The Colorado Law courses and seminars listed below have been taught in the last three academic years, however, they are not always offered every year. Frequently, faculty develop new seminars to reflect current developments in the law and in their research interests; these seminars may be offered only periodically. The listed courses are taught regularly. Go to "Calendars and Schedules" to find a list of the courses and seminars being offered in the current academic term.
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Secured Transactions - LAWS 6021
Explores the methodology and policies of Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code, dealing with financing transactions in personal property.
Securities Litigation and Enforcement - LAWS 7471
Covers the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and related federal statutes, concentrating on the arbitration of private securities claims; SEC enforcement actions; international securities regulation; securities manipulation and fraud; self-regulatory organizations; and regulation of attorneys and accountants practicing before the SEC.
Securities Regulation - LAWS 7401
Concerned with the various federal statutes regulating the issue of corporate securities and the cases and regulations that have arisen out of those statutes; stress on statutory interpretation.
Sem Law & Religion - LAWS 8385
Sem: National Security Law and US Foreign Policy - LAWS 8111
Sem: Special Topics in Law - LAWS 8002
Seminar: Access to Justice?: The Provision of Legal Services for Middle- and Low-Income People - LAWS 8785
This seminar will explore the scholarship that has developed around the provision of legal services--or the lack of legal services--for those who cannot afford market prices for attorneys. The seminar will also examine recent efforts to provide empirical support for the range of political claims that are made about access to the legal system.
Seminar: Advanced Corporate Law - LAWS 8251
Explores current issues in corporate and securities law, including developments in fiduciary duties of officers and directors, corporate governance, executive compensation, revisions to the model business corporation act, and state and federal litigation reform.
Seminar: Advanced Criminal Justice - LAWS 8315
Studies policy and practice issues rather than case law. Focuses primarily on how American criminal justice is dispensed in cases that do not reach trial, including police behavior, prosecutorial discretion, defense services, bail, plea bargaining, and sentencing.
Seminar: Advanced Energy Law - LAWS 8722
Provides an opportunity for students to further develop their knowledge of the field and to engage in a substantial writing project. Examples of possible topics include hydraulic fracturing, regulation of air emissions from power plants, the smart grid, transmission siting and development, the ratemaking process, design and regulation of electricity markets, energy finance or comparative study of energy regulation.
Seminar: Advanced Information Privacy - LAWS 8361
Explores current issues in information privacy law and cybersecurity law at depth. Topics will change to reflect subjects that emerge each time that the seminar is offered. Some examples include: federal consumer protection law, federal sectoral privacy statutes, state privacy laws, cybersecurity regulation, and European and comparative data privacy law. Required prerequisite or corequisite: Information Privacy and Cybersecurity (LAWS 6361) or Telecommunications Law and Policy (LAWS 7241).
Seminar: Advanced Natural Resources Law - LAWS 8112
Studies historical, literary, and scientific materials and analyzes current problems of natural resources law. Requires additional field trip expenses for students. Any three natural resources/environmental courses. Foundations is strongly recommended and Indian Law can count as one of the three courses. Prerequisites can be taken concurrently with the seminar.
Seminar: Advanced Topics in American Indian Law - LAWS 8725
Examines a variety of current issues related to American Indian Law. Topics will change to reflect the subjects that emerge at each time that the seminar is offered. Some examples of topics considered include legal protections for American Indian religion and culture, cultural property, Tribal law, gaming law, and Native American natural and cultural resources law. Department enforced corequisite: LAWS 7725.
Seminar: Advanced Topics In Family Law - LAWS 8235
Explores a variety of current issues related to family law; topics will change to reflect emerging issues and will draw from legal and social science scholarship as well as relevant statutes and cases. Possible topics include reproductive technology, children's rights, the role of religion in family law, and political theories of the family.
Seminar: Advanced Torts - LAWS 8425
Explores how dignitary interests have influenced the development of and have been incorporated into law, using the common law of torts and the constitutional rights of life and linerty as a general (but not exclusive) focal point of discussion.
