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The fight to curb climate change will be won or lost in emerging markets and developing economies -- particularly those in Southeast Asia -- in which surging energy consumption and infrastructure investment today will lock in carbon-emission patterns for decades. Policymakers and investors in these countries and in international development institutions have pledged, most recently at international climate talks in Egypt in November 2022, aggressive emission reductions and significant funding to achieve them. But the environmental efficacy of that investment will depend on how well the spending is calibrated to the realities of the political economies -- that is, the structures of power -- in the countries in question. In this research seminar, also known as a policy practicum, students will work closely with policymakers and investors in Indonesia and/or Vietnam, and with international finance officials focused on those countries, on research that will help inform key energy and energy-finance plans that are in the process of being crafted. The students' work will inform a series of workshops to be held with these players throughout 2023, and it will figure into writing submitted for publication. This work constitutes the next stage of a research program of the Stanford Climate of Infrastructure Project. The research earlier produced a peer-reviewed paper (on which students were named co-authors) illuminating patterns of international climate finance, and a variety of other writings. Because of the depth of the work involved, and of the benefit of continuity in it, students who agree to participate in this policy lab for two quarters -- both the winter 2023 and spring 2023 quarters - will be given priority to enroll. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Students enrolled in Section 02 (with instructor consent) will be required to write an individual research paper meeting the Law School's R paper requirements. CONSENT APPLICATION: To access the consent application for this course, go to link SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/ and then click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page. See application for deadline and instructions.

Policy Client: McCourt Institute, https://mccourtinstitute.org/. This policy lab will provide students an opportunity to learn about and write research reports concerning the governance of the newest technologies. The students will form three teams with each team producing one group report on one of the following technologies: (1) Blockchain (principally non-crypto applications); (2) virtual and extended reality; and (3) Generative AI (Chat GPT, Dall-E, etc.). There will be three classes on each topic -- one to describe the harms presented by the technology, another to investigate private governance solutions and best practices, and a final that will explore options for government regulation. The three group oral presentations and written reports will follow that same structure. The goal is to provide a blueprint for regulators and firms concerning governance of these new technologies. Students are expected to attend all classes. Students will consider the ethical implications of new technologies and the role of lawyers in mitigating risks for firms engaging in these new technologies. The class will be limited to 20 students -- at least half of whom will be law students. The other half will be comprised of graduate students and advanced undergraduates from disciplines across the university and who can demonstrate knowledge and background in the relevant technologies. The class will meet at the Law School on Mondays from 4:15 to 6:15 pm. NOTE: Admission is with consent of the instructor. Interested students should submit a one-paragraph statement describing their background and interest in the class and the particular technology for their focus. Submit statements of interest using the form available at https://forms.gle/DMgc4GVEX6wdKKZNA. Students should also complete the consent application form available at https://registrar.law.stanford.edu. SKILLS TRAINING: Students who enroll in a Law and Policy Lab practicum for the first time are asked to participate in the full-day methods boot camp on the first Saturday of the term. If you wish to earn course credit for developing your policy analysis skills, you may formally enroll in "Elements of Policy Analysis" ( Law 7846) for one-unit of additional credit. As you will see from the course description, credit for Law 7846 requires your attendance at the full-day methods boot camp plus at least two additional lunch-hour workshops. If you enroll in a practicum but prefer to audit the supplemental skills class -- rather than receive formal credit -- please let Policy Lab Program Director Luciana Herman (lherman@ law.stanford.edu) know and she will contact you with more details. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

This policy lab project builds on Stanford Steyer-Taylor Center (STC) and Sustainable Finance Initiative (SFI) research and analysis on structuring effective carbon markets. It leverages related work and resources on campus, and engages with clients in the US government working to design effective US and International carbon markets. Steyer-Taylor Center and Sustainable Finance Initiative researchers have identified five key pieces to structuring effective carbon markets: (1) Carbon accounting for liabilities and assets in compliance and non-compliance markets; (2) scientific measurement issues covering quantity, duration and budgets; (3) property rights, mineral rights and legal issues underlying transactions; (4) market structure, securities, capital structures and trading infrastructure; and (5) regulation and the role of government actors. Students will work in small teams to help develop this vision for coordinated carbon markets by researching and writing (1) a series of position papers covering the five topics listed above (a top-down approach); and (2) case studies of specific transactions (a bottom-up approach). Policy lab students may contribute generally to papers on the five topics or they may develop a case study on a specific transaction. The project seeks graduate and upper-division students from law, public policy, economics, finance, environmental science, and the Graduate School of Business. Please email your questions to instructor Alicia Seiger (aseiger@stanford.edu). Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Apply by March 20 through the Policy Lab Consent of Instructor form. To access the consent application for this course, go to link SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/ and then click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page.

