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This course will introduce students to the "law and economics" way of thinking about the legal system. It is designed primarily for students who have little or no prior training in economics and who are unlikely to take more advanced courses in the field (such as the 2 unit Law 7502, "Economic Analysis of Law"). This class will meet for six or seven 1.5 hour sessions during the first part of the quarter. We will focus on the core bodies of law taught to first-year law students: tort law, contract law, property law, criminal law, and civil procedure. For each of these bodies of law, the economic approach will be described in non-technical terms and then this approach will be used to examine a key case or key issue within that body of law. First-year law students are especially welcome in this course (available to them when this course is repeated in the Winter quarter). There are no prerequisites to take this course. Elements used in grading: Two short take-home exercises (graded on a mandatory pass-fail basis).

(Formerly Law 327) Why do firms exist? Is their sustained success in markets possible? How do leaders choose and execute on a strategy? What should the role of firms be in society? This course will meet once a week to discuss these questions and others about business enterprise. Each week we will focus on interesting and engaging case studies that illustrate key components of strategic management in firms in the U.S. and abroad. The course is designed to be highly interactive, and the principles taught during this course can help students prepare for careers in which they will need to employ strategic thinking. Due to the interactive nature of the course, attendance and in-class participation are graded components. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

This seminar will examine the legal and policy aspects of a capital punishment regime, with a focus on three primary issues: 1) the Supreme Court's forty-year effort to define what cases can permissibly receive the death penalty and the procedures under which it must be imposed; 2) the arguments for and against the death penalty, with a major focus on whether the death penalty deters, is administered in a racially biased way, or is otherwise implemented in an arbitrary and capricious manner; and 3) what the U.S. and international status of the death penalty is today and what the prospects are for the future in the wake of Justice Breyer's invitation in June 2015 to the Court to rule on the constitutionality of capital punishment in light of the existing empirical evidence. The principle text in the class will be Steiker and Steiker, Courting Death: The Supreme Court and Capital Punishment. Although the readings on deterrence and racial discrimination will entail some substantial statistical analysis, a background in statistics, though helpful, will not be required. Special Instructions: After the term begins, students 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 seminar: attendance, class participation, short response papers, and final paper or approved research with the professor.

This seminar will examine current research by lawyers and economists on a variety of topics in law and economics. Several sessions of the seminar will consist of an invited speaker, usually from another university, who will discuss his or her current research. Representative of these sessions have been discussions of compensation for government regulations and takings, liability rules for controlling accidents, the definition of markets in antitrust analysis, the role of the government as a controlling shareholder, and optimal drug patent length. Special Instructions: You may write a series of short commentaries on the guest speakers' papers, of which there will be four. Students electing this option will be graded on a Mandatory Pass/Restricted Credit/Fail basis and receive 2 units of credit. Alternatively, you may write a single research paper on a law and economics topic of your choice. This will satisfy the Law School's Research requirement. These papers will be graded on an Honors/Pass/Restricted Credit/Fail basis. (You may write a single longer paper for two quarters if you enroll in the Seminar in the Winter as well.) Students taking the seminar for R credit can take the seminar for either 2 or 3 units of credit, depending on the paper length. 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. There is no formal economics prerequisite to take this seminar, though students doing the longer research papers typically have some prior training in economics. Students may take both Law and Economics Seminar (A) and Law and Economics Seminar (W) in either order (neither is a prerequisite for the other). Elements used in grading: Four commentaries or one research paper. Special note: Professor Polinsky will be the principal instructor, with Professor Donohue participating mainly when there are guest speakers. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available on the SLS website ( https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/consent-of-instructor-forms/). See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.

This seminar will examine current research by lawyers and economists on a variety of topics in law and economics. Several sessions of the seminar will consist of an invited speaker, usually from another university, who will discuss his or her current research. Representative of these sessions have been discussions of compensation for government regulations and takings, liability rules for controlling accidents, the definition of markets in antitrust analysis, the role of the government as a controlling shareholder, and optimal drug patent length. Special Instructions: You may write a series of short commentaries on the guest speakers' papers, of which there will be four. Students electing this option will be graded on a Mandatory Pass/Restricted Credit/Fail basis and receive 2 units of credit. Alternatively, you may write a single research paper on a law and economics topic of your choice. This will satisfy the Law School's Research requirement. These papers will be graded on an Honors/Pass/Restricted Credit/Fail basis. (You may write a single longer paper for two quarters if you enroll in the Seminar in the Autumn as well.) Students taking the seminar for R credit can take the seminar for either 2 or 3 units of credit, depending on the paper length. 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. There is no formal economics prerequisite to take this seminar, though students doing the longer research papers typically have some prior training in economics. Students may take both Law and Economics Seminar (A) and Law and Economics Seminar (W) in either order (neither is a prerequisite for the other). Elements used in grading: Four commentaries or one research paper. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available at https://law.stanford.edu/education/courses/consent-of-instructor-forms/. See Consent Application Form for instructions and submission deadline.

