printer friendly pageLAW 2403: Federal Courts
This course addresses the role of the federal courts in the American system of federalism and separation of powers, as well as their role in the development of substantive federal law and constitutional rights. These roles are defined by both constitutional and statutory directives and limitations. Many of them implicate central themes of judicial supremacy and judicial review. The subjects likely to be covered include congressional control of the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the United States, lower federal courts, and state courts; the justiciability doctrines of standing, ripeness, and mootness; the nature of constitutional and statutory federal question jurisdiction; federal common law and implied causes of action; sovereign immunity; the abstention doctrines; and habeas corpus. The course is strongly recommended for students interested in pursuing a judicial clerkship and/or a career in litigation. Elements used in grading: Class attendance, class participation, one-day take home exam.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Smith, F. (PI)
LAW 2404: Global Litigation
German owned VW admits that it included a "defeat device" in the software for its diesel cars so they could fraudulently pass US environmental tests, and is sued by thousands of US consumers in state and federal courts in the US. Very quickly, the cases are consolidated in the federal court in Northern California. Meanwhile, special purpose foundations are established in the Netherlands to seek a settlement with VW on behalf of European consumers under the Dutch collective settlement act, and a securities lawsuit on behalf of investors whose share values have dropped dramatically is filed in Germany, using that country's special group litigation procedure. The Dutch foundations may be coordinating their actions with US lawyers, the shareholders in Germany are represented by the local partners of a leading US-based litigation boutique, and the shareholder suit is funded by a UK-based international litigation financing firm. In 2019, a jury in E.D. Va. delivers a verdict holding a former Somali army commander now living in the U.S. liable under the Torture Victim Protection Act for compensatory and punitive damages to a Somali citizen he injured 30 years ago. The plaintiff is represented by the Center for Justice & Accountability in San Francisco and DLA Piper lawyers serving pro bono; the witnesses include public and private actors from different countries. In 2011, US-based Apple sues Korea-based Samsung for patent infringement in N.D. CA and Samsung counter-sues in Korea, Japan and Germany. A year later more than 50 lawsuits are ongoing in more than 10 countries. Two years later the companies agree to drop their litigation outside the US and focus their resources on their US litigation battle. Apple wins a big judgment in the federal court in San Jose but Samsung appeals all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court. SCOTUS rejects the appeal and remands and in Spring 2018 the case is on the calendar for the third time in San Jose. Philip Morris' Hong Kong subsidiary files a claim in an international arbitration tribunal charging that Australia's public health protection statute regarding tobacco marketing violates Australia's bi-lateral investment treaty with Hong Kong. The arbitration claim is filed after the parent company unsuccessfully challenged Australia's statute before the High Court. In December 2015 the arbitration tribunal rules that it does not have jurisdiction over Philip Morris' claim effectively dismissing it. But controversy over Philip Morris' and other multi-national corporations' attempts to use investment arbitration to challenge diverse health, safety and environmental protection regulations derails international trade negotiations and leads to efforts to establish an international court for investment disputes. These high-profile cases illustrate an important aspect of complex litigation: across many different substantive domains, in court and ADR proceedings, disputes that used to be contained within national borders are now trans-national. This seminar will consider the doctrinal, procedural and practical challenges that arise when litigation goes global. We will consider the high profile cases in which these issues have played out in recent years and hear from some of the lawyers (in-person or via zoom) who are creating a new virtual international court system for the resolution of global disputes. The goal of the seminar is to develop an understanding of how the global dimension of high-stakes complex disputes shapes parties' and lawyers' strategies and judges' decisions. The seminar will meet 3 times a week. A small number of seminar sessions will be conducted via zoom in collaboration with law faculty and students in Canada, the Netherlands and Germany, three countries that have adopted procedures for dealing with large-scale civil litigation in distinctive fashions. Special Instructions: Students on the waitlist for the course will be admitted if spots are available on the basis of priority and degree program. Elements used in grading: Class participation and course paper.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 4
LAW 2515: Environmental Justice
This course will introduce environmental justice as a social movement, including its central substantive concerns (the needs of humans in the built environment rather than the need to protect the environment from humans) and its methods (community-based political organizing rather than professionalized judicial or legislative action). The bulk of the course will then pursue a broader conception of environmental justice today by using social science research, theory, and case studies to investigate the civil rights and poverty aspects of environmental safety and natural resources. The course will include units on: (1) toxic exposure and public health disparities stemming from the disproportionate siting of locally-unwanted land uses in poor neighborhoods of color; (2) access to natural resources and basic public services, including clean water, wastewater disposal, and open space; (3) tools in environmental justice advocacy (including community-based lawyering, Title VI of the Civil Rig
