FIRST YEAR COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

(S) = Seminar

1L Required Courses:

Civil Procedure

sem. hrs.

This course is devoted to a consideration of the basic problems of civil procedure. Pleading, discovery, multi-party actions, trial practice, and judgments are considered in terms of function and technique. The course is also designed to introduce the student to underlying problems such as jurisdiction, the choice of law in the federal system, and the role of courts as lawmaking institutions.

Constitutional Law

4 sem. hrs.

A study of basic issues of federal constitutional law. Major topics will be: the role of courts in the interpretation of enforcement of the U.S. Constitution; the scope of federal legislative powers under the Constitution; federalism limitations placed on the powers of state and local governments; individual civil, political, and human rights under the U.S. Constitution, with the primary emphasis on the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Contracts

sem. hrs.

A study of the legal protection accorded promissory arrangements. The course deals with the reconciliation of the competing values of private ordering through consent-based agreements and of public regulation of exchange transactions. Subject matter considered includes the interpretation of contract terms, the effect of changed or unforeseen circumstances on contract obligations, and the remedies which the law provides for breach of contract. Also included are limitations on contract enforcement because of unconscionability and bad faith. The course emphasizes both the contract in litigation and the influence of contract law on transactional planning. The Uniform Commercial Code is prominent in the legal sources studied.

Criminal Law

4 sem. hrs.

This course will examine the criminal law as a device for defining and controlling harmful behavior. Attention is given to the theoretical justifications for and the effectiveness of punishment, the foundations of culpability, the basic principles of criminal liability, and the definition of offenses and defenses.

Legal Writing: Yearlong

2 sem. hrs.

Individual written work is done under the immediate supervision of an Arthur Littleton and H. Clayton Louderback Legal Writing Instructor. During the fall semester, the course develops skills in legal analysis, predictive writing, and research. The spring semester is devoted to written and oral advocacy, in both trial court and appellate court settings.

Property

sem. hrs.

This course explores the legal institution of property, primarily through an examination of the possession, ownership, and use of land. Topics may include different ways of acquiring property, such as by capture, discovery, creation, adverse possession, and prescription; estates in land; rights in other persons' land; landlord/tenant; basic land transactions; public and private control of land use; and eminent domain.

Torts

sem. hrs.

This course develops and analyzes the basic philosophies and theories supporting non-promissory civil liability for harm to the person, personality, and real property; and the rules prescribing the intentional, negligent, and wrongful conduct on which liability is predicated.

1L Elective Courses:

Administrative Law

3 sem. hrs.

We live in an administrative state, populated by thousands of governmental bodies that collectively exercise pervasive authority over the entire economy and the lives of every American. Unlike courts, which enjoy explicit constitutional independence, administrative agencies constitute a constitutionally ambiguous "fourth branch of government." Also unlike courts, most agencies have authority to wield a wide variety of regulatory powers other than adjudication, including rulemaking, licensing, advice-giving, and prosecution. "Administrative law" is the body of constitutional, statutory, Executive, and "common law" principles that constrain and thereby seek to legitimate the exercise of these powers. This course will be a critical examination of these principles. Topics include: the place of agencies in our tripartite structure of government, the choice between rulemaking and adjudication as devices for making policy, procedural requirements for the exercise of various administrative powers, and judicial review of administrative decisions. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Advanced Contracts

3 sem. hrs.

This course continues the study of basic contract law and theory beyond doctrines covered in first-semester contracts. The course objective is to give students in-depth mastery of a limited set of selected doctrines crucial to a contracts practice, rather than more superficial coverage of a wider array of doctrines. The course is based on the premise that competency in a contracts practice requires a sophisticated understanding of the real-world context in which commercial transactions take place. Contract doctrine cannot be properly understood, applied or deployed by practitioners or judges without understanding the role of formal and informal norms in commercial settings, and how contract law affects the parties’ ability to structure their interactions. Some first-semester material will be reviewed and developed further to ensure all students have a common background in contract law and theory regardless of the content and approach taken in their first-year contracts course. Particular attention will be paid to selected doctrines regulating the bargaining process (e.g., duress and fraud), identifying and interpreting 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 and commercial impracticability, frustration of purpose), conduct constituting breach (e.g., anticipatory repudiation, the right to adequate assurances), and remedies (e.g., foreseeability, mitigation, liquidated damages, sales of goods remedies). 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.). Exam option only.

Bankruptcy

3 sem. hrs.