Seminar: Business Law Colloquium - LAWS 8101
Business law scholars from CU and around the country present research papers at this weekly colloquium. Topics may include contracts, corporate law, securities regulation, tax, intellectual property, venture capital and private equity, and the legal profession. No prior knowledge of law and economics is expected, although some knowledge of business organizations will be useful.
Seminar: Citizenship and Equality - LAWS 8565
The concept of citizenship connects immigration with studies of race, international human rights, gender, sexuality, criminality and many others. It has been receiving growing attention in many scholarly disciplines. This seminar will examine the notion of citizenship in recent scholarship spanning law, political science, sociology, philosophy, and history.
Seminar: Civil Liberties Litigation - LAWS 8613
Studies issues unique to the prosecution and defense of civil liberties lawsuits. Discusses litigation strategies with reference to lawsuits currently pending in the federal courts.
Seminar: Class and Law - LAWS 8535
Explores issues relating social class to such areas as labor relations, law enforcement, controls on radical movements, and the distribution of wealth and power. Considers problems defining social class.
Seminar: Comparative Constitutional Law: US, UK, and Australia - LAWS 8211
Takes a comparative law approach to the constitutional law of the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. The seminar's intellectual purpose is to understand all three nations more deeply (especially our own) by seeing what they do similarly, what they do differently, what the advantages and disadvantages of each nation's approach appear to be, and whether any lessons learned in one place could profitably be transferred to another.
Seminar: Comparative Family Law - LAWS 8105
Examines and critiques law, legal institutions and traditions of the country of focus and the US as they affect children, families, and work. Prepares students for collaborative work and leadership in a global environment. Enhances research and writing skills, including field and international research. Contributes to host country through scholarship and service. Increases cultural competence through active engagement with peers and with social justice issues in another country. Includes required field study component and wervice learning project over spring break.
Seminar: Computers and the Law - LAWS 8321
Explores a range of topics surrounding the juxtaposition of computers and law. Most are aware of the impact that law has on computers through the
myriad of regulations that govern computers and related technologies. Less well known is the impact that computer technology is having on governance and
on the practice of law. Explores both sides of this dynamic interplay between law impacting computing, and computing impacting law.
Seminar: Conflict of Laws - LAWS 8650
This seminar addresses the conflicts that arise when the significant facts of a case are connected with more than one jurisdiction, whether that jurisdiction belongs to a state, the federal government, or a foreign government. The subject is studied in its theoretical and historical context, with special emphasis on the international aspects of extraterritorial jurisdiction.
Seminar: Constitutional Theory - LAWS 8015
Aims at thinking broadly about the challenges, and problems of constitutionalism in the U.S. What are the fundamental tensions that attend the constitutional enterprise?internally, externally? What relations does the Constitution have to democracy and liberalism? Readings will be taken from legal theory, social theory, philosophy and occasionally judicial opinions. Emphases will differ slightly each year as announced.
Seminar: Consumers and the Law - LAWS 8021
This is a service learning seminar that seeks to provide a journey through theory and practice in contract and consumer law. It aims to expand your understanding and analysis of contracts beyond the basic concepts you learn in your first-year Contracts course. Through class readings and discussion, we explore norms, goals, and functions of consumer law and also observe the law "in action" through a class blog and outreach with the Boulder County Department of Housing and Human Services ("BCDHHS"), who assists people throughout Boulder County with an array of financial, housing and other consumer issues.
Seminar: Counseling Families in Business - LAWS 8701
Explores the legal aspects of owning, managing, and participating in a successful family business system, including corporate structure, legal issues, succession planning and estate management, internal capital markets in private enterprise, ownership issues in private businesses, how lawyers can assist with family governance, planning for and managing family philanthropy, gender issues in family business, and conflict resolution.
Seminar: Criminal Law in Context:Legal and Social Images of Victims and Perpetrators - LAWS 8533
Contextualizes criminal law by engaging in an in depth study of the legal and social characterizations of victims and perpetrators in U.S. law, politics, and popular culture.
Seminar: Critical Law and Economics - LAWS 8412
Explores some of the more successful and enduring critiques of Chicago Law and Economics. Starts with an introduction to economic analysis, including basic analytic tools like rational actor theory, supply and demand, efficiency notions, and cost concepts. Later classes will explore more advanced works in the area.
