This course continues to introduce LL.M. students to the fundamentals of U.S. legal research materials, methods, and strategies as well as various forms of legal writing.

The course is organized and presented primarily for students who intend to practice law in the Commonwealth of 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; a study of the Rules of Court; and the procedural statutes and applicable case law.

This short course is designed to help students improve their ability to communicate persuasively in the wide variety of settings in which non-litigators are called upon to speak including client meetings, business negotiations, and presentations to public agencies. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 9053, 9055, and 9185. Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7626, 9053, 9055, or 9185 if any taken previously.

This class is designed to expose students to new research and to engage in critical discussion about various facets of the criminal legal system. It is targeted both towards students interested in considering a scholarly path as well as those interested in criminal legal practice or reform.

The federal copyright statute protects rights in literary and artistic property. Topics covered in this course include the subject matter of copyright; ownership; formalities; duration and transfer; infringement; fair use; rights and remedies of copyright owners; pre-emption of state copyright laws; the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.

This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic offered in conjunction with JustChildren, a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. Students may represent children with legal issues in the areas of education law, laws governing access to services for incarcerated children, mental health and developmental disabilities law, and foster care and social services law. Students will be given an opportunity to work on policy issues. Prerequisite: 2nd-year or 3rd-year Law

Economics assumes people are rational, law assumes people are compliant, but is it really so? In recent years both disciplines have come to incorporate more and more research from psychology and other social sciences about actual human behavior. We will read research about factors that affect human decision-making and then apply it to substantive and procedural issues in law.

This seminar will explore the legal issues pertaining to animals, the laws that govern their treatment, as well as a number of topics that fall within the general headings "animal law" and "animal rights." We will examine the historical and philosophical treatment of animals, and how those views impact the way law currently governs treatment and use of animals.

This is the introductory course in public (government-to-government) international law. Topics include the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, recognition and statehood, diplomatic immunity, sovereign immunity, the law of the sea, torture, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, treaties, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization.

In this short course, students will examine a key set of decisions made during Special Counsel Mueller's investigation of the Russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. During each of the sessions, instructors will present on the legal, political, practical, and human context for a set of issues, and then examine why and how particular decisions were made. The final sessions will focus on obstruction of justice and presidential accountability.