| Term | Description | |
|---|
|
| |
|
|  |
|
| |
| Accounting: Understanding And Analyzing Financial Statements (Broome, Oscar W.) This course meets January 25 - March 17. ENROLLMENT RESTRICTION: This course is the first half of the semester-long two-course sequence of Accounting and Corporate Finance. Students who enroll in this course will automatically be enrolled in Professor Geis' spring section of Corporate Finance as well. Students who have completed one or more university level accounting courses or have practical training in accounting are not eligible to enroll in this course unless they obtain instructor permission. Similarly, students who have completed one or more university level corporate finance courses or have practical training in corporate finance are not eligible to enroll in the corporate finance course unless they obtain instructor permission. Once enrolled, students who are not eligible to enroll in either accounting or corporate finance must drop the "completed" course. To do so, e-mail the Student Records Office (lawsro@virginia.edu) at any time prior to the end of the spring semester add/drop period and ask to be dropped from the completed course. EXAM RESTRICTION: The final examination in the Accounting course will be held on Saturday, March 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. All exam policies apply.Exceptions will be granted only for circumstances out of students' control. The principal goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts of financial accounting and published financial statements. Attorneys need a basic understanding of financial statements in order to work with corporate clients and certified public accountants. This knowledge is particularly important if the practice involves investment banking, initial public offerings, and the issuance of securities. Course content will include the conceptual framework of accounting, specialized accounting terminology, generally accepted accounting standards, and the distinction between financial accounting and income tax accounting. The roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Internal Revenue Service will be delineated. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to understand how components of financial statements such as inventories, plant and equipment, bonds, leases, sales revenues, cost of goods sold expense, and depreciation expense are measured and reported. In addition, the student should be able to analyze financial statements to derive more information about a corporation. The course is designed to provide a financial accounting knowledge base to students with no previous course work or practical training in accounting. To help students quickly become competent in understanding and using financial information, the course content is relatively extensive and rigorous. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination and homework assignments | |
| Accounting: Understanding And Analyzing Financial Statements (Wilkie, Patrick J.) This course meets January 25 - March 16. ENROLLMENT RESTRICTION: This course is the first half of the semester-long two-course sequence of Accounting and Corporate Finance. Students who enroll in this course will automatically be enrolled in Professor Hynes' spring section of Corporate Finance as well. Students who have completed one or more university level accounting courses or have practical training in accounting are not eligible to enroll in this course unless they obtain instructor permission. Similarly, students who have completed one or more university level corporate finance courses or have practical training in corporate finance are not eligible to enroll in the corporate finance course unless they obtain instructor permission. Once enrolled, students who are not eligible to enroll in either accounting or corporate finance must drop the "completed" course. To do so, e-mail the Student Records Office (lawsro@virginia.edu) at any time prior to the end of the spring semester add/drop period and ask to be dropped from the completed course. EXAM RESTRICTION: The final examination in the Accounting course will be held on Saturday, March 20, from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. NO EXCEPTIONSwill be granted. The principal goal of this course is to provide an understanding of the concepts of financial accounting and published financial statements. Attorneys need a basic understanding of financial statements in order to work with corporate clients and certified public accountants. This knowledge is particularly important if the practice involves investment banking, initial public offerings, and the issuance of securities. Course content will include the conceptual framework of accounting, specialized accounting terminology, generally accepted accounting standards, and the distinction between financial accounting and income tax accounting. The roles of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, the Financial Accounting Standards Board, and the Internal Revenue Service will be delineated. Upon completion of the course, the student should be able to understand how components of financial statements such as inventories, plant and equipment, bonds, leases, sales revenues, cost of goods sold expense, and depreciation expense are measured and reported. In addition, the student should be able to analyze financial statements to derive more information about a corporation. The course is designed to provide a financial accounting knowledge base to students with no previous course work or practical training in accounting. To help students quickly become competent in understanding and using financial information, the course content is relatively extensive and rigorous. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination and class participation | |
| Addressing The Fiscal Crisis (Yin, George K.) Current U.S. fiscal policy is on an unsustainable path. This seminar will be devoted to identifying ways to address the imminent crisis. Each student will be required to develop and defend a proposal that will either raise revenue or cut spending of the federal government in a significant way. We will consider options previously identified by the private sector and various government organizations, including the President’s tax reform panel which is due to issue its report in December, 2009. Students will also be encouraged to undertake independent, investigative work to identify further options. We will meet only sporadically during the first half of the semester, but sessions during the second half will run longer than the allotted class time. Each student will be expected to attend every session of the seminar and to participate actively throughout the semester. In addition to developing and defending a specific proposal, students will be given a series of written assignments to complete. The written submissions will not satisfy the law school writing requirement. Grading will be based on the student’s proposal and presentation, written submissions, and participation throughout the semester. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Proposal and presentation, written submissions, and class participation | |
| Administrative Law (Woolhandler, Nettie A.) This course studies the processes of law making and law application by the executive departments of government (including “independent” regulatory agencies). Its central theme is the tension between law and discretion, between the need for grants of power sufficient to ensure effective government and the need to limit that power to protect citizens from government oppression and unfairness. The course will first explore the constitutional stature of the administrative agencies, and how the Supreme Court has rationalized their exercise of government power outside of the traditional tripartite divisions of the Constitution. It will then explore the methods developed by the courts to control administrative power, including the development of procedural formalities in administrative decision making and judicial review of agency factfinding and lawmaking. It will also explore doctrines governing the availability of judicial review of administrative action, including standing and ripeness. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Advanced Legal Research (Glover, Kristin L.; Olson, Kent) This course meets January 25 - March 31. Legal research is a basic part of the practice of most beginning attorneys. This course provides an overview of both online and print resources, focusing on developing successful research strategies and effective use of subscription and free Internet sites. Among the topics covered are basic primary and secondary sources, including legislative history and administrative law; research in specialized areas and transnational law; and the use of business and social science resources. Classes will combine lectures and demonstrations with laptop-based problem-solving exercises. PREREQUISITE: Legal Research and Writing
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Weekly research assignments | |
| Advanced Public Speaking (Shadel, Molly B.) This course develops advanced oral advocacy skills, including effective performance techniques, writing for speaking, and the ability to handle difficult speaking situations. Assignments will include presenting a persuasive speech, making presentations to difficult audiences (such as clients), and analyzing famous speeches to determine what makes them effective. Students will be expected to perform a speech at each meeting of the class; consequently, attendance is mandatory. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is required
PREREQUISITE: Hallmarks of Distinguished Advocacy or Oral Presentations In and Out of the Courtroom or Persuasion for Advocates or Trial Advocacy
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Advanced Public Speaking short course, Rhetoric (all offerings)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Weekly speeches | |
| Advanced Topics In Law Of War (Jag) () This JAG School course meets January 4 - May 14. Instructor: MAJ Marsh
This semester-long elective will provide an in-depth study of specific topics in the law of war, building upon foundations laid during core plenary instruction. Discussions and readings will consider and compare U.S and international perspectives on the law of war including views of U.S. allies, the U.N., the ICRC and NGOs. Topics will include sources of contemporary law of war, in-depth consideration of the principles of the law of war and targeting, issues associated with battlefield status, regulation of internal armed conflicts, the interface between human rights law and the law of war, and mechanisms to enforce the law of war. Students will be evaluated based on one 8-12 page paper, a take-home examination, and class participation. This elective is highly encouraged for students specializing in international and operational law. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Take-home exam, an 8-12 page paper, and class participation | |
| Advanced Trusts And Estates (Cushman, Barry J.) The course will cover restrictions on the power of testamentary disposition; charitable trusts; the creation, use, release and lapse of general and special powers of appointment; the classification and construction of future interests in trust, including class gifts; application of the rule against perpetuities to interests and powers in trust, including class gifts; and fiduciary administration, including the duties, powers and liabilities of trustees. NOTE: Laptops prohibited during class sessions. PREREQUISITE: Property, Trusts and Estates
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Advising The Board Of Directors In A Mergers And Acquisitions World (Steele, Myron T.) This course meets February 19, 20, 26, 27; March 19, 20, 26 and 27. A director of a Delaware corporation owes just two fiduciary duties (care and loyalty) to the corporation and its stockholders. Although these duties are easily articulated, it is generally far more challenging to explain what board conduct is required to satisfy these duties. As a result, when a Delaware court considers challenges to the board’s actions in the M&A setting, the court’s analysis is particularly nuanced and contextually specific. This course will examine some of the issues corporate boards confront when considering M&A transactions, including (i) addressing board and management conflicts, (ii) selecting financial and legal advisors, (iii) establishing an appropriate sales process, (iv) preparing for and responding to hostile bidders, (v) negotiating deal protection measures, and (vi) anticipating possible litigation, and will discuss the nature of the advice that counsel should provide a board in each context. Mr. Mark A. Morton, a partner at the law firm of Potter Anderson & Corroon LLP, will assist Chief Justice Steele in the course. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
PREREQUISITE: Corporations or Corporations (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Advocacy Clinic For The Elderly (Yr) (Caldwell, Kathleen D.; Curry, Claire) In response to the rapidly growing elderly population and the increased demand for elder law expertise, this yearlong clinic will train students to provide legal services to older persons. Under the supervision of an attorney, students will represent elderly clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and court proceedings on a variety of legal matters including basic wills and powers of attorney, guardianships, consumer issues, Medicaid and Medicare benefits, nursing home regulation and quality of long-term care, elder abuse and neglect, and advance medical directives. Students will develop the practical skills needed to become effective elder advocates, participating in client interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and trial advocacy. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to engage in advocacy for the elderly at the system level, which may involve policy analysis and advocacy work with partnering organizations including the Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA), the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Virginia Elder Rights Coalition, and the Senior Lawyers Division of the American Bar Association. Students will participate in interdisciplinary projects in the field of elder law, especially in the health care domain. For example, working with faculty from the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of Virginia Medical School, students will develop a comprehensive taxonomy of possible legal issues confronted in geriatric care and will identify specific legal problems presented by individual patients. Additionally, in cooperation with JABA and the Division of Geriatric Medicine, students may conduct public education sessions on specific elder law topics for senior citizen groups at senior centers and elder care facilities throughout Charlottesville. NOTE: This course will meet primarily at the Legal Aid Justice Center, 1000 Preston Avenue, Suite A. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Second- or third-year status | |
| Agency And Partnership (Cohen, George M.) This course is a basic component of the business law curriculum. It deals with the agency relationship and its consequences, focusing on such topics as contractual authority, vicarious liability, and fiduciary obligation. The course also serves as an introduction to the partnership as the primary noncorporate business organizational form involving co-ownership. The course will include discussion of limited liability partnerships and may include discussion of limited liability companies as time permits. Although the course uses litigated cases as the primary material, it aims to provide future transactional lawyers with the basic tools necessary to help clients structure their affairs in a manner consistent with their business goals, including minimizing unwanted liability. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| American Legal History Seminar (McCurdy, Charles W.) This seminar provides students with an opportunity to investigate problems in American legal history and to learn from one another. Each student will write a 40-page research paper, evaluate 5 or 6 papers written by classmates, and participate in weekly discussions of important works written from different historiographical, theoretical, and methodological perspectives. Each student will also have a weekly appointment time to discuss (and establish) with the instructor a topic, an appropriate method, and a plan of work. Papers may focus on the eighteenth, the nineteenth, or the twentieth centuries. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Analysis Of The Military Criminal Legal System (Jag) () This JAG School course meets January 4 - May 14. Instructor: LTC Brookhart and MAJ Pflaum This elective provides students an in-depth critical examination of the military criminal legal system. Students engage in a comparative and historical approach to explore the military justice system’s divided loyalty between constitutional safeguards and the military mission. After examining the historical background of the UCMJ and Manual for Courts-Martial, subsequent class discussions focus initially on particular substantive and procedural areas of military justice, followed by analysis of potential changes to those areas. Students are required to lead one week’s discussion, either individually or in pairs or groups depending on the number of class participants, to include drafting discussion questions for the class and supplementing assigned readings. All proposed discussion questions and supplemental readings must be approved in advance by the Professors. Grades are based on leading the discussion, including development of discussion questions, and class participation (qualitative, not quantitative). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Lead a class discussion, including development of discussion questions, and class participation | |
| Antitrust Practice (Applebaum, Harvey) NOTE: This course meets on thirteen Thursdays and Fridays roughly following the B weekend schedule as follows: January 29; February 11, 12, 25, 26; March 18, 19; April 1, 2, 15, 16, 22, 23. The seminar studies antitrust and related laws as encountered by practicing lawyers in today’s complex global economy in subject areas ranging from traditional industries to multinational/international transactions to cyberspace and high-tech industries. The seminar is team-taught by Covington & Burling lawyers to explore a diverse antitrust practice encompassing counseling, transactions, and litigation. The seminar covers problems involved in dealing with Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission proceedings and in dealing with private suits including mergers, joint ventures, and intellectual property and international trade matters. There is coverage of bread-and-butter advice that companies need for distribution, pricing, and other aspects of their regular business planning. The seminar also discusses the economic theories that provide much of the underpinning of antitrust law. The seminar concludes with a mini-moot court, which consists of an appellate brief and an oral argument, and provides an opportunity to gain practical experience with a real-life antitrust problem. PREREQUISITE: Antitrust recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Moot court brief | |
| Antitrust Review Mergers In A Global Environment (Fullerton, Lawrence R.) In this seminar, students will learn how domestic and international mergers and acquisitions are reviewed under the antitrust laws, with an emphasis on U.S. antitrust law at the federal level. Topics will include market definition and measures of market concentration; theories of liability for anticompetitive horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers; methods for predicting anticompetitive effects; failing firm, efficiencies, and other defenses; remedies; and enforcement mechanics. We will also spend some time on extraterritorial application of U.S. merger law, merger control law in Europe and other jurisdictions, and the problems associated with mergers that are subject to challenge under the antitrust laws of more than one jurisdiction. Assigned reading for the course will go beyond U.S. Supreme Court decisions, which are outdated in this field, and include leading lower court decisions, government enforcement guidelines, government complaints, consent settlements, proposed legislation, and other nontraditional materials. PREREQUISITE: Introductory antitrust course, undergraduate coursework in microeconomics, and/or similar coursework or work experience are useful, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Appellate Litigation Clinic (Yr) (Walters, Neal L.) This yearlong clinical course provides students the opportunity to brief and argue one or more appeals before a federal appeals court. The rules and procedures applicable in the federal appellate system will be examined. Fundamentals of oral and written appellate advocacy will be discussed, with a focus on each student’s individual work project. The seminar will meet as a full group several times during the fall semester, and then students will have additional conferences with the instructor as work on a specific briefing project gets underway. Depending on the volume of cases available, students will work in teams of two or individually as the instructor may determine. All students will practice oral argument and one per case will argue the appeal before the courts. The course may require substantial work over the winter break. Substantial familiarity with either Word or WordPerfect, including the table of authorities function, is required. Students earn two credits in the fall semester and one credit in the spring semester. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Third-year status
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Brief and reply brief | |
| Banking And Financial Institutions (Verdier, Pierre-Hugues) This course will examine the regulation of financial institutions, with an emphasis on federal regulation of banking. It will cover the history of the U.S. banking industry; the basic rationales for regulation; the process of forming and acquiring banks; geographic and activities restrictions on banks; safety and soundness safeguards; affiliations between banks and securities, insurance, and other firms; supervisory and enforcement powers; and bank failures. It will also provide an introduction to U.S. regulation of international banking and to regulation of mutual funds, securities firms and insurance companies. Throughout the course, there will be extensive treatment of the causes, effects and regulatory implications of the recent financial crisis. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Bankruptcy (Law & Business) (Hynes, Richard M.) NOTE: This section of Bankruptcy is part of the Law School’s Law & Business Program. It has approximately the same substantive coverage as other Bankruptcy sections, but assumes knowledge of accounting and finance. This course concerns corporate bankruptcy and reorganization, and focuses on the reorganization of financially distressed firms under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Compared to traditional bankruptcy courses, the emphasis of the readings and class discussion is less on bankruptcy case law and more on the economic fundamentals of financial deal-making and restructuring. Students enrolled in the course are expected to participate actively in class discussion. They should also be comfortable with the basic skills involved in reading financial statements and performing valuations of financial assets. PREREQUISITE: Accounting and Corporate Finance (or equivalent graduate, undergraduate or practical training in both subjects or instructor permission), Corporations (Law & Business) or Corporations (may be taken concurrently), or instructor permission
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Bankruptcy
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Bankruptcy (Walt, Steven D.) This course will explore in detail some of the legal, theoretical, and practical issues raised by a debtor’s financial distress. Principal emphasis will be on how the Federal Bankruptcy Code uses or displaces otherwise applicable law as the provider of rules that govern the relationships among debtors, creditors, and others. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Bankruptcy (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Bioethics And The Law (Hafemeister, Thomas L.) Bioethics and the Law will address some of the most divisive, sharply debated, and rapidly emerging issues in society today. The course, which explores the intersection among medicine, technology, and the law, is likely to address issues such as human reproduction and birth (including actions for wrongful birth, wrongful life, and wrongful conception), human genetics and the privacy and ownership of genetic information, death and dying, research involving human subjects, organ transplantation, and public health and bioterrorism. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Business Reorganization Under Chapter 11 (Ackerly, Benjamin C.) This seminar will focus on the practical and strategic applications of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The seminar will examine applicable statutory and case law with particular emphasis on hypothetical and actual fact situations to demonstrate how the Chapter 11 process works. Legal and tactical considerations confronting debtors and creditors in a business reorganization will be analyzed so that students can appreciate the negotiation, litigation, and transactional components of a Chapter 11 case. At the conclusion of the semester, students will participate in a mock Chapter 11 plan confirmation hearing presided over by a U.S. bankruptcy judge. PREREQUISITE: Bankruptcy recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Capital Post-Conviction Clinic (Yr) (Lee, Robert) The Virginia Capital Representation Resource Center (VCRRC) will conduct a yearlong clinic centered on the representation of persons sentenced to death in Virginia and issues relevant to these cases. In addition to a classroom component focused on current issues in capital litigation in Virginia, students will analyze trial records; perform original research; write draft claims, motions, legal and investigative memoranda and correspondence; and engage in field investigations on issues particular to case needs. During the first semester a classroom component will introduce students to general and current issues in capital litigation in Virginia. During each semester, students will also work directly on cases litigated by the Center, conducting legal and factual research and investigation as appropriate to the cases. Travel for investigative purposes should be expected, as should direct contact with clients and witnesses. There will be periods during the year when a significant time commitment will be required. Interested students should submit applications via e-mail to the instructor, Robert Lee (roblee@vcrrc.org). Enrollment is limited so early application is advised. Applicants will be notified as selections are made. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Students will analyze trial records, perform original research, write draft claims, motions, legal and investigative memoranda and correspondence, and engage in field investigations, including interviewing potential witnesses. | |
| Chapter 11 (Kordana, Kevin A.) We will examine the academic literature (both theoretical and empirical) on Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Emphasis on the goals of Chapter 11, its political economy, and possible alternative means of treating financially distressed firms. PREREQUISITE: Bankruptcy recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Three short papers | |