This policy lab practicum focuses on corporations and racial and economic equity. Students will work closely with the instructor and a client called PolicyLink ( https://www.policylink.org/), which co-founded the Corporate Racial Equity Alliance ( https://corporateracialequityalliance.org/). Corporations have a critical and essential role to play in advancing racial and economic equity given their tremendous influence over economic, political, social, and cultural dimensions. Additionally, there is significant stakeholder demand for companies to stop perpetuating racial and economic inequalities. Establishing a common language and framework for businesses to advance racial and economic equity is a critical and urgently needed component of the transformation toward a just, equitable, and healthy society for all of us. Current corporate standards do not offer a clear or sufficiently comprehensive path on how to approach, measure, report, and motivate the achievement of racial and economic equity. PolicyLink and others in the Corporate Racial Equity Alliance are developing new corporate performance standards to address this gap. These standards are on track for publication in early 2024. Students will research the current reporting landscape (e.g., SEC disclosure rules) and map them to the standards. The results of their research will be reflected in the published corporate standards. This policy lab will give students an opportunity to learn about corporate governance, public disclosure rules, business practices, and the role of corporations in advancing racial and economic equity. Prior experience with business or corporate law is welcome but not necessary. Students will meet weekly to discuss research progress as well as related topics (e.g., ESG). This policy lab seeks students from law school and is also available for cross-registration from students in graduate and professional degree programs in business, economics, finance, and management science. Elements used in grading: Attendance, performance, class participation, written assignments. Consent Application: To access the consent application for this course, go to link SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/ and then click SUNetID Login in the top right corner of the page.

Policy Client: Stanford Center for Racial Justice, https://law.stanford.edu/stanford-center-for-racial-justice/. The Supreme Court's decision in Students for Fair Admissions has upended nearly a half century of precedent. Universities that had long relied on race-based affirmative action in their admissions policies will no longer be permitted to do so. This policy lab will take up the question with which universities across the country must now grapple: What next? The orientation of the lab will be forward-looking and inclined toward innovation. New principles. New goals. New ideas. Rather than merely try to accomplish indirectly what the Supreme Court has prohibited universities from doing overtly, the practicum aims to treat the Supreme Court's prohibition of race-based affirmative action as an opportunity to reconsider more broadly the goals of selective college admissions and the ways in which America's leading educational institutions may reform admissions and associated practices in order to improve higher education broadly. Advanced education is crucially important both to national well-being and to racial justice. There is no path to racial justice that does not entail an educational system that works better for people of all backgrounds. The recent Supreme Court decisions regarding race preferences in admissions, and also student loan forgiveness, create an uncommon opportunity to fairly radically rethink how universities make good on their implicit bargain with the American people: to receive public patronage in exchange for enhancing educational opportunity and social mobility. Two understandings of the issues inform the scope of work. One is that race-based affirmative action is far from the only aspect of university activity that has been or will be subject to criticism. Thus, we will not limit our focus to the one practice the Supreme Court has already prohibited. Rather, the entire array of marketing, recruitment, admissions and outreach practices and principles should be up for re-examination. The other important point to understand is that a school's admissions practices are connected to broader questions about the role of prestigious colleges and universities in American society. Only through engaging those broader questions can one think clearly about the normative aims that selective colleges and universities should seek to further, through admissions, financial aid and otherwise. In considering the issues, the lab will squarely confront a salient feature of American higher education that has received too little attention: the extraordinary stratification of American colleges and universities. The institutions at the apex of the hierarchy are the envy of the world; they are wealthier, more influential, and more sought after than ever before in our history. Yet, they educate a minuscule percentage of all students, most of whom struggle at less well-resourced institutions, which themselves struggle financially among other operational and educational challenges. The lab will consider the extent to which this extreme stratification is incompatible with the educational needs of our nation and will explore and develop strategies to counter it. The work product of the lab will be a guidance document for universities, policymakers, and stakeholders across the country that serves as a road map for how to promote learning and advance racial justice after Students for Fair Admissions. The report will synthesize and evaluate the most successful higher education reforms and offer robust analysis, innovative policy development and recommendations for how to forge better systems of learning for all students. Accomplishing this goal will require the participants in the lab to understand and assess a wide array of issues concerning the structure and goals of higher education, and to take arguments that emanate from conservatives as seriously as those that emanate from liberals. Students in this policy lab will research, identify, and design strategies and policy solutions to entrenched racial inequities within our higher education system, particularly at our most elite universities. Students will take a multidisciplinary approach to problem solving in the lab, researching and interacting with a wide range of experts and relevant fields, including but not limited to government, law, business, education, psychology, sociology, health, and technology. This class is open to Stanford Law School students, and available for cross-registration for undergraduate and graduate students from across campus. We highly encourage students from outside the Law School to apply, particularly students from the Graduate School of Education, the Graduate School of Business, and those interested in developing their design-thinking skills. Students will be working together in small teams. Grading will be based on presentations, class participation, group work, and written assignments, including a final paper. The long-term client for this policy lab is the Stanford Center for Racial Justice. Please note this lab is a fall quarter 3-unit commitment with the option for a winter quarter extension. The winter quarter extension is a variable 1-3 units. For winter term, this policy practicum is open only to students who are continuing in the project from the fall term. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete a Consent Application Form available at SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. Additionally, students must submit a resume, transcript, and brief policy exercise via email to Dionna Rangel at drangel@ law.stanford.edu. Applications are due by Sunday, September 17 at 11:59 pm. Directions for the policy exercise are below. POLICY EXERCISE: You are a senior advisor to the president of a small university that has relied on using race as a factor in their admissions process. The president has expressed major concerns about the implications for the school after the Supreme Court's decision to strike down affirmative action in Students for Fair Admissions. They have asked you to draft a policy memo to help them navigate the uncertainty brought on by this landmark decision, specifically: 1. Briefly summarize Students for Fair Admissions, including what the decision says is prohibited and what is permitted. 2. Identify potential avenues for the university to respond to the decision that might be worthy of further investigation, including innovative policy ideas and reforms but also anything the administration should be thinking about more broadly as a higher education institution. 3. Include a short bibliography of select readings that can help the president stay informed about the issues, ideas, and responses post-affirmative action. The memo should be no longer than two pages, single-spaced, and use 12-point font. SKILLS TRAINING: Students who enroll in a Law and Policy Lab practicum for the first time are asked to participate in the full-day methods boot camp typically held on the first Saturday of the term. If you wish to earn course credit for developing your policy analysis skills, you may formally enroll in "Elements of Policy Analysis" ( Law 7846) for one unit of additional credit. As you will see from the course description, credit for Law 7846 requires your attendance at the full-day methods boot camp plus at least two additional lunch-hour workshops. If you enroll in a practicum but prefer to audit the supplemental skills class -- rather than receive formal credit -- please let Policy Lab Program Director Luciana Herman (lherman@ law.stanford.edu) know and she will contact you with more details. Only students who participated in the prior quarter's project will be admitted to the spring quarter practicum. Elements used in grading: Attendance, performance, class participation, written assignments, and final paper.

