printer friendly pageLAW 413Y: Policy Practicum: Catalyzing Nature-Based Coastal Flood Mitigation and Adaptation
Recently, several perilous and costly flood events have raised public awareness of the threats posed by coastal and riverine floods nationally. It is likely that with climate change, the frequency of heavy precipitation will increase in some areas over the 21st century, and that the return interval of flood events will decrease, greatly increasing overall flood risk. Traditionally, flood mitigation has occurred through the use of hard engineering - seawalls, revetments and levees. However, natural habitats and ecosystems also offer significant, and often overlooked and undervalued protections in mitigating or buffering flood hazards. Hazard mitigation plans and conservation project plans very rarely explicitly recognize the protective value of natural habitats, even though this value has been well documented. Moreover, hazard mitigation agents and environmental conservation organizations seldom work together, although recent catastrophic events highlight why it would make sense to do so. FEMA Region IX and The Nature Conservancy in California have recognized this and wish to develop a paradigm for working together to promote nature-based flood mitigation, and have asked for our help. Students in this practicum will: (a) Identify a coastal community with areas of both high flood risk and conservation value; (b) Design a nature-based strategy for risk reduction, which could include managed retreat and/or other mitigation/adaption tactics; (c) Identify available resources/programs/incentives for and barriers to implementation at the local, state and federal levels; (d) Design a process for enabling the community to avail themselves of these resources; and (e) Comment on how laws, regulations and programs could be changed to better facilitate nature-based flood risk reduction. Students will also provide insight into the transferability of this approach beyond the study area. Elements Used in Grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Written Assignments. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
LAW 413Z: Policy Practicum: Endstage Decisions: Health Directives in Law and Practice
Medical decisions toward the end of life can be crucial and difficult for patients, doctors, and the families of patients. Law and medicine have been struggling to find ways to strike a balance between what the patients might want (or say they want), and what makes medical, economic, and ethical sense. People have been encouraged to fill out "Advanced Health Care Directives," which give guidance to doctors and surrogates (usually a family member) on what to do when faced with end-of-life dilemmas. Another form, adopted in just over half the states (including California) is the POLST form (Physician Orders for Life-Sustaining Treatment). The two types are supposed to complement each other, but they are different in important ways. The Advanced Health Care Directive expresses what a person wants, or thinks she wants, and/or appoints a surrogate, in case the patient is unable to express her wishes. Anybody can fill out a Directive, at any time of life. Ideally, a copy goes to the surrogate, if one is appointed, and another to the primary care physician. The POLST form is meant for people who are seriously ill. It is a one page form, printed on bright pink paper. It is signed by patient and doctor. The directives (for example "no artificial nutrition by tube") are supposed to be controlling; the patient, of course, can change her mind; but there is no surrogate. It is an agreement between the patient and the doctor. Who uses these forms? How effective are they? To what extent and in what situations are they useful? In what situations are they not useful? Can they be made more useful and, if so, how? There has been research on the subject; and a major report on the end-of-life issue (originally due out in December) will be released this summer. The class will look at some of this literature, but the main point will be to find out what local hospitals and nursing homes are doing. Students will conduct interviews with doctors, nurses, and other health care specialists in order to find out what one might call the living law of the Directive and of Polst. The aim is to get a more realistic picture of the situation in the area: how are these forms used, when are they used, what has the experience of health care professionals been; perhaps also some insight into the experience of patients and family members. The ultimately goal would, one hopes, be policy recommendations for improvements in the forms themselves, and the laws relating to the forms, along with recommendations for ways to improve the way the forms are or can be used; or whether some entirely different approach to the problem might be needed. Stanford Hospital and Clinics will be the client in researching and addressing the above questions. Elements used in grading: Final Paper. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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.