| Child Advocacy Clinic (Yr) (Block, Andrew K.; Ciolfi, Angela A.; Duvall, Kathryn L.; McShane, Molly K.) This yearlong clinical course includes two semesters of supervised legal representation of children, supported by a weekly clinical seminar which will meet during the fall semester. Students earn three (3) credits during the fall semester and five (5) credits during the spring semester. This clinical course is offered in conjunction with JustChildren, a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. Students may represent children with legal issues in the areas of education law, laws governing access to services for incarcerated children, mental health and developmental disabilities law, and foster care and social services law. In some cases, students may work with a child’s public defender to develop sentencing options for the Juvenile Court that will meet the child’s needs. Students will gather factual information and conduct legal research to analyze the children’s legal situations. Students will represent children in negotiations and administrative hearings and will participate in court proceedings to the extent permitted by law. All students will be given an opportunity to work on policy issues that will be addressed by proposed legislation, administrative rule-making, or other means. Opportunities to work on impact litigation also may arise during the year. During the fall and spring semesters, students will meet weekly in small groups with their supervising attorneys, and individually as needed. The supervising attorneys will accompany students to all administrative and/or court hearings. Supervision will be provided by attorneys at JustChildren, located in Charlottesville. The clinical seminar will meet weekly during the fall semester only. It will provide students with an understanding of the legal obstacles confronting low-income children, and of the various legal settings in which the students will practice. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Second- or third-year status. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Memoranda, correspondence, briefs, and pleadings. Occasional written preparation for class discussions | |
| Children And The Law (Block, Andrew K.) In this seminar students will examine the law’s treatment of children’s rights in the context of three sets of relationships: (1) Children and their families; (2) Children and the Courts; and (3) Children and Custodial Agencies (Departments of Social Services and Juvenile Justice, and Schools). Through reading and discussing a wide array of materials – cases, law review articles, social science research and media accounts – students will explore the current state of the law regarding these relationships, the complexities involved with assigning rights and responsibilities to children and those who care for them, and the barriers and limitations courts and legislatures confront when making decisions regarding children. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Class participation and a ten page paper | |
| Class Actions And Public Policy: Mass Torts, Employment Discrimination, And Securities Fraud (Walker, William L.) The seminar will begin with a session or two of introduction to the class action and will quickly turn to the question of whether or not the device has proved to be an effective policy tool. The seminar will examine this question primarily in three subject matter areas, mass torts, employment discrimination, and securities fraud, all of which present a number of interesting contemporary developments. A recurring puzzle is that in the eyes of some the device is "conservative" because of reliance on private initiative while others view class actions as "liberal" because of historical substantive objectives. The seminar will adopt a largely functional approach, seeking to determine which subject matters respond most efficiently to the device and why. This focus will yield a number of excellent paper topics, most with interesting current applications. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Commercial Law In The Context Of The People's Republic Of China (Gounaris, Nestor) This course meets April 5 - 14. We will utilize a joint venture negotiation simulation to explore recent Chinese history (from the fall of the Qing Dynasty up to and including Deng’s economic reforms), look at both US and Chinese business negotiating norms and review joint venture law and implementing regulations. Critically, we will not simply look at the law. We will look at some of the historical and political drivers that shape the law. In addition, you will assume the role of a policy maker or commercial decision maker and explore a contemporary topic, with a focus on considering competing policy goals and limiting parameters. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Comparative Constitutional Law Seminar (Howard, A E.) Recent years have seen a renaissance of interest in the comparative possibilities of constitutional law. Just as framers of liberal constitutions 200 years ago were influenced by events in France and America, so constitution-makers in post-communist Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa, and elsewhere have considered the experience of more established constitutional democracies in framing their fundamental laws. The seminar will explore the issues entailed in the drafting and uses of a constitution. To what extent do constitutions reflect universal values (such as human rights), and to what extent are they grounded in the culture and values of a particular people? How much borrowing goes on in the writing of a constitution? In particular, in what respects do the U.S. Constitution and American constitutionalism serve as models for newer democracies? What are the historical, cultural, political, and economic contexts necessary to the success of liberal constitutional democracy? FOREIGN GRADUATE STUDENTS: Please confer with the instructor before enrolling
PREREQUISITE or CONCURRENT: Constitutional Law useful, but not required
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WITH: Constitutionalism: History and Jurisprudence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Comparative Democratic Constitutionalism (Sc) (Fritzen, Christof; Sprigman, Christopher J.) This course meets March 22 - April 8. This intensive short course will examine the constitutions and constitutional jurisprudence of the U.S., Germany, Canada and South Africa. These four nations each offer distinct models of how to run a constitutional democracy. Each nation has a distinct constitutional text and history, as well as idiosyncratic rules and norms of judicial review. Each strikes a different balance between majority rule and entrenched constitutional rights. And yet each is recognizable as a free and open society that is both rights-regarding and democratic. Students in this course will engage in comparative constitutional analysis, through study of relevant provisions of each nation's constitution, as well as selected cases and secondary materials. Students will examine the historical relationships between these constitutions, and the borrowing that later constitutions have made from earlier documents. The ultimate focus of the course will be on the role that constitutions and constitutional law plays in constructing democratic societies. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Comparative Constitutional Law (all offerings)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Constitutional History I: American Revolution To 1896 (McCurdy, Charles W.) This course will trace the history of American constitutional law development from 1776 to 1896. Topics to be covered include the framing and ratification of the Constitution, the Alien and Sedition Acts, the landmark decisions of the Marshall Court, the constitutional ramifications of slavery and emancipation, and the impact of economic change on constitutional politics and constitutional law. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law Ii: Church And State (Armacost, Barbara E.) This course will explore the historical, philosophical, and constitutional foundations of the relation between religion and the state. Its primary focus will be on the religion clauses of the First Amendment. In considering the modern case law, and various theories of how the state should treat religion, the course will cover numerous topics under the broad headings of religious accommodation, public funding of religion, the influence of religion and government on public culture, and the role of religious convictions in political and legal decision-making. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law Ii: Freedom Of Speech And Press (Kendrick, Leslie C.) The central theme of the course is the Supreme Court's determination of the scope of First Amendment expressive freedoms throughout the 20th century and into the 21st. Topics include prior restraint, seditious speech, defamation, campaign finance regulation, “low value” speech, hate speech, obscenity, child pornography, and commercial advertising. NOTE: Laptops prohibited during class sessions. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: First Amendment Freedoms
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination or a substantial research paper on a topic approved by the instructor | |
| Constitutional Law (A, C) (Magill, Mary E.) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law (B, H) (Schauer, Frederick) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law (D, K) (Mahoney, Julia D.) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law (E, G) (Forde-Mazrui, Kim A.) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law (F, J) (Nachbar, Thomas B.) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Constitutional Law (I, L) (Brown-Nagin, Tomiko) This is a required first-year course. This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Construction Law (Smith, Richard) This seminar will focus on the law relating to construction contracts and construction disputes. It will use a textbook and UVa construction contracts as source materials. The seminar will cover issues relating to private and public construction, from selection of project delivery systems to disputes resolution. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Contemporary Political Theory (Simmons, Alan J.) In the latter half of the twentieth century, political liberalism has been the most influential theory of the state in the Western world. Philosophers, economists, legal academics, feminists, critical race scholars, and historians have sought to explain and justify the scope and limits of political coercion by debating the merits of liberalism. The most prominent contemporary defender of liberalism has been the philosopher John Rawls, on whose work the first half of this course will focus. Among the earliest of Rawls’ critics was the libertarian Robert Nozick, who urged a different kind of emphasis on the individual than that defended by liberals. More recently still, libertarianism has itself branched, with traditional right-libertarianism being rejected by the new wave of so-called “left-libertarians”, who have tried to find a middle ground between liberalism and traditional libertarianism. The second half of this course will concentrate on the debates between liberalism and the various forms of libertarianism. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination or a substantial research paper may be substituted with the permission of the instructor | |
| Contracts Ii (Leslie, Douglas L.) This course is a continuation of the first-semester Contracts course. It is taught using the CaseFile Method. For the contents of the course, go to www.CaseFileMethod.com. We will do a selection of these CaseFiles Enrollment Restriction: Students from section B, class of 2010 or 2011 may not enroll. PREREQUISITE: Contracts
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Corporate Finance (Geis, George S.) This course meets March 19 - April 30. ENROLLMENT RESTRICTION: This course is the second half of the semester-long two-course sequence of Accounting and Corporate Finance. To enroll in this course, students must enroll in Professor Broome's spring section of Accounting and they will automatically be enrolled in this course. Students who have completed one or more university level corporate finance courses or have practical training in corporate finance are not eligible to enroll in the corporate finance course unless they obtain instructor permission. Please read the Accounting course description for complete details. This course takes a financial and economic perspective of the corporation. The central theme is understanding the sources of value for the firm from the perspective of the manager who must make financing choices (sources of funds) and investment choices (uses of funds) to maximize the value of the firm. The major topics of the course include: time value of money, discounted cash-flow analysis, capital markets, market efficiency, cost of capital, capital structure theory and practice, capital budgeting decisions, and firm valuation. The course covers topics taught in the core finance course of most major MBA programs. Students will be responsible for handing in problem sets from the textbook. Grades will be based on assigned problem sets and class participation (30 percent) and the final examination (70 percent). PREREQUISITE: Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements (or equivalent undergraduate, graduate or practical training)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination, problem sets, and class participation | |
| Corporate Finance (Hynes, Richard M.) This course meets March 18 - April 30 . ENROLLMENT RESTRICTION: This course is the second half of the semester-long two-course sequence of Accounting and Corporate Finance. To enroll in this course, students must enroll in the spring section of Professor Wilkie's Accounting and they will automatically be enrolled in this course. Students who have completed one or more university level corporate finance courses or have practical training in corporate finance are not eligible to enroll in the corporate finance course unless they obtain instructor permission. Please read the Accounting course description for complete details. This course takes a financial and economic perspective of the corporation. The central theme is understanding the sources of value for the firm from the perspective of the manager who must make financing choices (sources of funds) and investment choices (uses of funds) to maximize the value of the firm. The major topics of the course include: time value of money, discounted cash-flow analysis, capital markets, market efficiency, cost of capital, capital structure theory and practice, capital budgeting decisions, and firm valuation. The course covers topics taught in the core finance course of most major MBA programs. Grades will be based on assigned problem sets and class participation (30 percent) and the final examination (70 percent). PREREQUISITE: Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements (or equivalent undergraduate, graduate or practical training)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination, problem sets, and class participation | |
| Corporate Strategy (Donovan, Jim) NOTE: This course meets on the following seven Fridays: January 29; February 5, 19, 26; March 5; April 9, 23. This short course is an introduction to corporate strategy. Students will study how corporations with multiple businesses utilize their resources to determine which businesses are optimal for them to pursue and how to coordinate those businesses and ultimately measure their performance. Secondly, we will examine what forces effect and determine what makes a company and industry profitable. The course introduces topics taught in the core strategy course of most major MBA programs. Grades will be based on class participation (30 percent) and an 8-10 page paper (70 percent). ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: 8-10 page paper and class participation | |
| Corporate Tax (Yale, Ethan) This course examines the federal income tax aspects of the formation, operation, reorganization, and liquidation of corporations. Students will gain facility with the governing authorities, including principally Subchapter C of the Internal Revenue Code and the related Treasury Regulations. This class, compared with the three-credit Corporate Tax offering, will place more emphasis on the study of sales of a businesses operated in corporate form (including corporate mergers and acquisitions), corporate divisions, and the taxation of corporate groups. PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Corporations (Law & Business) (Barzuza, Michal) NOTE: This section of Corporations is part of the Law School’s Law & Business Program. It has approximately the same substantive coverage as other Corporations sections, but assumes knowledge of accounting and corporate finance. This course will consider the formation and operation of corporations. It will examine the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence against those in control. Topics covered include fiduciary duties, executive compensation, mergers and acquisitions, voting rights and insider trading. The course will use both new tools derived from the corporate finance and related literature and traditional tools to explore a wide range of phenomena and transactions associated with the modern business enterprise. PREREQUISITE: Accounting and Corporate Finance (or equivalent undergraduate, graduate or practical training in both subjects)
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WITH: Corporations
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Corporations (Dooley, Michael P.) This course will consider the financial and governance structure of the corporation in the context of the economic environment in which it operates. It will examine the function of legal rules, private ordering and other institutional arrangements in reducing the sometimes conflicting interests of shareholders, creditors, and management. Although alternative forms of business organization will be considered, primary emphasis will be on the publicly traded corporation. Special emphasis will be given to the tension between preserving the authority of the board of directors in decision-making while maintaining the board’s responsibility to shareholders in the context of shareholder suits for breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder voting, tender offers and conflict of interest transactions involving directors or controlling shareholders. Federal securities regulation of proxy voting, corporate disclosure and insider trading will be examined. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Corporations (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Corporations (Kordana, Kevin A.) This course will consider the financial and governance structure of the corporation in the context of the economic environment in which it operates. It will examine the function of legal rules, private ordering and other institutional arrangements in reducing the sometimes conflicting interests of shareholders, creditors, and management. Although alternative forms of business organization will be considered, primary emphasis will be on the publicly traded corporation. Special emphasis will be given to the tension between preserving the authority of the board of directors in decision-making while maintaining the board’s responsibility to shareholders in the context of shareholder suits for breach of fiduciary duty, shareholder voting, tender offers and conflict of interest transactions involving directors or controlling shareholders. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Corporations (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Criminal Adjudication (Brown, Darryl K.) Note: This course may be taken either before, after, or instead of Criminal Investigation. This course examines the process of criminal litigation, beginning with the arrest or with the filing of charges and continuing through trial and sentencing. Topics covered include right to counsel and effective assistance of counsel; pre-trial detention and the right to bail; prosecutorial discretion in charging, bail, and grand jury practice; joinder of charges and defendants; discovery; double jeopardy; plea bargaining; jury trial questions; and, as time permits, sentencing and post-conviction remedies. The course gives special attention to differences in procedural rules across state and federal jurisdictions. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Criminal Defense Clinic (Deloria, Richard A.; Heblich, Frederick T.; Hingeley, James M.; Murtagh, Elizabeth P.; Redinger, Janice L.) The semester-long Criminal Defense Clinic is designed to provide a first-hand, experience-based study of the processes, techniques, strategy, and responsibilities of legal representation at the trial level. The casework component of the clinic will engage the students in the representation of defendants in actual criminal cases arising in the local courts under the direct supervision of an experienced local criminal defense attorney. The students themselves—not their supervising attorneys—will ordinarily perform all of the lawyering functions associated with their cases, including interviewing, investigation, research, negotiation, and courtroom advocacy. Regular supervisory conferences will guide the students’ casework and provide an opportunity for the integration of theory and practice. The full clinic will meet twice weekly in seminar sessions. The seminar meetings are designed to prepare the students for each aspect of their clinic casework and to provide a theoretical foundation for critical reflection concerning the lawyering process. The class format will vary and may occasionally feature workshop sessions employing simulation exercises. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Third-year status, Civil Procedure, Criminal Law, Evidence, and Professional Responsibility or Professional Responsibility in Public Interest Law Practice or Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding "Club Fed". Recommended but not required: Trial Advocacy, Criminal Investigation, Criminal Adjudication, Criminal Procedure Seminar, and Negotiation Institute. Students must be eligible for Third-Year Practice Certification. COURSE REQUIREMENT: No required paper or exam, but each student’s caseload may require the production of a substantial set of written work. Occasional written preparation for class discussions based on pending clinic cases will be required. | |
| Criminal Investigation (Coughlin, Anne M.) Note: This course may be taken either before, after, or instead of Criminal Adjudication. This course examines the body of constitutional jurisprudence that regulates the government's investigation of crime and apprehension of criminal suspects. In particular, the course will focus on the doctrines by which the judiciary polices the police, including the primary remedy (suppression of evidence) for police misconduct. The readings for the course are decisions by the United States Supreme Court that announce and refine the law of searches and seizures, the rules governing police interrogations and confessions, and the scope of the Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination. With respect to these topics, we will evaluate the basic doctrine, explore underlying constitutional themes, and ponder the application of the rules by police officers investigating particular crimes. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Criminal Law And The Regulation Of Vice (Brown, Darryl K.) This is a two-credit course in legal theory which focuses on the history, politics, and policy shifts in six areas usually regarded as “vice crimes”: disapproved sexual behavior, gambling, pornography, illicit drugs, prostitution, and alcohol. The crimes in question have traditionally been viewed as “victimless” and prosecuted primarily for purposes of enforcing morality — leading to prosecutions for homosexual sodomy or importuning, polygamy or bookmaking. Today, the idea that they are victimless or immoral is hotly contested. Many legal commentators and practitioners have turned instead to arguments about their harm or lack of harm, and about harm reduction as a way to address this category of crimes. As a result, over the past half century, huge changes in law and law enforcement practices have been common in this area, and not all in the same direction. Decriminalization is common for gambling and pornography, but a “war on drugs” increased the prison population from drug-related crimes ten-fold in the United States during the last generation. Why? Are there differences of principle or only of politics informing radically different recent events and transnational variations? What do the differences between these areas of enforcement tell us about our social choices and values? And what do they tell us about the just limits on punishment? In this course, we will explore these questions by focusing on the legal, empirical and theoretical dimensions surrounding “vice crimes.” We will probe the legal requirements for regulation, the empirical reality of the practices, as well as the theoretical debates about prohibiting these activities and the ramifications of criminal enforcement. Final grades will be based on class participation during the semester and a final essay examination. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination and class participation | |
| Criminal Law In The Supreme Court (Low, Peter W.) No casebook or other materials will need to be purchased for this course. The materials will be available in the Law School Copy Center. In the main, they will consist of unedited United States Supreme Court opinions so that each case can be studied in its full procedural context. For this reason, daily reading assignments are likely to be longer for this course than for many others. In addition to the substantive issues for which the cases have been selected, attention will be paid to Supreme Court practice and lower federal court procedures as they impact issues decided by the Supreme Court. For example, a number of issues normally addressed in a Federal Courts course (the scope of habeas corpus, the adequate and independent state ground doctrine) will be dealt with as they occur. The course will also address a number of issues covered by the course in Federal Criminal Law. Indeed, the overlap with Federal Criminal Law is so extensive that students may not take both this course and Federal Criminal Law. After an Introduction, the course will be divided into four segments. In lieu of an examination, students will be required write four short essays (5-page maximum, double spaced), one on each of the segments, each of which does two things: (1) demonstrates understanding of the major lessons and themes to be learned from each segment; and (2) focuses on lessons that can be learned about that segment in light of the Introduction and the other segments. The essays should be based on reading the materials and on class discussions. No additional research will be required or expected. Footnotes are permitted but not required. All four essays will be due at the end of the examination period, so that essays drafted prior to the completion of later segments can be revised in light of readings and classes devoted to the later segments. The Introduction will be devoted to the constitutional content of proportionality limits on the punishment for crimes. The four segments will be devoted to: (1) Fair Notice – vagueness and overbreadth, on face and as applied attacks; (2) Statutory Interpretation – Supreme Court interpretation of federal criminal statutes (jurisdictional elements, RICO, mail fraud) and the derivation of defenses not based on explicit statutes (entrapment, duress); (3) Elements and Their Proof – constitutionally required elements of crimes, when defenses and mitigations must be disproved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, the constitutionality of excluding evidence of intoxication and psychiatric evidence on mens rea; and
(4) Proof of Sentencing Factors – when sentencing factors must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt to a jury, as applied in particular to state and federal sentencing guideline systems. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Federal Criminal Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Four short essays | |
| Current Issues In Copyright Litigation (Garrett, Robert A.) NOTE: This B weekend course meets on January 30; February 12, 13, 26, 27; March 19, 20; April 2, 3, 16, 17 and 23. This course will explore the issues raised by significant copyright litigation pending in the federal courts, recent copyright decisions and emerging digital technologies that rely upon copyrighted content. The primary objective is to have students -- who are familiar with, and have a genuine interest in expanding their knowledge of, copyright law -- discuss and understand the copyright issues of current concern to both the owners of copyrighted works (primarily the entertainment, sports and publishing industries) and the users of those works. Students will be expected to write a memorandum and discuss copyright issues raised by, for example, the Google Books litigation and settlement, the Viacom/YouTube UGC litigation, the Cablevision network DVR litigation, file-sharing litigation brought by the Recording Industry Association of America, unauthorized P2P streaming of live sports telecasts and other TV programming over “lifecasting” and other websites and fair use litigation (such as that involving the Shep Fairley Obama poster and plagiarism services). PREREQUISITE: Copyright Law or Survey of Patent, Copyright, Trademark