The policy client for this project is the Legal Services Corporation (https://www.lsc.gov/): This project works closely with the Legal Services Corporation's Technology Information Grant Program (https://www.lsc.gov/grants/technology-initiative-grant-program) to research how the public interacts with AI platforms to seek legal assistance, and to develop a strategy around how to mitigate risks, ensure quality, and enhance access to justice on these AI platforms. AI increase access to justice, by helping people resolve their legal problems in more accessible, equitable, and effective ways? What are the risks that AI poses for people seeking legal guidance, that technical and policy guardrails should mitigate? In this course, students will conduct research to identify key opportunities and risks around AI's use by the public to deal with common legal problems like bad living conditions, possible evictions, debt collection, divorce, or domestic violence. Especially with the launch of new AI platforms like ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Bing Chat, more people may turn to generative AI platforms for guidance on their legal rights, options, and procedures. How can technology companies, legal institutions, and community groups responsibly advance AI solutions to benefit people in need? Students will explore these questions about AI and access to justice through hands-on interviews, fieldwork, and design workshops with different stakeholders throughout the justice system. They will run interview sessions online and on-site at courts, to hear from various community members about whether they would use AI for legal help and to brainstorm how the ideal AI system would behave. Students will also observe how participants use AI to respond to a fictional legal problem, to assess how the AI performs and understand how people regard the AI's guidance. Students will be required to complete ethical training for human subjects research, which takes approximately 2 hours through the CITI program online. They will then conduct community interviews according to an approved IRB research protocol. Students will synthesize what they learn in these community interviews, observations, and brainstorm sessions, in a presentation to legal and technical experts. They will hold a multi-stakeholder workshop at to explore how their findings may contribute to technical and legal projects to develop responsible, human-centered AI in the legal domain. Students will develop skills in facilitating interdisciplinary policy discussions about how technology and regulation can be developed alongside each other. The students¿ final report will contribute to policy and technology discussions about the principles, benchmarks, and risk typologies that can guide the ethical development of AI platforms for access to justice. Students are asked to enroll in both Fall and Winter quarters of the class. The class may be extended to Spring quarter, depending on the issues raised. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, and Written Assignments. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must complete and submit a Consent Application Form available at SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/.

