehabilitation), public health law (e.g., gun control, drug and alcohol restrictions), mental health law (e.g., involuntary hospitalization) and tort law (e.g., liability for failure to prevent violence). Legal theory and empirical research will receive equal emphasis.

LAW5 695 - (3)
Current Legal Ideas
This seminar will explore the greatest hits in legal thinking over the last several years. Each week we’ll look at an article pushing at the edge of some envelope in legal theory. Law and economics, legal feminist theory, and First Amendment theory will all be fair game. Indeed, we’ll be looking at whatever looks most interesting and we’ll be sure to spread out over the landscape so as not to be too narrow.

LAW5 698 - (3)
International Environmental Law
This course examines the legal, political, and scientific aspects of various problems of biodiversity and atmospheric pollution that are the subject of international treaties. Our legal analyses will focus on the texts of those treaties, but we will also examine relevant U.S. domestic law and some international trade law. The course will include a series of simulated international negotiating and drafting sessions.

LAW5 700 - (3)
Supreme Court Justices and the Art of Judging
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
Key figures on the modern Supreme Court will be the focus of this seminar. We will consider selected justices - their background before coming to the Court, their major decisions, their jurisprudence, their interaction with other justices, their legacy. We will take stock of these justices both through their own writings and through the views of commentators, including judicial biographers.

LAW5 704 - (5)
Negotiation and Public Practice Clinic
Prerequisite: Third-year status; second-year students may apply. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required.
This yearlong clinic provides students with an opportunity to develop practical skills in negotiation, legal writing, litigation, legislation, public policy, and politics through a yearlong internship in local government. Students will work under the supervision of a city or county attorney in the Charlottesville area and will assist in the development of public policy; negotiate cases involving land use, tax, environment or similar public policy issues; engage in third year courtroom practice (if applicable); and make presentations before local governing bodies. The course will enable students to experience firsthand the unique challenges and rewards of public practice and, at the same time, allow them to perform valuable community service.

LAW5 706 - (1)
Seminars in Ethical Values
Prerequisite: Third-year status. Second-year students may enroll beginning August 1.
The Mary Morton Parsons Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students’ understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.

LAW5 707 - (3)
Estate Planning: Principles & Practice
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax, Trusts and Estates, Federal Taxation of Gratuitous Transfers (this course may be taken concurrently).
This seminar will consider the principal tax and non-tax aspects of estate planning, with emphasis on sophisticated tax planning techniques for wealthy individuals. Topics to be covered will include: pre-marital planning with special attention to second marriages; use of marital deduction, credit shelter, and generation-skipping trusts; techniques for lifetime transfers of assets; use of charitable trusts and other deferred giving techniques; life insurance in estate plans; dealing with special assets, such as personal residences, art and other collectibles, farms and ranches, retirement benefits, and closely held businesses including family limited partnerships; planning for the payment of taxes, including both federal and state taxes; post mortem planning; fiduciary income tax planning; planning for possible changes in tax law; selection of beneficiaries, especially where there are no children, and the achievement of equity among family members and other beneficiaries; fundamental considerations in estate administration: comparison of wills, trusts, and other techniques; and ethical considerations in estate planning.

LAW5 709 - (3)
Guns, Germs, and Lead: Public Health Law and Ethics
This course will explore the legitimacy, design and implementation of a variety of policies aiming to promote public health and reduce the social burden of disease and injury. It will highlight the challenge posed by public health’s population-based perspective to traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven approaches to bioethics and constitutional law. Other themes center on conflicts between public health and public morality and the relationship between public health and social justice. Illustrative topics include mandatory immunization, screening and reporting of infectious diseases, prevention of lead poisoning, food safety, prevention of firearm injuries, airbags and seat belts, mandatory drug testing, syringe exchange programs, tobacco regulation, and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising.

LAW5 711 - (3)
International and Foreign Legal Research
Prerequisite: Legal Research and Writing.
This course provides a survey of research resources, methods and strategies unique to international and foreign law. Topics to be examined include public international law (e.g., the law of treaties), private international law (e.g., commercial law), foreign law, as well as selected topics of international interest such as arbitration, human rights, intellectual property, environmental law, trade law, etc. The main purposes of this course are to (1) introduce students to the components of a complex international legal problem; (2) develop research skills using basic print sources, online databases and the Internet; and (3) offer strategies on how and where to find the law and information.

LAW5 712 - (3)
Patent and Licensing Clinic I
Prerequisite: Intellectual Property: Patent.
This semester long clinic involves instruction and practical training in patent drafting as well as the negotiation and drafting of patent and software license agreements. Students will participate in class sessions covering these topics and will be assigned to one or more significant drafting and counseling projects in one or both of these two areas. Other functions which the clinic experience is expected to cover include evaluation of inventions and computer software for patentability and commercial value, counseling of UVa faculty inventors regarding patentability, inventorship, and the patenting process, preparation, filing and prosecution of provisional U.S. patent applications, dealing with patent examiners and researching current issues in the fields of intellectual property and technology transfer. Some exposure to international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty may be possible. Resolution of disputes with licensees and possible infringers will be undertaken where appropriate.

LAW5 715 - (3)
American Expansion and American Law
This seminar will explore the various legal and constitutional issues that have arisen in the course of the territorial expansion of the United States from the eastern seaboard across the continent and into the Pacific and the Caribbean. Examples of the topics covered by the readings may include territorial acquisition (e.g., the Louisiana Purchase, the annexation of Texas, the Mexican Cession, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Pacific Islands), Native American law and the removal of Native American populations, the regulation of slavery in the federal territories, the preservation of law and order in areas without effective civil authority, the legal status of indigenous inhabitants of acquired territories, clashes of legal culture along legal frontiers, and the formation of "creole" legal cultures.

LAW5 719 - (5)
Housing Law Clinic
Prerequisite: Second or third year status. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required.
This yearlong clinic, offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, includes both a classroom seminar and supervised client representation in housing related cases and matters. The classroom component will focus on statutes and policies in Virginia and federal housing law, as well as procedural and evidentiary issues likely to be encountered in the litigation of housing cases. Instruction in client interviewing, negotiation and trial preparation (including mock trials) will also be provided. Throughout the year, students will also work with the Center’s organizational clients to influence the allocation of state and federal funds to support housing for low income people. This work will include working closely with organizations such as the Public Housing Association of Residents to develop written comments and public testimony concerning the federally mandated Consolidated Plan and Public Housing Plan, and to provide other advocacy support in furtherance of these objectives.