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This course will introduce environmental justice as a social movement, including its central substantive concerns (the needs of humans in the built environment rather than the need to protect the environment from humans) and its methods (community-based political organizing rather than professionalized judicial or legislative action). The bulk of the course will then pursue a broader conception of environmental justice today by using social science research, theory, and case studies to investigate the civil rights and poverty aspects of environmental safety and natural resources. The course will include units on: (1) toxic exposure and public health disparities stemming from the disproportionate siting of locally-unwanted land uses in poor neighborhoods of color; (2) access to natural resources and basic public services, including clean water, wastewater disposal, and open space; (3) tools in environmental justice advocacy (including community-based lawyering, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fair Housing Act, common law nuisance actions, and transactional lawyering); (4) environmental justice issues in Indian Country, and (5) environmental justice issues in climate change policy. Much of the course material, including student presentations, will be grounded in the experiences and advocacy histories of specific communities, both urban and rural, across the country. This class is limited to 25 students, with an effort made to have students from SLS (20 students will be selected by lottery) and 5 non-law students by consent of instructor. Special Instructions: Students on the waitlist for the course will be admitted if spots are available on the basis of priority and degree program. Course requirements will include class participation, in-class presentation, and either response papers (section 01) or a long research paper for R credit (section 02). A maximum of 10 students will be permitted to write the long research paper with instructor consent. After the term begins, students enrolled in the course can transfer from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. Elements used in grading: Class participation, in-class presentation; response papers or a final research paper.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Anderson, M. (PI)
LAW 2528: Transitioning to a Clean Energy Economy
Ambitious new federal and state laws and policies are incentivizing a rapid transition of the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels toward clean energy. This course, open to law school students and graduate students from other schools, will survey the legal and policy tools that are being deployed to accelerate a massive shift toward clean energy in all sectors of the economy, and the associated technological, financial, legal and equity challenges associated with building out the clean energy economy. We will review the key incentive- and regulatory-based mechanisms that are driving the transition in major sectors of the U.S. economy--including transportation, electricity, industry, and buildings. Special focus will be placed on siting, permitting, and financial challenges (and opportunities) for utility-scale and distributed clean energy sources; expansion of the transmission grid; and the potential scale-up of new technologies to speed the transition, including nuclear and hydrogen-ba
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Ambitious new federal and state laws and policies are incentivizing a rapid transition of the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels toward clean energy. This course, open to law school students and graduate students from other schools, will survey the legal and policy tools that are being deployed to accelerate a massive shift toward clean energy in all sectors of the economy, and the associated technological, financial, legal and equity challenges associated with building out the clean energy economy. We will review the key incentive- and regulatory-based mechanisms that are driving the transition in major sectors of the U.S. economy--including transportation, electricity, industry, and buildings. Special focus will be placed on siting, permitting, and financial challenges (and opportunities) for utility-scale and distributed clean energy sources; expansion of the transmission grid; and the potential scale-up of new technologies to speed the transition, including nuclear and hydrogen-based power. The course will include guest appearances by governmental officials and opinion leaders who are working to facilitate the build-out of clean energy infrastructure in the U.S. Grades will reflect class participation, two short reaction papers, and a final paper. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS Registrar website
https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. Click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page and then click the "Consent Courses" tab. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Hayes, D. (PI)
LAW 3505: Law and Culture in American Fiction
How do we identify an owner? What does a citizen look like? Whose privacy requires protection? The stories we tell about the experience of being Americans bolster and undermine particular legal arguments and conclusions. In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, novels were an important source of these narratives. And over the last century movies, television and other forms of visual storytelling have recycled these stock narratives countless times. In this interdisciplinary seminar, a novel or story is paired with a contemporary legal text (and often historical material for context) each week. These pairings track the maintenance of personal identity, community stability, and even linguistic meaning across shifting legal constructions of citizenship, race, gender, and class; changes in the law of property, contract, and privacy; and other legal and extralegal deployments of the (violent) authority of the state. The writers whose work we will consider include James Fenimor