Seminar: Critical Theory Cllqm - LAWS 8728
Surveys critical legal theory; introduces the discipline of analytical engagement with law review literature; feminist legal theory, and critical race theory. Offers a deeper understanding of the purposes behind legal reforms, the interaction between law on the books and law in action, how different groups experience the law in different ways, and difficult yet rewarding nature of working through seemingly intractable and emotionally charged race, sex, and class issues.
Seminar: Education and the Constitution - LAWS 8285
Teaches the substantive constitutional law governing public education. Students will teach constitutional materials to high school students in the local Denver Metro area high schools. Interested students must apply, and requires a commitment to a full-year curriculum. Encourages individual development as teachers, writers, and critical thinkers, and provides an opportunity to grow as colleagues and teammates.
For information on how to become a Marshall-Brennan Teaching Fellow please see this page.
Seminar: Environmental Decision Making - LAWS 8322
Explores the foundational issues that underlie agency decision making, including environmental ethics, cost benefit analysis, risk assessment, constitutional law and administrative law. Compares and contrasts National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act and the Endangered Species Act.
Seminar: Fascism and the Liberal State - LAWS 8110
Explores fascist legal theory and its critiques of the liberal democratic state. Readings of major conservative, liberal, fascist, Nazi and Marxist theorists including Marx, Gentile, Fuller, Neumann, Schmitt, Agamben, Hayek and Mill. Understand from a variety of perspectives, the structure and character of the liberal democratic state, its strengths and weaknesses as well as it susceptibility of fascism.
Seminar: Food Law and Policy - LAWS 8545
Introduces students to the laws and regulations that govern our food supply. The focus is federal law provided by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, with additional readings, videos and speakers. Topics to be covered include legal definitions for food, rules on food labeling, standards for food safety, biotechnology, international trade, organic and environmental regulation, hunger, farmer's markets and obesity.
Seminar: Funding Climate Action - LAWS 8242
Explores the menu of legal and policy options that can be used to fund climate change mitigation, as well as adaptation to climate risks already underway. Robust climate action will require investment on an enormous scale and an increasingly tight timeline. How to fund these investments is one of the central questions of climate policy today.
Seminar: Gender and Criminal Justice - LAWS 8455
Gender plays a role in many aspects of the criminal justice system--from discretionary decisions about arrest and charging to sentencing and punishment. Some offense definitions traditionally were gendered, and today, facial neutrality may mask disparate outcomes based on gender. Moreover, perceptions about the intimacy of the home and the body create tensions between privacy and government regulation in the investigative activities of law enforcement. This two-credit seminar will explore the intersection of gender and criminal justice in such areas as police and prosecutorial discretion, the investigation and prevention of crimes, the definition of offenses and defenses, factors contributing to criminality, criminal sentencing and the experience of punishment, and the societal ramifications of incarcerating children's caregivers. Reading assignments--drawn from both classic and cutting-edge journal articles, as well as from books--will provide an overview, designed to spark ideas for legal research. The research and writing of a major paper on a relevant topic constitutes a vital aspect of the seminar.
Seminar: Gender, Law, and Public Policy - LAWS 8765
Introduces students to various schools of feminist theory and examines the relationship between feminist theories and concrete problems in such areas as constitutional law, education law, employment discrimination, family law, and criminal law.
Seminar: International Adjudication - LAWS 8300
Focuses on writing briefs and memoranda of law suitable for practice before tribunals such as the International Courts of Justice. Emphasis will be on students writing, legal analysis, and presentationof oral arguments. Instruction identifies how to research and analyze international materials, such as treaties, covenants, and international customary law.
Seminar: International Human Rights - LAWS 8440
Exposes students to a variety of human rights issues and the responses by international institutions. In the Fall the seminar will meet for several sessions in a colloquium format, featuring guest speakers from around the world. In the Spring seminar students will complete a paper that satisfies the law school's seminar writing requirement.
Seminar: Jurisprudence - LAWS 8128
This seminar addresses a number of fundamental questions, such as: What is law?