LAW5 729 - (3)
Gender and the Law
This seminar will investigate the legal and political significance of gender in contemporary culture. Readings will focus on the history of the feminist movement, as well as on current developments in feminist jurisprudence, and will include many of the central texts concerning the ways in which gender does and should shape our individual and collective destinies. The seminar will explore a range of issues that affect the lives of women and men, including education and employment opportunities, pregnancy related issues and parental rights, marriage and divorce, as well as topics more directly concerning the regulation of sexuality and sexual orientation.

LAW6 614 - (3)
Airline Industry and Aviation Law
An introduction to the Transportation Code, the domestic and international airline industry, and the manner in which business responds to legal demands, and vice versa, using the dynamic and highly capitalized aviation industry as a focal point. Attention also will be given to key current issues including foreign control of airlines, Homeland Security issues, and other similarly timely topics. Frequent visitors from industry will join in the class.

LAW7 601 - (3)
First Amendment Clinic
Prerequisite: One of the following: Constitutional Law II: Church and State, Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Speech and Press or Civil Liberties.
This semester long clinic is conducted in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression (www.tjcenter.org), the First Amendment Clinic offers law students the opportunity to gain practical legal experience involving timely free speech and press issues. Supervised by the legal staff of the Thomas Jefferson Center, students enrolled in the clinic work as a team in conducting legal research, meeting with clients, and co-counsel, and drafting legal memoranda and briefs. Assignments typically involve appellate-level litigation, although there are occasional trial-level opportunities. Students also work on a variety of non-litigation projects. Recent tasks of that sort have involved reviewing proposed municipal ordinances for potential First Amendment flaws, and the drafting for the American Bar Association of a handbook detailing media rights of access to the courtroom.

LAW7 603 - (3)
Current Issues in Federal Tax Policy
Prerequisite: Federal Income Tax.
The seminar will cover a variety of significant federal tax policy issues currently under consideration in the Congress and in political and academic debates. Among these are current proposals to revise the present federal income tax or replace it, in whole or in part, with various forms of consumption taxes, including the so-called "flat tax," a value added tax used in many foreign countries, or a national retail sales tax. Attention will be given to current efforts by the Treasury to deal with "tax shelters" undertaken by corporations, and also by individuals, to reduce their federal income tax liability; efforts recently by U.S. corporations to go through a process of "inversions" so they become subsidiaries of new corporations organized in Bermuda or other countries having little or no income taxes; efforts to simplify the current income tax; to the relative tax burdens of single and married persons; to proposals to restructure the social security taxes and benefits; and to new problems involved in sales taxes and income taxes in international and interstate transactions via the Internet and e-mail.

LAW7 608 - (3)
Colloquium in American Legal History
This is a reading and discussion course in selected topics in the history and historiography of American law. Topics for consideration will include the law of slavery, Reconstruction, family law, immigration, citizenship, liberty of contract, freedom of speech, legal thought, and the civil rights revolution.

LAW7 609 - (3)
Persuasion for Advocates
This seminar will explore principles and techniques of persuasion as applied in the legal arena. After an initial review of techniques of persuasive oral advocacy, we will treat the application of those techniques in opening, closing, witness examination and oral argument. Other sessions will demonstrate the effective use of visual aids as persuasive tools and examine the application of persuasive principles in written advocacy. Lecture and discussion will be supplemented with copious videotape and audiotape examples of effective and ineffective advocacy.

LAW7 612 - (3)
Race and the Law
This course will examine the response of law to racial issues in a variety of contemporary legal contexts, with an emphasis on issues concerning African-Americans. Topics will likely include affirmative action, criminal justice, voting rights, interracial relationships and adoption, and hate speech.

LAW7 617 - (3)
First Amendment Theory
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law, any First Amendment course.
The seminar will consist of two stages. First, we will devote a few weeks to acquiring an overview of general writing about the freedom of speech, including both philosophical and historical treatments. After that, we will devote each session to a close critique of one (relatively short, usually recent) law review article on the subject. The principal objective of the seminar is to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis. After the introductory weeks devoted to general background, the workload will be light in terms of sheer pages but heavy in terms of the command students are expected to have of the specific arguments in each article.

LAW7 619 - (3)
Supreme Court from Warren to Rehnquist
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
The Supreme Court under Chief Justice Earl Warren is remembered as having been one of the most "activist" Courts in American history. During the years of Chief Justice Warren Burger, the Court seemed to lack a sense of direction, and the "counter-revolution" some observers had predicted never came about. Where do we see the Court under Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist going? Among the themes likely to be developed in this seminar are: (1) the origins of the Warren Court, that Court’s legacy, and the extent to which that legacy survives today; (2) the relation between presidential politics and the work of the Court; (3) the interplay between the Court and the country at large; (4) specific doctrinal developments; (5) the philosophies of the individual justices; and (6) voting blocs and behavior on the Court.

LAW7 626 - (3)
Feminism and the Free Market
Feminist theory has exhibited great ambivalence concerning women’s participation in market activities. The increasing percentage of women in the labor force meets with approval, but controversy rages over whether women should be permitted to profit financially from their uniquely feminine capacities. In a variety of contexts, arguments are advanced that particular goods and services should be in part or in whole beyond the exchange process. This seminar will examine possible reasons for limiting the scope of the market domain, including assertions that certain human attributes are inherently priceless and that specific forms of market interactions degrade even willing participants. Seminar meetings will include discussions of surrogacy contracts, market exchanges of sexual services, and the role of contracts in intimate and familial relationships.

LAW7 628 - (3)
Emerging Growth Companies and Venture Capital Financing: Principles and Practice
Prerequisite or Concurrent: Corporations.
This course deals with legal and business issues that arise in the context of representing emerging growth technology companies, with a particular emphasis on corporate formation, governance and capital structure, key employee contracts, venture capital transactions and intellectual property. The course will provide an introduction to practice in this area through the eyes of an attorney who is active in Northern Virginia’s technology market and who practices with a Silicon Valley-based law firm. The course will include several practice exercises designed to introduce students, working in practice teams, to the process of structuring and executing transactions in this area

LAW7 630 - (3)
Law, Medicine, and Health Policy
This course will provide an overview of the health system in the United States with emphasis on the clinical and medical implications of health policy. It will compare and contrast the legal and medical perspectives on topics such as managed care, health care financing, public health, technology innovation, research on human subjects, professional licensure and credentialing, physician, hospital and insurer liability, and a variety of patient care issues.

