printer friendly pageLAW 413H: Policy Practicum: State Law Enforcement Access to Customer Records of Communication Companies
If California Senate Bill SCR 54 is enacted, as seems likely, the California Law Revision Commission will be tasked with modernizing California statutory law on law enforcement access to customer records of cell phone providers, internet service providers, social media companies, and other mobile and internet-based communication providers. The Commission would like us to prepare a thorough and balanced background study of the relevant legal and policy concerns, including civil liberties, public safety, and the scope of federal preemption in the area, with an emphasis on new and emerging communication services. This is likely to be a high profile project, with close attention from the Legislature and many interest groups. nThis project involves complex issues under the Fourth Amendment and such statutory structures as the Electronic Communications Privacy Act. Completion of the course in Criminal Investigation is a prerequisite, with exceptions only for those with demonstrable alternative background in Fourth Amendment law.nElements used in grading: As agreed to by instructor. 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.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413I: Policy Practicum: Tax Regulatory Project
The changing economic landscape places great stress on the tax legislative process. This stress is magnified by flaws in existing statutes, and by taxpayer attempts to exploit those flaws. There are no statutory rules governing hundreds of billions of dollars of annual transactions. Much of this void is filled in (imperfectly) by Treasury regulations. This practicum will take a close look at one or two issues raised by one proposed Treasury regulation. We will look at the relevant literature, talk to stakeholders, and (possibly) and in our individual names, provide public comments and testimony on the regulation. Since the primary output will be a public (and therefore published in the leading tax journal, Tax Notes) comment, the course will offer Professional Writing (PW) credit. Students with a research interest in this area that is aligned with the project can with permission of the professor write a paper that receives Research (R) credit. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from the PW section (01) to the R section (02) with consent of the instructor. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments or Research Paper. 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.
| Repeatable
3 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413J: Policy Practicum: Court-Supervised Remediation of Complex Environmental Problems
The Law School's Environmental Law Clinic is representing an environmental group in a lawsuit against the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. The suit asserts that the agency has been polluting both surface and ground waters in the Salinas River Valley and Elkhorn Slough by discharging pesticide-laden farm irrigation run-off in violation of California environmental laws. If the plaintiffs prevail, the appropriate injunctive relief is likely to be complex. Neither the precise dimensions of the problem nor those of the most effective interventions to remedy it are known. So, ideally, relief should combine adaptive flexibility for the agency, meaningful accountability to the plaintiffs and the public, and an opportunity for all parties to learn in the process of the implementation. Policy Lab students will work with Professors Deborah Sivas (lead plaintiffs¿ counsel) and Bill Simon on some aspect of a possible remedial regime. Students may normally receive no more than four units for a Policy Lab practicum and no more than a total of eight units of Policy Lab practicums and Directed Research projects combined may be counted toward graduation unless additional units for graduation are approved in advanced by the Petitions Committee. 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. 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. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Final Paper.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413K: Policy Practicum: Stream Flow Restoration Transactions
Water in the West (a joint program of the Woods Institute and the Lane Center for the American West) is working with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) on research related to water rights transactions that restore water to the environment. Rivers in the western United States are subject to significant water withdrawals that have had major impacts on the health of their ecosystems. In an effort to restore the health of such rivers, a number of conservation groups have begun to facilitate voluntary transactions to restore water to the environment, such as acquiring water rights and funding irrigation efficiency improvements. NFWF has extensive experience with these efforts through its funding of the Columbia Basin Water Transaction Program and implementation of the Walker Basin Restoration Program, and intends to expand its efforts to other parts of the West. It faces the challenge of deciding where to invest funds and resources in order to achieve the greatest conservation benefits for available dollars. Students in this policy lab will assist NFWF in the development of an assessment methodology for identifying and analyzing watersheds in the western United States as potential locations for expanding its efforts. Our work will focus on evaluating western states in terms of the extent to which they allow the transfer of water rights for environmental use and in terms of the regulatory, financial, and social hurdles such transactions face in each state. We will also analyze data related to stream flow alteration and work with NFWF to integrate this information into its broader assessment. Finally, we will work with NFWF staff to integrate our work into their broader assessment and help them begin to evaluate specific candidate watersheds. Elements used in grading: As agreed to by instructor. 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.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413L: Policy Practicum: Advising Congress on Health Policy
This policy lab will conduct research on national health policy problems for the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, or MedPAC (MedPAC is an independent Congressional agency established by the Balanced Budget Act of 1997 to advise the U.S. Congress on issues affecting the Medicare program). Students will work in teams with lawyers and PhD economists from MedPAC, resident and fellow physicians from Stanford Hospital, and other students from throughout the University on one of two topics:nExpanding the healthcare workforce through reform of states' scope of practice regulation. This project will examine how changes in licensing rules governing health care providers' allowed scope of practice can accommodate the expansion of demand for health services due to the Affordable Care Act and other factors. Specific questions include: 1) Under existing state law, what additional tasks can non-physicians such as nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and pharmacists undertake that would reduce cost and/or improve quality? 2) What changes to state law might expand the allowed scope of practice of non-physicians that would reduce cost and/or improve quality? 