What should it be? How is it generated? Our readings consist mostly of articles from leading modern/postmodern schools of thought including legal formalism, legal realism, interpretive theory, law and economics, feminist jurisprudence, critical legal studies, law and literature, and legal aesthetics.
Seminar: Law and Economics - LAWS 8318
Introduces the uses and limitations of microeconomic theory for understanding and resolving legal problems. Emphasizes concepts prominent in the law and economics literature such as cost, transaction costs, utility, and rational self interest.
Seminar: Law and Economics of the Information Age - LAWS 8341
Examines basic regulatory and legal challenges of our information economy and digital age. Emphasis will be placed on the "networked" information industries, the proper role of "unbundling" policies to advance competition, and how intellectual property and antitrust rules should be developed. Prerequisite: LAWS 7241 (Telecommunications Law and Policy), LAWS 7201 (Antitrust), or LAWS 7301 (Copyright).
Seminar: Law and Economics of Utility Regulation - LAWS 8351
Discusses economics of regulation and matters ranging from neoclassical economic analysis to public choice theory to new institutional economics. Discusses several regulatory domains, including antitrust law, telecommunications regulation, and energy regulation. Highlights both economic and non-economic goals, including universal service, sustainability (e.g., renewal energy), and architecture (e.g., free speech concerns with regard to telecommunications networks). Requires prerequisite course of LAWS 6301 or 7201 or 7241
Seminar: Law and Literature - LAWS 8458
This seminar offers an opportunity to study various works of literature with an eye to investigating the following questions, among others, How do the techniques of literary writing resemble and differ from those of legal writing?
Seminar: Law and Politics Colloquium: Race in America - LAWS 8645
This co-taught colloquium will expose students to highly prominent scholars conducting research on current topics at the intersection of race, social science, and the law, including racial profiling, hate crime, and affirmative action (among others). Each week will include an introduction to the landscape of that week's topic and a colloquium with that week's invited speaker. Students will complete a final paper satisfying the CU Law seminar writing requirement on a relevant topic of their choosing. This cross-listed class does not require that students possess any prior background in social science techniques or legal doctrine.
Seminar: Lawyers and Leadership - LAWS 8003
Analyzes challenges and responsibilities of serving in leadership roles, with particular emphasis on utilizing law as a vehicle to change organizations and societies. Topics include characteristics, models, styles, and theories of leadership, charisma, civil and human rights, conflict management, decision-making, diversity, ethical responsibilities, forms of influence and persuasion, innovation, mindfulness, organizational dynamics, positive organizational scholarship, and scandal. Materials will include cutting-edge research, case histories, exercises, problems, simulations, and video clips from popular culture and media.
Seminar: Oil & International Relations - LAWS 8320
This seminar will address the extent to which the international community of nations is oil dependent. It will assess the impact, and the geo-political dangers to international relations arising from the expanding demand for scarce oil from developing as well as developed economies.
Seminar: Policy and Climate Change In The Mont Blanc Region - LAWS 8252
Explore the Mont Blanc region including the history and culture, along with the political and economic forces that have shaped it. Attention to the environmental and land use issues and climate change impact. Consideration of the opportunities and obstacles for regional political leaders in adapting to changes in the regional climate. Review techniques to monitor and understand baseline conditions and how climate change may be impacting those conditions. Field work on site required.
Seminar: Poverty and Inequality in Comparative Perspective - LAWS 8060
Investigates the nature, causes, consequences and major responses to persistent poverty and inequality in the United States and several other countries. Students are expected to write short response papers for each assignment as well as a substantial research paper on a topic selected in discussion with the instructor.
Seminar: Power, Ethics, and Professionalism - LAWS 8608
Examines critically the possibility and character of ethical reasoning within the legal profession in light of its institutional structures. Explores descriptive/normative accounts of the profession's structure, "professionalism," and individual conscience. Put simply, the seminar explores whether it is possible to be a good lawyer and ethical person.
Seminar: Problems in Constitutional Law - LAWS 8095
Explores, in depth, various topics in U.S. constitutional law. Examines history, societal impacts, and challenges raised by those topics. The coverage of the seminar varies from year to year, depending on the instructor?s interests and expertise.