This course will focus principally on bankruptcy, although we will also briefly consider state collection remedies and other nonbankruptcy issues that overlap with bankruptcy. We will consider all aspects of bankruptcy law, starting with commencement of the bankruptcy case; continuing through issues such as trustee avoidance powers and operating a business in bankruptcy; and concluding with liquidation, individual wage earner plans, and corporate reorganization. At various points, we will pay particular attention to recent legislative reform efforts. The course will consider both the theoretical debate as to the proper role of bankruptcy, and the doctrinal apparatus of the Bankruptcy Code. The class will be roughly 60% participatory, but will at times be Socratic (30%) or lecture (10%) in format. Class participation may be taken into account in grading. There will be an in-class exam. Students who have previously taken Commercial Credit II may not take this course. This is a 1L elective course, however, 1L enrollment will be limited to 30 out of 110 (if course closes).

Environmental Law

3 sem. hrs.

This course focuses on both the substance and process of environmental law in the United States. The goal is for students to become familiar with the basic structure of federal environmental law and regulation, both to prepare for legal counseling and advocacy as well as to be able to engage in policy evaluation and design of environmental law. The course will cover key federal environmental statutes, such as the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Superfund, and the Emergency Planning and Community Right to Know Act, as well as selected EPA regulations. The course will focus on the major legal and policy issues underlying environmental statutes, as well as on legal methods of statutory interpretation. Classroom attendance and preparation is expected. There will be an in-class exam. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

FDA Law and Policy

3 sem. hrs.

This course will explore a variety of topics related to the Food and Drug Administration and its oversight of prescription drugs, medical devices and food safety. The FDA is a crucial federal regulatory agency, with authority over more than a quarter of the consumer products sold in the United States. We will discuss the history and basic approval authority of the FDA over food safety and therapeutic products, along with specific focus on a number of emerging developments. The class dynamic will be a mixture of Socratic teaching and more interactive legal and policy discussion, and I expect all students in the course to take an active role in our critique and analysis of various FDA policies and issues throughout the semester. My intention is to offer students a choice of evaluation methods, either a self-scheduled “take away” final exam or a 20-25 page research paper on an FDA topic of your choosing. I may revisit the paper option if class enrollment is larger than expected, and will announce any changes to the paper option during the add/drop period. A small fraction of the grade will be based on class participation throughout the semester. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Intro to IP Law & Policy

3 sem. hrs.

This course starts from the premise that the law and policy of intellectual property is increasingly becoming an important component of a modern legal education. As such, the course will present a broad overview of the contemporary doctrinal and policy challenges facing intellectual property in an era of rapidly changing technology. The course is not intended to replace (or be a prerequisite for) any of the basic IP courses - instead, the class will be structured around several of the major recent disputes over the patent, copyright, and trademark laws, considering these from both a doctrinal and a social policy perspective. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Introduction to Jurisprudence

3 sem. hrs.

The first half of the course will provide an introduction to the main currents of thought about the nature and function of law. It will consider, among other things, the classic problem of the source of law’s authority, exploring whether an unjust law is still a law, and whether law does or ought to bear a close relation to morality. Should Nazi officials or East German border guards be punished if they were “just following orders”? What about the judges who enforced the implementation of such laws? Do the conclusions we would reach in the foregoing contexts apply to the conduct of Americans in dealing with suspected terrorists or other detainees? We will consider the divergent answers to these questions suggested by the work of J.L. Austin, H.L.A. Hart, Ronald Dworkin, Joseph Raz, and others. After addressing these traditional jurisprudential inquiries, we will turn to a more recent philosophical inquiries in philosophy of law. What is the justification for punishment and how do the various debates in this area play out in specific controversial cases? Is torture ever permissible, whether as part of a scheme of punishment or as part of a system of law enforcement? Is targeted killing a permissible part of just war theory? What should be our stance to government officials who violate the law? As we shall see, each one of these applied topics divides into deontologial theorists, on the one hand, and utilitarian, or economic, theorists on the other. We will raise the question of whether these two theories exhaust the possible moves one might make on these various topics, or whether other approaches, such as a contractarian approach, are viable options. The course will require a final, take home exam, as well as attendance, preparation and participation in discussion. The latter will count towards roughly 10% of students’ grades. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Law and Economics

3 sem. hrs.

This class will cover the basics of microeconomics as they apply to the study of law. Areas covered will include torts, contracts, property, IP, criminal law, health law, insurance, business law, antitrust, and some public law topics. The course will focus on how law affects incentives and, ultimately, individual behavior. We will also discuss available empirical evidence regarding the link between law and behavior. No prior training in economics is required. 1Ls will be evaluated on the basis of an open-book takeaway exam, while other students may write a paper instead. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Law & Society in Japan

3 sem. hrs.