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Memorandum and class participation, including facilitation of discussion of designated issues | |
| Current Issues In Patent Law (Bagley, Margo A.) The availability and scope of patent protection is increasingly important in the knowledge economy. Advances in biotechnology, controversial uses of patent rights, and divergent court opinions are impacting this area in far-reaching ways. This course will explore many of these developments while maintaining a primary focus on the principal rules pertaining to patent protection and enforcement and the policies underlying these rules. Neither a technical nor scientific background is necessary for this course. PREREQUISITE: Property, Patent Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Death Penalty: An International Perspective (Hood, Roger G.) This course meets April 6 - 15. This course will cover the issue of capital punishment from an international perspective. It will discuss: a) the history of capital punishment and the movement to restrict its use and then to abolish it; b) the politics of the abolitionist movement, including the arguments and forces that have been at work to achieve successful abolition and those that have been used to resist it, including public opinion; c) the influence of international law and the human rights movement; d) the current scope and use of the death penalty around the world, the modes of enforcing it and the legal and moral issues involved in its application, including arbitrariness, discrimination, the ‘death row phenomenon’, and error; e) the evidence regarding the deterrent effect of capital punishment; f) alternatives to the death penalty, in particular the legal and penal application of life imprisonment. Students will be expected to participate in the discussion. Grades will be based on a paper (no more than 10 pages) on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A paper (no more than 10 pages) on a topic chosen by the student in consultation with the instructor | |
| Dillard Fellow (Yr) (Buck, Donna R.) This is the second semester of a yearlong practicum in which selected upper-level students serve as teaching assistants in the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program. | |
| Dillard Fellow (Yr) (Moran, Karen M.) This is the second semester of a yearlong practicum in which selected upper-level students serve as teaching assistants in the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program. | |
| Dillard Fellow (Yr) (Stewart, Sarah) This is the second semester of a yearlong practicum in which selected upper-level students serve as teaching assistants in the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program. | |
| Disability Law And Ethics (Shepherd, Lois L.) This course surveys American federal and state law as it relates to people with disabilities. Primary focus is on discrimination in employment and in public and private programs and services, including education, housing, and health care. Social and historical contexts relating to disability will also be explored. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Disputes And Remedies (Jag) () This JAG School course meets January 4 - May 14. Instructor: LTC Wong
The course focuses on contract litigation before the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals, using an actual Army Contract Appeals Division case file as the basis for all graded and ungraded exercises. The course tracks, from beginning to end, an ASBCA construction contract claim. Course topics include jurisdiction, pleadings and motions, written discovery, depositions, hearings, brief writing, ADR and settlement agreements, and post-hearing procedures and appeals. Graded exercises include an answer to a bid protest, a complaint, written discovery, and a brief. Ungraded exercises include a deposition and an ADR practical exercise. In-class participation may also be evaluated. COURSE REQUIREMENT: An answer to a bid protest, a complaint, written discovery, and a brief. Ungraded exercises include a deposition and an ADR practical exercise. Class participation may also be evaluated. | |
| Economic Foundations Of Intellectual Property (Duffy, John F.) This course meets February 4 - 19. Intellectual property has long generated a pitched debate among economists concerning both whether it is economically sensible for society to recognize any intellectual property rights and, assuming such rights should be recognized, what the optimal scope of such rights should be. This short course gives an introduction to that long-running debate and to its legal implications for the structure of intellectual property rights. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
PREREQUISITE: One intellectual property course such as Patent Law, Copyright Law, Trademark Law or the survey course. Undergraduate economics course or a law and economics course is highly recommended, but not required. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Emerging Markets: Principles And Practice (Dean, Richard N.; Stephan, Paul B.) NOTE: This seminar will not meet every week during the semester. This seminar explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of so-called “emerging markets” and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies. Topics include: corruption and money laundering, liability for human rights abuses, forms of foreign investment and commercial transactions, local accreditation, taxation, the privatization process, intellectual property protection, import-export regulations, currency controls, project and conventional financing, banking, the development and regulation of capital markets, securities and commodities exchanges, financing, and environmental protection. The core of the seminar will be based on an actual investment project involving the development of energy resources in Russia. Russia is used throughout the course as an example of an emerging market presenting particular characteristics and problems that provide important insights into emerging markets elsewhere in the world. There will be several simulated negotiation exercises. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Students wishing to enroll in the seminar, whether enrolled or not, must attend the first class session. Enrolled students who do not attend the first class session will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Employment Discrimination (Rutherglen, George) This course will focus upon the principal federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex, especially Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It will also examine the federal constitutional law of racial and sexual discrimination, primarily as it affects judicial interpretation of the preceding statutes. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Employment Law Clinic (Yr) (Clark, Carolyn; Green, Dexter B.; Gulotta, Alex R.; Trodden, Erin M.) This yearlong clinical course is designed to give students first-hand experience in the practice of employment law, from both the plaintiff and defense side. Students will receive classroom instruction only during the fall semester in the substantive and procedural aspects of employment litigation, from client interviewing and counseling through formal and informal fact gathering, drafting administrative charges of discrimination, Complaints, discovery, participating in simulated mediation, depositions, motions arguments, opening statements, and closing arguments, all of which will be considered in grading. Motions and trial advocacy skills will be taught and refined in the context of an employment discrimination case. There will be no classroom instruction during the spring semester, but the clinical aspect of the course (participating in actual cases under the supervision of an attorney) is required both semesters. In cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center and local attorneys, students will participate throughout the year in litigating actual employment cases. These cases may include wrongful discharge actions, unemployment compensation claims, employment discrimination charges, or any other claims arising out of the employment relationship. Specific assignments will vary according to the inventory of cases available at the time, but students should be able to conduct client interviews, participate in discovery, draft motions, and assist with trial preparation. Students also may argue some motions (with appropriate Third Year Practice Certification); 2Ls may provide direct representation in Unemployment Insurance Hearings. Students will be expected to arrange a satisfactory schedule with their supervising attorney. For additional information about the employment and labor law curriculum, please visit the PELLS Web site (http://www.pells.org). Students will earn three credits during the fall semester and five credits during the spring semester. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Employment Discrimination, Evidence, Professional Responsibility recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Memoranda, pleadings, and other court-related documents | |
| Employment Law: Contracts, Torts, And Statutes (Verkerke, J H.) Union membership as a proportion of total employment has declined for several decades. As a result, workers increasingly must look to federal, state, and local law rather than to collective bargaining agreements to determine their rights and obligations as employees. Similarly, a lawyer advising a company on employment matters today is likely to face many more questions involving employer and worker rights under one of these myriad regulatory regimes than issues arising under federal labor law. In contrast to the traditional labor law course, which focuses on collective bargaining, this course and a companion offering on Employment Law: Health & Safety offer students an introduction to the diverse body of law that governs the individual employment relationship. Both courses examine a selection of the important issues that employment lawyers face in practice. Although course coverage varies somewhat from year to year, this course typically focuses on topics including contract and tort protections against discharge, trade secrets and non-competition clauses, ERISA, vicarious liability, alternative dispute resolution, and wage and hour laws such as the FLSA. The graded work for this course will differ substantially from the conventional three-hour final examination. Instead, students will be graded on a combination of essay questions, wiki contributions, class participation, and short answer and multiple choice questions to be announced prior to the start of the semester. NOTE: Although some of my colleagues have chosen to ban laptop use in the classroom, I believe that most students benefit from having the ability to take notes and refer to electronic resources during classes. In return for that benefit, however, I expect all students to show respect for their classmates and the instructor. It is inconsistent with that duty of respect for students to use their computers during class time to do anything other than take notes and refer to class-related electronic resources. You must shut down your email and IM clients before the start of class, and load only programs or browser windows containing material directly related to our class discussion (e.g., reading notes, lecture notes, class wiki, relevant cases). COURSE REQUIREMENT: A combination of essay questions, wiki contributions, class participation, and short answer and multiple choice questions to be announced prior to the start of the semester. | |
| Employment Law: Health And Safety (Verkerke, J H.) Working can be surprisingly dangerous. Hundreds of thousands of employees every year suffer accidental injuries, occupational diseases, or become victims of violence in the workplace. However, injury rates have fallen steadily over the last century. What role has legal regulation played in this decline? How might existing laws be better designed to improve workplace health and safety without imposing unduly large regulatory burdens on employers? This course will consider questions such as these as we examine legal responses to work-related safety and health issues. We will study in some detail the worker's compensation system and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA). Course coverage will also include selected topics such as workplace violence, drug testing, smoking, and health insurance. Designed to complement Employment Law: Contracts, Torts & Statutes, this course has no prerequisite, and students should feel free to take these introductory employment law offerings in any order they wish. The graded work for this course will differ substantially from the conventional three-hour final examination. Instead, students will be graded on a combination of essay questions, wiki contributions, class participation, and short answer and multiple choice questions to be announced prior to the start of the semester. NOTE: Although some of my colleagues have chosen to ban laptop use in the classroom, I believe that most students benefit from having the ability to take notes and refer to electronic resources during classes. In return for that benefit, however, I expect all students to show respect for their classmates and the instructor. It is inconsistent with that duty of respect for students to use their computers during class time to do anything other than take notes and refer to class-related electronic resources. You must shut down your email and IM clients before the start of class, and load only programs or browser windows containing material directly related to our class discussion (e.g., reading notes, lecture notes, class wiki, relevant cases). COURSE REQUIREMENT: A combination of essay questions, wiki contributions, class participation, and short answer and multiple choice questions to be announced prior to the start of the semester. | |
| Employment Law: Principles And Practice (Davidson, John E.; Steen, Bruce M.) The dominant source of legal rights for employees today is a disorderly body of federal and state statutes and common law doctrines often called “employment law.” Ranging from Title VII to defamation law, from ERISA to workers’ compensation, from the Americans with Disabilities Act to the law of employee handbooks, employment law encompasses a vast body of law regulating the employment relationship. This course examines employment law doctrine and theory from a practical perspective. Problems and in-class exercises (such as mock depositions, client conferences, oral arguments, summary judgment arguments, jury instruction charge conferences and mediation sessions) drawn from litigated cases and counseling practice will illustrate how attorneys use these doctrinal rules and theoretical principles to control the legal consequences of their clients’ employment relationships. Grades in this highly interactive course will be based on periodic in-class exercises, written assignments and class participation. PREREQUISITE or CONCURRENT: Employment Discrimination or Employment Law or Employment Law: Contracts, Torts, and Statutes
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Periodic written assignments | |
| Environmental Law And Conservation Clinic (Yr) (Szeptycki, Leon) Students in this yearlong clinic will participate in a range of activities related to the protection and restoration of natural resources and environmental quality. The clinic will represent and counsel environmental nonprofits, citizen’s groups, and community organizations seeking to protect and restore the environment of Virginia and other parts of the country. Clinic clients have included the Shenandoah Riverkeeper, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Rivanna Conservation Society, and Trout Unlimited. Although much of the work will consist of traditional legal advocacy, such as commenting on rules, participating in permit proceedings, and litigation, the clinic will also actively explore more cooperative means of conserving and restoring natural resources. Student activities will include drafting regulatory comments, writing briefs, meeting with agency staff and participating in other regulatory proceedings, counseling clients, conducting factual investigations, participating in hearings, developing and evaluating potential new projects, and performing legal research and analysis needed to do the clinic’s work. During the fall semester the clinic will include a weekly meeting/seminar to cover substantive topics and specific lawyering skills relevant to the clinic’s work. During the spring semester, the clinic will meet less frequently as needed to discuss clinic projects. The clinic also has formal partnership with the Southern Environmental Law Center, and clinic students will have the opportunity to work closely with SELC attorneys. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITES: Prior coursework in environmental law or permission of the instructor
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Drafting comments, briefs, letters, and other documents; participating in regulatory proceedings and hearings; meeting with clients and agency staff; providing legal advice and other counseling | |
| Environmental Law (Cannon, Jonathan Z.) The environmental movement of the last several decades has produced a complicated array of laws that continue to evolve. Environmental Law is designed to give students a grasp of those laws, the policies that underlie them, and the legal practice that has grown up around them. We address pollution control under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts as well as natural resource protection under the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. Although the primary focus will be on federal law, we will also explore some state and international dimensions, including climate change. The materials and class discussions will seek to illuminate current regulation of key environmental media and likely future developments such as increased use of emissions trading and information-based strategies. Our inquiry will include attention to the interactions among key players—e.g., industry, agriculture, NGOs, courts, Congress, agencies and departments—in the development and application of the law. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Estate Planning: Principles And Practice (Fox, Charles D.) This seminar will consider the principal tax and non-tax aspects of estate planning, with emphasis on sophisticated tax planning techniques for wealthy individuals. Topics to be covered will include: pre-marital planning with special attention to second marriages; use of marital deduction, credit shelter, and generation-skipping trusts; techniques for lifetime transfers of assets; use of charitable trusts and other deferred giving techniques; life insurance in estate plans; dealing with special assets, such as personal residences, art and other collectibles, farms and ranches, retirement benefits, and closely held businesses including family limited partnerships; planning for the payment of taxes, including both federal and state taxes; post mortem planning; fiduciary income tax planning; planning for possible changes in tax law; selection of beneficiaries, especially where there are no children, and the achievement of equity among family members and other beneficiaries; fundamental considerations in estate administration: comparison of wills, trusts, and other techniques; asset protection planning and ethical considerations in estate planning. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax, Trusts and Estates; Federal Taxation of Gratuitous Transfers (may be taken concurrently)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required (drafting assignments) | |
| Evidence (Barzun, Charles L.) This course provides a general survey of the rules of evidence and the reasons underlying these rules. These rules regulate proof at trial but also inform pre-trial and transactional practice, which must be done with an eye toward what might need to be admissible later in court. Included are the subjects of relevance, character evidence, rape shield statutes, examination of witnesses, the hearsay rule and its exceptions, and scientific and technical evidence, and opinion testimony from lay and expert witnesses, among other subjects relating to the regulation of proof at trials. The focus will be on the Federal Rules of Evidence, which have largely been adopted in most state jurisdictions as well, with some attention the common law history of evidence rules. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Evidence (Mitchell, Paul G.) This course covers the rules of evidence that govern both civil and criminal trials. The emphasis will be on the Federal Rules of Evidence because many states pattern their rules of evidence after the federal rules. Special attention will be given to the psychological and sociological assumptions that underlie the rules of evidence and to the use of scientific evidence. A problem-based approach will be used to ensure that you understand and can apply the information that we discuss. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Evidence (Sinclair, Kent) The law of evidence controls what facts and other proof may be used in the courtroom. The course takes a practical approach, looking at how lawyer's argue – and how judges apply – the Federal Rules of Evidence (now adopted in about 44 states as well) as the distillation and refinement of common law principles evolved over the last 300 years to govern trials. The mechanics of making objections and preserving a record are covered, as well as alternatives for the offering of proof: what purposes may evidence be offered to support, what limits can the judge apply and how do attorneys make practical arguments for exclusion or limitations on the use of evidence? The course deals with several problems of "relevance" (when is evidence useful to prove or disprove something of consequence in the case?) and policy (e.g., when is the usefulness of proof outweighed by policy concerns involving such matters as insurance, settlements, or subsequent repairs). Much of the coverage is bound up with the law of hearsay - a student will learn to distinguish out-of-court statements barred by the rule from those that are exempted from its ban by definition or a recognized "exception." The nature of cross-examination is treated at several points, and the procedures for laying foundations for exhibits are covered. Alternatives to regular proof are also explored. The course will be of interest to potential litigators as well as those who have no intention of going into trial work (since many of the principles have application in federal and state administrative and corporate practice contexts, tax, probate, zoning, and other subject areas). Besides, any lawyer should know the rules in order to be prepared to advise clients about the potential evidentiary consequences of contemplated actions completely outside the litigation context (e.g., in writing threatening letters, negotiating over the telephone or by letter, or settling cases)). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Expertise, Science, And The Law Of Evidence (Monahan, John T.; Walker, William L.) This seminar examines the theoretical and practical questions raised by the use of expert information within the legal system. Topics to be addressed may include: standards for the admissibility for scientific evidence; Daubert and its effects; legal, philosophical and sociological conceptions of the expert’s role and the nature of expertise; the competence of the jury to assess expert testimony and possible alternatives to the jury system for complex cases. Specific subject areas may include: forensic science (fingerprinting and handwriting identification); sampling, toxic torts, and problems of causation; eyewitness identification evidence; polygraph evidence; violence risk assessment; psychological and biological syndrome evidence; and proposals for the reform of expert evidence. COURE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Family Alternative Dispute Resolution Clinic (Yr) (Balnave, Richard D.; Emery, Kimberly C.) This yearlong clinical course is open to 2L and 3L students. Students will earn 6 credits – 3 in the fall and 3 in the spring. The course will focus on two alternative dispute resolution methods used to resolve conflicts involving families and children – mediation and collaborative law practice. The family disputes will include child custody, visitation, financial support, equitable distribution of property, and related issues. This clinic is particularly appropriate for students who like to problem solve and who would want to enhance their negotiation skills--skills which are critically important in a wide variety of substantive law areas. In traditional family law practice, lawyers represent their clients by negotiating issues or litigating the cases in court if negotiations fail. Court trials are adversarial, and the outcomes are decided by judges, rather than by the parties. The litigation model of resolving family disputes can be harmful to children and frequently lessens the parties’ willingness to cooperate as parents. In response to the shortcomings of adversarial litigation, family disputes are increasingly resolved through alternative dispute resolution where the best interests of the child is the guiding focus of the parties and the process. In this clinic, law students will serve, not as attorneys representing clients, but as neutral facilitators assisting their clients to develop mutually agreeable resolutions to their disputes. Mediation is a voluntary, confidential process in which neutral mediators help parties to identify issues, explore options and to reach mutually agreeable solutions. Students will complete a 20 hour Basic Mediation training program approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia. The training will take place during the evening of Thursday, September 10, and all day Friday and Saturday, September 10 and 11, 2009. Participation in the full 20 hours of mediation training is required, unless a student has completed a similar mediation training program approved by the Supreme Court of Virginia within the past two years. Students will have the opportunity to observe several family mediation sessions before serving as co-mediators with experienced, certified family mediators to help parties in conflict. The supervising attorney-mediators will prepare and accompany law students to all mediation sessions, however, students will be expected to work directly with their clients to brainstorm and problem-solve and to take the initiative and guide their clients through the mediation process. The clinic will partner with the local Juvenile and Domestic Relations Courts and the Mediation Center of Charlottesville to receive family mediation referrals. In the collaborative law practice cases, law students and their supervising attorneys will provide legal representation to clients wishing to use the collaborative process as a way to resolve their family law issues. Clients will be individuals of limited income, referred to the | |
| Family Resource Clinic (Yr) (Nagin, Daniel L.) This yearlong clinical course, offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, includes two semesters of supervised legal representation of clients, supported by a weekly seminar which meets during the fall semester only. Students earn four (4) credits during the fall semester and four (4) credits during the spring semester. Clinic students work under the instructor’s close supervision to address the legal needs of low-income families who seek or receive public benefits, or who are former public benefit recipients attempting to make the transition to financial independence. The Clinic’s work can take many forms, but focuses on helping families challenge unlawful agency decisions to deny, reduce, or terminate critically needed benefits such as financial assistance, food supports, and healthcare coverage. Because public benefits law encompasses a vast expanse of programs at the local, state, and federal levels, the Clinic’s subject matter cuts across a number of areas, from administrative law and constitutional law to disability discrimination law and health law. Moreover, the Clinic’s clients have diverse and changing legal needs as they grapple with the complex maze of eligibility requirements imposed by TANF, Medicaid, Food Stamps, Social Security, Child Care subsidies, and foster care and adoption assistance, among other programs. Students will likely have a variety of lawyering opportunities, including the chance to conduct administrative appeal hearings and to brief and argue court challenges to agency decisions. Students may also have opportunities to engage in public policy advocacy and to develop and work on impact litigation cases. For those students with an interest in community economic development projects, opportunities may also exist to work on matters involving transactional law and nonprofit law. Through the fall seminar component, students learn the relevant substantive law, ethical requirements, and advocacy skills necessary for the representation of Clinic clients. Both second-year students and third-year students may enroll in the Clinic. There is no application requirement. Enrollment is via the LawReg open enrollment process. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Interviewing clients, completing legal research, developing case plans, drafting pleadings, conducting hearings, and other case-related tasks. | |