Seminar: Race, Racism, and American Law - LAWS 8075
Focuses on issues of race reform law, in particular the group of issues dealing with Black Americans. (Students of all hues and persuasions are welcome.) The class has an interpretive or critical dimension, rather than a litigation-oriented one. The idea will be to gain an understanding of how race reform law works and how attitudes and historical forces have shaped that body of law.
Seminar: Regulation and Innovation - LAWS 8605
Explores two related questions: first, what role does regulation play in encouraging (or inhibiting) innovation? Second, what kinds of innovation approaches to regulation itself are being employed or might be employed and how might these strategies improve the environment for private innovation?
Seminar: Rhetoric and the Art of Persuasion - LAWS 8808
Explores recent work in rhetoric to identify the principles and techniques of effective persuasion in law. Examines the ways in which cognition, language, imagery, metaphor, narrative, and scene setting shape the ways in which lawyers and judges strive to persuade each other.
Seminar: Securities Litigation and Enforcement - LAWS 8401
Designed for students interested in studying topics related to securities litigation. Covers civil liability under the Securities Act of 1933, proxy fraud, class actions (with special emphasis on the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act), market manipulation, SEC enforcement actions, enforcement issues involving attorneys and accountants, criminal enforcement, international securities fraud, and securities arbitration.
Seminar: Sentencing Law and Policy - LAWS 8355
Studies sentencing law against the backdrop of criminal justice policy and concerns of public policy. Covers theories of punishment, the merits of indeterminate sentencing, sentencing guidelines, and nonincarcerative sanctions. Confronts problems of race, class, and other disparities in criminal sentencing.
Seminar: Sexuality, Gender Identity, and Law Seminar - LAWS 8665
Examines the regulation of sexuality and gender identity in local, state, and federal law. Explores how sexuality and gender identity shape, and are shaped by, an array of laws and policies, which may include family law, military regulations, tax law, employment law, trusts and estates, obscenity law, and criminal law.
Seminar: Special Topics in Constitutional Law - LAWS 8120
Offers students the opportunity for in-depth discussion and study on an important topic of constitutional law. Topics may vary from year to year.
Seminar: Special Topics in Intellectual Property - LAWS 8036
Applies copyright doctrine to the digital music contexts. Topics may include but are not limited to radio, compulsory licensing, performance rights, sampling, user generated content, term extension, termination rights, "open-access" and the public domain, emerging technologies and infringement, social implications of copyright legislation, digital fair use and the first sale doctrine and moral rights for users and artists.
Seminar: Special Topics in International Law - LAWS 8400
Provides in-depth coverage of particular issues in international law and exposes students to intellectual concepts in the field. Students write seminar length papers and develop critical thinking through writing and research.
Seminar: Speech, Religion, and Equality: Constitutional Values in Tension - LAWS 8035
Addresses past and continuing debates involving potential tensions between antidiscrimination principles and free speech, free exercise, and establishment clause values. Examines constitutional protections under the First Amendment and the equal protection clause, together with an array of existing and proposed federal and state antidiscrimination laws regulating employment, housing, and public accommodations, among other areas.
Seminar: Tax Law, Economics and Policy - LAWS 8407
Explores current issues in tax policy. Topics may include equity, efficiency, and distributive justice; the role of tax law in furthering structural inequalities and racism, choice of tax base, including consumption taxes; social policy in the Internal Revenue Code; corporate taxation and tax incidence; current issues in international taxation; and the intersection of tax law and technological innovation. LAWS 6007 Income Tax is required as either a prerequisite or corequisite.
Seminar: The Law of Pandemics - LAWS 8426
Develops student understanding of the numerous ways in which the law must reckon with, regulate, and regulate around, pandemics. Shows how, while public health law primarily engages with pandemic to stop its spread, secondary legal regimes must also take pandemics into account in order to ensure the operation of law. This includes the laws of contract, tort, property, finance, welfare, and the like. Situates reading and format within ongoing pandemics to the degree appropriate.
