Law

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.

This course examines 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.

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.

This is the first semester of the yearlong basic skills course in the first-year curriculum covering fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In this first semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity.

The course 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, and other issues associated with civil liability, such as causation, damages, and defenses. Battery, medical malpractice, products liability, and tort reform will also be covered.

This course covers the role of agencies in the constitutional structure and their operations. Topics include the nondelegation doctrine, executive appointment and removal power, the legislative veto as well as the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and other sources of law that regulate and structure the authority of agencies to determine the rights and responsibilities of the public.Prerequisite: LAW 6001-Constitutional Law

This course considers the formation and operation of corporations and compares corporations to other business forms. It examines the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence and litigate against those in control. The course also addresses the special problems of closely held corporations and issues arising out of mergers and attempts to acquire firms. The course uses 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.

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 40 states as well as the federal system.

This course is about the federal judicial system and its relationship to various other decision-makers, including Congress and the state courts. We will examine the jurisdiction of the federal courts; the elements of a justiciable case or controversy; the role of state law and so-called "federal common law" in federal courts; implied causes of action; and state sovereign immunity.

This course will concentrate on the provisions that apply to all taxpayers, with particular concern for the taxation of individuals. 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.

This course considers 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.

This class studies American efforts to prevent the private subversion of free competition. In addition to analysis of the statutes and case law, students consider the history of antitrust regulation and the economic assumptions that drive much of its application.

This lecture course will explore the Supreme Court¿s explorations into providing constitutional protection for poor people during the 1960s and 1970s. It is part doctrinal analysis, part legal history, and part constitutional theory. 

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.

In this course, we will explore the constitutional rules that constrain executive actors when they investigate crime and prosecute criminal defendants. Specifically, we study the degree to which the Fourth and Fifth Amendment limit police investigations and the ways in which constitutional guarantees of due process, equal protection, and trial by jury affect criminal prosecutions. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7018 and LAW 7019.

The seminar will explore the issues entailed in the drafting and uses 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?

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."

This course examines the constitutional jurisprudence that regulates the government's investigation of crime and apprehension of criminal suspects. In particular, the course will focus on the doctrines by which the judiciary polices the police, including the primary remedy (suppression of evidence) for police misconduct.

This course takes an interdisciplinary, comparative, and empirical perspective on the design and operation of courts as institutions.

This course explores normative and adjudicative systems associated with sports and games. These topics are intrinsically interesting, and they also cast light on legal norms and practices.

This course focuses on the law surrounding intimate relationships between adults. In particular, we will focus on the institution of marriage and its changing scope and social meaning, divorce and its financial consequences, and the parent-child relationship, including establishing parenthood, adoption, child custody, and child support.

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.

This course explores the substantive provisions of U.S. immigration law and the procedures for deciding immigration-related issues.

This is a survey course for students seeking a general introduction to intellectual property as opposed to concentrating on one or more of its special subjects. The main focus will be on Patent, Copyright and Trademark with a brief treatment of Trade Secrets and some common law treatments of intellectual property outside the realm of specially designed property rights.

This course studies the law governing how brands may be legally protected.