Terms: Aut, Spr
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Friedman, L. (PI)
;
Pearson, B. (PI)
LAW 414B: Policy Practicum: Analyzing Alternative Laws and Policies for Psychoactive Drugs
Four states have already legalized marijuana, and there is a strong likelihood that California will significantly change its marijuana laws This practicum works closely with a policy client to assess alternative options for California marijuana laws. We will examine possible options through many lenses, including moral philosophy, welfare economics, neuroscience and medicine, criminal justice, and political analysis. Students will gain exposure to such policy analysis methodologies as epidemiology, econometrics, quasi-experimentation, simulation modeling, and cross-national case studies to identify and analyze options and likely tradeoffs to help the client and the citizens of California make informed choices. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Written Assignments. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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 instructor. See Consent Application Form for submission deadline.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 3
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
MacCoun, R. (PI)
LAW 414C: Policy Practicum: Strategic Litigation in Global Context
Students will work with litigators at the Open Society Justice Initiative, a law center housed inside a global foundation, on a comparative research project exploring the impacts of strategic litigation in the public interest. The resulting publication aims to assist strategic litigators, social change actors and rights activists in understanding the promise, risks and complexity of the burgeoning global practice of strategic litigation and in wielding this specialized justice tool more skillfully. The autumn practicum will culminate in a conference at the Law School in December 2014 before an international audience of practitioners, with the possibility of student papers appearing in a conference compilation. Students who are available both autumn and winter quarter may continue their work on the project through the winter. The project on the impacts of strategic litigation will examine how legal judgments - both positive and negative - and the ensuing record of implementation have influenced, together with other tools of change, the advancement of human rights in a variety of settings. Over the course of the Practicum, students will explore one or more of the following human rights themes: equal access to quality education, the death penalty, disability, housing rights, land rights and/or state-sponsored violence/torture. Cases will be drawn from domestic courts across the globe, as well as regional human rights tribunals and UN treaty bodies. Specific questions to be examined include: What contributions to social, political and legal change has strategic litigation made on particular issues in particular places? What were the conditions, circumstances and manner in which litigation was pursued (in conjunction with other tools) which enhanced its contribution(s), and which diminished them? What does comparative experience teach about the risks and trade-offs involved in deciding whether, when and how to litigate so that it generates the strongest and most enduring impacts? There is a preference for students who can enroll for both autumn and winter quarter. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Written Assignments. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3-4
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
Martinez, J. (PI)
LAW 414D: Policy Practicum: Copyright Policy Practicum
One of today's great challenges for creative production on and off the Internet is to connect creative users of copyrighted works with the works' owners quickly and cheaply in order to enable licensed uses. With the United States Copyright Office as its client, this practicum will develop a feasibility study/rough prototype for a Web-based copyright clearance system. Law students will work with computer science and business students to inventory existing sources of copyright ownership information; explore with the managers of these sources (including the Copyright Office) protocols for integrating the sources in a Web-based platform; explore use protocols with potential copyright users; develop strategies for gathering ownership data that do not presently reside in databases; and develop (and possibly implement) criteria for platform-enabling software. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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 contact information and submission deadline. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Goldstein, P. (PI)
;
Herman, L. (PI)
LAW 414E: Policy Practicum: Legal and Policy Tools for Preventing Atrocities
In 2012, at the U.S. Holocaust Museum and Memorial, President Obama announced the adoption of a comprehensive global strategy to prevent atrocities. This strategy is based on a set of recommendations generated by an interagency review of the U.S. government's capabilities mandated by Presidential Study Directive 10 (PSD-10) of 2011. In unveiling this major new initiative, President Obama underscored that Preventing mass atrocities and genocide is a core national security interest and a core moral responsibility of the United States. Foundational to the PSD-10 recommendations was the creation of a high-level interagency Atrocities Prevention Board (APB) to monitor at-risk countries and emerging threats in order to coordinate the U.S. government's responses thereto. Since being established in 2012, the APB has worked to amass and strengthen a range of legal, diplomatic, military, and