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We will take a "deep dive" into some of the most interesting and contentious issues in the "federal courts" space. Illustrative topics might include any or all of the following: (1) Jurisdiction-stripping (Can Congress eliminate the Supreme Court's jurisdiction to hear certain types of cases, and if so, under what circumstances?); (2) Standing doctrine (Is the "injury-in-fact" requirement made up, and might there be a better way to think about the case-or-controversy requirement?); (3) Habeas corpus (What role should innocence play?); (4) Eleventh Amendment (What should we do when constitutional text and history seem to point in different directions?); and (5) Qualified immunity (Where did it come from, what are the relevant policy justifications and critiques, and can current doctrine be squared with 42 U.S.C. 1983's plain language?). Readings will include judicial opinions and journal articles. We will aim to tackle one topic per session. Judge Newsom will introduce the topic and lead the discussion, and he will encourage vigorous classroom discussion. Grading: Students will write a short "thought piece" (NOT a research paper), due by the end of the fall quarter (NOT at the end of the two-week class period). Students are encouraged--but by no means required--to consider turning their thought pieces into more substantial written works for publication. Class will meet Tuesday, September 26 (6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.), Wednesday, September 27 (6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.), Thursday, September 28 6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.), Monday, October 2 (6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.), Tuesday, October 3 (6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.), Wednesday, October 4 (6:30 p.m. - 9:30 p.m.), and Thursday, October 5 (6:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m.).

In virtually every major U.S. city, the lack of affordable housing or homelessness (or both) constitutes the most urgent concern to residents. Amid ample hang-wringing by politicians, pundits, and the press, the human toll of the housing affordability crises has only worsened. This class will focus on solutions to this crisis. Solutions abound, but implementing them at scale requires understanding--and navigating--the legal, economic, and political constraints faced by decision makers. It's in large cities where we see the problem most acutely, but where we also see America's most innovative solutions. So, this class--taught by the former mayor of one of America's dozen largest cities-- will have a decidedly urban focus. While the local entitlement and development process will provide a starting point, the class will also delve into key elements of state and federal policy and law that shape the local responses to these crises. An eclectic set of sources --studies, court opinions, consultant reports, economic meta-analyses, news accounts and an occasional guest lecturer-- will support class discussion. The class will be taught with a bias against the ideological, eschewing progressive or conservative "quick fixes," and emphasizing problem-solving, pragmatism, an openness to opposing viewpoints, and a willingness to acknowledge the trade-offs in every approach. Students will be expected to persuasively advocate for specific solutions--in class discussion and in writing-- and to demonstrate an understanding of the limitations of those solutions. Elements used in grading: Class Participation, Written Assignments. This class is limited to 35 students, with an effort made to have students from SLS (25 students by lottery) and up to 10 non-law students with consent of the instructor. Law students may bid for LAW 7128 via the Law Lottery in Axess. Non-law students may enroll in PUBLPOL 171 up to a maximum of 10 with consent of the instructor. Cross-listed with Public Policy ( PUBLPOL 171) and Urban Studies ( URBANST 175). NOTE: Due to similar content, students enrolled in How Cities Can Save the World ( LAW 7119/ PUBLPOL 165/ URBANST 166), may not enroll in Confronting Our Housing and Homelessness Crises: Policy, Politics, and the Law ( LAW 7128/ URBANST 166/ URBANST 175).

In this course we will discuss issues involved in litigating challenges to government policies. Some of the case examples will be from the instructor's time in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office and on the bench in the Northern District of California. Topics will include injunctive relief (including nationwide injunctions); the interaction between litigation and the legislative/rulemaking process; who can (and who should) sue on public policy questions; how to navigate the fuzzy dividing line between lawyer and policymaker when giving legal advice to elected officials; and the overall role of the courts in addressing significant public policy concerns. Elements used in grading: Attendance, class participation, written assignments. Class meets Tuesday from 4:15 to 6:30 on April 16, April 23, April 30, and May 7.

This course will provide a broad overview of the scholarly field known as "law and economics." The focus will be on how legal rules and institutions can correct market failures. We will discuss the economic function of contracts and, when contracts fail or are not feasible, the role of legal remedies to resolve disputes. We will also discuss at some length the choice between encouraging private parties to initiate legal actions to correct externalities and governmental actors, such as regulatory authorities. Extensive attention will be given to the economics of litigation, and to how private incentives to bring lawsuits differ from the social value of litigation. The economic motive to commit crimes, and the optimal governmental response to crime, will be studied in depth. Specific topics within the preceding broad themes include: the Coase Theorem; the tradeoff between the certainty and severity of punishment; the choice between ex ante and ex post sanctions; negligence versus strict liability; property rules; remedies for breach of contract; and the American rule versus the English rule for allocating litigation costs. There is no formal economics prerequisite to take this course, though some prior training in economics will be helpful. Elements used in grading: Final exam (open-book) plus three short take-home problems during the quarter. Cross-listed with Public Policy ( PUBLPOL 302B). (For students interested in a shorter introduction to economic analysis of law, see Law 7503, "Introduction to Law and Economics," which is a one-unit course also offered during the winter quarter that is graded on a mandatory pass-fail basis.)

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 3 unit Law 7502, "Economic Analysis of Law"). This class will meet for six 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. There are no prerequisites to take this course. Elements used in grading: Two short take-home exercises (graded on a mandatory pass-fail basis).

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. Cross-listed with Economics ( ECON 354). 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; decision making under risk; 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 20, Presidents' Day.

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.

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).