Nearly 1200 people are incarcerated in female correctional facilities in California and are serving lengthy sentences for murder and manslaughter convictions. It is not known in California (or in any other state) how many of these individuals are incarcerated for crimes that directly relate to histories of intimate partner violence. The Stanford Criminal Justice Center, through its Regilla Project, is attempting to assess this frequency. During Summer 2023, the Stanford Criminal Justice Center undertook data collection at the larger of the two women's prisons in California. The surveys were completed by individuals who have murder and manslaughter convictions to assess how their convictions were related to intimate partner violence. Nearly 500 individuals completed the survey during July 2023. Students enrolled in the policy lab will code the narrative portions of the survey responses (not everyone who participated in the surveys completed a narrative portion), analyze the quantitative data collected through the surveys, and assist in drafting a report for researchers, policymakers and practitioners aimed to better understand the nature of who is incarcerated and what their needs are, and to suggest front-end policy reforms. Application process: Interested students should submit a Consent of Instructor form (see Policy Lab Practicums webpage or https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/) with a copy of their resume, transcript, and statement of interest to Debbie Mukamal (dmukamal@ law.stanford.edu) by September 11, 2023 at 5:00 pm. Only students who participated in the prior quarter's project will be admitted to the winter quarter practicum. The statement of interest should indicate relevant expertise, including whether the student has any data analysis experience (quantitative and/or qualitative) as well as the type of software the student has used in such data analysis. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper. Important note: Admitted students may enroll for three units. Four units is limited to one or two students with consent of the instructors.

Policy Client: Governor Newsom's San Quentin Transformation Advisory Council (https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/05/05/san-quentin-transformation-advisory-council/ ). California Governor Newsom created an advisory council in Spring 2023 with the mission to transform San Quentin Prison into a rehabilitation facility. The advisory council has been meeting in Summer 2024 and will be putting forward preliminary ideas to the Governor's office in September 2024, for ultimate inclusion in the Governor's 2024 State Budget in January 2024. Students enrolled in the policy lab will assist the advisory council by providing academic, legal, and empirical research in support of the council's final recommendations to Governor Newsom. Students will also have a chance to meet and consult with advisory council members; tour San Quentin prison, including areas targeted for major renovation; and meet with incarcerated individuals who hope to benefit from the reforms. Application process: Interested students should submit a Consent of Instructor form (see Policy Lab Practicums webpage and https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/) with a copy of their resume, transcript, and statement of interest to Debbie Mukamal (dmukamal@ law.stanford.edu) by September 11, 2023 at 5:00 pm. The statement of interest should indicate relevant expertise. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments, Final Paper.

This policy lab maps the law school experience for students with psychiatric or mental health disabilities. It identifies barriers for people with psychiatric disabilities to envision themselves as lawyers, navigating the admissions process, flourishing in law school, and becoming successful licensed lawyers. Law school is a demanding experience, and lawyering is a challenging -- and inspiring -- profession. People with psychiatric disabilities face typical issues that many aspiring and actual lawyers may encounter. However, they also may experience obstacles of bias, unintended bureaucratic hurdles, absent accommodation structures or policies, or challenges due to their disability. Practicum students will conduct a literature review, legal research, and interviews to identify current best practices and needed missing resources. Students will look at the work of advocacy groups for disability, substance use disorder, and formerly incarcerated people, associations for law students and lawyers, programs and policies at ABA member law schools, and innovative programs on mental disability and academia across Stanford's campus. The practicum aims to delineate the law school process, its pinch points, and opportunities for change for people with psychiatric disabilities. The fall term is an initial step to map out difficulties with the current law school process. The ultimate goal of the practicum is policy recommendations for law schools and other key stakeholders to improve the process and successfully integrate people with psychiatric disabilities into the legal profession. The class is open to Stanford law students and available for cross-registration for other Stanford students. Students with personal experience of psychiatric disability are encouraged to apply, but personal experience is not a requirement. It is intended for those interested in the intersectional and multi-disciplinary investigation of the legal profession and disability. Students will work in teams to produce an initial draft and an oral presentation to the class on a designated portion of the overall project. Additionally, the class will meet weekly to consider assigned reading material, meet interested parties, and discuss progress on team projects. Elements used in grading: Attendance, Class Performance, Class Participation, Written Assignments. This policy lab will be offered in future terms. We encourage students to participate in subsequent quarters if they can do so. CONSENT APPLICATION: To apply for this course, students must submit a Consent Application Form at SLS Registrar https://registrar.law.stanford.edu/. See the Consent Application Form for instructions and the submission deadline.