financial tools for atrocity prevention. This policy lab would support the APB primarily through one of its constitutive entities, the Office of Global Criminal Justice (GCJ) in the U.S. Department of State. GCJ is headed by an Ambassador-at-Large (Assistant Secretary equivalent) and advises the Secretary of State and the Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights on U.S. policy addressed to the prevention of, responses to, and accountability for mass atrocities. Students enrolled in the lab will pursue a range of projects devoted to (a) strengthening existing tools (such as hybrid accountability mechanisms and commissions of inquiry), (b) developing new capabilities (such as a global atrocities prevention sanctions regime), (c) evaluating the efficacy of past efforts in order to glean lessons learned, and (d) gathering best practices from other states and entities engaged in similar endeavors, all with an eye toward developing concrete recommendations for future action. The client is the Office of Global Criminal Justice in the State Department. Students may have the opportunity to travel to Washington to meet with the client and other government agencies involved in the APB and to present preliminary findings for feedback and additional direction. This is designed as a two quarter policy lab, although students may enroll for a single quarter (WINTER OR SPRING). Course must be taken for at least two units to meet "R" (Research) requirement. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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 instructor. See Consent Application Form for contact information and submission deadline.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 1-4
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
Instructors:
Van Schaack, B. (PI)
LAW 414F: Policy Practicum: Rethinking Penal Code Enhancements in California
The Stanford Criminal Justice Center was approached by the Chief Justice of California to advise the judiciary, and indirectly the Legislature, on potential revisions to the California Penal Code. The California prison system remains under federal court control for unconstitutional overcrowding, and the federal court is loath to terminate the injunction without some reassurance of reforms that might prevent the overcrowding from recurring. In the absence of a state sentencing commission, the Chief Justice believes that we at Stanford can perform a fresh new analysis of the parts of the Penal Code that most merit review, in terms of their undue complexity, their arguably disproportionate severity, and the possibility that they are major drivers of the size of the prison population. Enhancements are an incredibly complex part of the Penal Code. Tens of provisions, many of them obscure even to judges, allow for very large upgrades to sentences because of aspects of conduct that are said to aggravate the underlying crime. (Please note that while some of the enhancements under review involve prior crimes, we are not dealing with the Three Strikes Law.) The Chief Justice's administrative arm, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC), acknowledges that no one has performed even a statutory analysis of the overall scheme of enhancements, much less any empirical effort to connect them to prison inputs. This will likely be a multi-term Policy Lab that will ultimately gather data to attempt this empirical analysis, but the first term effort is more circumscribed. A team of students will undertake the mapping of the statutory terrain - a charting of all the enhancements in the Penal Code and the many cross-permutations of these enhancements and the crimes to which they attach, and as a first empirical cut, identification of the permutations of crime and enhancements that are most often charged in California. 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 contact information and submission deadline. Elements used in grading: As agreed to by instructor.
Terms: Aut, Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Weisberg, R. (PI)
LAW 414G: Policy Practicum: Energy and Environmental Governance
Important energy and environmental initiatives cut across many agencies in the federal government, leading to significant policymaking and implementation challenges. Many of the agencies operating in the energy and environmental sphere have overlapping jurisdictions, but they also have different missions, priorities, and resources that push them toward agency-specific policies and programs and away from cross-cutting, government-wide initiatives. The result has been sub-optimal federal implementation of clean energy solutions, responses to climate change, the coordination of regulatory and permitting activity, and the like. In this SPRING QUARTER policy lab (3 units), students will work with the Center for American Progress (CAP) and the Office of Management & Budget in Washington to scope out the governance challenge and to review and analyze administrative tools (e.g., Executive Orders; Presidential Memoranda; inter-agency Task Forces; budget-led initiatives, etc.) that have been used to address it. Students will develop candid assessments of successes and failures and seek to identify common ingredients that may help predict the efficacy of cross-agency efforts. The policy lab will produce a report to CAP that should assist future Administrations in deploying more effective administrative governance tools in the energy and environmental arena. Elements used in grading - Individual and Team Development of Written Analyses and Policy Recommendations . NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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 instructor. See Consent Application Form for submission deadline.
