printer friendly pageLAW 241A: Discussion (1L): Why is the USA Exceptional -- In Crime and Punishment?
It has long been a national controversy, and for many an international embarrassment, that the imprisonment rate in this country stands at the very top among nations -- currently just barely behind those of countries we would never want to be compared to and several multiples higher than those of other developed industrialized democracies. And for many years it has been almost a cliché that we also have an internationally anomalously high crime rate. The crime gap between us and our "peer nations" has narrowed in recent years but is still notable, at least for violent crime. In the seminar we will read an interdisciplinary set of explorations about whether there are things in "national DNA" that explain each of these phenomena and possibly both at once. The perspectives will include the political history of our roots in both revolution and slavery and the legacy of Reconstruction, and cultural/anthropological theories about the "frontier mentality," as well as such distinct factors as our anomalous rate of gun ownership. Along all these dimensions we will speculate on which way the causation runs between crime or punishment and these various correlates. But of course we will also look to the legal system, including our rights- and federalism-focused Constitution, as both cause and effect of our anomalies. While we will look at some more quantitively empirical perspectives, especially as they bear on recent changes in both crime and punishment rates, our main subject will be more of an "American Studies" approach to the overall stability of how we compare to other nations. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. The class will meet 6:00-8:00pm, September 16, September 30, October 14, October 28.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241B: Discussion (1L): Race and Urban Law in the Bay Area
From the Black Power movement for self-governance that formed East Palo Alto to the battle to preserve the history of the "Little Manila" neighborhood in Stockton, from the anti-gentrification politics of San Francisco's historically Latinx Mission District to the settlement struggles of Vietnamese and Cambodian refugees in San Jose, the history of the Greater Bay Area offers a moving picture of the hardships and heritage of American diversity. Some readings and visual media in the class will draw on place-specific legal histories of discrimination, organizing, and reform in Bay Area cities/neighborhoods. Other thematic readings will focus on racial/ethnic discrimination in housing and land ownership; incorporation movements to form majority-minority cities; Latinx and Asian-American migration into post-industrial cities; neighborhood improvement efforts in segregated enclaves; and efforts to lead or resist local political change. Students will leave the course with a richer sense of their home region during law school, as well as a broader picture of "law" that includes local administrative proceedings, municipal codes, civil and criminal law enforcement practices, and taxes/spending decisions. This discussion seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Meeting dates and times to be arranged by instructor. Elements used in grading: Attendance and class participation.
Last offered: Autumn 2020
LAW 241C: Discussion (1L): Asian Americans Justice Struggles
Over the past eighteen months, coronavirus-related racism and anti-Asian hate violence have renewed perennial conversations about Asian American identity and advocacy in the United States. What does it mean to be Asian American? What is and has been the place of Asian Americans in broader social movements for racial justice? And what can the historical experiences of Asian Americans in resisting injustice teach us about Asian American activism, legal advocacy, and political struggles today? This seminar will explore these questions, among others, through reading and conversation around four key timeframes: 1) the Chinese Exclusion era of the late nineteenth century, which initiated decades of Asian immigrant exclusion but also spawned surprising legal resistance by early migrants; 2) the 1960s and 1970s, in which Asian America was created as a political project in tandem with Black and Third World liberation movements; 3) the post-9/11 period, where segments of the Asian American community confronted the recurrent framing of Asian Americans as security threats during the war on terror and beyond; and 4) the present moment, in which Asian Americans make and contest their place within multiracial movements addressing a host of pressing contemporary challenges. Throughout, this seminar will make visible the role and struggles of Asian Americans, broadly defined, in U.S. law, history, and social movements. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Class meets 4:15-6:15pm, September 13, September 27, October 11, 4th session TBA.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241D: Discussion (1L): Corporate Dilemmas
The principle that corporate managers' sole duty is to maximize shareholders' financial value has never been entirely adhered to in practice and has been increasingly challenged in recent decades. While acknowledging the importance of shareholder value, commentators have argued that corporations should purposively benefit other stakeholders, including customers, employees, and the communities they affect. At the same time, there has been an upswing of investments aligned with investors' social interests, including public equity investments in companies with high environmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings and private equity "impact investments" that arguably incur greater risks than pure market rate investments. Our seminar will consider a variety of legal, ethical, and policy issues related to corporations' purposes and responsibilities, including when is it legally and ethically appropriate for corporate managers or institutional investors to compromise shareholder value in the pursuit of social, environmental and other non-pecuniary goals; corporate governance structures that reflect interests other than profit maximization; the power of investors to influence corporate behavior through affirmative investments, divestments and shareholder activism; and the power of various stakeholder groups to influence corporate behavior. Class meets 6:30 PM-8:30 PM on Sept. 29, Oct. 11, Oct. 27, Nov. 8.