Through an examination of law and legal institutions in a non-Western setting, this course emphasizes the complex relationship between law, culture, politics and economics in advanced industrialized democracies. A special feature of the course in spring 2012 is that it will be co-taught with Bok Visiting International Professor Hideki Kanda, University of Tokyo, Japan's foremost corporate law scholar, In addition to devoting two weeks to cutting edge issues in corporate law, we will also look broadly at debates involving constitutional and criminal law, as well as more specific legal conflicts involving women’s rights, smoking, the March 11 earthqake/tsunami/nuclear meltdown, and a variety of other issues. The course reader consists of articles by legal academics, anthropologists, political scientists, sociologists and other scholars; translated cases and legal documents; and historical materials. In addition, we will view several films that offer a valuable perspective on Japanese law and society. There are no prerequisites for this course, and students with no background in Japanese or Asian studies are welcome. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Legal History

3 sem. hrs.

Someone once said, “a page of history is worth a volume of logic.” (Ok, it wasn’t just anyone; it was Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., in New York Trust Co. v. Eisner (1921)) This course is designed to explore pages of history that might otherwise escape the logician. And at a time when so many fraught legal issues are argued with reference to history, it is more important than ever for students to understand legal history, and how to use it. By integrating primary sources with historical context, the course will explore the ways that legal change has affected life in colonial and national America. The course will be conducted primarily in lecture format, and will include readings in primary as well as secondary sources. Topics include (but are not limited to) topics such as blasphemy, witchcraft, mobs, revolution, slavery, filibustering, treason, migration, piracy, electioneering, and other inherently interesting and legally important areas of inquiry. In the end, the central aim of this course is to acquaint students with a rich sense of the ways that law has operated to liberate as well as constrain Americans. A 3-day take-away exam at the end of the semester limited to 3,500 words will answer a question that will be arranged between the professor and each student in the class, designed to focus on that student’s interests but also draw on the work of the entire semester. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Legal Responses to Inequality

3 sem. hrs.

This course will study legal material as expressive of, and as supportive of, differing concepts of equality and its role as a social value, rather than as simply part of a course of doctrinal development or a system of analytical reasoning. Its premise is that differences in those concepts are often not recognized, and the contestability and bases of one's approach to equality issues are often not acknowledged. Substantively, the course will include aspects of legal regulation affecting the status of racial, religious and ethnic "minorities," women, gay and lesbian people, and people perceived as disabled, as well as the distribution of wealth and income. It will do this in part by examining "antidiscrimination," "equal protection," or "poverty" law, but will focus also on issues of equality implicit in such mainstream first-year subjects as Procedure and Contracts. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Legislation

3 sem. hrs.

This course examines issues relating to the enactment, application and interpretation of legislation, primarily at the federal level. The course will introduce students to the basic contours of Congressional lawmaking practice, theoretical models of the legislative process, the application and interpretation of statutes by the executive branch, and numerous aspects of judicial statutory interpretation. Students will explore and critique the different methods and canons that courts apply in construing statutes and consider issues such as the appropriate degree of deference to administrative interpretations, judicial use of legislative history in construction, and interaction between the courts and Congress. The basic text will be the Eskridge, Frickey & Garrett casebook, but students will also read selected legal and/or political science articles presenting current theories of legislative process and interpretation, and review examples of current cases and statutory debates. Grades will be based on an examination at the end of the semester. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will receive priority in enrollment.

Public International Law

3 sem. hrs.

This course introduces students to the legal rules and institutions that govern the international political system. The course provides a formal introduction to international law and emphasizes the relationships between law and politics in the behavior of states, institutions, and individuals in world politics. International law is both more relevant and more interesting today than ever before. From the war against terror to the war in Iraq; from the challenges of free trade to the dangers of environmental destruction; from prisoners in Guantanamo Bay to former heads of state appearing in court, international law has a direct bearing on many of the key issues in international affairs. This course examines how international law is created, how it operates, and what effect it has on these and other issues in contemporary international relations. The course begins with an introduction to the nature and structure of the international legal system. Topics include: the subjects and forms of international law, the key institutional actors, the theoretical background to the international legal system, and the relationships between international law and international relations. The second part of the course turns to substantive legal issues. Topics include: international economic law and the debates surrounding the WTO; international criminal law and the International Criminal Court; the protection of human rights; the use of force and the invasions of Kosovo and Iraq; the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and the future of the United Nations. Additional topics may be added or substituted if international events and student interest so warrant. This is a 1L elective course and 1Ls will have a max of 80 seats (of 110) in the course.

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