printer friendly pageLAW 550: Uses of Policy Analysis in the Law
Uses of policy analysis in substantive and procedural law reform and the practical and political constraints that limit its usefulness. Case study approach, including examples of policy analyses that played a role in recent policy debates, in the legislative arena, and in key court decisions. Previous topics include capital punishment, school vouchers, class actions, racial profiling, three-strikes laws, gun control, and gays in the military. Final paper. Prerequisite:
LAW 383.
Last offered: Winter 2009
LAW 551: Public Interest Law & Lawyers
The course introduces the roles, responsibilities, strategies and challenges that characterize contemporary public interest law practice. It provides an overview of the public interest and government sectors and cause lawyering and explores the tools of policy advocacy, community collaboration, media, litigation and administrative practice, using scholarship and case studies. Topics include relationships with clients and allies; law school curriculum and culture; issues of race and class; career, professional and leadership development; and organizational and financial stability. Students collaborate in selecting and preparing some class sessions.
Instructors:
Studley, J. (PI)
LAW 552: Professional Responsibility Issues in Business Pratice
This is a survey of the law governing the practice of lawyering and the organization of the legal profession with a specific focus on practice for business clients. It studies doctrine from the bar's disciplinary rules as well as from pertinent areas of criminal, tort, tax, and corporate law. Central topics include confidentiality, conflicts of interest, regulation of law firm organization, fraud, and obstruction of justice. It gives particular attention to the question of how doctrines developed with reference to individual clients apply when the client is an organization. Among the cases we may consider at length are Lincoln Savings & Loan (Kaye Scholer); Arthur Andersen (in house); Enron (Vinson & Elkins); and various tax shelter controversies.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Simon, W. (PI)
LAW 553: Reconstructing the Administrative State: Theory and Practice
Two sorts of pressures currently drive efforts to reconceive and reform the administrative state. First, a longstanding disappointment with "command and control" type centralized administration now competes with a newer sensitivity to the limitations of inadequately structured privatization and decentralization. The challenge is to avoid the stultification of bureaucracy without surrendering to the opportunism and disorder of the unregulated marketplace. Second, the central role of the national government in the traditional picture of public law has been challenged on one side by globalization and on the other by renewed vitality of sub-national governments. The challenge here is to understand how these various governmental units fit together most plausibly. The seminar will consider these issues through readings on general issues and case studies. Among the general themes addressed will be the comparative advantages and limits of (i) highly specified regulation ("command-and-control"), (ii) market simulation (e.g., emissions trading, school vouchers), and (3) regimes that combine local autonomy with centrally coordinated measurement and accountability ("new governance" or "democratic experimentalism"); reporting and disclosure policy; the role of private standard setting and monitoring in the enforcement of public law; the role of the courts in supervising the performance of public institutions; the design of sanctions; monitoring regimes and indicators. Case studies may include air pollution, food safety, financial institution regulation, nuclear power safety, protection of abused and neglected children, protection of endangered species in international waters, and national security. Students will make at least one presentation in class and will write either a single medium-length paper or a series of short ones.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 3
Instructors:
Simon, W. (PI)
LAW 565: Immigration Law: Current Constitutional and Civil Rights Issues
Issues related to the constitutional and civil rights of immigrants. Focus is on the statutory framework regulating the admission of non-citizens and the constitutional principles that govern immigration law and policy. Issues may include restrictions on federal court jurisdiction over immigration matters, detention of non-citizens, public and private discrimination on the basis of alienage, labor and workplace rights of immigrant workers, refugee and asylum law, post 9/11 issues, local and state laws targeting immigrants, and matters pending in the Supreme Court. Guest lecturers.
Last offered: Autumn 2008
LAW 576: Sexual Orientation and The Law
How the law addresses contested contemporary issues concerning sexual orientation. Constitutional, criminal, family, and anti-discrimination law. Regulation of sexual conduct, discrimination in the military and Boy Scouts, the law concerning sexual minorities as parents, conflicts between sexual and religious freedom, and the role of direct democracy in shaping sexual orientation law. Debate over same-sex marriage. Emerging sexual identities such as transsexuality and intersexuality. Interdisciplinary focus on how social, cultural and political forces shape, and are shaped by, legal doctrine. How gender structures sexual orientation debates.
Last offered: Winter 2009
LAW 576: Sexual Orientation and the Law
This seminar focuses on how the law addresses many of the most contested contemporary issues concerning sexual orientation. It approaches the material as an exercise in advanced constitutional law, exploring how courts have used or might use federal or state constitutional provisions to address issues regarding the criminalization of sodomy, anti-gay rights initiatives, the Boy Scouts, military recruiting on campus, gays in the military, and the marriage and parenting rights of same-sex couples. Special attention is paid to the unfolding debate on same-sex marriage as a case study on the contested role of courts as engines of social change. The class maintains an interdisciplinary focus throughout as it looks at how social, cultural, and political forces shape, and are shaped by, legal doctrine.
Terms: Spr
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Schacter, J. (PI)
LAW 577: Regulation of the Political Process
This course begins with an overview of the restrictions on the franchise. The bulk of the course considers constitutional and statutory constraints on apportionment and districting - one person, one vote, political and racial gerrymandering, and the role of the Voting Rights Act. It also considers regulation of political parties, the use of direct democracy, and alternative voting systems.
Terms: Win
| Units: 4
Instructors:
Karlan, P. (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 582: Law in Latin America
Each country in Latin America has an independent legal system. Nevertheless, these countries share a common legal culture and a comparable legal structure. In this seminar, we will analyze the formation of this legal culture and the central features of this legal structure. We will also analyze important problems in Latin American Law and society including legal pluralism, human rights, violence, corruption, transitional justice and ongoing processes of law reform. All required readings are in English. In addition, students may review and present elective readings in Spanish and Portuguese. The ability to read in these languages is appreciated but not required.
Terms: Aut
| Units: 2
Instructors:
Perez-Perdomo, J. (PI)
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