LAW7 632 - (3)
Readings in the Religion Clauses
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
The seminar will be conducted in two stages. First, we will devote a number of weeks to acquiring an overview of writings about the freedom of religion, including both philosophical and historical treatments. In the remaining weeks we will devote each session to a close critique of one (relatively short) law review article on the subject. Each student will write two ten-page critiques of two articles of their choice, identifying any problems with the authors’ arguments. Each student will also serve as the author’s advocate for two article sessions, defending the article against all challenges. (A brief–one to two-page–outline is the only written requirement for this role.) The principal objectives of the seminar are to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis as well as to deepen understanding of the difficult issues surrounding the freedom of religion. While the introductory weeks will involve the heaviest reading assignments, the workload in the latter portion of the seminar will be lighter in terms of pages of reading but heavier in terms of the command students will be expected to have of the specific arguments in each article.

LAW7 634 - (5)
Child Advocacy Clinic
Prerequisite: Second- or third-year status. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required.
This yearlong clinic is offered in conjunction with JustChildren, a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. Students enrolled in the Child Advocacy Clinic may represent children with legal issues in the areas of (1) education law; (2) laws governing access to services for incarcerated children; (3) mental health and developmental disabilities law; and (4) foster care and social services law. In some cases, students may work with the child’s Public Defender to develop sentencing options for the Juvenile Court that will meet the child’s needs. The seminar also will focus on the development of the practical skills needed to become an effective child advocate including interviewing, counseling, negotiation and trial advocacy.

LAW7 639 - (3)
Environmental Ethics
This seminar focuses on the ethical dimensions of the choices we make, individually and collectively, affecting the environment. Jointly led by an ethicist and an environmental lawyer, it will examine a range of theories and views about the right relationship between us humans and the world in which we find ourselves. These include utilitarian theories (including economic approaches); religious and cultural perspectives; environmental justice; ecocentric and biocentric theories; theories of the rights of animals and nature; deep ecology, ecofeminism, and place-based environmental ethics; and obligations to future generations. We will not only seek to come to terms philosophically with these theories and concepts but also explore how they might apply in actual policy settings.

LAW7 640 - (3)
Intelligence Law and Policy
The seminar will provide background on the history of U.S. intelligence operations, and proceed to an overview of the present intelligence community structure including the creation, organization and functions of the National Security Council. Basic statutes and executive orders governing intelligence operations will be studied, along with the constitutional issues providing context for intelligence, such as separation of powers concerns. The executive department’s intelligence powers will be reviewed, along with the powers of congress to regulate in the area and its oversight mechanisms. Judicial review of intelligence issues provides several interesting issues concerning resolution of policy disputes, classified information, state secrets, and the national security limits on judicial action. Regulation of intelligence gathering by the executive branch and the role of inspector generals in the intelligence process will be covered. The seminar will cover intelligence collection at home and abroad including the framework for such powers and the rights of United States persons and aliens with respect to such activities. Fourth amendment considerations in a world of sophisticated electronic surveillance devices will be reviewed. Espionage and related statutes concerning classified and state secret information will be studied. Related issues include prepublication review, polygraph testing, and secrecy agreements. Both the Classified Information Procedures Act and FISA will be studied. The relationship of the intelligence gathering and analysis process to both Freedom of Information Act concerns and the Privacy Acts will be considered. The legal and policy bases for covert action, domestic and international, will be studied. Finally, the class will consider the future of intelligence from a legal perspective, including the relationship to law enforcement, narcotics interdiction, combating terrorism and counterintelligence.

LAW7 641 - (3)
Law and Ethics of Psychiatric Care
This interdisciplinary seminar will address legal and ethical issues in psychiatric care. During the initial two or three meetings of the seminar, the instructors will orient the law students to the practice of psychiatry at the University and to basic medical concepts bearing on psychiatric practice. The following meetings will bring together residents, fellows and faculty from the Department of Psychiatry to explore such legal and ethical issues as coerced treatment, competence to consent to or refuse treatment (including life-sustaining treatment), surrogate decision-making and guardianship, constraints imposed by managed care, termination of treatment for patient misconduct, confidentiality, and the nature of psychiatric diagnosis. Efforts will also be made to identify areas of divergence and convergence in professional norms in law and medicine.

LAW7 643 - (3)
Perspectives on Gender and the Family
The seminar explores the legal regulation of family relationships and gender roles from various academic perspectives, through an examination of legal literature dealing with contemporary issues in the field. The first few weeks of the semester will be devoted to an overview of the issues and debates, and of different scholarly viewpoints, including historical, feminist, law and economics, and social science and law perspectives. After that, we will focus each week on a single law review article.

LAW7 644 - (3)
Special Topics in Mergers and Acquisitions
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This seminar will focus on certain advanced topics in mergers and acquisitions, including the treatment of bank acquisitions, joint ventures, and telecommunications acquisitions. We will also look at valuation and strategic purposes for mergers. Students will be expected to participate in the discussions and present a paper on a particular topic.

LAW7 645 - (3)
Colloquium in International Relations Theory
This colloquium will explore contemporary thinking about international relations and international law. The goal is to introduce students to a representative survey of current debates and cutting edge research. Classes will alternate between preparation for presentations by outside speakers (principally professors of law and international relations at other universities) and sessions in which distinguished scholars will discuss their work in progress with the class. Preparation will consist of review of the literature on which this scholarship rests and analysis of the papers to be presented.

LAW7 646 - (3)
Community Mental Health Law and Ethics
This seminar will explore legal and ethical issues presented in the daily interactions between services systems and individuals with chronic mental illnesses. Issues include mandatory outpatient treatment, advance treatment directives, relationships between services and housing, roles of representative payees under the federal disability system for financial management, confidentiality and violence prevention. Overarching themes are assurance of adequate services and methods of engaging patients in successful treatment. The seminar will be conducted with the assistance of local mental health service providers and will involve interaction with clients.

LAW7 649 - (3)
Great Cases in Bioethics
An ongoing conversation about the role of law in medical and scientific practice shaped the current complexion of Bioethics as an area of study. A number of legal cases stand as signposts for critical moments in the history of Bioethics. This seminar explores those cases. Each week will feature a presentation prepared by a student and a discussion period that focuses on one or more seminal cases. Among the topics that will be surveyed are: informed consent (Schloendorf, Cobbs, Canterbury); the "right to die" (Quinlan, Barber); refusal of medical treatment on religious grounds (Jehovah’s Witness and Christian Science Cases); sexual sterilization, birth control, abortion (Skinner, Griswold, Roe v. Wade); medical confidentiality (Tarasoff, Jaffee); assisted suicide and euthanasia (Quill, Kevorkian); disabled infants and medical futility (Baby K.); genetic technology (Moore, Buzzanca); and end of life decisions by surrogates (Cruzan).

