261 - 270 of 577 results for: LAW

This course will study how society allocates and protects its most crucial natural resource -- water. The emphasis will be on current legal and policy debates, although we will also examine the history of water development and politics. Although the course will focus on United States law and policy, insights from the course are applicable to water regimes throughout the world, and we will occasionally look at law and policy elsewhere in the world for comparison. Among the many issues that we will consider are: how to allocate water during periods of scarcity; alternative means of responding to the world's growing demands for water (including active conservation); the appropriate role for the market and private companies in meeting society's water needs; protection of threatened groundwater resources; environmental limits on water development (including the U.S. Endangered Species Act and the "public trust" doctrine); constitutional issues in water governance; Indian water rights; protection of water quality; challenges to substantively reforming existing water law; and interstate and international disputes over water. Students will be expected to participate actively in classroom discussions. Elements Used in Grading: Class participation, attendance and final exam.

This course will explore the equity of resource distribution and opportunity in the United States in the 21st century. We will explore and evaluate the common critique that the contemporary structure of various entities (such as schools, courts, andnthe legislature) contributes to increased inequality. Some of the likely topics to be covered in class, along with their concomitant impact on equity, include: language and identity; trade-offs between equality of opportunity and equality of outcome; stereotype threat; felon disenfranchisement; labor market inequality; urban vs. rural poverty; the erosion of mental health services; and how factors such as race, ethnicity, gender, and income can contribute to academic achievement gaps. The class will explore the substantive issues related to equality and inequality as well develop written and oral skills for advocacy, including drafting op-eds, position papers, and other written materials and preparing for oral presentations. Each student will be responsible for leading at least one class at San Quentin State Prison to a mixed class composed of Stanford and San Quentin prisoner students. Students will be also be expected to write weekly reflection papers in response to the assigned reading and to attend and participate heavily in each class discussion; they will also be expected to edit and provide individual feedback on the written assignments of the San Quentin students. In addition, attendance at a one day training conducted by the Prison University Project is mandatory. Class will meet on Fridays from 3:00 - 5:00pm. Grades will be based on a combination of active class participation and preparation, consistent attendance, and several written assignments. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and e-mail the Consent Application Form to the instructors; the form is available on the SLS Registrar's Office website (See Registration and then Law Students). See Consent Application Form for submission deadline.

Legal and policy issues raised by the biotechnology industry. Issues include patenting, corporate organization and financing, conflicts of interest, regulatory approvals, health care financing issues, and tort liability. Prospects for and implications of the biotechnology revolution. Organized around hypothetical problems. Undergraduates require consent of instructor.

This seminar will explore major topics in European legal history from ancient Rome through the present: Roman law, canon law, feudalism, sixteenth- and seventeenth-century constitutionalism, modern natural law, the age of absolutism and the rise of the centralized, administrative state, the structure of Old Regime law and society and the radical changes brought about by revolution, the German historical school of jurisprudence, and the rise of the European Union and a new culture of international human rights. In exploring these topics, we will focus on certain core, recurring themes that continue profoundly to shape the world in which we live. These include the sources and nature of law (positive law vs. custom), the relationship between law and society, and the relationship between law and history. Classroom discussion will focus on selected primary- and secondary-source texts that we will read as a group. The course will be limited to 12 SLS students with 10 additional slots held for students enrolling in HISTORY 238E/338E. Elements used in grading: Brief analytical paper (6-8 pages, worth 35% of the total course grade) and final exam (worth 65% of the total course grade). Cross-listed with History ( HISTORY 238E & HISTORY 338E).

This seminar is designed primarily for students working on Policy Lab projects, but will be open to other students as well subject to a total enrollment of 15 students. It will be offered both the Autumn and Winter quarters during 2013-14, with any individual student eligible to enroll only in one quarter. You already know how to think like a lawyer, but if you are interested in policymaking, policy advocacy or policy research¿whether in the public, nonprofit, or corporate sector¿ you need to know how to think like a policy analyst as well. This seminar, designed primarily for students beginning or continuing in Policy Lab practicums, has three purposes. First, it introduces students to the ways in which policy analysts approach public policy problems and controversies, focusing on perspectives that distinguish policy analysis from traditional legal analysis Second, it introduces students to the tools of policy analysis, including approaches to collecting and analyzing information Third, it provides hand-on lessons on communicating with policy makers orally and in writing. There is no text for the course. Readings for the course will include examples of policy analyses conducted to inform public policymaking. Students engaged in policy practicums will use their practicum experience as a basis for assessing the value of various policy analytic perspectives and research approaches. Students not engaged in policy practicums will pick a policy problem they are interested in and develop a plan for conducting a policy analysis relevant to this problem. Elements used in grading (Autumn): Attendance, class participation, three short reflection papers.Elements used in grading (Winter): Course paper and class participation. Consent Application: To apply for this course, students must complete and e-mail the Consent Application Form available on the SLS Registrar's Office website (see Registration and Selection of Classes for Stanford Law Students) to the instructors. See Consent Application Form for submission deadline.

