printer friendly pageLAW 577: Regulation of the Political Process
This course is intended to give students a basic understanding of the themes in the legal regulation of elections and politics. We will cover all the major Supreme Court cases on topics of voting rights, reapportionment/redistricting, ballot access, regulation of political parties, campaign finance, and the 2000 presidential election controversy. The course pays particular attention to competing political philosophies and empirical assumptions that underlie the Court's reasoning while still focusing on the cases as litigation tools used to serve political ends. Elements used in grading: Class participation and exam. Cross-listed with Communication (
COMM 361) and Political Science (
POLISCI 327C).
Terms: Win
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Persily, N. (PI)
LAW 581: Workshop in Sociology of Law
(Same as
SOC 338.) Required for joint degree J.D./Ph.D. students in Sociology in the first three years of program; open to Ph.D. students in Sociology and related disciplines. Empirical, sociological study of law and legal institutions. Topics such as the relation of law to inequality and stratification, social movements, organizations and institutions, political sociology and state development, and the social construction of disputes and dispute resolution processes. Research presentations. Career development issues. May be repeated for credit.
Last offered: Winter 2008
| Repeatable
1 times
(up to 3 units total)
LAW 583: International Investment Law
International investment law and arbitration is one of the fastest-developing areas of international law. It is an area that combines elements of treaty and customary international law, public policy, and private dispute resolution. In the past decades, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of bilateral investment treaties and other agreements with investment-related provisions, followed by a sharp rise in the number of disputes between private investors and sovereign states under those specialized legal regimes. The rise of international investment law and arbitration has generated a new and exciting practice area in global law firms, where teams of lawyers act on behalf of investors against sovereign states, or defending sovereign states against investor claims, before international arbitral tribunals. This course will cover four broad areas: (I) the historic, theoretical and policy grounds underpinning international investment law; (II) the substantive obligations and standards governing the investor-state relationship; (III) the growth of investor-state arbitration and its impact on international law; and (IV) the wider issues of fairness and functionality of investment treaty law and investor-state dispute resolution. The course uses materials from international investment treaty texts, case law, and commentaries to enable students to evaluate and apply legal doctrine to future situations. The course will highlight different and sometimes conflicting interpretations and decisions in the area, and invite students to analyze, discuss, and form their own views on key issues. Students may choose between a series of weekly response papers, or a larger research paper, and will serve as discussion facilitators along with the instructor. 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. Elements used in grading: Class participation and paper(s).
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Greenberg, J. (PI)
;
Sykes, A. (PI)
LAW 585: Introduction to Transnational Law
International aspects of modern legal practice. Public and private international law, and comparative law. Case studies focus on human rights, environment, trade, and commercial law. National sovereignty in the era of globalization, the democratic deficit of international institutions, theories about why nations obey or disobey international law, how nations internalize or reject international norms, how international institutions interact with national legal systems, and the role of non-state actors in the international system.
Last offered: Winter 2009
LAW 586: Islamic Law
Topics include marriage, divorce, inheritance, ritual, war, rebellion, abortion, and relations with non-Muslims. The course begins with the premodern period, in which jurists were organized in legal traditions called "schools of law." After examining the nature and functions of these institutions, we turn to the present era to study the relationship between customary law, state law, and the Islamic legal heritage in Egypt and Indonesia. The course explores Muslim laws and legal institutions and the factors that have shaped them, including social values and customs, politics, legal precedents, and textual interpretation. Elements used in grading: Participation. Cross-listed with Religious Studies (
RELIGST 201/301).
Terms: Spr
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Sadeghi, B. (PI)
;
Marcus, A. (TA)
LAW 588: Sports Law
This seminar covers various legal and business aspects of professional sports, the Olympics and college athletics. Topics covered may include antitrust law, labor law, collective bargaining, torts, contracts, agency, constitutional law, administrative law and intellectual property. Class lecture and discussion will be supplemented with speakers from the sports industry, with an emphasis on current and future sports law issues. Special Instructions: Any student may write a paper in lieu of the final exam with consent of instructor. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer from the exam section (01) to the paper section (02) for Research credit with consent of the instructor. Class will meet six Tuesdays. Exact meeting dates TBA. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Attendance, Final Exam or Final Paper.
