This course concerns itself with the laws, regulations, and customs that govern the legal profession and its service to the public. Students are confronted by a series of problem situations involving ethical issues and asked to resolve them in class discussion. The course analyzes the ABA Model Code of Professional Responsibility, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, the ABA Model Code of Judicial Conduct, and other sources of ethical guidance. Subjects considered are litigation, conflicts of interest, advertising, financing of legal services, acquisition of clients, unauthorized practice, judicial ethics, government service, public interest practice, corporate practice, and legal discipline and malpractice.
- This course is eligible to satisfy the Professional Responsibility and Ethics course requirement for graduation.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None
Evaluation: Administered final examination
This course teaches the principles and process of proving facts at trial. Until fairly recently, the regulating rules were governed by the common law. But most jurisdictions now codify their evidence rules, and this course focuses on the Federal Rules of Evidence, which have been highly influential on state codes. This course begins with the concept of relevance, and the limits upon the receipt of relevant evidence. These limits may be imposed for purely practical reasons, or to advance some extrinsic policy. For example, the Rules limit the admissibility of character evidence and sexual history in rape cases. The course also teaches the Hearsay Doctrine, with consideration of its constitutional underpinnings in criminal cases, and its exceptions. You will also learn about witness testimony and the process of testing credibility via cross examination and impeachment. This will also cover the use of expert testimony and scientific evidence, authentication of documents and other physical evidence, and the Best Evidence Doctrine. The course may also cover the rules of privilege, and the burdens of production and persuasion. (These extended topics are more likely to be covered in the four hour version of this course.)
Sequence and Prerequisite: None. Evidence is a prerequisite for several upper-level courses.
Evaluation: Administered final examination
This course considers what plaintiffs are entitled to receive from a court when they win a case.
It explores the application of legal and equitable remedies in a variety of contexts, including damage remedies, equitable remedies, and restitutionary remedies. Topics include remedies for personal injury, damage to property (tangible and intangible), violation of civil rights, as well as remedies arising in contract and quasi-contractual settings.
In the study of equitable remedies, the course reviews temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions, contempt, and problems of continuing injunctive relief. With respect to remedies for injury to property interests, the class studies restitutionary remedies for the wrongful acquisition of benefits and misappropriation of ideas. The course requires students to apply their learning, working with other students to find and apply the best remedy in simulations based upon real-world cases.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None
Evaluation: Administered final examination
This three credit course (with 100 minutes of in-class time and two meetings with the professor, one of approximately 60 minutes length and the other of approximately 30 minutes length) will cover several different areas of sports and the law, including contracts (which will include relationships with agents), torts, discrimination, labor, antitrust, Olympic sports, doping, and the NCAA.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None
Evaluation: Grading for this course will be based on a paper on a topic, a second paper regarding an extensive interview of a sports and the law figure (chosen and arranged by the student), and class participation. There are several expectations for the class in addition to preparing and participating in class. First, students will significantly prepare for the interview, including discussing their proposed interview questions with the professor. At the beginning of the semester, students will need to do much work to arrange and prepare for the interview. Students will also need to submit the paper regarding the interview in the first half of the semester. Second, during the last five weeks of the course, students will present their draft topic papers to the class. The draft papers will be distributed in advance to the class and will be reviewed during individual meetings with the professor. The final topic paper will be due at the end of the first week of exams.
In this course, we will study the law governing the restructuring of businesses experiencing financial distress, focusing principally upon chapter 11 of the federal Bankruptcy Code. Students interested in bankruptcy or business law generally will find the course most useful. Because of the comprehensive nature of business restructurings, though, nearly every area of the law intersects with the corporate reorganization process in some fashion, and thus, an understanding of corporate reorganizations is helpful in virtually any practice area. Coursework will consist of assigned readings and problems that will facilitate classroom discussions.
Note, this course is not offered every academic year. Typically, it is offered on only a biennial basis (once every two years).
Sequence and Prerequisite: Bankruptcy (Law 629) is a prerequisite.
Evaluation: Grades in this class will be based upon participation (15%) and three projects: (1) two briefs and oral arguments (55%), and (2) a judicial opinion (30%).
This seminar will address a variety of hotly debated issues in comparative criminal procedure, including the regulation of undercover policing, plea bargaining, the sentencing role of criminal juries, the entrapment defense, and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights and the U.S. Supreme court on the Confrontation Clause. The seminar will look at the ways in which these issues are addressed in the United States and a number of western European legal systems, along with occasional excursions into the treatment of these issues in other legal systems around the globe. We will explore the ways in which plea bargaining, the entrapment defense, and Confrontation Clause requirements affect the choice of investigative tactics across legal systems and the selection among alternative mechanisms for regulating investigations, plea bargaining trials, as well as the sentencing process of the criminal justice system. Many of the issues covered in this seminar raise questions about the methods and limits of transnational cooperation in criminal investigations. A comparative approach to the topics we will cover will make it possible to examine the ways in which different national approaches affect the choice of mechanisms by which law enforcement agencies collaborate across national borders.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None
Evaluation: Assignments will include one short paper and one longer term paper.
This course introduces ethical considerations of both prosecutors and defense attorneys in the practice of criminal law. Topics addressed include, but are not limited to: the unique obligation of a prosecutor to seek justice; attorney-client privilege and the crime-fraud exception; discovery issues, including Brady and Giglio obligations; defense counsel conflicts of interest; covert investigations and contact with represented parties; pretrial publicity and social media; and guilty pleas.
This course is eligible to satisfy the Professional Responsibility and Ethics course requirement for graduation.
Prerequisites: It is expected that all students enrolled will have successfully completed the first-year Criminal Law course.
Evaluation: Course grades will be based on an equal combination of a final examination and a presentation.
This course surveys the major international institutions and laws that can impose criminal liability on individuals. The course will consider the major international crimes, including war crimes, genocide, crimes against humanity, and torture. In addition, we will consider some aspects of terrorism. Our focus will be on international institutions such as the International Criminal Court and the International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None.
Evaluation: There will be a 3-hour exam administered during the exam period. Class participation may constitute up to 10% of the course grade.
This course deals with selected aspects of the administration of criminal justice. Primary emphasis is placed on the limitations imposed upon the criminal justice system by the Constitution and its amendments. The course focuses on those portions of the criminal justice system relating to the investigation of criminal activity; in depth study of the procedures employed in the processing of criminal cases is postponed until the course in Criminal Procedure: Adjudication (Law 679). The primary matters considered in this course may include the following: (1) the concept of due process and its relation to the investigation and prosecution of criminal activities; (2) the right to counsel; (3) constitutional limitations on arrest, search, and seizure; (4) wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping; (5) police interrogations and the fifth amendment; (6) the entrapment defense; (7) pretrial identification procedures; and, (8) the scope and administration of exclusionary rules intended to deter certain police activity.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None. Students may take one or both Criminal Procedure courses; enrollment may be separate or concurrent.
Evaluation: Final Examination.
The Trademark segment will cover Federal and common law trademark law, and will add some coverage of international trademark law, reflecting the increasing internationalization of intellectual property law. The Unfair Competition segment will briefly cover interference with contractual relations, and trade libel, and will provide extensive coverage to the increasing Federalization of the law of unfair competition under the Trademark Act (which, despite its name, creates various non-trademark-related Federal torts of unfair competition). The Consumer Protection segment will cover consumer protection activities of state attorneys general and the Federal Trade Commission. This portion is closely related to the rest of the course, since consumers and competitors can often sue under the same statute defining unlawful trade practices.
Sequence and Prerequisites: None
Evaluation: Final administered examination