LAW7 650 - (3)
Strategy in Civil Litigation: Pleading and Procedure
Prerequisites: Civil Procedure.
This seminar will concentrate on skills needed in effective pretrial advocacy. It will emphasize strategy in pleading, motions and discovery practice. Through frequent in-class exercises and preparation of litigation documents, the seminar will stress both the style and substance of winning litigation techniques. Materials will be a text and actual pleadings, motions and discovery papers used in a variety of civil cases. The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, particularly Rules 1-39, 41, 45, 54, 56 and 68, will be examined and applied to various factual scenarios. Complaints, answers, motions to dismiss and for summary judgment, discovery practice, preparation of expert reports and awards of attorneys’ fees and costs will all be discussed in depth.

LAW7 655 - (3)
Mental Health Law Clinic
Prerequisite: Second- or third-year status.
This yearlong clinic is offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center. Students will represent mentally ill or mentally disabled clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and court proceedings (to the extent permitted by law) on a variety of legal matters, including: social security, Medicaid, and disability benefits claims, disability discrimination claims, access to housing, advance directives for medical care, and access to mental health or rehabilitative services. Under the supervision of an attorney, students will directly perform all of the lawyer functions associated with their cases including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of pleadings, negotiation and courtroom advocacy.

LAW7 656 - (2)
Patent and Licensing Clinic II
Prerequisite: Intellectual Property: Patent, Patent and Licensing Clinic I.
This semester long clinic involves many of the same projects as P&L I, but in this clinic, the student can choose to work exclusively with patent attorneys drafting, filing, and prosecuting patent applications (and associated tasks like prior art searches and evaluations, meeting with faculty inventors, preparing information disclosure statements, etc), or working exclusively with licensing agents to draft license agreements, negotiate licensing terms and conditions, prepare confidentiality agreements and marketing documents. Other possible functions which the clinic experience is expected to cover include evaluation of inventions and computer software for patentability and commercial value; counseling of UVa faculty inventors regarding patentability, inventorship and the patenting process; preparation, filing and prosecution of provisional U.S. patent applications; dealing with patent examiners; and researching current issues in the fields of intellectual property and technology transfer. Some exposure to international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty may be possible. Resolution of disputes with licensees and possible infringers will be undertaken where appropriate.

LAW7 657 - (3)
Appellate Practice
This seminar will examine the role of appellate courts in our legal system and provide a practical introduction to appellate litigation. Topics will include: the role of appellate courts (federal and state) in the American legal order; their jurisdiction and the scope and standards of review applicable to review of inferior tribunals; the distinctive functions of appellate courts in relation to trial courts; the distinctive functions of the two appellate levels; and U.S. Supreme Court practice. Material is also included on the contemporary role of the appellate advocate and the essentials of effective oral advocacy during the "crisis of volume" that now faces appellate courts in the U.S. Our study of these topics will be supplemented with practical, in-class oral argument assignments aimed at giving students the opportunity to develop their oral advocacy skills. The sustained focus throughout will be on the finer points of appellate advocacy and helping students to be effective advocates, both orally and in writing, in appellate courts.

LAW7 658 - (3)
Commercial Real Estate Transactions
This seminar focuses on the practical and legal issues associated with the development and finance of commercial real estate transactions. The course will cover an in-depth review of real estate acquisition and development contracts including joint venture agreements; a review of construction and permanent mortgage loan documentation including appraisals, title insurance, survey, and environmental indemnities; and a review of various forms of commercial leases including office, retail and triple net leases.

LAW7 659 - (3)
Law and Political Economy in the Antebellum United States
The period between 1800 and 1860 was a time of rapid economic and technological development in the United States. Not surprisingly, these developments prompted judges and legislators to adapt a wide variety of public and private law doctrines to these changing circumstances. How best to interpret these adaptations has long been a point of contention among legal historians. This seminar will seek to understand and then contribute to that debate by exploring the history and historiography of the relations between law, political ideology, and competing theories of economic development in the antebellum period.

LAW7 660 - (3)
Constitutional Design
This seminar explores the design of democratic governments under constitutions. Using some basic tools of public choice and political theory (which we will learn as we go along), the seminar addresses a number of institutional design decisions confronting constitutional democracies. These decisions relate to, for example, federalism and decentralization; proportional representation versus plurality rule; parliamentary versus presidential systems; separation of powers, administrative agencies, and judicial review; property rights and redistribution; and protecting minorities. In addition, the seminar touches on broader questions about the relationship between constitutionalism and democracy. Illustrations and case studies are drawn from American constitutional law and political institutions as well as from other constitutional democracies.

LAW7 661 - (3)
Theories of Property Rights
Prerequisite: Property.
This seminar will be devoted to a closer examination of some theoretical issues regarding the nature and justification of property rights including intellectual property rights. Topics to be covered include: What is property and intellectual property? What accounts for the emergence of property and intellectual property regimes? Are private property and intellectual property regimes justified? What is the role of the state in establishing property rights? When is the state obligated to compensate for interfering with private property rights?

LAW7 663 - (3)
Environmental Liability Litigation
This seminar will deal with both public enforcement of environmental standards and private suits that seek to curb environmental hazards or recover damage for harms attributed to such hazards. The practical process of bringing private actions for so-called toxic torts will receive particular attention, as will the different burdens of proof that private plaintiffs and government regulators must carry in order to end pollution or obtain penalties or compensatory relief. Special attention will also be given to the problem - involving both science and law - of proving that a pollutant or a product was in fact the cause of harm.

LAW7 665 - (3)
Practical Trial Evidence: Principles and Practice
Prerequisite: Evidence.
This Principles & Practice class will explore the most commonly encountered evidentiary challenges in litigation today. Based on their combined 70 years of practice experience, the instructors have selected a number of the issues and problems in practical trial evidence that practicing attorneys must master to reach the top level of trial skills. These keys to success include forms of proof where the factual foundations are challenging, the law demands unexpected elements to support offered proof, or the unwritten aspects of trial practice interfere with "textbook" efforts to get proof in the record. Students will learn how to select among options to achieve evidentiary goals: different routes to obtain admission for the same or equivalent proof (and alternative objections to attain exclusion). The federal rules of evidence will be used in this class for most activities, and students will become familiar with the most important procedures that commonly face trial lawyers under these rules, along with several evidentiary issues where evolving case doctrines leave dramatic room for lawyering skill to make all the difference in determining whether items of proof are received, and thus whether cases are won or lost.

LAW7 667 - (3)
Law and Religion
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law helpful.
This seminar will consider the law that has developed under the establishment and free exercise clauses of the First Amendment. Given the highly contested condition of this area, we will not limit ourselves to discussing judicial decisions and doctrines, but will also consider historical and theoretical perspectives on the topic. The last few classes will be devoted to the presentation of papers prepared by participants in the seminar.