Terms: Win, Spr
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Hayes, D. (PI)
LAW 414H: Policy Practicum: Preparing for Transition in Syria
Syria is in the midst of a devastating civil war, during which almost 200,000 persons have been killed, many more have been injured, and millions have been displaced. One major coalition of Syrian opposition groups, known as the National Coalition for Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, or the Syrian National Coalition, seeks to replace the current Syrian government, led by President Bashar al-Assad. As the Coalition plans for a post-Assad transition, it has encountered a number of legal and policy challenges that implicate international law, international relations, and administrative problems. Students will support the Public Interest Law and Policy Group, which is working closely with the Coalition, to provide legal advice on legal issues identified by the opposition as likely to arise in the event negotiations to resolve the Syrian conflict resume. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. CONSENT: Contact Professor Weiner at aweiner@stanford.edu.
Terms: Win
| Units: 1
Instructors:
Weiner, A. (PI)
LAW 414I: Policy Practicum: Procedural Reform at the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)
The CPUC is an administrative agency headquartered in San Francisco that regulates electricity, natural gas, telecommunications, water, and transportation. Many of its decisions (both adjudicatory decisions and regulations) are of enormous importance to the California economy. The proceedings to adopt these decisions are often lengthy and complex. The CPUC is interested in working with the Stanford Law and Policy Lab to consider procedural reforms to promote transparency and efficiency in its decisionmaking. There are three areas of potential procedural reform that the Policy Lab might consider. Which of the areas are selected for study will be decided after discussion between the CPUC, the supervising professor, and students enrolled in the practicum. i) Ex parte communication rules. Ex parte communications between outsiders and PUC decisionmakers are prohibited in adjudicatory cases; permitted in ratemaking cases but must be disclosed; and permitted in rulemaking without disclosure. Some CPUC decisionmakers believe that ex parte communications are essential to enable them to properly consider different points of view and to facilitate timely decisionmaking. Others view such communications as inherently unreliable and as undermining the transparency and accountability of the agency. The CPUC is interested in studying this problem and considering amendments to relevant statutes and regulations. ii) Open Meetings law. The Bagley Keene Act requires the CPUC to conduct open meetings when a quorum of its 5 commissioners meet. Bagley Keene has, in practice, effectively prevented the CPUC from properly managing its operations and engaging in useful deliberation. The CPUC and the Little Hoover Commission are considering whether to seek an amendment to Bagley Keene in order to permit more coordination and collaboration among CPUC Commissioners. iii) Evidence rules. The "residuum rule" requires that on judicial review of an agency decision, the record must contain at least some evidence, other than hearsay, to support the agency's findings and conclusions. A recent court decision has said the CPUC is subject to the residuum rule because it has been declared CPUC policy. A variety of evidence (such as studies by other government agencies) often comprise the underpinning of CPUC decisions and may not come under any hearsay exception. As a result, the residuum rule could compromise the efficiency of CPUC proceedings and risk reversal of future decisions on technical evidentiary grounds. The CPUC is interested in investigating potential solutions for remedying this problem. This practicum will carry two units of credit. It will be supervised by Visiting Professor Michael Asimow. Students will be expected to do field work and legal research and write a paper that makes policy proposals in one or more of the three areas discussed above. Enrollment is limited to three students and will be graded under the H/P/R/F system. Grades will be based on the level of a student's participation and the quality of the final paper. NOTE: Students may not count more than a combined total of eight units of directed research projects and policy lab practica toward graduation unless the additional counted units are approved in advance by the Petitions Committee. Such approval will be granted only for good cause shown. Even in the case of a successful petition for additional units, a student cannot receive a letter grade for more than eight units of independent research (Policy Lab practicum, Directed Research, Senior Thesis, and/or Research Track). Any units taken in excess of eight will be graded on a mandatory pass basis. For detailed information, see "Directed Research/Policy Labs" in the SLS Student Handbook. 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 instructor. See Consent Application Form for submission deadline.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Asimow, M. (PI)
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