| Federal Courts (Tyler, Amanda) This course is about the relationship of the federal courts to state courts as well as the other branches of the federal government. Accordingly, the course explores both federalism and the separation of powers. Topics covered include the scope of federal question jurisdiction, congressional power to restrict federal court jurisdiction, Supreme Court review of state court judgments, sovereign immunity, federal habeas corpus, and various statutory and judge-made barriers to the exercise of federal jurisdiction. PREREQUISITE: Civil Procedure, Constitutional Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Federal Income Tax (Lawsky, Sarah) This course is the introduction to federal taxation in general, and income tax in particular. It will concentrate on the provisions that apply to all taxpayers, with particular concern for the taxation of individuals. The course is intended to provide grounding in such fundamental areas as the concept of income, income exclusions and exemptions, non-business deductions, deductions for business expenses, basic tax accounting, assignment of income, and capital gains and losses. Further particular attention will be paid to the processes for creating law and determining of liability in the tax area, the role of the Treasury and the taxpayer in the making of tax law and formulation of policy, and the significance of the income tax in government and business. Because of the importance of federal taxes, and the role of lawyers in the tax system, it is recommended that every student take the basic course at some time during his or her law school career. The course is a Prerequisite to all further tax courses including Corporate Tax, Partnership Taxation, and International Taxation. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Federal Income Tax (Yin, George K.) This course is the introduction to federal taxation in general, and income tax in particular. It will concentrate on the provisions that apply to all taxpayers, with particular concern for the taxation of individuals. The course is intended to provide grounding in such fundamental areas as the concept of income, income exclusions and exemptions, non-business deductions, deductions for business expenses, basic tax accounting, assignment of income, and capital gains and losses. Further particular attention will be paid to the processes for creating law and determining of liability in the tax area, the role of the Treasury and the taxpayer in the making of tax law and formulation of policy, and the significance of the income tax in government and business. Because of the importance of federal taxes, and the role of lawyers in the tax system, it is recommended that every student take the basic course at some time during his or her law school career. The course is a Prerequisite to all further tax courses including Corporate Tax, Partnership Taxation, and International Taxation. NOTE: Laptops prohibited during class sessions. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Federal Land And Natural Resource Law (Carr, David W.) The seminar will survey the laws and policies governing the management of lands and natural resources under federal ownership (some one-third of the nation’s continental land area). Beginning with a brief review of the history of federal land policy, the seminar will focus on issues relating to public lands, including national forests and parks, minerals, timber, fish and wildlife, endangered species, water, recreation, preservation of unique values, and occupancy uses. Various resource development issues will be discussed in the context of federal-state jurisdictional powers over federal lands and resources and the applicability of the National Environmental Policy Act to activities on the federal lands. The course will also review numerous recent changes in longstanding federal land policies and regulations. PREREQUISITE: Environmental Law or Administrative Law recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Federal Taxation Of Gratuitous Transfers (Robinson, Mildred W.) This course is an introduction to the federal taxation of gratuitous transfers made by individuals during life and at death. Federal taxation of estates and gifts and generation-skipping transfers will be examined separately and as they interrelate with each other by drawing together legislation, administrative interpretations, and judicial decisions. Federal income taxation of trusts and estates will also be considered, as will income tax considerations unique to decedents. PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax and Trusts and Estates recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| First Amendment Clinic (O'Neil, Robert M.; Wheeler, John J.) This semester-long clinic is conducted in conjunction with the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression (www.tjcenter.org). The First Amendment Clinic offers law students the opportunity to gain practical legal experience involving timely free speech and press issues. Supervised by the legal staff of the Thomas Jefferson Center, students work as a team in conducting legal research, meeting with clients and co-counsel, and drafting legal memoranda and briefs. Assignments typically involve appellate-level litigation, although there are occasional trial-level opportunities. Students also work on a variety of non-litigation projects. Recent tasks of that sort have involved reviewing proposed municipal ordinances for potential First Amendment flaws, and the drafting for the American Bar Association of a handbook detailing media rights of access to the courtroom. The Clinic meets once a week at the Thomas Jefferson Center, on Route 250 East (Pantops) in Charlottesville. A meeting time will be scheduled to suit the participating students during the first week of the semester. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: A First Amendment course and/or Constitutional Law II: Freedom of Speech and Press recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Litigation and non-litigation research and drafting | |
| First Amendment Theory (Bevier, Lillian R.; Kendrick, Leslie C.) The seminar will consist of two stages. First, we will devote a few weeks to acquiring an overview of general writing about the freedom of speech. After that, we will devote each session to a close critique of one law review article on the subject. One student will write a ten-page critique of the article, identifying any problems with the author's argument. Another student will serve as the author's advocate, defending the article against all challenges (no writing required for this role). The principal objective of the seminar is to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis. After the introductory weeks devoted to general background, the workload will be light in terms of sheer pages but heavy in terms of the command students are expected to have of the specific arguments in each article. Grades will be based one-third on the critique, one-third on performance as the author’s advocate, and one-third on class participation throughout the semester. NOTE: Laptops prohibited during class sessions. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law, any First Amendment course
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Ten-page critique of one article, oral defense of one argument, and class participation | |
| Food And Drug Law (Riley, Margaret F.) This course considers the Food and Drug Administration as a case study of an administrative agency that must combine law and science to regulate activities affecting public health and safety. The reading and class discussion will cover issues such as regulation of distribution and importation of foods, the use of risk-assessment techniques in regulatory decision-making, the effects of FDA drug approval requirements on research and competition in the pharmaceutical industry, regulation of new medical technologies, and the ethics of drug testing. PREREQUISITE: Administrative Law recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Foreign Relations Law (Prakash, Saikrishna B.) This course examines the constitutional and statutory doctrines regulating the conduct of American foreign relations. Topics include the distribution of foreign relations powers between the three branches of the federal government, the status of international law in U.S. courts, the scope of the treaty power, the validity of executive agreements, the pre-emption of state foreign relations activities, the power to declare and conduct war, and the political question and other doctrines regulating judicial review in foreign relations cases. Where relevant, we will focus on current events, such as the post-September 11 war on terrorism and the 2003 war in Iraq. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Genetics And The Law (Siegal, Gil) This course meets February 1-17. This course will explore various legal/policy issues that arise in the context of the new genetic technologies. The initial sessions will introduce the basic biology of human genetics and the objectives of the Human Genome Project. No prior knowledge is required. We will review the history of genetics in the United States, with particular attention to the incorporation of “eugenic” concepts into the law, as well as the state and federal cases in which those concepts were challenged. The remaining sessions will survey the following topical areas: genetic privacy, including questions of family's rights to genetic information, genetic anti-discrimination law related to employment and insurance; reproductive issues, including genetic enhancement (“gene doping”) and non-medical sex selection; the implications of novel genetic technologies in medical treatment (e.g., reproductive or therapeutic cloning, the use of embryonic stem cells), public health initiatives and/or research (e.g., pharmacogenomis, population screening); malpractice and genetics; and the use of DNA as a unique identifier, particularly in the forensic context. The class will include the participation of guest faculty from health science disciplines and an evening event with the medical school. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Germs, Guns, And Lead: Public Health Law And Policy (Bernheim, Ruth G.; Bonnie, Richard J.) This course will explore the legitimacy, design, and implementation of policies aiming to promote public health and reduce the social burden of disease and injury. It will highlight the challenge posed by public health’s population-based perspective to traditional individual-centered, autonomy-driven approaches to bioethics and constitutional law. Other themes center on conflicts between public health and public morality and the relationship between public health and social justice and human rights. Illustrative topics include mandatory immunization, screening and reporting of infectious diseases, prevention of obesity and diabetes, prevention of lead poisoning, food safety, mandatory use of cycling helmets and seat belts, and restrictions on alcohol and tobacco advertising. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Germs, Guns, and Lead: Public Health Law and Policy seminar
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Global Intellectual Property: History And Theory (Vaidhyanathan, Siva) This research seminar would survey the "first principles" and subsequent development of the global copyright and patent systems and pay particular attention to 20th century developments of globalization and digitization. The course will consider the key issues and controversies surrounding the steady growth of global Intellectual Property law and policy since 1710. It will not focus on the United States but will instead consider the effects global standardization is having on both developed and developing nations and the relationship among the these two sets. The reading will include essays by the most provocative and influential scholars in the field of “critical information studies”: law professors, computer scientists, communication and media studies scholars, historians, anthropologists, library and information studies scholars, and political scientists. PREREQUISITE: Patent Law, Copyright Law recommended but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Government Ethics: Conflicts Of Interest, Lobbying And Campaign Finance (Kneedler, H L.) There is increasing concern in Congress and state legislatures about the rules governing conflicts of interest, lobbying and campaign finance. Particularly at the state level, where legislators generally are part-time, conflicts of interest often are hard to avoid, and the appropriate remedy is not always clear. Should the remedy for a potential conflict be disqualification from participation in the consideration of a measure, or merely a requirement to disclose the conflict, leaving it to the electorate to decide at the ballot box whether a person has engaged in inappropriate conflicts? Should the rules cover appearances of conflicts, or be limited to actual conflicts? Lobbying presents equally difficult issues. Particularly at the state level, where individual legislator’s staffs and committee staffs are quite small, lobbyists often play an essential role in the legislative debate on issues. Yet lobbyists can abuse their access to legislators. What is the appropriate balance and how should it be achieved? Finally, what restrictions have legislatures and courts placed on the financing of campaigns, and what reforms are necessary? These issues are of great importance to the fabric of our society. It is becoming increasingly difficult for clients to conduct business with government officials and agencies without a reasonably sophisticated grasp of the rules governing conflicts of interest, lobbying and campaign finance. Clients expect their lawyer to be familiar with these rules. This seminar is intended to provide students with a working knowledge of current government ethics laws and rules and an opportunity to explore potential reforms. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Hallmarks Of Distinguished Advocacy (Sayler, Robert W.; Shadel, Molly B.) This course treats oral advocacy as an effort to persuade any audience of the merits of a cause or proposal and of the credibility of the proponent. Each session consists of two roughly equal parts, an instruction segment and a learn-by-doing exercise. The first hour will focus on a discreet aspect of advocacy featuring presentations and demonstrations by one or more seasoned oral advocates interspersed with videotape selections from famous actual or movie-version trials, other famous and infamous oral presentations (inaugural addresses, “I Have a Dream,” and others), audio tapes from Supreme Court arguments and other materials designed to illustrate both superb and disastrous oral work. The second hour of each class will give the students an opportunity to perform, and be critiqued on, short oral advocacy exercises. The first seven weeks treat advocacy in settings outside the courtroom. The instruction and readings will deal with common features of all good advocacy; the student presentations will focus on a variety of non-trial performances—client presentations, advocacy of policy positions, informal and formal speeches. The last half deals with advocacy in the most common trial settings—direct and cross-examination, opening statements, closing arguments and appellate advocacy. All presentations will be videotaped with a brief critique of general applicability during class and detailed individual video review critiquing during office hours. During the last half we will also focus on the use and misuse of demonstratives and high-tech graphics and the relationship between written and oral advocacy. There will be limited readings from the literature of the ancient rhetoricians, psychologists, jury consultants and other communications professionals. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Oral Presentations In and Out of the Courtroom, Persuasion for Advocates
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Twelve oral presentations | |
| Health Care For Children: Law, Economics, And Health Policy (Massaro, Thomas A.; Wadlington, Walter J.) The course will examine those issues which influence the health and wellbeing of children in our society. Elements in the health care and legal systems which are unique to children will be emphasized. The financing and organization of children’s health and social services will be reviewed. One important theme will be the significance of socioeconomic status and poverty levels on the welfare of children. Other topics will include parental duty to support and provide medical care, medical neglect, child abuse, decision making by and for minors about their health care, the terminally ill child and research on children. Discussion will attempt to define the milieu in which physicians and other children’s advocates must make decisions and how the legal system responds to the problems that arise. The course will be open to medical students and residents in addition to law students. The grade will be based on class participation and an open book examination. A research paper may be substituted for the examination by approval of the instructors. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper (in consultation with the instructors) and class participation | |
| Health Care Reform (Massaro, Thomas A.) The goal of this seminar is to understand the need and potential for health care reform in the United States and to critically evaluate various alternatives now being discussed. The first half of the seminar will present an overview of current health financing and operations in the U.S. and other major developed countries. Topics will include costs of health care, insurance models and the uninsured, Medicare, Medicaid, SCHIP, health workforce issues, and biomedical research, as well as profiles of delivery systems in Canada, Germany, Australia, England and Singapore. This will be followed by student-led reviews and critical analyses of potential reform initiatives and options. Readings will be drawn primarily from government publications and the health policy literature. Students will be required to submit individual or group papers on some aspect of health reform. Class participation will significantly influence final grades. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Individual or group paper and class participation | |
| Health Care Structure And Financing (Massaro, Thomas A.; West, Rebecca W.) This course will provide an overview of the structure and financing of the American health care system. It will provide a broad overview of American law and regulation as it applies to these areas. Major topics include: Access to and cost of health care in the U.S.; Health insurance and managed care; Medicare and Medicaid; The relationship amongst health care professionals and organizations; Enforcement and compliance activities of the government; and, The impact of liability on the health care system. It is intended that this course be a high level overview of the American health care system and the laws and regulations that shape it. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination or paper | |
| Health Law Survey (Riley, Margaret F.) This course is designed to provide a survey of the spectrum of topics generally considered part of "health law." It is equally applicable to the student who knows little about health law and the student who knows a great deal about certain areas but wants to understand more about the whole field. It will introduce the various institutions and players involved in health care delivery and the legal relationships between those institutions--at both the state and federal level. It will cover issues of access and cost and quality control including the "moving target" of health care reform. We will explore the basics of bioethics and public health and cutting edge technologies. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Housing Law Clinic (Yr) (Castaneda, Brenda E.; Conover, John; Whiteley, R. P.) Offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the clinic includes both a seminar and supervised client representation in housing-related cases and matters. The caseload includes trials and administrative proceedings in addition to other matters for indigent clients. Issues arise under private landlord-tenant contracts, federally subsidized rental programs and anti-discrimination statutes such as the Fair Housing Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act. Students handle eviction cases, rent escrow cases, grievance hearings, abatement of substandard building conditions, and other enforcement of residents' rights. Under the supervision of an attorney, all students perform the lawyer functions associated with their cases, including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of pleadings, and negotiation. Although the clinic is open to 2L and 3Ls, only those students with Third-Year Practice certification are eligible for actual for courtroom advocacy. Client representation and supervision at Legal Aid is yearlong. The seminar designed to teach basic landlord/tenant law meets in the only in the fall. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is important; contact the instructor if attendance is a problem. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITES: Second- or third-year status. Negotiation Institute recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Students will draft a defensive pleading, a pleading for administrative litigation, a substantive motion, and a pleading for affirmative litigation of housing issues | |
| Immigration Law Clinic (Ford, Douglas B.) This semester-long clinic will be offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center. Students will have a variety of responsibilities in the Clinic where they will be learning to make critical legal judgments. Students will be assigned several clients, and each will handle at least one complicated case involving extensive client interviewing, factual investigation, and legal brief(s). Clients come from diverse backgrounds and frequently have unusual factual scenarios that bring them to the doors of Legal Aid. Students will be expected to work with the clients and understand what they want and what we can pursue for them through available legal mechanisms. The Clinic and Legal Aid are more than free counsel for qualifying clients, but a community service providing an orientation to basic rights and available services to walk-ins and the wider community. Women victims of violence are a priority at Legal Aid. Such victims can have avenues to legal status, sometimes through asylum, but also through remedies made possible by the federal Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), including a “U” visa” for victims of crimes. In another category of cases, we have clients appealing denials of applications for status, clients appealing for special categorization or procedures or clients who have cases complicated by past criminal or immigration history. Such cases can require coordination with law enforcement and/or social services agencies. For example, we have represented one child where deportation proceedings needed to be prolonged in order to make administrative appeals to another agency seeking status for the client. Students will be expected to keep office hours at LAJC for half a day per week and will have responsibility for handling some of the cold-call inquiries received at Legal Aid. We make a particular effort to assist the undocumented or at least ensure those that come to our doors understand what rights and options they do and do not have. Much of this work is with Latin Americans with limited English and Spanish language ability is a plus. Students will interview these potential clients, assess legal options and make critical judgments regarding strength of the possible case, needs of the client, and fit with Clinic/Legal Aid priorities in order to recommend whether to take the case. In addition, students are expected to have some flexibility to accommodate the schedules of clients. The Clinic will meet for a weekly seminar for the beginning of the semester. We will begin with a review of core concepts in the immigration field and the counseling of clients, and then review in more depth specific substantive forms of relief needed for our clients. We will cover skills needed in the Clinic, such as eliciting information from abuse victims and working through cultural differences. APPLICATION PROCESS: Interested students MUST submit an application consisting of a resume and a brief, (paragraph or two) statement outlining reasons for taking | |
| Immigration Law (Grant, Mario C.) This course, which is a prerequisite to advanced academic and clinical offerings in the immigration field, will provide an introduction to the complex substantive provisions of U.S. immigration laws and the procedures used to decide specific immigration-related issues. But the course is not meant only as a technical study for those expecting to practice in the field. Attention will also be given to underlying constitutional and philosophical issues, to selected questions of international law and politics, and to the interaction of Congress, the courts, and administrative agencies in dealing with major public policy issues in the immigration field, including the struggle against terrorism. In this vein, we will consider recent efforts at major immigration law reform. The casebook will be Aleinikoff, Martin, & Motomura, Immigration and Citizenship: Process and Policy (6th ed. 2008), along with its 2008 statutory supplement. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Innocence Project Clinic (Yr) (Enright, Deirdre M.) Students in this yearlong clinic will be investigating potential wrongful convictions of incarcerated individuals in the state of Virginia. Some of the cases will have forensic evidence (usually DNA) that could potentially be tested, and two will be non-DNA cases. Clinic students will work on cases both in teams and in individual capacities, and will be directed and assisted by the clinic director and an investigator, but as clinic students gain competence and expertise, they may earn the opportunity for more independence. Although the clinic will have a classroom component, there will be a heavy focus on extracurricular work – interviewing potential clients and witnesses, general investigation, reviewing case files, collecting records, searching court files and more. Students should have at least one full weekday to devote to investigation. Students will earn eight credits for the year. Interested students should anticipate that the clinic will require a minimum of 15 hours per week, and that these hours may require weekends and evenings. Students will likely be visiting inmates at correctional centers, and conducting investigation in a wide variety of socioeconomic settings accompanied by the clinic director, the investigator or another student. ONCE ENROLLED IN THE CLINIC, YOU MAY NOT DROP THE COURSE. Interested students must apply and be accepted to enroll in the clinic. To do so, please forward a resume, an unofficial transcript and a brief letter explaining your interest in this clinic to Professor Enright (deirdre@virginia.edu) no later than June 19, 2009 at 5 pm. Selected students will be notified via e-mail by Friday, June 26, 2009. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Second- or third-year status. Criminal Procedure and Evidence recommended, but not required. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Interviewing potential clients and witnesses, general investigation, reviewing case files, collecting records, searching court files and more. | |