LAW7 669 - (3)
Law and Literature
This seminar will explore law, literature, and the multiple ways in which they are connected. We will focus on such topics as: the narrative turn within legal scholarship; the rhetorical and literary dimensions of legal texts and lawyers speech; methods of proof and persuasion in literary works; and literary representations of law and the legal. Texts will include excerpts from trials, cases, legal and literary scholarship, and works of fiction.

LAW7 770 - (3)
Morality of Criminal Law
Is it an essential presupposition of criminal responsibility that people have freedom of action and freedom of the will? Can we make sense of these ideas within our scientific world-view? To what extent does moral responsibility depend on sheer luck, and how would this affect the presuppositions of criminal responsibility? What kind of personhood, and ethical conception of the self, is assumed by criminal doctrine? Is there any conceptual and/or moral account of the action-omission distinction? What are the moral grounds, and the moral limits, of self-defense? These, and similar, questions will be addressed in the seminar. Each session will be devoted to a critical discussion of one article. We will read articles by Meir Dan-Cohen, Harry Frankfurt, J.J. Thomson, Thomas Nagel, Bernard Williams, Michael Moore, Francis Kamm, and others.

LAW7 771 - (3)
Topics in Legislation and Legislative Process
This seminar will explore various topics in the modern federal legislative process including regulation of political parties, theories of representation, the modern federal budget process, the filibuster and other procedural rules, term limits for lawmakers, congressional oversight, campaign finance reform, the influence of technology on democratic institutions, and the regulation of lobbying.

LAW7 772 - (3)
Contract Theory and Commercial Practice
This seminar will discuss recent advances in contract theory using relatively simple ideas from information economics, game theory and real options. The seminar will cover both commercial and financial contracts, and the manner in which each type of relationship addresses information imperfections and the need for flexibility in uncertain environments.

LAW7 773 - (5)
Capital Post-Conviction Clinic
Prerequisite: Criminal Adjudication or Criminal Investigation, Evidence.
This yearlong clinic will provide students with the opportunity to assist in litigating a capital habeas case, where students can expect to gain intensive experience handling certain phases of post conviction litigation. The clinic will be centered around cases assigned to the Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center. Early in the semester, students will be assigned in groups to a particular case. Ordinarily, students will receive the case at, or close to, inception (i.e., after denial of direct appeal by the Virginia Supreme Court).

LAW7 774 - (6)
Constitutional Law Scholarship and the Scholarly Process
This year-long seminar is designed to introduce students to modern constitutional law scholarship and to the scholarly process. The central goal is to simulate the steps a junior faculty member would follow in writing his or her first article, with each student producing by the end of the year a substantial paper. The bulk of the first semester will be devoted to a critical reading of significant articles in modern constitutional law scholarship, broadly defined. As the semester progresses, students will be expected to begin searching for a topic within the realm of constitutional law about which to write, using selected readings as the jumping off point for their own work.

LAW7 775 - (3)
International Ifs: Historical Hypotheticals
This seminar will explore international law in a broader, more historically oriented version of the hypothetical - the "what if?" speculations associated with various crucial events in the politico-legal history of 20th century international relations. What if, for example, the great powers of Europe had paid slightly more, or slightly less, attention to their alliance treaties in July and August of 1914? Would World War One have occurred at all? Would it have occurred but had a different outcome? To take a more contemporary example, what if the US Congress had challenged both the legal authority of the UN Security Council to pass a resolution authorizing the use of force in the Gulf War and the legal authority of the US President to commit troops to the Gulf War absent compliance with the War Powers Act?

LAW7 776 - (3)
Refugee Law Clinic
Prerequisite: Immigration Law.
Students in this yearlong clinic represent individuals from around the globe who have experienced human rights abuses and are seeking asylum in America. Working in pairs, students will be assigned to a client. Typical clients claim a risk of persecution on the basis of political opinion, race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, or gender. The clinic provides an opportunity for students to sharpen lawyering skills by exploring issues like interviewing clients in a cross-cultural context, completing asylum applications and affidavits that recount the person’s experiences, researching legal issues and writing legal memoranda, and researching and documenting country conditions, and possibly representing the client during interviews or proceedings to decide the asylum claim.

LAW7 777 - (3)
Advanced and International Intellectual Property
Prerequisite: Intellectual Property: Copyright.
This is a seminar for intellectual property aficionados. It is for those who want to understand more deeply the underlying structure of IP, and also try their hand at some of today’s most vexing IP problems. This year’s version of the seminar will include a particular focus on the international aspects of intellectual property protection.

LAW7 778 - (3)
Advanced Legal Writing
This course will be taught in a small group setting and will take off where the first-year course ends. The goal of the course is to increase experience and mastery of writing skills that may be used in legal practice. Some of our time will be spent honing skills learned in the first-year course but we will spend the majority of our time on other matters that may be expected in practice but that are not covered earlier. These topics may include letters to clients, legislative drafting, contract drafting, trial court motions and pleadings, settlement documents, and judicial opinions.

LAW7 779 - (3)
Natural Law
For most people, the notion of "natural law" may come with a musty, medieval aspect, but in recent decades a variety of ideas and positions have claimed to be (or have been accused of being) modern versions of "natural law." This class will consider a number of such ideas and positions with an eye to these questions: What is "natural law"? Is it necessarily a religious position? Is "natural law" (in one or more of its versions) plausible today? And what, if anything, is it good for? The class is intended to be exploratory, with an emphasis on discussion, rather than a forum for propounding any well-worked out views.

LAW7 780 - (3)
Law and Ethics in Neurological Care
This interdisciplinary seminar will address legal and ethical issues in neurological care. During the initial two or three meetings of the seminar, the instructors will orient the law students to the practice of neurology at the University and to basic medical concepts bearing on neurological practice. The following meetings will bring together residents, fellows and faculty from the Department of Neurology to explore such legal and ethical issues as the definition of death, diagnosis of persistent vegetative state, competence to consent to or refuse treatment (including life-sustaining treatment) surrogate decision-making and guardianship, constraints imposed by managed care, and genetic testing and counseling. Efforts will also be made to identify areas of divergence and convergence in professional norms.

LAW7 781 - (3)
Issues in State and Local Taxation
An examination of issues relating to the ways in which state and local governments tax, spend and borrow. Specific topics may include treatment of unfunded mandates, financing education and borrowing for public/private projects.