3) What incentives might the federal government provide, either through Medicare or other means, to encourage states to reform optimally their scope of practice rules to reflect new available technologies?nDesigning antitrust policy to achieve the benefits of coordination and avoid the costs of consolidation. On one hand, closer links between physicians, hospitals, and other health care providers has the potential to reduce cost and improve quality by improving communication across care settings, avoiding wasteful duplication of effort, and reducing medical errors. On the other hand, consolidation may be used to exploit consumers by facilitating the exercise of health care providers' market power. This tension has become especially important due to incentives in the Affordable Care Act that encourage doctors and hospitals to join together in Accountable Care Organizations. This project will examine the following questions: 1) How can the U.S. Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission use existing federal antitrust law to allow welfare-improving coordination while prohibiting welfare-reducing consolidation in ways that minimize costs of enforcement, including the legal uncertainty facing providers? 2) Can adoption of health-care-specific antitrust laws, such as those proposed or enacted in Massachusetts and California, effectively fill in the gaps in existing federal antitrust laws? 3) What incentives might the federal government provide, through design of reimbursement policies in the Medicare program, to complement federal and state antitrust laws?nConsent 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. Elements used in grading: Written Assignments, Final Paper. This course is cross-listed with
HRP 222A and B.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413M: Policy Practicum: Stereotype Threat and Higher Education
A large body of social psychological research has established the existence of stereotype threat--a worry that one might be viewed through the lens of a negative intellectual stereotype. This concern provokes anxiety and can undermine the academic performance of members of negatively stereotyped groups, underrepresented minority groups in particular. Stereotype threat acts like an intellectual headwind.nThis project will consider changes that colleges and universities institutions might undertake to reduce the effect of stereotype threat.nElements use in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Written Assignments, Final Paper.nConsent 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.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413P: Policy Practicum: Wildlife Trafficking: Stopping the Scourge
This policy lab seminar will address the international wildlife trafficking crisis, with a focus on legal and policy tools that can help combat the scourge. The price of ivory on black markets has skyrocketed and elephant and rhino populations in Africa are being decimated. At current poaching rates, African elephants could be wiped out within 8 to 10 years. Trafficking also is hitting tigers, great apes, sharks and other important species. The seminar will key into the President's recent Executive Order on this subject (E.O. 13658, issued on July 1, 2013) and related international efforts to reduce the killing in host countries, the transshipment of poached materials, and consumer demand for ivory and other wildlife parts. The seminar will address US laws and their role in addressing trade in wildlife parts. It also will undertake a comparative review of the legal structures in relevant African and Asian nations, and the potential role of the international endangered species treaty (CITES) and transnational enforcement efforts in cracking down on ivory and other wildlife-related trafficking. The seminar will review prior poaching crises, including the elephant/ivory crisis in the late 1980s, and evaluate why the strategies that reduced killings in the 1990s are no longer successful. Based on these analyses, the class will develop and submit recommendations for reforms to US, African, and international laws and practices to two groups established under the Executive Order: (1) the President's Wildlife Trafficking Task Force, which is chaired by the Secretaries of State and Interior and the Attorney General; and (2) the Wildlife Trafficking Advisory Council, which is composed of outside experts who are advising the Task Force. (Professor Hayes is an appointed member of the Advisory Council.) Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Final Paper. Students may normally receive no more than four units for a Policy Lab practicum and no more than a total of eight units of Policy Lab practicums and Directed Research projects combined may be counted toward graduation unless additional units for graduation are approved in advanced by the Petitions Committee. 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. 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.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413Q: Policy Practicum: Constitutional Design in Libya: The Division of National & Provincial Powers
Libya's government has experienced significant strains stemming from various interest groups and armed militias calling for federalism. The General National Congress, elected in 2012, is mandated to form a government, promulgate legislation for Libya's transitional period, and establish a constitution-drafting entity. A de facto federal structure has emerged since the fall of the Qaddafi regime, and it appears that a federal state structure is the only way forward for Libya. Even a decentralized framework may be threatened, however, if it does not clearly delineate the powers of the executive heads of provincial territories. Students in this Practicum will work to support the Public Interest Law and Policy Group PILPG), a pro bono international law firm, which in turn is providing advice to civil society groups in Libya. To assist PILPG in supporting its clients' engagement on constitutional issues and decentralization, students in this Practicum will develop a legal memorandum analyzing comparative state practice of the distribution of powers between the national executive and provincial level executives in federal or decentralized states. The memorandum will address approaches states have taken on key issues such as whether the national executive can remove the heads of provincial governments; whether the provincial executive has a role in national-level policies; whether provincial executives maintain any control over the military; and whether the provincial executives' powers can supersede the national executive's powers on certain regional issues. State practice from the Middle East and North Africa region will be of particular relevance to PILPG's Libyan clients, but state practice examples will ultimately be selected based on their value in explaining or illustrating mechanisms and processes that shed light on the efficacy of different approaches to distributing powers between national and provincial executives. Students may normally receive no more than four units for a Policy Lab practicum and no more than a total of eight units of Policy Lab practicums and Directed Research projects combined may be counted toward graduation unless additional units for graduation are approved in advanced by the Petitions Committee. 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. 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. Elements used in grading: Class participation, Written Assignments.