Most people watch television on a regular basis (although not necessarily on TV). Television entertains, delivers the news, and provides an important forum for debating political issues. Focusing on communications law and first amendment law, the course will discuss how and why regulation shapes what we see on TV, and how it attempts to ensure that television can fulfill its functions for society. For example, why is cable television so expensive? Why can comedians swear on cable TV, but not on broadcast TV? Should regulators care as much about violence as they do about indecency? Can we trust the market to give the audience what it wants? Will the market provide content that is in the public interest, such as local news or educational programming, or do regulators need to intervene? Should we care if media outlets are increasingly owned by a few small conglomerates? And how does the Internet affect the need for ownership regulation? The course mostly focuses on the U.S., but highlights developments elsewhere where appropriate.nnSpecial instructions: Students may take Communications Law: Internet and Telephony and Communications Law: Broadcast and Cable Television in any order (neither is a prerequisite for the other).nnThere are no prerequisites for this course. No technical background is required.nnElements used in grading: Class participation, attendance, final exam.

Comprehensive overview of current communications law as it has emerged over the past 100 years, in the form of industry-specific laws and through related areas of law such as antitrust and first amendment law. Existing pressures on the system, available solutions, and the broader economic and political implications of the legal and technical choices that communications law is facing today. Focus is on the U.S.; attention to developments elsewhere.

This is an advanced constitutional law seminar for students who have already taken the introductory Constitutional Law course. The seminar will provide an opportunity for in-depth discussion of competing theories of constitutional interpretation, the role of the Supreme Court in our political system, and analysis of judicial behavior. Each week, these themes will be examined through the lens of a current "hot topic" in constitutional law - for example, the Affordable Care Act, affirmative action, the Second Amendment, the death penalty, executive power in the war on terrorism, campaign finance, immigration, same-sex marriage, and other topics. This is not a "spectator" class; all students will be expected to participate actively in class discussion each week. This is a good seminar for students interested in clerking or pursuing academia.

The U.S. and the European Union (which comprises 28 European states and 500 million people) have the largest bilateral trade relationship in the world. About 60% of the world's GDP is generated on the Transatlantic Marketplace. U.S. companies rely on the EU market for more than half of their global foreign profits, and U.S. investment in the EU is currently three times greater than U.S. investment in the whole of Asia. The new Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a free trade agreement currently under negotiation between the EU and the U.S., will further strengthen substantially the economic ties between the EU and the U.S. in the near future. In the past few years, even several proposed mergers between U.S. companies have been killed solely by the EU antitrust authorities, although approved by the U.S. antitrust regulators. In recent years, this has tremendously heightened the need for a sound understanding of the legal system of the EU, especially for business and technology lawyers. Responding to this need, this course will, first, examine the internationally unique legal system of the EU as such, as it is applicable to any field of substantive and procedural EU law. Thus, we will look at the legal nature and the different sources of EU law and its relationship with the national law of the EU Member States. We will cover the relevant EU law enforcement actions including state liability issues as well as the jurisdiction of both European Courts and relevant remedies in national courts. Secondly, we will explore the legal framework of doing business in the EU, from the perspective of a business entity as an internationally operating actor in a European business environment. In this context, we will focus on the most essential fields of EU business law, i.e. (a) the four fundamental economic freedoms of the European Internal Market for goods, services, capital and persons, (b) EU competition/antitrust law, as well as (c) EU e-commerce law. Special attention will be given to the question how companies established outside the EU can efficiently use EU business law to pursue their interests in the EU. Additional education and research opportunities for students in EU law, building on this course, can be found in the course syllabus. Special Instructions: Students have the option to write a research paper in lieu of the one-day take home exam. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. Students taking the course for R credit can take the course for either 2 or 3 units, depending on the paper length. Elements used in grading: Class participation, one-day take-home exam or research paper.