Terms: Win
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Dell, D. (PI)
LAW 590: Modern Capital Markets and the Financial Crisis
Money: Shadow Banking, Dark Financial Matter and the Future of Finance. nThis course introduces law students to the structure of the shadow banking system and related financial markets. Emphasis is placed on the securitization process, the swaps markets (including credit default swaps, total returns swaps, interest rate, and currency swaps), repo agreements, forwards, futures, and related institutions such as clearing houses and exchanges. The course will consider the role that these markets played in the recent and ongoing financial crisis, their potential implications for future crises, and several of the regulatory initiatives proposed by the Dodd Frank Act. Much of the course will operate through the lens of a series of case studies including the Greek debt crisis, Harvard's loss of $500 million in the swaps market, the AIG bailout, and JPMorgan's loss of $2 billion in its hedge book. nSpecial Instructions: If you have taken
Law 559: Modern Securities Regulation (Sonsini) and/or
Law 542: Modern Securities Fraud Litigation (Eth), you may take
Law 590: Modern Capital Markets (Grundfest).nElements used in grading: Class attendance, participation and exam.
Last offered: Winter 2014
LAW 591: Securities Regulation: Raising Capital in U.S. Markets, from Start-up through IPO and Beyond
This course relies on Silicon Valley's venture capital process as a template and examines the legal regime governing capital formation from the earliest angel investing rounds, through billion dollar private placements, initial public offerings (IPO's), and subsequent governance as a publicly traded firm. The course also addresses emerging crowd-funding markets, secondary market mechanisms that offer liquidity to employees of privately held, VC-backed firms, as well the operation of Rule 144A markets in which large foreign firms tap US institutional investors for billions in financing without ever registering with the SEC. The course relies extensively on recent transactions including the Alibaba, Etsy, and GoPro IPOs, and Uber private placements. Students interested in a more complete appreciation of the securities regulation process are advised also to take the Spring Securities Litigation course. Elements used in grading: Final exam.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Grundfest, J. (PI)
LAW 592: Law, Race, and Inequality
This course will examine the application of constitutional and statutory antidiscrimination law to race related controversies across a variety of settings. After some exploration of the historical origins of statutory and constitutional antidiscrimination law, the course will then consider antidiscrimination law as applied to contemporary controversies in specific settings, which may include criminal justice, college admissions, political participation, primary/secondary education, employment, housing, hate speech, and the formation of family relationships. The readings will be varied and will include judicial opinions, scholarly commentary, and social science research. Throughout, we will aim to understand both the specific challenges of regulating race in particular contexts, and the broader (and conflicting) conceptions of racial justice that inform law, policy and morality. Students in the seminar will write a substantial research paper of either 18 pages to receive 2 units of credit or 26 pages to receive 3 credits. Elements used in grading: Class participation and research paper.
Last offered: Autumn 2014
LAW 593: Terrorism and the Courts
The emergence of international terrorism and governments' responses to it have led to novel questions for courts at the intersection of constitutional, criminal, international, and procedural law. This seminar will consider a series of interrelated problems that have arisen in federal courts over the treatment and punishment of suspected terrorists and compensation for victims. Topics will include habeas litigation by detainees; the creation and use of non-Article III courts such as military commissions as alternatives to criminal prosecution; congressional attempts to withdraw jurisdiction from federal courts over litigation involving terrorism; separation of powers issues involving the roles of the President, Congress, and the courts in the treatment and punishment of suspected terrorists; compensation claims by victims of terrorism (through statutory compensation funds, litigation against foreign states under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, and tort litigation against individuals and entities); techniques for handling complex litigation involving terrorism; the Alien Tort Statute; and civil litigation by detainees over their treatment. The course is designed to be complementary to Professor Shirin Sinnar's Counterterrorism and the Law. Students are encouraged to take both courses. Grading will be based on class participation, a paper, and an oral presentation of the paper topic to the class. Papers meeting the requirements for Research (R) credit will be eligible for R credit with the consent of the instructor. 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. Special Instructions: If the course is over-subscribed preference will be given to third year students, then to students who have relevant background in federal courts, national security, international law, or other related topics, then to second year students without such background, then to first year students. Selection within those categories will be by lottery. Students wishing to have prior coursework or experience considered in case of oversubscription should submit a short statement describing their background. 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, final paper and oral presentation. This course is open to first-year Law School students. Automatic grading penalty waived for writers. Writing (W) credit is for students entering prior to Autumn 2012.
Last offered: Winter 2014
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