| Repeatable
4 times
(up to 8 units total)
LAW 413R: Policy Practicum: The National Environmental Policy Act: Pushing the Reset Button
This policy lab will focus on recommendations for the reform and modernization of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) -- the granddaddy of our environmental laws. NEPA is a disclosure statute which requires that before federal officials can issue a permit, commit federal funds, or otherwise take an action that may have a significant impact on the environment, decision-makers must have the opportunity to review an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that analyzes the potential environmental consequences of the proposed action and its alternatives. Many critics from both the right and left are dissatisfied with the way that NEPA and its state analogues are being implemented, prompting some legislators to advocate statutory overrides and agency officials to expand the use of categorical exemptions. Meanwhile, NEPA proponents are interested in making the environmental review process more user-friendly and efficient, while preserving its core disclosure requirements. In this policy lab, students will review, analyze, and develop positions on potential NEPA reform options. Students will interact with NEPA experts at the White House¿s Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) and produce work product that CEQ can use as it responds to Congressional and outside pressure to reform the NEPA process. Students may normally receive no more than four units for a Policy Lab practicum and no more than a total of eight units of Policy Lab practicums and Directed Research projects combined may be counted toward graduation unless additional units for graduation are approved in advanced by the Petitions Committee. 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. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Final Paper. 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.
LAW 413S: Policy Practicum: Carbon Pollution Standards and Carbon Taxes
This policy lab seminar will address the ongoing effort by the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce carbon pollution from electric power plants. The EPA is currently in the process of writing New Source Performance Standards for new and existing coal and natural gas fired electric power plants. A critical question in writing these rules will be the extent to which EPA can allow for economically efficient approaches to cutting emissions. States, including California, industry, and environmental groups are all pushing EPA to incorporate some sort of emissions pricing as either a safe harbor or to propose it as a Federal Implementation Plan that States may choose to join. By doing so, not only will costs fall for regulated sectors but also, deeper cuts in emissions may become feasible. Almost all parties expect, based on prior precedent, that such a proposal will take the form of a cap-and-trade or at least some sort of mass-based cap on emissions. Adele Morris, the Policy Director for the Climate and Energy Economics Project at the Brookings Institution, has asked for our assistance in formulating and assessing the legal implications of an alternative proposal - a carbon tax. Students will prepare briefings and written comments to EPA and OMB explaining the potential benefits of a carbon tax approach to New Source Performance Standards as well as exploring the legal risks that might be created by this approach. We anticipate that students will also participate in briefings with key OMB and EPA Air and Radiation staff involved in drafting the proposed rule. The New Source Performance Standard rulemaking for greenhouse gases is the most environmentally and economically significant regulatory effort that EPA will undertake this decade. Partnering with Brookings will allow us to both leverage legal and economic expertise and to inject students into the most exciting environmental policy making currently underway in the United States. Doing so now, before the draft rule is published, allows us to exert maximum influence before the agency loses flexibility to respond to outside input. To develop skills relevant to the work of practicing lawyers, students will research and write parts of memos and written comments to EPA and OMB on behalf of Morris based on their research into various legal and policy aspects of Clean Air Act Section 111 as applied to the problem of power plant emissions. These assignments, for Writing (W) or Professional Writing (PW), or Research (R) credit, will be due before the end of the quarter. Students must obtain the instructor¿s approval of their election to take the course for writing (PW or W) or research (R) credit. 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 may normally receive no more than four units for a Policy Lab practicum and no more than a total of eight units of Policy Lab practicums and Directed Research projects combined may be counted toward graduation unless additional units for graduation are approved in advanced by the Petitions Committee. 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. 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.
| Repeatable
2 times
(up to 8 units total)
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