LAW7 783 - (3)
Corporate Control Transactions: Governance Issues
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This seminar will focus on how decisions are made by corporations in the context of control transactions. Course materials will include case studies, statutory and case law, law review articles, and financial economics articles. We will begin by surveying the current literature regarding the nature of the firm, agency problems and the relationships among the board of directors, management and shareholders. We will then consider specific control transactions, such as a seed financing, initial public offering, proxy battle, merger, sale and refinancing. We will also consider the roles of various entities and institutions, including legislatures and judges, corporate lawyers and financial intermediaries, such as underwriters, venture capital partnerships and lenders. Students will be asked to write weekly short commentaries on the assigned reading.

LAW7 784 - (3)
Regulation of New Media
Prerequisite or concurrent: One of the following: Antitrust, Communications Law, Copyright Law, or Internet Law.
This seminar will examine recent trends in the regulation of new media, including the Internet, cable television, and wireless communications. The class will focus on several kinds of regulation, including intellectual property rights, the allocation of scarce broadcast resources, regulation of markets and commerce, content regulation, and antitrust, among others. Specifically, the course will address how regulatory proposals generated in response to the growth of new media represent differing values by virtue of both their content and their origins.

LAW7 785 - (3)
Law and Violence
This seminar will draw on interdisciplinary perspectives to examine some of the ways in which law is bound up with violence, and the ways in which the law seeks to differentiate itself from extra-legal violence. Topics will include the death penalty, prison conditions, and police use-of force, and we will also look at the ways in which the troubled relationship between law and violence plays out in the realm of international human rights and humanitarian law.

LAW7 786 - (3)
Cognitive and Social Psychology for Lawyers
In their short history, cognitive and social psychology have produced a rich understanding of how human beings think and how they interact with each other. It should therefore come as no surprise that these two fields have a number of applications to law. This course will explore those applications. Examples include: what effect common errors in judgment have on tort and contract law; how the perception of risk affects societal demand for regulation in environmental law; how organizational and group decision-making processes affect corporate governance; how social norms about fairness impede or facilitate negotiation and dispute resolution; how biases in judgment influence litigation strategies; and what studies of conformity mean for the development of international human rights law.

LAW7 787 - (3)
Intellectual Property Theories & Emerging Technologies
Prerequisite: One or more intellectual property classes.
What justifies the Intellectual Property system we have today? Are fast-emerging technologies helped, or hindered, by IP law? Do the traditional tools of copyright, patent, trademark and trade secret present a coherent whole or an overlapping mess? This three credit seminar explores these and other questions using major economic and social theories of intellectual property advanced by modern and ancient writers.

LAW7 788 - (3)
Venture Capital
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This seminar will consider the role of venture capital in the start-up environment from both a theoretical and practical perspective. Of particular focus will be how financial, legal and economic issues are dealt with in the contracts between venture capitalists and their limited partners and between venture capitalists and the firms in which they invest. The venture capital financing process will be analyzed from initial formation through exit strategy (e.g., public offering), with consideration given to the control structures and incentive mechanisms implemented at each stage of the process. Course materials will include case studies, statutory and case law, law review articles, and financial economics articles. The course will include guest presentations by industry participants.

LAW7 789 - (3)
Advanced Topics in Civil Procedure and Evidence
Prerequisite: Evidence.
This seminar will address a number of salient and controversial issues in the design of civil litigation, from filing to judgment. The approach will be eclectic, but the emphasis will be on game theory, law and economics, and incentives analysis in general. Topics will include: evidence destruction, "document retention" policies, perjury, obstruction of justice, the encouragement of settlement, mandatory versus voluntary disclosure, and various proposals for discovery reform.

LAW7 792 - (3)
Constitutional Law in the Public Sector: Clinical Seminar
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law, second or third year status.
This seminar offers students an opportunity to explore constitutional choices and litigation in the context of actual problems facing cities. The seminar will meet once a week for two hours throughout the semester. Students will initially explore case study materials outlining significant constitutional law, policy and evidentiary concerns of cities in areas such as affirmative action, property rights, and free speech. In week four of the seminar, students will select a research project from a pool involving an individual client city (in Virginia or elsewhere) or individual organizational client (such as Virginia First Cities, Virginia Municipal League, the National League of Cities or the International Municipal Law Institute). Projects targeted will include affirmative action and civil rights, local land use and environmental regulation, regulation of speech, use of municipal ordinances involving civil forfeiture and chronic nuisance, and the limits of local authority though preemption by the state and federal governments.

LAW7 793 - (3)
Derivative Securities and their Regulation
This seminar covers the regulation of the $100 trillion-plus global markets in derivative securities. The definition of derivative securities, hedge funds including Long-Term Capital Management, the Orange County bankruptcy, derivative securities litigation, the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, financial engineering, speculation, systemic risk, and suitability will be studied.

LAW7 794 - (3)
Constitutional Theory
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course will confront many of the major, transsubstantive questions of normative constitutional theory addressed by the scholarly literature over the last half-century. How majoritarian is our Constitution? In particular, is judicial review "countermajoritarian"? What is the appropriate method of constitutional interpretation? Is it originalism, nonoriginalist, textualism, or some type of nontexualist interpretive method? Are moral norms incorporated in the Constitution, or should judges and other constitutional interpreters eschew moral argument? To what extent are constitutional norms appropriately "underenforced"?

LAW7 795 - (3)
Problems of International Law and Regulation
Prerequisite: International Relations is recommended, but not required.
This seminar is designed for students who have completed one or more courses in international law, and want to understand international regulation as a system (of which international law plays a part). The seminar will give students exposure to contemporary scholarship, and a chance to try their hand at some of the more challenging international problems of our times. The seminar will divide its time between theory days and problem days. Subjects include problems from trade regulation, international administrative law (government networks), human rights, transnational finance, and others.

LAW7 796 - (3)
Theoretical Perspectives on Property
Prerequisite: Property.
This seminar considers the theoretical foundations of property rights regimes from a sociological, historical, political, and comparative perspective. The course considers the emergence of property rights, their form, enforcement, and distribution. Major questions include: What is property? What determines the form of property rights? What are the roles of the state, the law, and custom in the creation, acquisition, enforcement, and distribution of property rights? Applications will include real property, intellectual property, property rights in people, and property rights in contracts and organizations.

LAW7 797 - (3)
Tort Theory
This seminar will explore contemporary issues in tort law, including the proper scope of liability for accidental harm, problems of causation, and liability for inchoate and future loss. The focus of the seminar is on the rigorous evaluation of scholarly argument rather than on original research. The readings will consist of both classic works in the field and important current studies. After a several-week overview of the field, each session will be devoted to an intensive study of one article.

LAW7 798 - (3)
Lawyers, Law, and Film
This seminar will explore some of the myriad connections between film and the legal domain. How have films influenced popular perceptions about and actual experiences of law and lawyers? How have films changed the ways in which lawyers and other legal actors work, the performances they give, the evidence they are expected to offer?