| Insurance (Abraham, Kenneth S.) Insurance is an increasingly important tool for the management of risk by both private and public enterprises. This course provides a working knowledge of basic insurance law governing insurance contract formation, insurance regulation, property, life, health, disability, and liability insurance and claims processes. The emphasis throughout the course is on the link between traditional insurance law doctrine and modern ideas about the functions of private law. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Intellectual Production Without Intellectual Property (Sprigman, Christopher J.) American copyright law--and IP law more generally--is grounded in a utilitarian justification. The Constitution empowers Congress "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." A standard implication of this orthodox justification is that we need IP law and its associated monopoly rights to promote creativity. Without IP, unrestrained piracy will rob creators of any ability to profit from their works. And without the ability to profit, no one will create. “No man but a blockhead,” Samuel Johnson said, “ever wrote, except for money.” That quote appears in Boswell’s famous biography of Johnson. It has been little remarked-upon that in the next line Boswell wrote that “numerous instances to refute this will occur to all who are versed in the history of literature.” Boswell of course was right, and not just for literature. But while examples of creativity without expectation of reward can be found on many family refrigerators, the important question for the 21st century is whether entire industries can be sustained on that economic model. This seminar will explore the law's role in incentivizing and structuring creativity. Yet it will do so not by studying industries subject to IP, but rather by exploring areas of creativity in which IP does not apply, either for doctrinal or statutory reasons or because the relevant actors have created "order without law." There are many examples of creativity without IP: fashion design, cuisine, open-source software (a more complex case); sports plays, magic tricks, class action theories, and so forth. But we know little about how and why these creative endeavors thrive absent IP protection. At the same time it is increasingly clear that IP protection in areas like music and film is decreasingly effective. This trend makes it all the more imperative that we understand how creativity can persist in the face of copying (or more precisely, in the face of a lack of effective legal prohibitions on copying) and how creativity may be altered by such a legal regime. Grading will be 25% class participation + memos and 75% paper. PREREQUISITE: Copyright Law or Survey of Patent, Copyright, Trademark
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Three short weekly reaction memos each over the course of the seminar, and one longer research paper | |
| Intellectual Property Law Policy (Oliar, Dotan) The seminar will cover advanced readings in intellectual property theory and policy. We will review fundamental issues such as the rationale for intellectual property protection, IP’s desirable duration, the desirable scope of the exclusive rights, sequential and cumulative innovation, and more specific issues such as alternatives to intellectual property rights, intellectual property norms or the rationale behind specific doctrines. Students should be at ease with the economic approach to law, but no previous knowledge is assumed or required – all are welcome! PREREQUISITE: Copyright Law or Patent Law or Survey of Patent, Copyright, Trademark
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Weekly submission of reaction papers to the readings assigned | |
| Intelligence Law Reform (Hitz, Frederick P.) This seminar will trace the development of intelligence law from the creation of CIA in 1947, through the Cold War, to the current War on Terrorism. It will look at the USA Patriot Act of 2001 and the more recent effort to strengthen intelligence collection, analysis and dissemination in the wake of the 9/11 attacks and the inaccurate intelligence on Iraqi WMD, both administratively and with passage of intelligence reform legislation in December 2005. We shall attempt to answer the question of whether the creation of a Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and a National Counter-Terrorist Center will really strengthen the intelligence community’s (IC) performance against the terrorist target and overcome destructive rivalries within the IC. Finally, we shall seek to decide whether the threat of international and domestic terrorism is primarily an intelligence problem or a law enforcement/military one informed by good intelligence. We shall also arrive at a view of the propriety and legality of coercive interrogations, pre-emptive incarcerations, and intrusive surveillance in a constitutional democracy. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| International Agreements (Jag) () This JAG School course meets March 15 - May 14. Instructor: CDR Rush
This elective will provide an in-depth study of the law of international agreements as set forth in international law and US domestic law. The first part will focus on the international law pertaining to the creation, modification and termination of international agreements in U.S. practice, and as codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). The second part will focus on the status of international agreements in US domestic law, the ratification process, and the internal US Government regulations for negotiating and concluding international agreements. Students will be evaluated based on a take-home exam, a negotiation exercise, and class participation. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Take-home exam, a negotiation exercise, and class participation | |
| International And Foreign Legal Research (Luu, Xinh T.) This course provides a survey of research resources, methods and strategies unique to international, foreign and comparative law. Topics include public international law (e.g., law of treaties); private international law (e.g., commercial law); foreign law; as well as selected topics of international interest such as arbitration, human rights, intellectual property, environmental law, trade law, etc. The course introduces students to the components of a complex international legal problem; develops research skills using print sources, online databases and the Internet; and offers strategies for finding the law and information. PREREQUISITE: Legal Research and Writing recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Research exercises | |
| International Business Transactions (Walt, Steven D.) This course deals with domestic and international regulations that affect transnational business transactions. It focuses on private transnational aspects of these transactions, using materials on international economic law and international trade law selectively. Topics to be discussed include choice of law and forum, international sales law, letters of credit and other payment mechanisms, business forms, technology transfer, and foreign direct investment and its regulation. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| International Criminal Law (Marshall, Harry R.) NOTE: This B weekend course meets on January 30; February 12, 13, 26, 27; March 19, 20; April 2, 3, 16, 17 and 23. The International Criminal Law (“ICL”) Course will first address basic principles of international law and practice pertinent to criminal law (e.g., principles of extraterritorial jurisdiction). Much of the ICL Course discussion and materials will focus on the law of international extradition and mutual legal assistance. There are no prerequisites; the ICL Course will be given as 13 two-hour sessions on Friday evenings and on the following Saturday mornings, in alternate weeks. The extradition topic will address the means by which persons charged with terrorism, fraud, narcotics and other major offenses, who have fled from or to the United States, are returned to stand trial where charged. The development of extradition arrangements between sovereigns and evolution of extradition treaties and practice will be considered. The content and interpretation of such treaties will be addressed, as well as the manner in which US requests to foreign governments are prepared and delivered and the process undertaken by foreign governments to respond to US extradition requests. How US authorities implement foreign requests for extradition will provide an opportunity to examine this topic from a reciprocal and often different perspective. Beyond looking at how US authorities analyze a request and determine its compliance with the applicable treaty, the ICL Course will address classic extradition issues, such as political offenses and motivation, as they are approached by the executive branch and considered by federal courts. As with extradition, consideration of the mutual legal assistance topic will include the development of this aspect of international criminal law by courts and governments, and, particularly, how the use of treaties in this field evolved. Before exploring the specific aspects of mutual legal assistance treaties, discussion will examine the fundamentals behind the preparation and delivery of US requests and how such are handled by foreign governments. Reciprocally, the ICL Course will address the implementation of foreign requests in the United States. Case decisions and executive branch approaches to the implementation of requests will be examined. The unique provisions in treaties will be considered. Some contemporary topics will include the evolving interplay between law enforcement and intelligence in the international area, international aspects of money laundering, asset forfeiture and corrupt practices, and issues such as the applicability of internationally recognized immunities from criminal prosecution. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| International Deal Making: Legal And Business Aspects (Franklin, Laurence C.) This course meets March 22 - April 26. This course will focus on the application of legal and business knowledge to real-world transactions in the international context. The course will enroll law students and Darden business students who are interested in applying their knowledge to deal structuring, legal and business concerns, negotiations, documentation, and deal closing. In the typical class session, the first hour will be an overview lecture on the topic, or a discussion of the assigned readings. The second hour will be spent on an assigned “caselet” (a short-form case) developed specifically for this course. Each caselet will involve one significant cross-border transaction, and will deal with specific issues (such as deal structuring, negotiating, documenting, etc.) that arose during the course of that deal. Examples of successful and unsuccessful cross-border transactions will be used. Among the deals to be examined will be: 1) Negotiating the first U.S. government loan ($32 million) to China since 1949; 2) Structuring the then largest direct investment in China ($83 million) by a Taiwan investor; 3) Evaluating the legal and business issues surrounding the first IPO of a Chinese company in Hong Kong (HK$889 million); 4) Pioneering the first Chinese Dragon bond issue in the Singapore markets ($50 million); 5) Arranging a $500 million Philippine government SOE privatization sale to a Norwegian investor; 6) Writing a proper investment banking engagement letter for the raising of debt and equity funding to build a new five-star resort hotel in Indonesia; 7) Raising funds ($175 million) for the Burmese government in connection with a $1 billion energy project in Burma and Thailand, at a time when President Bill Clinton and the U.S. government had decided to impose sanctions on Burma; 8) Creating a novel structured finance transaction to help a U.S. company buy the valuable mineral barite from a remote mine in Asia; and 9) Negotiating a dispute resolution in an international trade transaction, with a legal solution and a business solution, which made new law in the country affected. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
PREREQUISITE: Accounting and Corporate Finance (or equivalent undergraduate, graduate or practical training) recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| International Environmental Law (Freedman, Joseph) NOTE: This B weekend course meets on January 30; February 12, 13, 26, 27; March 19, 20; April 2, 3, 16, 17 and 23. Climate change; acid rain; trans-Pacific dust; persistent toxic substances; stratospheric ozone depletion; marine pollution; extinction of species -- many serious environmental problems are transboundary or global in nature. This course will examine how international law and institutions try to address problems that are typically beyond any one country’s capacity to solve, while accommodating aspirations – particularly in the developing world -- for international trade and development. The course will explore a number of crosscutting themes, including the dynamics of international negotiations (and associated domestic processes); the uneasy relationship between international environment and trade law; “soft” and “hard” law; “North – South” issues; the role of non-governmental actors; and compliance. We will also examine extraterritorial application of national law. Rather than survey the entire field, the course will focus on a few case studies that illustrate the international response to transboundary, global, and regional environmental issues. In evaluating the contribution of international law and institutions to environmental protection, we will consider such questions as: Why do states cooperate in developing international environmental norms? What factors promote or hinder cooperation? How can international agreements and institutions reconcile the needs for economic development, international trade, and environmental protection? What types of mechanisms are most effective? How do we evaluate effectiveness? What incentives do states and private actors have to comply with international environmental standards? What disincentives? How can we make international environmental law more effective? Alternatively, how can relatively strong national environmental law systems be used to address international environmental issues? After a general introduction, the course will begin with two case examples -- international whaling and transboundary movement of hazardous materials -- illustrating key themes important to understanding and approaching international environmental problems. These themes will be developed as the course takes a deeper look into specific international environmental issues, governance, and participants, before moving to the substance of international environmental law and policy. The course will examine the role of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations (including the private sector) in influencing environmental law. The course will also consider the brooding omnipresence of international trade law in relation to the development and implementation of international environmental agreements. Class members will be asked to participate in at least one exercise designed to increase understanding of various international environmental law issues and mechanisms. PREREQUISITE: Environmental Law and | |
| International Human Rights Law Clinic (Hurwitz, Deena R.) 07-03-09
This semester-long clinic gives students first-hand experience in human rights advocacy working in partnership with non-governmental organizations (NGOs)* and human rights law firms in the U.S. and abroad. Clinic projects are selected to build the knowledge and skills necessary to be an effective human rights lawyer; to integrate the theory and practice of human rights; and to expose students to a range of human rights practices. Students collaborate on two projects in small teams, and have direct contact with the partner-clients. Class discussions focus on human rights law concepts and advocacy, and the legal, strategic, ethical, and theoretical issues raised by the project work. The Clinic provides substantial opportunity to develop international law research and writing skills. Interested students are welcome to contact Professor Hurwitz about likely projects. Some will continue from the fall semester, which may include: comparative legal analysis (national and international law) for Iraqi parliamentarians working to strengthen rights-respecting law reform; contributing to civil litigation emanating from U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan (e.g., private security contractor abuses), security detention practice (e.g., Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib), and other Alien Tort Statute cases; documenting cases and conflict of law issues where the constitutional guarantees to equality and non-discrimination co-exist with Islamic and customary law and practice with respect to women’s lives in Muslim countries. For a list of past Clinic projects, see http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/hr/clinic_projects.pdf * There is no direct client representation in this clinic. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester (on a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering)
PREREQUISITE: Second- or third-year or second-semester LLM status. Previous course work in International Human Rights Law and/or International Law preferred and strongly recommended, but not required. COURSE REQUIREMENT: In addition to regularly scheduled class sessions, project teams will meet at mutually agreed upon times. Substantial international human rights related research, advocacy, and legal writing. | |
| International Human Rights Law (Amory, Elizabeth R.) This course offers a grounding in the basic principles and practice of international human rights law, emphasizing current application via case studies. The course explores select international human rights, their foundations in customary and treaty law, and the international systems and procedures for their promotion and protection. The course will examine the difficulties involved in converting the principles into practice and in enforcing human rights law. Much of the material will be covered via analysis and discussion of geographically or thematically oriented case studies. Grounded in the realities of these cases, the course will cover a variety of topics, such as: the roles of international and domestic actors, including non-governmental organizations and other non-state actors; the incorporation of international human rights into domestic law; the development of new human rights; the use of human rights in diplomacy; human rights-based challenges to state sovereignty; humanitarian intervention; impunity, accountability and reconciliation; and the prosecution of certain human rights violations as international crimes before international tribunals. Class participation will be expected. PREREQUISITE: International Law recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination and class participation | |
| International Investment Law (Ryan, Christopher M.) Continued globalization and the growth of cross-border transactions have highlighted the need for an overarching system of law designed to protect foreign investments. Today, that system of law is reflected in the approximately 2600 bilateral and multilateral investment treaties in force around the world. Commonly referred to as “International Investment Law,” this system not only defines the parties’ substantive rights and obligations, it permits investors to resolve disputes with sovereign governments through international arbitration. Those arbitrations create the jurisprudence from which the International Investment Law system has evolved. This course examines the substantive law governing international investment by examining both treaties and arbitral awards, explores how rights and obligations can be enforced in an investment dispute, and considers the proper role of investment law in the international legal system. It also challenges students to act as advocates by engaging in a series of mini-arbitrations designed to address key issues that have been discussed in class. PREREQUISITE: International Law, International Business Transactions, or International Dispute Resolution are recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| International Law (Setear, John K.) This is the introductory course in public (government-to-government) international law. (International Business Transactions is the introductory course in private, business-oriented international law.) This course covers topics such as the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, recognition and statehood, diplomatic immunity, sovereign immunity, the law of the sea, torture, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, constitutional limits on U.S. foreign-policy decisions, the treatment of international law by the U.S. Supreme Court, alliance treaties, peace treaties, nuclear non-proliferation, the European Union, the World Trade Organization, whaling, ozone depletion, and climate change. The course considers international legal rules not only in isolation but also as a product of international politics, domestic law and politics, and history. No laptops. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Issues In Poverty Law (Nagin, Daniel L.) This seminar will examine poverty in the United States and the various ways in which the law shapes the lives of those who live on the economic margins of society. Addressing historical and contemporary perspectives on poverty and poverty law, we will consider a variety of intersecting topics, including: welfare law and policy; the allocation of power between the states and the federal government in the provision and administration of programs for the poor; the regulation of work; access to credit and capital; and how poverty is defined and measured. These topics will be accompanied by an exploration of broader questions regarding the multiple ways in which impoverished persons and communities experience and perceive the law, the legal profession, and legal institutions. In addition to judicial decisions and scholarly works, the seminar will draw on primary materials from anti-poverty programs and advocacy efforts. The grade will be based on class participation, two short response papers (2-3 pages long), and an in-class presentation. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Class participation, two short response papers (2-3 pages long), and an in-class presentation | |
| Judicial Decision-Making (Gilbert, Michael) Scholars, lawyers, journalists, and politicians have long debated how judges do – and how judges should – decide cases. This seminar will explore this debate by examining theories of judicial decision-making, including Langdellian formalism, legal realism, and theories flowing from critical legal studies. We will also consider theories grounded in social science, including the “attitudinal” model, which posits that judges decide cases on the basis of their political preferences, and the panel effects literature, which suggests that an appellate judge’s colleagues on a panel can affect dramatically how he or she votes to resolve cases. We will discuss when, if ever, the theories accurately describe judicial behavior and whether it is appropriate for judges to behave as the theories predict. The seminar will aim to provide students with a framework for understanding judicial decision-making and, by examining a range of factors that plausibly affect judges’ analysis, sharpen students’ abilities to present compelling arguments to a court. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Law And Economcs Colloquium (Yr) (Barzuza, Michal; Fischman, Joshua) Each meeting a leading scholar will present a working paper in law and economics. These workshops are also open to the faculty and other interested students. Students must write short critiques of the papers and are expected to engage in the discussion. The critiques are due at the beginning of each workshop. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Weekly critiques | |
| Law And Literature (Stauffer, Zahr S.) We begin with the premise that we can know more about both law and literature by thinking not just 'about' each one but 'through' each one. In the first half of the course, we read literature through texts drawn from two areas of substantive law: torts and immigration. In the second half of the course, we move away from these legal frameworks, and read cases and texts selected with recourse to a set of concepts that originate in literature and literary criticism. We will focus on authorship, gender, originality, and self-fashioning –or the creation of a self through language— and the way legal mandates may shape that self-fashioning. Throughout, we will be interested in the ways literature represents, resists, and reworks models of legal thinking and legal action. In turn, we will consider how legal storytelling sometimes subverts narrative forms and patterns to innovative ends. Our reading list will include works by Auden, Capote, Frost, Glaspell, Gordimer, Gurnah, Salih, and Shakespeare, and cases by Breyer, Cardozo, Learned Hand, Leval, Kozinski, Posner and Scalia. Students will be asked to turn in several two-page responses to the readings. NOTE: Laptops prohibited during class sessions. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination (based on question provided in advance) or a substantial research paper on a topic approved by the instructor | |
| Law And Policy Of Watershed Management (Cannon, Jonathan Z.; Szeptycki, Leon) This seminar will address the challenges of managing environmental issues in watersheds (aquatic and associated terrestrial ecosystems). These challenges include defining the character and scope of these systems; establishing appropriate management goals; and devising and assessing institutional measures to achieve those goals. The inquiry will cover diverse problems (from dead zones and species loss to water scarcity and landscape degradation). These problems occur at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The seminar will examine the extent to which existing legal, institutional, and management regimes fail to address environmental and resource management problems that occur on a watershed scale. We will also explore what reforms to those regimes might successfully address those problems. Many of the problems and solutions we study will cut across institutional and jurisdictional lines. Readings will include a range of emerging theoretical approaches, such as collaborative and adaptive management, and case studies designed to illustrate and test the theories. The case studies will provide opportunities to understand environmental problems in their particular social, political, physical and biological settings and explore solutions tailored to those settings. Example watersheds will include the Chesapeake Bay, the Columbia River, and the New York City water supply region. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Law And Public Service (Coughlin, Anne M.) The course will introduce students to law and public service, broadly defined to include all careers that serve the public interest, from litigating civil rights cases to prosecuting and defending criminal suspects to providing legal services for indigent clients to representing local, state, or federal government agencies to working for an international human rights organization and everything in between. The course will be divided into three units, covering the history, theory, and practice of law and public service. The historical unit will examine the rise of the public interest lawyer as a distinct professional figure and career choice, as well as the varying contexts that count as public service and the ways in which professional and political norms regarding public service have changed over time. The theory unit will tackle, among other topics, the question of whether and precisely how law may operate as an engine for social change. The practice unit will focus on specific public interest cases. Guest speakers from a range of different public interest organizations will discuss with the class the work that they do in these specific cases. The course will familiarize students with the broad and diverse ways that lawyers can serve the public as well as with the common challenges, obligations, opportunities, and rewards that await all lawyers who seek to do so. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Law Of Politics (Birkenstock, Joseph M.) This seminar examines the variety of laws governing the political process in America; in particular, voting rights, redistricting, campaign finance, and lobbying and ethics regulation. The class will focus on the development of these laws over the last century, with emphasis on recent areas of controversy such as the renewal of the Voting Rights Act, litigation over partisan redistricting, attempts to address allegations of voter fraud, and the constitutional and practical issues that pervade efforts to regulate the nexus between politics and money. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Law Of Work (Leslie, Douglas L.) This course combines topics of an Employment Law course (75%) with a survey of Labor Law issues (25%; relations between employers and unions). The course has a problem-solving format. The final examination will be a new problem. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (A) (Moran, Karen M.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (B) (Moran, Karen M.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (C) (Buck, Donna R.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (D) (Moran, Karen M.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (E) (Buck, Donna R.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (F) (Stewart, Sarah) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (G) (Buck, Donna R.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (H) (Stewart, Sarah) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (I) (Buck, Donna R.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (J) (Moran, Karen M.) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (K) (Stewart, Sarah) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legal Research And Writng (Yr) (L) (Stewart, Sarah) This is a required first-year course. The basic skills course in the first-year curriculum, Legal Research and Writing covers fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In the fall semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity. In the spring semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants). COURSE REQUIREMENT: Office memoranda (fall); appellate brief and oral argument (spring) | |