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How do we identify an owner? What does a citizen look like? Whose privacy requires protection? The stories we tell about the experience of being Americans bolster and undermine particular legal arguments and conclusions. In the nineteenth century and well into the twentieth, novels were an important source of these narratives. And over the last century movies, television and other forms of visual storytelling have recycled these stock narratives countless times. In this interdisciplinary seminar, a novel or story is paired with a contemporary legal text (and often historical material for context) each week. These pairings track the maintenance of personal identity, community stability, and even linguistic meaning across shifting legal constructions of citizenship, race, gender, and class; changes in the law of property, contract, and privacy; and other legal and extralegal deployments of the (violent) authority of the state. The writers whose work we will consider include James Fenimore Cooper, Herman Melville, Henry James, William Faulkner, Nella Larsen, John Okada, Katherine Anne Porter and Sherman Alexie. (These authors are known for great writing and cultural influence, but also, in some cases, overt racism and personal misconduct.) Reading and writing with an increased awareness of the background narratives implicit in our legal arguments is among the goals of the course. Elements used in grading: Class participation, attendance, and written assignments. Automatic grading penalty waived for writers. For Research "R" credit, students may petition to complete one long paper based on independent research with consent of the instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Sassoubre, T. (PI)
LAW 4006: Intellectual Property and Antitrust Law
This is an advanced seminar focusing on antitrust law as it applies to the creation, licensing, and exercise of intellectual property rights. At least one IP or antitrust class is a prerequisite, and ideally both. Elements used in grading: Grades will be based on class participation and short reflection papers (2 units) or a long research paper (3 units) with consent of the instructor. Research papers will be due before the Law School deadline. Draft papers will be due in time for student presentations. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from section 01 into section 02 (research paper) which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. Research paper option is limited to 10 students.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Lemley, M. (PI)
LAW 4007: Intellectual Property: Copyright
Copyright law is the engine that drives not only such traditional entertainment and information industries as music, book publishing, news and motion pictures, but also software, video games and other digital products. This course examines in depth all aspects of copyright law and practice, as well as the business and policy challenges and opportunities that the internet and other new technologies such as artificial intelligence present for the exploitation of copyrighted works. There are no prerequisites for this class. Elements used in grading: Final Exam (open book). A detailed description of how the class will be conducted, including reading assignments and modes of student participation, appears in the course syllabus on Canvas.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Goldstein, P. (PI)
LAW 4011: Intellectual Property: The Business & Law of Technology & Patent Licensing
If you practice in any technology-related area (whether transactions, corporate, IP management or litigation), you will encounter licensing, as it is the principal means by which technology and patent rights are disseminated, exploited and commercialized. It is fundamental to Silicon Valley and beyond, including in software, mobile, consumer devices, autonomous cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. This is a practice-oriented course covering the fundamentals of licensing technology and patents, including business considerations, drafting, negotiations and strategic considerations. We will also consider the role of licensing in mergers and acquisitions, litigation and antitrust contexts. The course is structured based on a real-world hypothetical involving entrepreneurs who spin out university-developed inventions into startup companies and then seek to commercialize the technology and patents to leading companies in a specified technology industry (such as smartphones, autonomous c
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If you practice in any technology-related area (whether transactions, corporate, IP management or litigation), you will encounter licensing, as it is the principal means by which technology and patent rights are disseminated, exploited and commercialized. It is fundamental to Silicon Valley and beyond, including in software, mobile, consumer devices, autonomous cars, semiconductors and pharmaceuticals. This is a practice-oriented course covering the fundamentals of licensing technology and patents, including business considerations, drafting, negotiations and strategic considerations. We will also consider the role of licensing in mergers and acquisitions, litigation and antitrust contexts. The course is structured based on a real-world hypothetical involving entrepreneurs who spin out university-developed inventions into startup companies and then seek to commercialize the technology and patents to leading companies in a specified technology industry (such as smartphones, autonomous cars, "internet of things" or the like). We will also have a guest lecturer from a major technology company with significant licensing dimensions (which in the past have included Google, Facebook, Waymo, and Qualcomm). Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Final Exam. Course Prerequisite: Intro to IP (
Law 4005) or equivalent, or consent of instructor.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Mousavi, N. (PI)
;
Yang, J. (PI)
LAW 4012: Intellectual Property: Trademarks
This course will consider the protection and enforcement of trademarks and related state rights in brands and names, including the right of publicity. There is no prerequisite, though some students will have taken Introduction to Intellectual Property. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Exam (Open-book one-day take-home).