LAW7 799 - (3)
Rights
This seminar will examine the nature of and possible justifications for claims of right. Readings will be from both classical and contemporary sources, including the works of philosophers, legal theorists, and political theorists. Questions addressed will concern the nature of rights (e.g., their roles in moral and legal theory and reasoning, their proper analyses and constituent parts, their possible contents, etc.), the (alleged) general varieties of rights (e.g., moral, natural, human, conventional, institutional, legal, cultural), the possible properties of rights (e.g., imprescriptibility, inalienability, forfeitability, absoluteness, etc.), and possible justifications for claims that particular rights exist. In addition, we will conclude the seminar with a careful consideration of one kind of right - to many theorists the most important (or, perhaps, the only) kind - namely, property rights.

LAW7 800 - (3)
Employee Pension and Health Benefit Plans: Current Key Issues
This seminar will examine some of the current key issues in the federal regulation of employee pension and health benefit plans. Employee rights; fiduciary standards; remedies; federal preemption; funding standards and retirement security; funding with employer stock; anti-discrimination and qualified plan requirements; and legislative policy issues will be considered.

LAW7 801 - (3)
Advanced Issues in Criminal Justice
Prerequisite: Criminal Adjudication or Criminal Investigation.
This seminar will examine a number of topics in substantive Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure, and will evaluate the connections between substance and procedure in the administration of the Criminal Justice System. Topics may include police interrogation techniques and false confessions, prosecutorial charging decisions, white collar investigations, plea bargaining, racism in law enforcement, RICO and the law of conspiracy, evidentiary issues in sexual assault cases, and the ethics of prosecution and defense.

LAW7 802 - (3)
Civil Rights History from Plessy to Brown
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This course explores the various meanings of civil rights in the fifty years that preceded Brown v. Board of Education. Examining civil rights cases from Plessy v. Ferguson through World War II and beyond, the emphasis of the course is on recreating the uncertainties that characterized civil rights doctrine in the 1940s–a decade during which the old Lochner framework was discredited but still lingering, racial issues were increasingly salient on the public scene, and no single doctrinal approach to civil rights was ascendant. It will explore how both the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Section and the NAACP’s Legal Defense and Education Fund approached the issues of labor and class that had dominated conceptions of civil rights prior to the 1940s, and whether and how they incorporated those conceptions into their own.

LAW7 803 - (3)
Federal Criminal Practice
Prerequisite: Criminal Law.
This seminar will take a practical approach to the investigation and adjudication of complex federal crimes. Students will trace the evolution of a criminal investigation, from its genesis through its courtroom conclusion. After a brief look at the bases of federal jurisdiction over criminal offenses, we will survey the law governing a number of specific investigative techniques including wiretaps and other non-consensual electronic surveillance, efforts to identify criminal uses of the internet such as child pornography and identity fraud, and the use of confidential informants. We will explore the standards governing the investigative power of the grand jury. We will evaluate a number of substantive criminal statutes including the widely-used RICO statute, the newly-enacted USA Patriot Act, and statutes proscribing corporate crime. We will study several specific provisions of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines including the departure available to defendants who provide substantial assistance to law enforcement, the "career criminal" recidivist provisions, and the disparity between sentences for trafficking in different illegal drugs. We will also discuss the federal death penalty and the controversy surrounding its application. Students enrolled in the course will learn the law governing each of these various stages of criminal investigations. They will also apply that law to real-life investigative situations. There will be a heavy emphasis on the policy implications of these various provisions of federal criminal law.

LAW7 804 - (3)
Health Care Policy
This course will begin with an examination of the nature of demand for and supply of health care. Focus will be on the U.S., but international markets will also be discussed. The bulk of the course will focus on current and important topics in health care policy including medical malpractice and tort reform, the large uninsured population, prescription drug policy, drug patents and the AIDS crisis, the threat of antibiotic resistance, the FDA approval process, and controlling epidemics such as SARS.

LAW7 805 - (3)
Statutory Interpretation in the Post-New Deal State
This seminar explores the academic and judicial debate concerning appropriate methods of statutory interpretation. The focus is on the hermeneutic, public choice, and constitutional assumptions that inform the modern debate. The first several weeks introduce the subject by offering a historical perspective on some of the leading schools of twentieth century thought including the Progressives, the Realists, and the Legal Process theorists. The seminar will then turn to a critical evaluation of the statutory interpretation scholarship of leading contemporary commentators including Stephen Breyer, Paul Campos, Ronald Dworkin, Frank Easterbrook, William Eskridge, Jerry Mashaw, Richard Posner, Antonin Scalia, and Jane Schacter. These sessions will be organized around students’ brief critiques and defenses of the leading articles. Topics will include the canons of construction, dynamic statutory interpretation, the use of legislative history, purposive interpretation, and textualism.

LAW7 807 - (3)
Economic Foundations of Commercial Law
This seminar examines the economic principles of commercial law and contracts, with emphasis on the methodology of information economics, political economy and options theory. The seminar explores a range of commercial transactions: sale of goods, payment mechanisms, letters of credit and secured financing all of which are to some extent regulated by the Uniform Commercial Code. The seminar is designed to be valuable for future practitioners of commercial transactions, as well as students with academic interest in commercial law.

LAW7 808 - (3)
International Aspects of Employment Law and Labor Law
This research seminar will explore a variety of topics at the intersection of employment and labor law with international law and business. We will read a diverse range of materials on issues including international conventions on labor rights (e.g., ILO standards), comparative studies of national labor laws (e.g., Asian countries vs. EU countries vs. the US), labor side agreements contained in international treaties (e.g., NAFTA), public and private efforts to enforce labor standards around the world (e.g., corporate codes of conduct relating to sweatshops), and the extra-territorial application of US employment and labor laws. Students will have an opportunity to conduct detailed research and make presentations to the seminar on an appropriate subject.

LAW7 809 - (3)
Pre-Trial Litigation: Principles and Practice
This course deals with civil litigation from the initial pleadings through discovery and a wide variety of motion practice events. Students will draft pleadings, conduct discovery activities, and make a number of motions. Motion practice covered will include injunction applications, motions addressed to the pleadings (principally Rule 12 motions for failure to state a claim), venue motions, a range of discovery motions, review of Magistrate Judge decisions, and summary judgment. The course emphasizes the creation of clear and effective pleadings, and powerful briefs. Brief writing in motions at the trial court level is a central focus. Pleadings and motion papers will be submitted at intervals throughout the semester, and occasional oral arguments conducted on pending motions. Readings include leading cases on the procedural doctrines with which the students are working (pleading requirements, venue, amendment, discovery devices, dismissal motions, Magistrate Judge proceedings, summary judgment), along with illustrative samples of actual briefs and discovery paperwork for critique and discussion. Case files with realistic background materials will also be provided for use in drafting pleadings, discovery and motion papers. The course will use federal case law as well as federal procedural rules and statutes, though the student will find that much of the value of the practical learning in federal motion practice can be used in state proceedings as well.