| Legislation (Nelson, Caleb E.) Students spend much of their time thinking about the common law or other forms of “unwritten” law. In this day and age, however, much of our law comes from statutes and administrative regulations. As a result, learning how to read a statute is every bit as important as learning how to read an appellate-court opinion. This course will examine both the theory and the practice of statutory interpretation. We will consider the goals that interpreters should pursue and how those goals relate to some contemporary debates (including but not limited to debates about the relevance of legislative history). We will also become familiar with the canons of construction frequently invoked by courts. Finally, we will consider some specialized but important topics in statutory interpretation. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Managing The Global Economic Crisis (Geis, George S.; Kitch, Edmund W.) This seminar will address issues arising out of the current global economic crisis and its aftermath. We will examine topics such as the structure and reform of the banking industry, hedge funds, money market funds, and over the counter derivatives; the bail out and restructuring of the auto industry; the theory and practice of risk management; and the threat of financial crimes (such as the Ponzi scheme carried out by Bernard Madoff). The exact topics covered will be adapted to the situation in the spring of 2010 (as opposed to the situation when this description is being written), which will be affected by how the crisis evolves and the significant reform proposals that will be under discussion (or may have already been enacted). PREREQUISITE: Corporations or Corporations (Law & Business); Accounting: Understanding and Analyzing Financial Statements (or equivalent undergraduate, graduate or practical training)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Short papers for each seminar session relating to particular aspects of the topic being covered | |
| Mental Health Law And Higher Education (Bonnie, Richard J.; Monahan, John T.) What obligations do colleges and universities have to help and protect students with mental health problems? Do they have the authority to contact the student’s parents? Can an institution of higher learning make the presence of a student with mental illness on campus conditional on that student’s adhering to mental health services? Does mandating services for such students who are believed to be potentially violent to themselves of others violate federal statutes such as the Americans with Disabilities Act or the Family Rights and Privacy Act? Recent events such as the 2007 killings at Virginia Tech have brought these questions to the fore and occasioned a great deal of legislation and regulation. This seminar will review and critique efforts to provide a safe learning environment for all students while protecting the rights of students with mental illness. The seminar will be coordinated with the work of a task force that has been established to study these issues by the Commission on Mental Health Reform chaired by Professor Bonnie. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Mental Health Law Clinic (Yr) (Gulotta, Alex R.; Veldhuis, Nathan J.) This yearlong clinical course is offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center. Students will earn 8 credits – 3 in the fall and 5 in the spring. Students will represent mentally ill or mentally disabled clients in negotiations, administrative hearings, and court proceedings (to the extent permitted by law) on a variety of legal matters, including Social Security, Medicaid, and disability benefits claims; disability discrimination claims; access to housing; and access to mental health or rehabilitative services. Students also will address systemic issues related to the provision of community-based services, the rights of the institutionalized, and the interface between the civil justice and criminal justice systems. Instruction in the substantive law of these areas will be provided in a classroom component throughout the clinic as dictated by the needs of the clients. The classroom component will provide a forum for students to learn mental health and disability law pertinent to the cases they are handling, as well as for the discussion of practice and ethical issues arising in those cases. Topics relating to the nature of psychiatric diagnosis and mental disorders, client competence and surrogate decision-making for incompetent clients, and the relationship between the criminal and civil justice systems will also be addressed. Under the supervision of an attorney, students will directly perform all the lawyerly functions associated with their cases, including client and witness interviews, factual development, legal research, preparation of documents and pleadings, and negotiation and advocacy in administrative forums and courts. Students will meet weekly with the supervising attorney to receive case supervision, along with instruction concerning client interviewing and counseling, negotiation, and case preparation. The supervising attorney will accompany each student to all administrative proceedings and court appearances. In addition to representing individual clients, students will have the opportunity to engage in mental health advocacy at a systemic level, which may involve policy analysis and the development of policy proposals or proposed legislation, class action litigation, or advocacy work with community agencies. Students enrolled in the clinic are encouraged, but not required, to enroll in the Mental Health Law course. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Second- or third-year status | |
| Mental Health Law (Hafemeister, Thomas L.) It is estimated that nearly one-third of Americans experience a diagnosable mental disorder each year. This course will address legal issues that pertain to the needs and rights of individuals with a mental disorder and explore the delivery of mental health services, the regulation of mental health professionals, and the relationship between society and individuals with a mental disability. Likely topics include: the nature and treatment of mental disorders; the right to treatment and community services; civil commitment; competence, surrogate decision-making, and guardianship; informed consent and the right to refuse treatment; the financing of mental health care; protection from discrimination; and the regulation and liability of mental health professionals. Guest discussants will include various consumers, mental health providers, legal practitioners, and judges. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Mental Health, Juvenile Justice, And Family Law (Cornell, Dewey G.; Murrie, Daniel C.; Ryan, Eileen) NOTE: All class sessions will be held at the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy in the Cedars Court office suite near Barracks Road. This interdisciplinary seminar, offered by faculty of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, examines the role of mental disorders and mental health professionals in juvenile justice and family law. Students will include graduate students in psychology as well as law students. In addition to traditional seminar class sessions, the course includes the observation of live and videotaped forensic mental health evaluations conducted through the Institute. Seminar sessions explore issues in juvenile forensic mental health (e.g., adjudicative competency, criminal responsibility, waiver to adult courts, juvenile sexual offending, school violence, and the prevalence of mental illness within juvenile justice system) and family law (e.g., child custody, termination of parental rights, child sexual abuse). Readings will include case law and social science research literature. The instructors are Professors Daniel Murrie, Ph.D., Eileen Ryan, M.D., (both on the faculty of the Department of Psychiatry) and Dewey Cornell, Ph. D. from the Curry School of Education. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| National Security Law (Moore, John N.) Following the 9/11 attack, one of the fastest growing areas of legal inquiry has been national security law. This course is a comprehensive introduction, blending relevant international and national law. It begins with an overview of modern theory about the causes of war including democratic peace, deterrence, and incentive theory. The course then examines the historical development of the international law of conflict management. It takes up institutional modes of conflict management, including the U.N. system and the role of the Security Council, and regional systems such as NATO and the OAS. Addressing the lawfulness of using force in international relations, i.e., jus ad bellum, the course discusses defining “aggression,” low-intensity conflict, terrorism, humanitarian intervention, anticipatory defense, “pre-emption,” and other continuing problems. It then examines several case studies including the Indochina War, the “secret war” in Central America, the Gulf War, Kosovo, Afghanistan (the global war on terror), and the Iraq War, as well as case studies in U.N. peacekeeping and peace enforcement (including the former Yugoslavia, Somalia, Haiti, and Rwanda). It examines human rights for contexts of violence, that is, the norms concerning the conduct of hostilities, i.e., jus in bello, providing an overview of the protection of noncombatants and procedures for implementation and enforcement. It looks at war crimes and the Nuremberg principles, and the new International Criminal Court as well as the Yugoslav and Rwanda tribunals. It briefly reviews American security doctrine, then turns to the general issues of strategic stability and arms control, examining nuclear, chemical and biological weapons and their effects, and arms control agreements. It examines the national institutional framework for the control of national security, including the authority of Congress and the president to make national security decisions, the war powers and constitutional issues in the debate on interpretation of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. The course then examines the national security process including the national command structure, and looks at secrecy, access to information, and the classification system. It reviews intelligence and counterintelligence law, individual rights and accountability as they interface with national security, and ends with an overview of the new law of homeland security. Individual power point modules are offered in the course segments concerning modern theory about the origins of war, terrorism, the Vietnam War, the United Nations and collective security, intelligence law, individual rights vs. national security, arms control, the national security process, and homeland security. The course typically invites one or more experts to meet with the class on contemporary issues. It is expected again this year that one such expert may be a top former CIA officer discussing the role of the CIA. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Nonprofit Clinic (Yr) (Boyd, Tara R.; Hench, Allen E.) Offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, students in this yearlong clinic will advise and work directly with local nonprofit organizations on matters such as initial formation, establishing tax-exempt status, ongoing legal compliance and good corporate governance. Class sessions structured around a “legal health checkup” for a typical nonprofit organization will complement practical work for clients. Client communication, organization and document editing skills will be an important part of the course. National corporate law principles applicable to nonprofit organizations will be the focus and emphasis, but specific Virginia requirements will be included in the coverage as part of the clinical services component of the class. PREREQUISITE or CONCURRENT: Second- or third-year status. Corporations or Corporations (Law & Business)
ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Regular contact with clients and supervisors; relevant readings and research; preparation of corporate documents and IRS forms; timekeeping; memoranda summarizing client work | |
| Oceans Law And Policy (Moore, John N.) Senate consideration of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention this year, and the resulting national debate, has thrust the Law of the Sea into the national prominence. The course begins by examining the goals of oceans policy, outlining both community and U.S. interests; providing frameworks for analysis; then defining oceans claims and their political, economic, and strategic context. After a brief introduction to oceanography, the course moves into a detailed discussion of issues in international oceans law and policy, including the Law of the Sea and U.S. policy, the Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea and the 1982 U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea, sources of current oceans law, navigation and communication, the economic zone, straddling stocks and highly migratory species, oil and gas of the continental margin, protection of the marine environment, marine scientific research, boundary disputes and dispute settlement, deep seabed mining, national security and international incidents including piracy and terrorism at sea, and polar policy. This section ends with an examination of several case studies on illegal oceans claims and strategies for their control including the Naval Freedom of Navigation (FON) program. In its final section, the course explores issues in national oceans policy, focusing on Merchant Marine development, continental shelf development, coastal zone management, and organization of the national oceans policy process and the future of oceans policy. The course typically invites one or more experts to meet with the class on contemporary issues such as piracy, the work of the Oceans Commission or Naval Rules of Engagement. The course will also explore in some detail the national debate about senate advice and consent to the 1982 Convention. This course has been revised and updated in the spring of 2008, including all new course materials. It should be of interest not only for those interested in Oceans Law and Policy but also for international lawyers interested in a case study of the origins and development of one of the most important treaties in the world today. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Oral Presentations In And Out Of The Courtroom (Sayler, Robert W.; Shadel, Molly B.) This course meets February 1- March 4. This course is designed to help students improve their ability to communicate persuasively in the wide variety of settings in which non-litigators are called upon to speak including client meetings, business negotiations, and presentations to public agencies. Each class will consist of two components: lectures and demonstrations by faculty members, practicing attorneys, and professional communication consultants who will provide practical tips and insight on effective communication styles and strategies; followed by a workshop session in which students will be able to practice what they have learned by making oral presentations and receiving detailed feedback. The goal of the course is to provide all students—including those who do not consider themselves naturally gifted public speakers—the tools to become more capable and confident oral communicators. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Hallmarks of Distinguished Advocacy, Persuasion for Advocates
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Several oral presentations | |
| Patent And Licensing Clinic I (Sparks, Rodney L.) The clinic involves instruction and practical training in patent drafting as well as the negotiation and drafting of patent and software license agreements. Students will participate in class sessions covering these topics and will be assigned to one or more significant drafting and counseling projects in one or both of these two areas. The clinic also covers evaluation of inventions and computer software for patentability and commercial value; counseling of U.Va. faculty inventors regarding patentability, inventorship, and the patenting process; preparation, filing and prosecution of provisional U.S. patent applications; dealing with patent examiners; and researching current issues in the fields of intellectual property and technology transfer. Some exposure to international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty may be possible. Resolution of disputes with licensees and possible infringers will be undertaken where appropriate. Several class sessions will be scheduled early in the semester at a mutually convenient time. Students will work in the office of the University of Virginia Patent Foundation six to eight hours per week. A technical background is highly recommended. Students will be asked to provide the instructor with a statement relating to technical background (scientific, mathematical, computer, etc.) to aid in the assignment process. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Intellectual Property: Patent
COURSE REQUIREMENT: National patent application draft | |
| Patent And Licensing Clinic Ii (Sparks, Rodney L.) The second semester of the Patent and Licensing Clinic involves many of the same projects as P&L I, but in this clinic, the student can choose to work exclusively with patent attorneys drafting, filing, and prosecuting patent applications (and associated tasks like prior art searches and evaluations, meeting with faculty inventors, preparing information disclosure statements, etc.), or working exclusively with licensing agents to draft license agreements, negotiate licensing terms and conditions, prepare confidentiality agreements and marketing documents. Clinic participants may also evaluate inventions and computer software for patentability and commercial value; counsel U.Va. faculty inventors regarding patentability, inventorship, and the patenting process; prepare, file, and prosecute provisional U.S. patent applications; deal with patent examiners; and research current issues in the fields of intellectual property and technology transfer. Some exposure to international patent applications under the Patent Cooperation Treaty may be possible. Resolution of disputes with licensees and possible infringers will be undertaken where appropriate. Students will work in the office of the University of Virginia Patent Foundation approximately six hours per week on fairly flexible schedule. A technical background is helpful but not required. Students will be asked to provide the instructor with a statement relating to technical background (scientific, mathematical, computer, etc.) to aid in the assignment process. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Patent and Licensing Clinic I
COURSE REQUIREMENT: One of the following: national patent application, patent license agreement, or software license agreement | |
| Persuasion For Advocates (Henke, Michael J.) NOTE: This A weekend course meets on January 29; February 5, 6, 19, 20; March 5, 6, 26, 27; April 9, 10 and 24. This seminar will explore principles and techniques of persuasion as applied in the legal arena. After an initial review of techniques of persuasive oral advocacy, we will treat the application of those techniques in opening, closing, witness examination, and oral argument. Other sessions will demonstrate the effective use of visual aids as persuasive tools and examine the application of persuasive principles in written advocacy. Lecture and discussion will be supplemented with copious videotape and audiotape examples of effective and ineffective advocacy. Students will augment their understanding of the principles by participating in several exercises, some of which will be videotaped. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE WITH: Hallmarks of Distinguished Advocacy, Oral Presentations In and Out of the Courtroom
COURSE REQUIREMENT: 10-page brief | |
| Police Misconduct (Harmon, Rachel A.) Police officers are given tremendous power and discretion to do a difficult and risky job. This seminar explores the legal issues that arise when officers abuse their authority, for example by using too much force against an arrestee or by robbing a drug dealer. The emphasis will be on the constitutional and federal legal landscape, and topics will include the causes and kinds of police misconduct, constitutional standards for police behavior, obstacles to prosecuting police officers, and the limits of litigation as a tool for preventing and redressing police misconduct, among others. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Practical Trial Evidence: Principles And Practice (Crigler, B W.; Livingston, Ronald L.; Sinclair, Kent) This Principles and Practice class will explore the most commonly encountered evidentiary challenges in litigation today. The instructors have selected a number of the issues and problems in practical trial evidence that practicing attorneys must master to reach the top level of trial skills. These keys to success include forms of proof where the factual foundations are challenging, the law demands unexpected elements to support offered proof, or the unwritten aspects of trial practice interfere with text-book efforts to get proof in the record. Students will learn how to select among options to achieve evidentiary goals: different routes to obtain admission for the same or equivalent proof (and alternative objections to attain exclusion). The federal rules of evidence will be used in this class for most activities, and students will become familiar with the most important procedures that commonly face trial lawyers under these rules, along with several evidentiary issues where evolving case doctrines leave dramatic room for lawyering skill to make all the difference in determining whether items of proof are received, and thus whether cases are won or lost. Class meets regularly in a Moot Court room. Each week, students will present testimony, argument, and exhibits based on detailed factual situations providing realistic evidentiary content, and hence realistic challenges. When not serving as the proponent of one or another form of proof, students will sometimes be designated to serve as opponents obligated to make all appropriate objections and to press them in professional litigation fashion. Class members and outsiders will serve as witnesses as needed. Each of the evidence issues covered in this class will be explored in greater depth than the basic Evidence class permits. Specific proof assignments, realistic fact patterns and exhibits, will make the learning concrete as doctrine is meshed with facts and the reality of courtroom practice. The class is also not intended as a basic Trial Advocacy course (and is not Mutually Exclusive with sections of that course). The focus of this class is on the evidentiary requirements and the litigation practices implementing them. However, a student will inevitably pick up (or have refreshed) a variety of critical courtroom skills in witness examination, objection, and oral argument along the way. Among the issues to be explored in complex partial-trial simulations are problems of limited admissibility, partial communications (oral, taped, or computer-related), in limine rulings, character and habit proof, subsequent remedial measures, impeachment (particularly complex criminal record impeachment and impeachment with prior inconsistent statements), rehabilitation of impeached witnesses, and expert proof. A half-dozen key hearsay definitions and exceptions will be explored in depth, including the state of mind rules, and problems involving medical records, business and governmental records (paper and ele | |
| Presidential Powers (Prakash, Saikrishna B.) This course will consider a variety of issues involving the President’s constitutional powers. The course will include a review of some or all of the following: law enforcement (including the institution of the independent counsel); program administration (including the President’s authorities in relation to the so-called independent federal agencies); budgeting and accounting; the line-item veto; executive privilege; impeachment; immunity to suit for the President and other executive officers; authority over foreign affairs and the war powers, including claims to extensive powers war powers (e.g., the use of coercive interrogation), detention of “enemy combatants,” the use of military tribunals to impose criminal punishment, and surveillance of communications. We will examine the major judicial decisions on these subjects, but one insight from the course will be an appreciation for how few of these questions have been or could be litigated. We will consider how to make sound judgments on the distribution and exercise of governmental powers, even when traditional sources are lacking. The casebook is Peter Shane and Harold Bruff, Separation of Powers Law (2d ed. 2005), with supplementary material. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Private Equity Deals And Firms (Denison, Thomas R.) This course meets February 22 - March 4. Private equity firms have become one of the largest and most important players in the capital markets. Understanding how these lucrative entities function and how their acquisitions are structured will serve as a vehicle for a survey discussion of corporate M&A and building a legal practice in this area. We will investigate the fundamental features of the contracts inside the Private Equity firms and with Acquisition Targets. Readings will be from current events and actual transaction documents. Group projects and discussions will focus on actual problems faced in private equity firms or in transactions. The goal of the course is to allow students a window into both the big picture and the actual details that are involved in the legal and business aspects of a private equity. It should be helpful for those who wish to work for or with private equity firms and those who wish to buy or sell companies to those firms. We will be dealing with corporate transactions from multiple perspectives. Please do not take this course unless the subject matter is of interest to you. There will be homework. It will involve math at the junior high level. There will be class discussion. You must participate to enjoy and do well in the class. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is required
PREREQUISITE: Completion of a class in one or more of the following subjects is required: corporate law, securities, taxation or partnerships
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination, homework and possibly group projects | |