Last offered: Autumn 2022
LAW 241E: Discussion (1L): Crime and Punishment in American History
This discussion seminar will deal with the relationship between criminal justice and American society, at various points in American history. The emphasis will not be on doctrines of criminal law, or case-law in general, but on the living law, and the ways in which criminal justice arose out of and reflected social norms and the structure of society. Among the topics to be covered: First, a look at criminal justice in the early colonial period, asking what was distinctive about crime and punishment in the small communities of the 17th and 18th centuries. Second, the intimate connection between race and criminal justice, from slavery through the Jim Crow era. Third: corrections and law enforcement -- the penitentiary, police and detective squads, the reform wave in the late 19th century, and what all of these reveal about the nature of American criminality; and the public reaction to crime and punishment. We will also consider informal justice, including the vigilante movement in the American West. Lastly, we want to examine the rise and fall of victimless crime. A strong anti-vice movement in the late 19th century movement led to the Mann Act, red-light abatement, the criminalization of abortion, and controls over sexual behavior in general. The movement culminated in the "noble experiment" of national Prohibition. This was the rise: the fall was first, the end of Prohibition, then the decriminalization of most forms of victimless crimes in the later 20th century. There will be assigned readings in primary source materials. There will be assigned readings in primary source materials. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. The first meeting will occur after the first two weeks of regular classes. Exact meeting dates TBA by instructor. Meeting time: 4:15pm - 6:15pm.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241F: Discussion (1L): Ethical Lawyering: An Oxymoron?
National polls consistently rank lawyers as very low on the ethical/trustworthiness scale. For example, a recent Gallup Poll indicated that only 21% of respondents viewed lawyers as trustworthy, as compared to 77% who viewed physicians that way. In this seminar we will explore the roots of the view that lawyers often act unethically? Is this perception accurate? If so, why is that the case? Are there inherent aspects of (even ethical) lawyers' roles--particularly in adversarial contexts--that inevitably trigger public contempt? During each session, we will explore these and related questions through an in-depth study of a particular example of lawyers' behavior (and, at times, misbehavior). Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Class meets 5:30-7:30pm, September 20, October 4, October 18, November 1.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241G: Discussion (1L): Reflecting on Red Power: 50 Years After Alcatraz
This seminar will explore the legal, cultural, political, and racial complexities underlying the Red Power movement that resulted in the 19-month occupation of nearby Alcatraz Island 50 years ago from 1969-1971. Readings will include excerpts from the seminar work that defined the movement, Vine Deloria Jr.'s Custer Died for Your Sins, a documentary viewing on the occupation, and other interdisciplinary sources from history, political theory, and law. By examining this movement and the tensions it raised, we will explore broader questions of American identity formation, racial construction, social movements, violence, and the complex relationship between the construction of rights, assertions power, and the state. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Class will meet 5:00-7:00pm, September 9, September 23, October 14, November 4.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241H: Discussion (1L): The Law, Politics and Technology of the 2020 Redistricting Process
This discussion group will examine the law governing the 2021 redistricting process. We will learn about the one person one vote rule, constitutional prohibitions on racial gerrymandering, the Voting Rights Act, and applicable state law. Students enrolled in this discussion group may also participate in the Stanford Public Interest Redistricting Project in which Stanford students will draw model congressional maps for a number of states. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. Class will meet 6:00-8:00pm, September 28, October 12, October 26, November 9.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241I: Discussion (1L): The Politics of Procedure
When you first encounter civil procedure in the fall quarter, it may seem dry and technical. With so much to learn so fast there isn't always time to talk about the political dimension of the rules. Simply put, the rules determine who gets access to court, for what types of claims, with what sorts of potential outcomes. In short, civil procedure rules have huge distributional consequences. Not surprisingly, then, the rule drafting process is dominated by interest group politics and in recent decades, key U.S. Supreme Court decisions on civil procedure have been shaped by the justices' ideological preferences. In this group we will read and discuss four topics that foreground the politics of procedure: 1. The rulemaking process. Who are the rule-makers? How are the rule-makers chosen, by whom? How does the rulemaking process work?; 2. The consequences of pleading standards and why they have become stricter over time; 3. The battles over discovery rules and why they matter; and 4. The politics of class action reform. Prior to each session, you will email me a 1-page reflections paper identifying the issues in the readings that you would like us to discuss. After the conclusion of the quarter, you will submit a 3-5 page paper reflecting on the political dimension of procedure with reference to the procedural issues we have discussed or others of your choosing. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. The class will meet (TBA).
Last offered: Autumn 2021
LAW 241J: Discussion (1L): The State of Democratic Discourse
This group will be devoted to candid discussion about the current state of public discourse both nationally and in universities, focusing especially on misinformation and intimidation. We will use Jonathan Rauch's new book, The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth ((Brookings 2021) as a springboard for discussion. The great strength of this book is that it addresses threats to democratic discourse from all sides of the political spectrum. We will talk about the role of social media, traditional media, politicians (including former President Trump), as well as law schools, students, and faculty. Elements used in grading: Full attendance, reading of assigned materials, and active participation. The seminar will meet four times during the Fall quarter. The class will meet 6:30-9:00pm, September 20, October 18, November 1, November 15.
Last offered: Autumn 2021
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