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Lemley, M. (PI)
LAW 5007: International Business Negotiation
This course is structured around a quarter-long, simulated negotiation exercise which provides an in-depth study of the structuring and negotiating of an international business transaction. This class will be taught in counterpart with a class at Berkeley Law School. Students in this class will represent a U.S. pharmaceutical company, and the students in the class at Berkeley will represent an African agricultural production company. The two companies are interested in working together to exploit a new technology developed by the pharmaceutical company that uses the cassava produced by the African agricultural production company. The form of their collaboration could be a joint venture, a licensing agreement or a long term supply contract. The negotiations between the two classes will take place through written exchanges and through real-time negotiation which will be conducted both in-person and via videoconferences. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an opportunity
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This course is structured around a quarter-long, simulated negotiation exercise which provides an in-depth study of the structuring and negotiating of an international business transaction. This class will be taught in counterpart with a class at Berkeley Law School. Students in this class will represent a U.S. pharmaceutical company, and the students in the class at Berkeley will represent an African agricultural production company. The two companies are interested in working together to exploit a new technology developed by the pharmaceutical company that uses the cassava produced by the African agricultural production company. The form of their collaboration could be a joint venture, a licensing agreement or a long term supply contract. The negotiations between the two classes will take place through written exchanges and through real-time negotiation which will be conducted both in-person and via videoconferences. The purpose of the course is to provide students with an opportunity (i) to experience the sequential development of a business transaction over an extended negotiation, (ii) to study the business and legal issues and strategies that impact the negotiation, (iii) to gain insight into the dynamics of negotiating and structuring international business transactions, (iv) to learn about the role that lawyers and law play in these negotiations, (v) to give students experience in drafting communications, and (vi) to provide negotiating experience in a context that replicates actual legal practice with an unfamiliar opposing party (here, the students at Berkeley). Students will also learn about the legal and business issues that may arise in joint ventures, supply agreements and licensing agreements. The thrust of this course is class participation and active involvement in the negotiations process. Students are expected to spend time outside of class, working in teams, to prepare the written exchanges, to prepare for the live negotiations (as well as online negotiations in a world where these will be increasingly the norm), and to prepare for class discussions. Class discussions will focus on the strategy for, and progress of, the negotiations; collective evaluation of the class's preparation for, and performance in, the negotiations; and the substantive legal, business and policy matters that impact on the negotiations. In addition to the regular Monday class, the class will meet on Saturday September 30 from 10:30 AM to 1:30 PM at Stanford Law School (necessitated by the late start for the Stanford quarter this year and the need to sync with the Berkeley class). In addition, classes will meet for the live negotiations on four Saturday mornings at 10:30 AM (10/14, 10/21, 10/28 and 11/4) in the San Francisco office of DLA Piper (555 Mission Street; close to Montgomery St. BART station), and one Thursday evening (via Zoom) at 7:00 PM-10:00 PM (10/26). The four Saturday classes will end at 1:30 PM, except for 11/4 which will end at 2:30 PM. Due to the Thursday and Saturday classes, this class will conclude on November 6. Admission to this class is by consent of instructor. The maximum class size is 21, which will include students from GSB or other departments. Attention Waitlist Students: Students on the waitlist for the course will be admitted if spots are available on the basis of their position on the waitlist and degree of study; all waitlist students are encouraged to attend the first class and will be notified as spaces become available. Attention Non-Law Students: You must complete and submit both a consent form and a Non-Law Student Course Add Request Form to the Law School Registrar's Office (Room 100). See Stanford Non-Law Student Course Registration on the SLS Registrar's Office website. Prerequisites: A course in basic negotiations (e.g.,
Law 7821) or comparable prior experience is recommended. Elements used in grading: Class participation, written assignments and final paper. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS Registrar website
https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. Click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page and then click the "Consent Courses" tab. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Finkelstein, J. (PI)
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