| Pro Bono And Private Law Firms (Emery, Kimberly C.; Fishman, Scot H.) NOTE: This course meets on the following nine Thursdays: January 28; February 4, 18, 25; March 4, 25; April 15, 22 and 29. This one-credit seminar will explore pro bono legal services at US based law firms, and it is open to all students. The purpose of the seminar is to examine the nexus between public interest and private sector law, namely pro bono work. In recent years, the focus on law firm pro bono work has increased exponentially. This seminar will examine this growth while analyzing 1) how pro bono affects the economic bottom line of a law firm; 2) the ways that law firms structure their pro bono programs; 3) the varying types of pro bono projects including impact litigation and direct services; 4) ethical concerns and conflicts surrounding pro bono work; 5) the impact of law firm pro bono programs on clients and public interest organizational partners; and 6) various trends and issues regarding pro bono. The seminar will consist of lectures, guest speakers, student participation and class projects. At the conclusion of the seminar, students will present a 8-10 page report on one of the following topics: a) the future trends in pro bono; b) the affect of making pro bono mandatory at a private law firm; c) propose at least one innovative project in detail that is geared towards helping a specific law firm attract lawyers to pro bono who have not otherwise participated; d) or an approved topic of your choice. COURSE REQUIREMENT: 8-10 page paper and class participation | |
| Professional Responsibility In Public Interest Law Practice (Balnave, Richard D.) This course will examine professional responsibility issues that arise in the context of a public interest law practice. These will include the creation and termination of the attorney-client relationship, the scope of representation, conflicts of interests, confidentiality, and the attorney’s ethical obligations during litigation. In addition, the course will address the attorney’s relationships with the courts, the organized bar, and the community. NOTE: This course satisfies the professional ethics course requirement for graduation and for those seeking Virginia third-year practice certification. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding "Club Fed” and Professional Responsibility
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Professional Responsibility (Cohen, George M.) This course presents an overview of the law and ethics of lawyering. Topics include prohibited assistance, confidentiality (including the attorney-client privilege), conflicts of interest, and competence. Although the course will cover the ABA’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct as they relate to these topics, a major theme of the course is the relationship, and often the tension, between the duties imposed by ethics rules and the lawyer’s obligations under “other law,” including criminal law, tort law, constitutional law, procedural law, regulatory law, and agency law. NOTE: This course satisfies the professional ethics course requirement for graduation and for those seeking Virginia third-year practice certification. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding "Club Fed” and Professional Responsibility in Public Interest Law Practice
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Professional Responsibility (Walker, William L.) This course presents an overview of the law and ethics of lawyering. Topics include prohibited assistance, confidentiality (including the attorney-client privilege), conflicts of interest, and competence. Particular attention will be paid both to applications involving transactional and litigation practice. For example, the role of attorneys in Enron transactions will be discussed as well as recent allegations of attorney misconduct in class action litigation. NOTE: This course satisfies the professional ethics course requirement for graduation and for those seeking Virginia third-year practice certification. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Ethics, Integrity, and Avoiding "Club Fed” and Professional Responsibility in Public Interest Law Practice
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Professional Sports And The Law (Dell, Donald L.) NOTE: This B weekend course meets on January 30; February 12, 13, 26, 27; March 19, 20; April 2, 3, 16, 17 and 23. This course examines the application of a variety of legal principles to the business of professional sports. The course focuses on the practical application of contract law, antitrust law, and to some extent arbitration and negotiation of disputes and current legal issues relating to the sports industry. Particular attention will be given to professional sports leagues and individual sports, as well as their practical application to the business of sports today. Mr. Patrick Houlihan, an associate at the law firm of Williams & Connolly, will assist Mr. Dell in the course. Normally there will be one or two guest speakers from the sports world, speaking to the class. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination (a paper may be substituted with the permission of the instructor) | |
| Property (A, I) (Harrison, John C.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Property (B, L) (Mahoney, Julia D.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Property (C, K) (Johnson, Alex M.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Property (D,G) (Stephan, Paul B.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Property (E, F) (Bevier, Lillian R.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Property (H, J) (Bagley, Margo A.) This is a required first-year course. The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Prosecution Clinic (Yr) (Huber, Ronald M.; Moore, Richard E.) This yearlong clinical course will expose students to all aspects of the prosecutorial function. Through a combination of classroom lectures and discussions, readings, guest speakers, and a field placement in one of several local participating prosecutors’ offices, students will explore a range of practical, ethical, and intellectual issues involved in the discharge of a prosecutor’s duties and responsibilities, including the exercise of discretion in the decision to initiate, prosecute, reduce, or drop charges, and sentencing; interaction between prosecutors and investigative agencies and law enforcement personnel; dealing with victims and other witnesses; and relationships with defense counsel. Ethical issues addressed may include: exculpatory evidence, duty not to prosecute on less than probable cause, cross-warrant situations, witness recantation and preparation, and improper argument at trial. Clinical field placements will be in the Commonwealth’s Attorneys’ Offices for Charlottesville and Albemarle County, and 16 other surrounding Virginia jurisdictions within 30-75 minutes of Charlottesville, as well as the Charlottesville Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, and the Richmond Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District. Most of the students’ responsibilities and duties will be at the trial court or pre-trial level, but may include writing appellate briefs. Students will be assigned to one of these participating prosecutor’s offices for the entire academic year, and are expected to work there on pending cases or in court at least one day per week. It is expected that each student will work out a suitable schedule with the office to which he or she is assigned. Requests for particular offices may be able to be accommodated, but students must be willing to work in whatever office assigned. Students are expected to provide their own transportation, at their own expense. Slots in the United States Attorneys’ Offices are highly sought after, but be aware that typically clinic students do not get as much in-court experience in those offices as they do in state offices. Fall semester classroom time will focus on the more common misdemeanor charges students will likely be handling in court, and the various stages of a felony criminal case in Virginia—from obtaining the charge up through trial, sentencing, and appeal—to provide a framework within which to better understand the clinical placement experience. The lectures and discussion will cover issuance of warrants by a magistrate, arrest, first appearances, bond hearings, preliminary hearings, Grand Jury, suppression hearings, competence and sanity issues, motions in limine, and trial, as well as assisting the police during the investigative stage. Spring semester classroom time will be devoted to particular problems or issues that might arise in a criminal case, including specific difficulties encountered by students in their cases during the fall | |
| Psychology And Law (Spellman, Barbara A.) We will investigate about 10 topics for which psychology has important things to say to and about the legal system including: eyewitness testimony, confessions, jury selection, jury decision making, negotiation, hate crime legislation, punishment, and others. The class will have both law students and psychology graduate students. Our goal is to learn about the current state of affairs in both domains and propose ways to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between the two disciplines. PREREQUISITE: First- or second-year status
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Law and Psychology, Psychology of the Deciders
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Short brief and mock oral argument on psycho-legal issue, short judge’s opinion on a different issue, and class participation | |
| Punishment In Law And Culture (Sarat, Austin D.) This course meets March 1- 4 and March 15-18. Other than war, punishment is the most dramatic manifestation of state power. Whom a society punishes and how it punishes are key legal questions as well as indicators of its character. This course considers connections between punishment and culture in the contemporary United States. We will examine punishment through the prism of philosophical literature, literary texts, legal cases, and film. We will ask whether we punish too much and too severely, or too little and too leniently. Among the questions to be discussed are: Does punishment express our noblest aspirations for justice or our basest desires for vengeance? Can it ever be an adequate expression of, or response to, the pain of the victims of crime? When is it appropriate to forgive rather than punish? We will consider these questions in the context of arguments about the right way to deal with drug offenders, sexual predators, and terrorists. In addition, we will examine the treatment of punishment in constitutional law, e.g. the prohibition of double jeopardy and of cruel and unusual punishment. Throughout we will try to understand the meaning of punishment by examining the way it is represented in law and culture. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Quantitative Methods (Fischman, Joshua) Lawyers in a wide variety of practice areas are increasingly called upon to apply quantitative tools to frame arguments and advise clients. This course provides an introduction to quantitative methods from microeconomics, decision theory, game theory, and statistics and discusses how these concepts can be applied in legal contexts. Applications include litigation, settlement, environmental law, corporate law, employment law, and antitrust. NOTE: This course does not require any background in mathematics, economics, or statistics. Students with advanced knowledge in these areas should not enroll in this course. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination and problem sets | |
| Real Estate Design And Development (Robinson, Mildred W.; White, Thomas R.) Martha Jefferson Hospital has begun construction of its new hospital facility on Pantops. This facility is expected to be ready to begin operations in the Spring of 2012. At that time, the hospital will have left its original building, located in downtown Charlottesville, at the corner of Locust Avenue and High Street. The hospital is now considering how this very substantial structure can be redeveloped into a project which will both be an effective use of the building and benefit the surrounding community. The original building is a historic structure, so any proposal to adapt the building, and convert or replace its significant more recent additions, to a new use would be expected to retain the historic features of the building. The Hospital has solicited development proposals as the time approaches for its move to the new hospital and is now considering how to implement the proposal which it has selected. This seminar will consider the issues presented for a community like Charlottesville when a substantial facility becomes available for redevelopment into a new use. Topics to be considered may include: local government issues; demographic factors affecting the viability of the redevelopment and its impact on the immediately surrounding community; the types of potential uses for a large facility immediately adjacent to the downtown area; architectural and engineering problems; opportunities and issues presented by regulatory and tax law relating to historic preservation and real estate development in general; potential political issues in obtaining approval from the community; financing questions including governmental programs which support and benefit redevelopment projects with special purposes or uses; legal problems in the creation of the vehicle to redevelop, own and operate the redeveloped project; and investor issues, including the appropriate role for the sponsoring nonprofit institution. We anticipate that experienced professionals will discuss many of these topics with the seminar. COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Real Estate Transactions: Principles And Practice (White, Thomas R.) This course is about making deals to acquire or develop long-lived, income-producing assets, focusing specifically on financing techniques for the equity piece of investment in income-producing real estate. Emphasis will be placed on the use of present value analysis and the use of spreadsheets to perform this analysis. Financial structures used to invest in real estate, principally pass-thru entities taxed as partnerships, will be analyzed. Multi-family residential projects will be used for analytic purposes, including the use of low-income housing tax credits. Attention will be paid to development issues including site acquisition and evaluation, environmental regulation, market analysis and obtaining public approvals. The use of publicly held investment vehicles to finance real estate ventures will be discussed, focusing on the use of REITs and UPREITs. Investment by tax-exempt institutions and issues raised by debt securitization will be discussed as time permits. Attention will also be paid, also as time permits, to debt structures and relationships between creditors and investors; protection of equity investors in troubled projects; special problems with leverage, possibly including leveraged leases; defaults and workouts. Experienced professionals from outside the Law School will discuss specific problems in their areas of expertise. Students will work on problems in teams, and part of the course assignment is to work with teammates in resolving problems. NOTE: Because a substantial number of sessions will be taught by professionals from outside the Law School, 28 class sessions will be needed. The length of each class will be adjusted to reflect the larger number of sessions. The course has been scheduled on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday at 2:10 p.m., but we will use only 28 of those sessions. Some sessions will need to be scheduled on Fridays to accommodate the schedules of outside speakers. Scheduling of outside speakers will be done in the fall, to the extent possible, so that all students in the course will have advance warning when a class will be scheduled. PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax recommended, but not required
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Financial analysis and the preparation of memoranda analyzing legal, financial and practical issues in specific problems developed from actual transactions | |
| Regulation And Deregulation Of U.S. Industries (Christie, Mark C.) From the Enron scandal to the financial crisis to the impact of environmental regulation designed to address global warming, the events of recent years highlight the critical importance of these questions: Which sectors of the economy should be regulated by government, and which sectors should be left to the free market? If regulation is appropriate, what form should regulation take? Should regulation take place at the federal or state level? This seminar examines those questions from primarily a legal perspective, but also in terms of public policy. Major topics include the constitutional framework of regulation in the United States, how economic analysis informs legal and policy analysis, basic forms of regulation with a focus on cost-of-service rate regulation contrasted with antitrust or other approaches, and whether deregulation can work in the traditionally regulated electricity, natural gas and telecommunications markets. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Regulation Of The Political Process (Gilbert, Michael) A web of constitutional, statutory, and judge-made laws regulate the American political process. This course will examine these laws and their implications for three broad and important issues: participation, aggregation, and governance. Participation involves the right to vote and various restrictions thereon, aggregation involves apportionment and redistricting, and governance involves campaign finance and the role of political parties. We will also consider special topics, such as the constitutionality and desirability of direct democracy and the election of state court judges. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Religion, Democracy, And Law (Schragger, Richard C.; Schwartzman, Micah J.) This seminar will explore the proper role of religious convictions in a liberal democracy. The first few weeks of the seminar will provide a general overview of the contemporary debate on whether citizens and public officials have duties to refrain from relying on religious beliefs in political and legal decision-making. After this introduction, each session will be devoted to an intensive discussion of an article drawn from the philosophical and legal literature (with selected topics including, e.g., abortion, homosexuality, evolution, blasphemy, public education, and civil disobedience). For each session, designated students will be required to criticize or defend the article in question. Since the focus of the seminar is on rigorous evaluation of the author’s argument, grades will be based mainly on a ten-page critique and on class participation throughout the semester. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Ten-page critique and class participation | |
| Remedies (Harrison, John C.) Remedies is a transubstantive course: It crosses the traditional boundaries both within private law and between private and public law. Remedies are the denominator common to every area of law that imposes liability. The practical value of rights in any area of law rests substantially with the remedy available for their enforcement. Remedies can be compensatory, preventative (coercive or declaratory), restitutionary, punitive, or ancillary. The objective of this course is to examine the relationship between liability and remedy across diverse areas of law, looking both for regularities and divergences. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Rhetoric Seminar (Sayler, Robert W.) This course will focus on readings from Aristotle, Cicero, and other ancients and modern rhetoric writers, lectures on rhetorical style and substance, review and analysis of video tapes of distinguished oral presentations, informal discussion, student presentation of five video taped speeches and critique thereof. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Advanced Public Speaking (all offerings), Rhetoric short course
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Several oral presentations | |
| Rights Of Indigenous Peoples (Hurwitz, Deena R.) From the UN and regional human rights institutions, to the World Bank and other international institutions, indigenous peoples have made significant gains in recent decades. This seminar will explore emerging norms and principles of indigenous rights within the international legal framework. We will discuss such issues as the definition and concept of indigenous peoples and rights; tensions between individual rights and group rights; historical discriminatory practices (e.g., removal of children from indigenous communities); indigenous peoples’ land rights, environmental law and the activities of multinational corporations; cultural survival and indigenous peoples’ rights under international trade and intellectual property regimes; and indigenous mobilization and international advocacy. PREREQUISITE or CONCURRENT: International Human Rights Law, International Law or some familiarity with indigenous peoples issues. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Class participation, one short reaction paper, an in-class presentation, | |
| Rights, Bills Of Right, Constitutions: The Americanization Of Britain? (Ryan, Alan J.) This course meets April 12 - 22. Until 2000, the United Kingdom did not possess a Bill of Rights enforceable in the courts. The passage of the Human Rights Act of 1998 was contentious, even though Britain had fifty years largely created the European Convention on Human Rights that HRA 1998 incorporated into British law. It was (and to some degree still is) widely believed that Britain had no need to incorporate the Convention into domestic law, and that it was impossible to entrench rights in British law due to the absence of a written constitution. This short course explains why the British obsession with the “sovereignty of parliament” made incorporation difficult; why politicians, judges, and academic observers were hostile to expanding judicial review of government and parliament; why they changed their minds; what the impact of the Human Rights Act has been over the past seven years; and what may happen next. The course will involve some jurisprudence as well as the analysis of interesting recent cases on freedom of religion, sexual self-expression, the rights of suspected terrorists, and the right to a fair trial. The British government has recently proposed a number of further constitutional changes; together they raise the question whether Britain will come to resemble the United States – and in what respects. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Secured Transactions (Walt, Steven D.) This course will cover the essential provisions and structure of Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The law of secured transactions facilitates the taking of security interests by creditors to secure loans they make to debtors. Unlike a creditor who asserts a common law contract claim only, the secured creditor potentially has a right to seek payment on his contract claim by directly seizing certain agreed upon items of debtor’s property that serve as collateral for the creditor’s loan. Among the issues covered in this course are how creditors receive security interests in debtor’s property (“the attachment” process); how they obtain priority over competing creditors asserting interests in the same collateral (the “perfection” process); how creditors maintain security interests in collateral transferred by the debtor, acquired by the debtor, and acquired by debtor after debtor’s name or corporate status changes; and how creditors maintain security interests in proceeds of collateral. The course aims to provide students with knowledge of the Code sufficient to enable them to structure secured transactions and litigate secured claims successfully. The course is taught with an emphasis on Code mastery, while underscoring the policy objectives and business contexts relevant to secured transactions generally. MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Secured Transactions (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Securities Regulation (Kitch, Edmund W.) The course will examine the federal statutes and regulations relating to the sale of securities and the duties of issuers, underwriters, brokers, dealers, officers, directors, controlling persons, and other significant market participants. We will discuss the regulation of public and private offerings, trading markets, and disclosure and corporate governance of publicly traded companies. NOTE: Laptops, cell phones and other electronic communication devices are not to be used in this class. PREREQUISITE: Corporations or Corporations (Law & Business)
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Securities Regulation (Law & Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Gies, David T.; Ortiz, Daniel) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will be taught jointly by Daniel R. Ortiz (Law) and David T. Gies (Spanish). Twelve graduate students (6 Law, 6 Arts and Sciences) will meet five times during the academic year in order to discuss " Volver (Return) to Almodóvar" Even though his films have won two Academy Awards —for Best Foreign Language Film ("All About My Mother, 1999) and Best Original Screenplay ("Talk to Her, 2002; nomination for Best Director)— Pedro Almodóvar remains only partially (and frequently mis-) understood in this country. His startling combination of traditional Spanish themes and post-modern cinematic technique (and a delicious sense of irony) moves his films out of the category of mere entertainment and into the world of the auteur. We began this seminar years ago with an overview of five of Almodóvar's films (Matador, Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, All About My Mother, Talk To Her, and The Law of Desire); now, we return to Almodóvar in order to compare his earliest Spanish films with those that have captured international attention. The films to be discussed are: Ente tinieblas (Dark Habits, 1983)
¿Qué he hecho yo para merecer esto? (What Have I Done to Deserve This?, 1984) Carne trémula (Live Flesh, 1997)
La mala educación (Bad Education, 2004)