LAW7 811 - (3)
Colloquium in Business Law
Prerequisite: Corporations.
This colloquium will explore scholarly analysis and critiques of U.S. law as it affects the organization and management of business organizations. The emphasis will be on corporate and securities laws including recent developments such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and implementing regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The goal is to introduce students to significant scholarly and professional analysis of the U.S. legal system as it affects business organizations. The seminar sessions will alternate between presentations by distinguished scholars or practitioners of U.S. corporate and securities laws and preparatory sessions in which background materials will be read and discussed.

LAW7 812 - (3)
Intellectual Property Colloquium
Prerequisite: Intellectual Property: Copyright, plus prior or concurrent enrollment in at least one other intellectual property course.
This colloquium is intended for students interested in the cutting-edge of intellectual property law and theory. Class time will focus on a series of presentations by invited speakers (principally intellectual property scholars from other law schools).

LAW7 813 - (2)
Selling or Acquiring a Closely Held Business
Prerequisite: Corporations.
The focus of the course will be on developing the negotiating, drafting and other lawyering skills required for an attorney advising a client selling or purchasing a closely held business. The course will involve individual drafting exercises and simulated client interview/strategy discussions and negotiation exercises by student teams acting as counsel to the buyer or seller, interspersed with discussions of the business acquisition process and analysis of publicly available documentation of actual acquisition transactions and selected court opinions.

LAW7 814 - (2)
Advanced Contract Theory Research
Prerequisite: Contracts.
This seminar provides students the opportunity to write a closely supervised research paper focused on a particular contract doctrine (or set of doctrines). The seminar will meet as a group only once or twice at the beginning of the semester for purposes of explaining and assigning topics to each student. Students will then meet with the professors for individual supervisory sessions throughout the semester. The papers will provide a comprehensive and updated survey of the relevant case law and scholarship on a given contract doctrine. The objective of each paper will be to determine whether the case law conforms to the description of the doctrine found in the scholarship, and whether the theories of a particular doctrine are consistent with the litigation patterns evidenced in the case law. Students will be encouraged to formulate their own critical analysis of the doctrine and scholarship, but primary emphasis will be placed on fine-grained analysis of primary legal materials and scholarship. The seminar is particularly well-suited to students who may be considering a teaching career in contracts, commercial or business law. Possible topics include offer and acceptance, duress, fraud, misrepresentation, incapacity, parole evidence, conditions and waivers, impossibility, excuse, frustration, and third party beneficiary law.

LAW7 815 - (3)
Rules
Law, in one conventional definition, is a set of rules created and enforced by a government. Paying special attention to compliance, this seminar will seek to enrich our understanding of conventional legal rules by examining sets of rules in less conventional, and predominantly non-legal, settings: sports, love, the military, school desegregation, plagiarism, the creation of constitutional courts, Nazi Germany, international politics, and life at the law school.

LAW7 816 - (3)
Public and Private Rights in American Law
Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This seminar will explore various manifestations of the distinction between public and private rights in American law. During the Lochner era, the courts allowed regulation of industries affected with a public interest, but insulated certain private rights, such as contractual freedom, from regulation. The Progressive and New Deal attack on Lochner sought to discredit the public/private distinction, and was largely successful in increasing the scope of allowable governmental regulation. But in spite of the New Deal-inspired assumption that the public and the private are ultimately indistinguishable, these categories continue to infuse many areas of law and continue to frame debates in these areas. The course will situate the debate about public and private rights historically, and examine various areas where the contest continues, including standing to vindicate public and private rights, punitive damages, legislative retroactivity, state action, and the right to privacy.

LAW7 817 - (6)
International Law and the Scholarly Process
Prerequisite or Corequisite: International Law.
This year-long seminar is designed for students who are interested in going into law school teaching and who also have some interest in international studies. The seminar will entail a substantial amount of reading and writing. In the first semester, we will read and analyze a variety of law review articles relating to international law. Students will prepare and defend brief "thought papers" concerning these articles. Also in the first semester, students will begin researching and drafting an article of publishable quality. These draft articles will be presented to the class during the second semester for discussion and critique. Final drafts are due at the end of the second semester.

LAW7 818 - (6)
Advocacy Clinic for the Elderly
Prerequisite: Second- or third-year status.
In response to the rapidly growing elderly population and the increased demand for elder law expertise, this yearlong clinic will train students to provide legal services to older persons. Under the supervision of an attorney, students will represent elderly clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and court proceedings on a variety of legal matters including basic wills and powers of attorney, guardianships, consumer issues, Medicaid and Medicare benefits, nursing home regulation and quality of long term care, elder abuse and neglect, and advance medical directives. Students will develop the practical skills needed to become effective elder advocates, participating in client interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and trial advocacy. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage in advocacy for the elderly at the system level, which may involve policy analysis and advocacy work with partnering organizations including the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA), the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia Elder Rights Coalition, and the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association. Students will participate in interdisciplinary projects in the field of elder law. For example, working with faculty from the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical School, students will develop a comprehensive taxonomy of possible legal issues confronted in geriatric care and will identify specific legal problems presented by individual patients. Additionally, in cooperation with JABA and the Division of Geriatric Medicine, students will conduct public education sessions on specific elder law topics for senior citizen groups at senior centers and elder care facilities throughout the Charlottesville community.

LAW7 819 - (2)
Regulation and Deregulation of U.S. Industries
The deregulation of the energy and telecommunications industries was one of the most controversial governmental acts in the U.S. and the U.K. in the 1980s and 1990s. This seminar will cover the deregulation of such industries with emphasis on the legal and financial impacts, the relationship between federal and state regulatory jurisdiction, the challenges to deregulation and, particularly, issues such as market power, price caps, stranded costs, the California energy crisis, the collapse of Enron and Global Crossing, and the "crunch" on companies such as AT&T, Duke Energy, Pacific Gas and Electric, The Williams Companies, and others. The seminar also will cover Wall Street’s "behind the scene" role in deregulation.

LAW7 820 - (3)
Nonprofit Institutions
This seminar will examine the creation and operation of nonprofit institutions, both in the domestic and international arenas. Among the issues discussed will be the entrustment of traditional government functions to nonprofit firms, venture philanthropy, and the role that nonprofits play in the coordination of self-interested as well as altruistic behavior.