Stanford graduates will play important roles in solving many of today's and tomorrow's major societal problems--in areas such as education, health, energy, and domestic and global poverty--that call for actions by nonprofit, business, and hybrid organizations as well as governments. This course teaches skills and bodies of knowledge relevant to these roles, covering topics such as designing, implementing, and evaluating social strategies; systems thinking; psychological biases that adversely affect people's decisions; and approaches to influencing behavior. The large majority of the course will be devoted to students working in teams to apply these concepts and tools to a problem of their choice. The course may be of interest to students in Law and Policy Lab practicums who wish to broaden their policy analysis skills. Law School holds classes on February 16, Presidents' Day.

This course examines econometrics from a Bayesian perspective including linear and nonlinear regression, covariance structures, panel data, qualitative variable models, nonparametric and semiparametric methods, time series, Bayesian model averaging and variable selection. It explores Bayesian methodology including Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods, hierarchical models, model checking, mixture models, empirical Bayes approaches, approximations, and computational issues and gives some attention to foundations. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Participation, Exam.

Empirical legal studies have become trendy in the U.S. and are now spreading to law faculties in other countries as well. The popular image of an empirical study is that it involves sophisticated statistical analysis of quantitative data. Often the author of the study starts with a handy dataset and then tries to figure out what question he or she can answer using those data. Useful empirical studies of law and other topics don't start this way. Instead the researcher has a question, derived from theoretical literature or policy debate (or both) and faces the challenge of deciding what types of empirical data, collected and analyzed in what fashion, will best answer that question. The possibilities range from "big data" analyses of hundreds or thousands of documents, tweets or something similar to lengthy, intensive interviews with a few well-placed officials or informants, with just about any other way one might collect factual data -- e.g. online surveys, courtroom observations -- in between. What all of these approaches have in common is not that they involve numeric data but that they attempt to arrive at as objective a view of social, economic, or political reality as is possible. Learning how to design and conduct a survey or how to estimate a regression model or apply AI to vast numbers of texts is (relatively speaking) easy. There are lots of courses at Stanford that you can take on these methods. Learning what approaches are most appropriate to answer the research questions you are interested in is much harder. This seminar is directed at helping you think through the design of an empirical research project -- whether quantitative, qualitative or both -- from identifying researchable questions to collecting and analyzing data to presenting your results to academic or policy audiences. You will start with a broad question (or several questions) of interest to you, based on your previous experience, other studies or reading. By the end of the seminar you will have identified questions you can investigate empirically (perhaps in addition to theoretically) and figured out what research approach(es) will work best for you. The product of the seminar will be a preliminary research proposal, whether for your master's thesis this year or some other purpose in the future. Although plans for the fall quarter are still somewhat in flux, I expect to teach this seminar online with the assistance of the SPILS teaching fellow. I hope it will be possible to meet in person at the beginning of the quarter for a few introductory sessions to begin to get to know each other. In any event, I will be available throughout the quarter for one-on-one zoom sessions to discuss your research. Special Instructions: JD students can take the class with consent of the instructor. After the term begins, JD students accepted into the course can transfer from section (01) into section (02), which can potentially satisfy the R requirement, with consent of the instructor. Consent Application for JD students: To apply for this course, JD students must e-mail the instructors for permission to enroll. This course is REQUIRED for all SPILS fellows and BY CONSENT for all other students. Interested students should email the instructor for consent to enroll. Elements used in grading: Class participation, attendance, written assignments and final paper. SPILS fellows will take the seminar for 4 credits and attend an additional weekly session, as well as the regular class schedule. Other students may take the seminar for 3 credits.

This course explores major issues and debates in the sociology of law. Topics include historical perspectives on the origins of law; rationality and legal sanctions; normative decision making and morality; cognitive decision making; crime and deviance, with particular attention to the problem of mass incarceration; the "law in action" versus the "law on the books;" organizational responses to law, particularly in the context of sexual harassment and discrimination in education and employment; the roles of lawyers, judges, and juries; and law and social change with particular emphasis on the American civil rights movement. Special Instructions: Students are expected to attend a weekly TA-led discussion section in addition to lecture. Sections will be scheduled after the start of term at times when all students can attend. Paper requirements are flexible. Cross listed with the Sociology Department ( Soc 136/236). See "Special Instructions" in course description above. Elements Used in Grading: Class participation, paper proposal, three short papers and a final paper (see syllabus for details).