Volver (Return, 2006) NOTE: We might be able to add Almodóvar's newest film, Abrazos rotos (Broken Embraces), which will be released in 2009. At least three of the five classes will meet on Tuesday evenings in the fall at 7:00. Anyone with a Tuesday evening conflict that semester should not enroll. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Robinson, Mildred W.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. Thomas Jefferson said that "[t]axation is, in fact, the most difficult function of government and that against which their citizens are most apt to be refractory." The image of tax law as oppressive, tax collector as oppressor, and tax attorney as complete nerd is deeply embedded in popular culture -- or so it seems. Further, a tax "hero" often seems to be a bad actor. We will examine how fiction through movies contributes to the disconnect between tax policy and tax practice and public perception. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Rutherglen, George; Schwartzman, Micah J.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. Our seminar begins with the famous toast of the American naval hero, Stephen Decatur, from the age of the Barbary pirates: "Our country! ... may she always be in the right; but our country, right or wrong." We will examine various works from the last several decades to determine what meaning this phrase has for us today. Among those we will consider are inquiries about the conduct of the war on terror, the writings of President Obama, conservative critiques of expanded American government, and portrayals of America in novels and films. Our aim will be to assess the moral challenges confronting our country, both at home and abroad, at the beginning of the 21st century. Prof. Earl Dudley, a recently retired colleague, will be joining us for our discussions. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Schauer, Frederick; Spellman, Barbara A.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. Obedience to authority is a central question for law. Should officials and citizens obey laws they think silly or morally wrong? Should lawyers argue positions that are well-grounded in law but poorly-grounded in ethics? Should lower court judges follow higher court decisions they think mistaken? What does it mean for an advocate or a judge to rely on authority rather than on what is dictated by reason or common sense? The issues have arisen in the context of older examples such as the duty of judges with respect to the Fugitive Slave Laws or the obligations of lawyers in Nazi Germany and apartheid South Africa, but they also arise now in the context of modern problems such as the authority of international law regarding Kosovo, Iraq, and Guantanamo, the duty of public officials to follow Supreme Court precedents they think mistaken, and the extent to which, if at all, the Supreme Court itself should treat earlier decisions as binding upon them. These topics have been the subject of extensive psychological research on how and when people accept authority, equally extensive philosophical writing on whether and when people should follow decisions they believe wrong, and numerous legal examples and writings about practical applications of these psychological and philosophical issues. The seminar will focus on current examples, informed by readings from the relevant psychological, philosophical, and legal literatures. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Setear, John K.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This course examines the American Civil War from disparate vantage points, with an emphasis on political rather than military perspectives. We will read a biography of John Brown, a history of the Emancipation Proclamation, a description of a major Civil War battle, and a contemporary travelogue focused on individuals still passionately interested in the Civil War. We may also visit a battlefield, but rest assured that the course does not require you to understand any of those confusing battle maps with all the little rectangles and arrows. The course generally meets on Sunday evenings. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Verkerke, J H.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This year’s seminar will focus on works that challenge orthodox views in various fields. Planned readings include Stephen Pinker, The Blank Slate; Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion; Eric Beinhocker, The Origin of Wealth; Jonathan Haidt, The Happiness Hypothesis; and Michael Pollan, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. Our discussions will work to draw connections among these works and to explore their implications for how one should live. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Armacost, Barbara E.; Moore, Richard E.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. In this seminar we will examine a number of literary texts and possibly some films in order to ask a number of intersecting questions. What are some of the historical roles that lawyers have played in American society? How have Americans (past and present) conceived of the role of lawyers and the nature of lawyering? How are these conceptions consistent (or not) with the way lawyers view their own role? How do they square with the realities of on-the-ground legal practice? ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Bagley, Margo A.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will focus on issues at the intersection of patent law, advances in technology, morality, and ethics as presented in selected films and books (both fiction and non-fiction). Classes generally will meet on Sunday evenings, three in the fall, two in the spring. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Barzun, Charles L.; Bowers, Josh; Harmon, Rachel A.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will focus on the war on drugs and the complex political, legal, moral, and sociological questions that it raises. Specifically, we will use episodes of the critically acclaimed drama series, The Wire, as a lens to consider aspects of the drug war in operation. Students will watch assigned episodes of the program before each meeting; and, to add context to class discussions, students also will complete reading assignments that may include works by Bill Stuntz, Robert MacCoun, Sudhir Venkatesh, and Loïc Wacquant. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Brown, Darryl K.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will look at a set of materials—three books and three films—that explore, broadly speaking, the effects of contexts and circumstances on decision-making, policy-making, and personal actions. Some of these influences are largely or completely unnoticed—such as the degree of inequality in societies, or the effects of randomness on daily events. Others are obviously challenging contexts, such as wartime decision making. All present, in various ways, challenges to making ethical (and even rational) decisions in difficult, unnoticed or unalterable contexts. Assigned texts, which we will read (or view) in the following order, will be: Taxi to the Dark Side (film directed by Alex Gibney) and Ghosts of Abu Ghraib (film directed by Rory Kennedy). False Alarm: The Truth about the Epidemic of Fear, by Marc Siegel
The Drunkard's Walk: How Randomness Rules Our Lives, by Leonard Mlodinow
The Spirit Level: Why More Equal Societies Almost Always Do Better, by Richard Wilkinson & Kate Pickett
Judgment at Nuremberg (film) We’ll meet five times, with each meeting focusing on a different text. Discussion will be largely unstructured; students should be prepared to a make a contribution to the discussion of each text in each session. No papers or exam, so attendance and participation at every session is required. NOTE: Because Ethical Values Seminars are not included in the regular law school schedule, this seminar will meet Sunday evenings; fall meetings are tentatively set for September 27 and October 25. Please consider your other obligations, personal and academic, and be sure you can meet at that time/day before committing to the seminar. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is required | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Cohen, George M.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will focus on the theme of change in people and the ethical issues surrounding change. The first half of the seminar will consider change that arises from external circumstances. The second half of the seminar will consider attempts by people to change others. The readings will be: Kafka, Metamorphosis
Golding, Lord of the Flies
Grandin, Emergence
Shaw, Pygmalion
Albom, Tuesdays with Morrie
Kesey, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Seminar meetings will be on Sundays from 5-7 at Professor Cohen's house. The specific meeting dates will be determined after the class roster is finalized. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Coughlin, Anne M.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will explore some of the myriad connections between film and the legal domain. We will evaluate the ways in which lawyers and their work are represented in film, and the ways in which those representations influence perceptions and experiences of lawyers and the legal system. We also will consider the ways in which films are used in, by, and as law. Texts will include movies, documentaries, and, perhaps, the odd case or two. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Goluboff, Risa L.; Schragger, Richard C.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will explore the challenges faced by young professionals, and particularly young lawyers, in balancing their professional and private lives, specifically focusing on issues of work and family. We will use a number of texts, including contemporary fiction, popular movies, reality TV, sitcoms, sociology, and psychology, to examine how the global information economy has altered the professional life of the lawyer. We will read these texts with the following questions in mind: How can a commitment to a demanding legal career coincide with a commitment to a healthy personal life? What can institutions do to support a balance between work and family? And what effect do institutional cultures and policies have on the division of labor between men and women in the public and private spheres? ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Childress, Marcia D.; Mahoney, Julia D.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. Open to students in the medical and law schools, this seminar examines inheritance and tradition. How do professionals determine which ideals, institutions and practices merit retention, and which require reform? What role does the attitude of a young physician or lawyer toward the received wisdom of his chosen field play in the formation of his identity, both personal and professional? Readings may include Sophocles’ Philoctetes; Howard’s End, by E.M. Forster; Shakespeare’s King Lear and Jane Austen’s Persuasion. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Seminar In Ethical Values (Yr) (Nachbar, Thomas B.) Seminars in Ethical Values are designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader. The seminars are graded on a pass/fail basis; students earn one credit in the spring semester upon successful completion of the seminar. This seminar will rely on a combination of literature and films to examine the role of ethics in circumstances beyond the reach of traditional legal and political controls and in circumstances of conflicting moral imperatives, such as in war or among individuals whose association is largely extra-legal (e.g., the role of "honor among thieves"). We will discuss what role law and abstract concepts of ethics and morality can, or should, play in such cases. Some potential sources include the Francis Ford Coppola films The Godfather and Apocalypse Now, and Shakespeare's Henry V. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected | |
| Sexuality And The Law (Rachmilovitz, Orly R.) This seminar will explore the role of the law in constructing identity and conduct around sexuality, particularly for women, children and sexual minorities. The course will cover a variety of legal issues at the forefront of the feminist and LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans) rights movements. These include criminalization of sexual activity, discrimination and harassment in employment and education, and family relationships, as well as distinct challenges to the trans community and to children. Discussions will be framed by both theoretical approaches to sexuality and sexual identity and the politics of LGBT advocacy work. We will consider the ways in which assumptions about morality, gender, and race shape the law’s approach to sexuality; exmine the relationship between feminism, sexual orientation and gender identity, and sexual rights; and re-evaluate the goals and strategies of the LGBT movement. There will be an emphasis on constitutional doctrines, including equal protection, due process, privacy, and freedom of speech and association. Students will be required to give class presentations as well as write four short response papers or one longer research paper. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Four short response papers (or a longer research paper) and class presentations | |
| Social Science In Law (Monahan, John T.) This course deals with the uses of social science by practitioners and courts. The roots of social science in legal realism are considered, and the basic components of social science methodology are introduced. No background in methodology or statistics is necessary. Both applications in the criminal context (e.g., obscenity, parole, sentencing) and in civil law (e.g., desegregation, trademarks, custody) will be considered. Psychology and sociology are the social sciences emphasized. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Special Education Law (Ciolfi, Angela A.) This seminar will give students an introduction to the field of special education law. We will focus on the federal statute governing special education – the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) – its implementing regulations, and the numerous cases interpreting and enforcing IDEA. Some attention will also be given to the No Child Left Behind Act, the Rehabilitation Act and relevant state laws, as well as to the complex issues presented by the interplay of law and education policy. The course is designed to emphasize the practical aspects of special education and related laws. Through the framework of special education law and policy, students will learn how to analyze a legal problem, ascertain the interests and incentives at play on both sides of the issue, and evaluate various legal and non-legal tools available for solving the problem. In addition to studying the statutes, regulations, and case law, we will use classic fact patterns to explore how the law influences everyday interactions between schools and families. Finally, we will evaluate the law in effectuating its promise: meeting the unique educational needs of students with disabilities within integrated settings and preparing them for further education, employment, and independent living. COURE REQUIREMENT: Examination with a paper option | |
| Supreme Court Justices And The Art Of Judging (Howard, A E.) Key figures on the modern Supreme Court will be the focus of this seminar. We will consider selected justices—their background before coming to the Court, their major decisions, their jurisprudence, their interaction with other justices, their legacy. We will take stock of these justices both through their own writings and through the views of commentators, including judicial biographers. NOTE: While this seminar is scheduled from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. on Mondays, selected class sessions will be held at Professor Howard's home. To allow travel time, students are asked to avoid enrolling in classes that end later than 3:10 p.m. on Mondays. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Students wishing to enroll in the seminar, whether enrolled or not, must attend the first class session. Enrolled students who do not attend the first class session will be dropped. PREREQUISITE: Constitutional Law
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Supreme Court from Warren to Roberts
COURSE REQUIREMENT: A substantial research paper | |
| Supreme Court Litigation Clinic (Yr) (Goldberg, David T.; Ortiz, Daniel; Rutherglen, George; Stancil, Mark T.) This yearlong clinic will introduce students to all aspects of current U.S. Supreme Court practice through live cases. Students earn eight credits (one credit graded on a CR/NC basis awarded in the fall for monitoring during the summer; three credits graded on a CR/NC basis awarded in the fall for work done in the fall; and four credits graded on an A-F basis for work done in the spring). Working on teams, students will handle actual cases from the seeking of Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits. Classes will meet every week to discuss drafts of briefs and other papers students have prepared for submission to the Court. Students will be expected to identify candidates for Supreme Court review; draft petitions for certiori, amicus merits briefs, and party merits briefs; and attend mootings and Supreme Court arguments. Students who wish to enroll must complete an application form, attach the requested documents, and submit them via e-mail to Daniel Ortiz (dro@virginia.edu) and Mark Stancil (mstancil@robbinsrussell.com), no later than April 10, 2009. Applications received after this date will be placed on a waiting list; these students will only be contacted if openings arise. Once enrolled, NO drops will be permitted. Admitted students will be required to complete some work over the summer before the clinic begins. ENROLLMENT LIMITATION: Students may enroll in one clinic per semester. On a space-available basis, students may petition to enroll in a second clinical offering after the add/drop period has ended. PREREQUISITE: Third-year status, Constitutional Law
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Draft petitions and merits briefs, monitor lower court cases, and attend mootings and Supreme Court arguments | |
| Tax Policy (Lawsky, Sarah) This course will examine the legal, economic, and political considerations relevant to formulating tax policy. Specific topics will be drawn from among the following: the concept of income and the tax base; economic efficiency; equity and distributive justice; tax expenditures; consumption taxation and fundamental tax reform; wealth transfer taxation; social security and other social insurance programs; tax compliance and enforcement, including tax shelters; and current tax policy legislative initiatives. Grades will be based on class participation and on a series of short papers (3-4 typed pages, double spaced) due over the course of the semester. PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Several 3-4 page papers and class participation | |
| Tax Practice And Procedure () Instructor: James Malone This course meets February 15 - March 4. This course is intended for students who intend to pursue a career in tax law, whether in tax planning or in tax controversy work. The course will focus on the progression of a tax dispute from the planning stages through to litigation. Students will consider how to properly and accurately characterize a transaction on a tax return, how to defend the transaction at the administrative stage in an IRS audit, and, finally, how to choose a forum to litigate the tax treatment of the transaction. We will also consider certain ethical issues, IRS Circular 230 and other issues that may arise in the course of a taxpayer's dealings with the IRS and the courts. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE with: Tax Practice and Procedure seminar
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Class participation and a writing assignment (8-10 pages) on a current tax controversy issue. | |
| Taxation Of Financial Products And Investment Vehicles (Taylor, Willard B.) This course will meet from February 1-4 and February 22-25. The course will seek to provide a basic understanding of the tax treatment of financial “products” (e.g., swaps, unconventional forms of debt) and of investment vehicles, such as RICs, REITs, and REMICs ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
PREREQUISITE: Federal Income Tax
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination (a paper may be substituted with the permission of the instructor) | |
| Tort Theory (Abraham, Kenneth S.; Kendrick, Leslie C.) This seminar will explore contemporary issues in tort law, including the proper scope of liability for accidental harm, problems of causation, and the scope of damages awarded in tort cases. The focus of the seminar is on the rigorous evaluation of scholarly argument. The readings will consist of both classic works in the field and important current studies. After a several-week overview of the field, each session will be devoted to an intensive study of a single law review article, in which designated students criticize or defend that article. All students will be expected to participate actively in the discussions at each session; a willingness to think critically and to make independent contributions to class discussion is required. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. COURSE REQUIREMENT: An analytical criticism of a designated law review article | |
| Trade Secrets: History, Theory, And Practice (Sloan, Todd M.) This course meets March 15 - April 8. Unlike patents, trade secrets represent long held and utilized secret information and processes. The formula for Coca Cola has existed since the 1880s; the metallurgical composition of the Zildjian musical cymbals was first developed in Turkey over four centuries ago. Neither have been successfully copied, decompiled or replicated even today and they are, as we shall see, entitled to the full protection of the law. In 2007, the federal courts signaled a retrenchment in patent protection in three major decisions which will the initial discussion topic for the course. These decisions make clear that there now are even more reasons to understand and utilize trade secret law as a method of protecting intellectual property. The first week of classes will address the development of the primary right from a common law perspective. The second focuses on the expanding role of legislation in the protection on non-patented confidential information including, among others, the federal Economic Espionage Act, the Semiconductor Chip Protection Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. We will also explore the state counterparts to these statutes. The third week will be devoted to permissible and impermissible conduct in preparation to compete, restrictive covenants and the peculiar jurisdictional squabbles they create. We will also discuss the preparation of various agreements designed to protect trade secrets. During the last week of the course, we will address litigation techniques peculiar to trade secret actions and in our last two meetings, the international scene. The goal is to equip the student to be fully conversant with trade secret issues so that after graduation, the student will be able to independently handle any trade secret matters which may be assigned to him or her. Ten percent of the grade in the course will be based on class participation; ninety percent will be base on an open book paper to be completed after the last class. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Paper required | |
| Transactional Approach To Mergers And Acquisitions (Kling, Lou R.; Nugent, Eileen T.) NOTE: This A weekend course meets on January 29; February 5, 6, 19, 20; March 5, 6, 26, 27; April 9, 10 and 24. An analysis of different kinds of M&A transactions including both negotiated and hostile acquisitions of public companies, as well as acquisitions of private companies and subsidiaries and divisions of public companies. Special types of transactions such as leveraged buyouts, “going private” transactions, spinoffs and the use of proxy contests in hostile transactions will also be addressed. Structuring, documenting and negotiating transactions will be examined in-depth from a practitioner’s perspective, sometimes through the use of case studies, with an emphasis on the similarities and differences in the acquisition agreements applicable to different kinds of transactions. Although not a prime focus of the course, tax considerations will be addressed. The course will provide an in-depth look at the roles played by lawyers and investment bankers in advising boards of directors of target and acquirer companies as well as those played by other transactional professionals. Emphasis will be on how the case law and various state statutes and SEC regulations inform the acquisition process. Readings will include cases, articles, merger agreements and related agreements, SEC filings and various federal and state statutes. PREREQUISITE: Corporations or Corporations (Law and Business)
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| Trial Advocacy (Bouton, Daniel R.) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Occasional preparation of motions and proposed jury instructions | |
| Trial Advocacy (Gould, William F.) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Occasional preparation of motions and proposed jury instructions | |
| Trial Advocacy (Hudson, Jean B.) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Preparation of motions in limine | |
| Trial Advocacy (Morrison, Alexia) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Occasional preparation of motions and proposed jury instructions | |
| Trial Advocacy (Peatross, Paul M.) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. Make a decision whether to take this section of Trial Ad before you register. Instruction begins the first night and much can be lost in missing the first lecture. Attendance for each class session is strongly encouraged because there are only two initial lectures and most instruction will come during student performances at each class meeting. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Performances in each segment of trials and presentation of an entire trial case | |
| Trial Advocacy (Simpson, Richard A.) This B weekend course meets on January 30; February 12, 13, 26, 27; March 19, 20; April 2, 3, 16, 17 and 23. In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Occasional preparation of motions and proposed jury instructions | |
| Trial Advocacy (Wood, Robert C.) In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Extensive use is made of simulated trial episodes. During the early weeks of the semester several phases of trial practice will be illustrated, and students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument. Some sections of the seminar require specific witness and juror service of each student enrolled. Instruction in the practice and technique of advocacy is provided during each class session. All sections schedule at least one full mock trial in the latter weeks of the term in which each student will serve as individual or co-counsel. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at the first class meeting is mandatory; students who do not attend will be dropped. PREREQUISITE: Evidence
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Occasional preparation of motions and proposed jury instructions | |
| Virginia Practice And Procedure (Sinclair, Kent) Virginia practice is unusual in many respects. Most jurisdictions adopted a unified system for handling civil litigation between 1939 and 1955; Virginia only made this move January 1, 2006. Much settling-out is needed. Normal, unified court systems (such as the federal system on which the first-year course in civil procedure is based) operate smoothly and have powerful management tools in place. Virginia is different from numerous vantage points: it has adhered to a view of what a "cause of action" is that is different from every other American jurisdiction. These distinctions—along with some horrendous defects in the operation of both pre-trial and appellate processes in Virginia—give rise to a host of differences between the litigation landscape in Virginia and the situation in the rest of the nation. These differences affect the real-world practices of lawyers attempting to structure legal claims, the practical details of pleading and motion practice, the availability of such fundamental protections as the right to jury trial, the application of statutes of limitations, the effect of litigation (e.g., does it bar another claim arising from the very same events?), and several other bedrock issues in the operation of a modern legal system. The Virginia Practice and Procedure course is primarily for students who intend to become members of the Virginia Bar. The class will emphasize the practical legal issues that must be mastered to surmount the structural and procedural difficulties with the Virginia system, at the trial and appellate levels. The course will be relevant whether a student plans to be a litigator (attempting to navigate the numerous pitfalls in Virginia practice) or to specialize in non-litigation legal representation in Virginia, because the quirks and starkly debilitating aspects of Virginia’s legal system often make the background context and alternatives for non-litigated enforcement of legal rights in Virginia more difficult than those in other jurisdictions. The course will necessarily touch upon the contractual resolution of issues that in other states would be litigated, the strategic effects of settlements and partial settlements, and the key litigation alternative of arbitration (which, unfortunately, has its own problems in Virginia law). Important law reform efforts are afoot in Virginia, and key current issues and developments will be included in the course coverage. COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
| White Collar Crime (McGough, Walter T.) This course meets March 15 - 25. We will begin by establishing a working definition of the phenomenon known as white collar crime and by reviewing some of the statutes and procedures most commonly encountered in this area. Ultimately, we will consider typical fact patterns, strategies, and outcomes from the varying perspectives of prosecutors, defense counsel, corporate targets, and individual defendants. The final class will involve a collective exercise based on a hypothetical investigation. Reading materials will be distributed at the outset of the course. Grading will be based primarily upon on the take-home examination, with individual class participation also considered. ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENT: Attendance at all class sessions is expected
PREREQUISITE: Criminal Law, Criminal Investigation
COURSE REQUIREMENT: Examination | |
|