Seminar: The Law of the Colorado River - LAWS 8312
Addresses the many areas of law and policy that affect management of the Colorado River and the communities that depend on it. The seminar will also include material and presentations from experts in other disciplines, including conservation biology, climate science, anthropology, geology, and hydrology. The centerpiece of the class will be a two-week raft trip through the Grand Canyon.
Seminar: Theory of Punishment - LAWS 8548
Explores the various justifications that philosophers have developed to explain why we have the right to punish. Examines the historical evolution of our punishment system and focuses on the death penalty as a critical contemporary issue in the debate about the proper role of punishment in our society.
Seminar: Topics In Law & Feminism - LAWS 8795
Explores a variety of current issues related to feminism and the law: topics will change to reflect emerging issues and will draw from legal and social science scholarship as well as relevant statues and cases. Possible topics include reproductive justice, sex discrimination in education and employment, gender and human rights, international and comparative feminism, legal regulation of sex, and feminist legal theory.
Seminar: US National Security & Foreign Relations in a Time of Change - LAWS 8611
Explores the legal frameworks influencing the development of national security policy and U.S. foreign policy. Students will be introduced to applicable U.S. Foreign Relations Law, U.S. National Security Law and International Law and will engage in analysis about current policy approaches to emerging national security threats. There are no pre-requisites for this course.
Sexuality and the Law - LAWS 7505
This course will be a survey of the main topics that fall under the rubric of "sexuality and the law," with hopes that we can identify persistent themes and issues. We will discuss the federal and state constitutional rights of sexual minorities (GLBTI peoples), the status of same sex marriage under statutory law (federal and state DOMA's) and federal and state constitutional law, the centrality of gendered heterosexuality to family law, other legal regulation of sexual conduct, and the legal system's abilities/inabilities to deal with the breakdown of dichotomous sexualities (the challenges presented by transgender and intersex groups).
Special Topics - LAWS 6708
Specialized Legal Research: Selected Topics - LAWS 6836
Builds upon first-year legal research problem-solving skills by exploring tools and methods used to research specific areas of law (e.g., Intellectual Property Legal Research, Foreign & International Legal Research).
Sports Law - LAWS 7331
Covers the application of rules from agency, antitrust, contracts, constitutional law (including sex discrimination), labor law, property, torts, unincorporated associations, and other subjects to those persons involved in the production and delivery of athletic competition to consumers. Explores the development of the application of these rules to a sports setting and related economic issues.
State and Local Taxation - LAWS 7507
Examines the operation of the income, property and sales tax used to finance our state and local governments. Includes requirements of equal protection and due process. Covers jurisdiction to tax allocation of the tax base among different state and local governments.
Statutory Interpretation - LAWS 6128
Examines theories of legislation and the relation between legislatures and courts, emphasizing problems of statutory interpretation and other issues in the judicial use or misuse of statutes.
Supreme Court Decision Making - LAWS 7013
Students will deliberate over several important cases as Justices of the Supreme Court. Class will be divided into three "courts" with the first hour spent in deliberation and the second hour in discussion of the deliberative process as well as the substantive issues.
Sustainable Comm Dev Clinic - LAWS 6209
Provide legal and policy advice, guidance and representation related to sustainable development with a focus on fostering social enterprise, healthy communities and poverty reduction.
Tax Policy - LAWS 7407
Explores current issues in tax policy. Topics may include the tax legislative process, consumption taxes, taxes and distributive justice, the tax exemption for nonprofits, carbon taxes, corporate taxes and integration, and taxes and entrepreneurship. No prerequisite required, although Federal Income Tax will be helpful.
Tech Policy Advocacy - LAWS 7801
Provides an intensive, one-week look at the substance, strategy, tactics, and import of technology policy advocacy. Each year, we will study one particular theme or conflict and examine it in-depth. The point of studying one particular episode is to learn lessons about the practice of technology policy advocacy that apply beyond this one historical moment. This class is meant to combine traditional doctrinal approaches with an experiential focus.
Technical & Engineering Knowledge in Litigation - LAWS 7343
Teaches law students and engineering students to work with each other in varied legal disputes implicating technical matters (acccidents, trade secrets, pollution, etc.), covering expert witness law and practice, use of empirical methods in litigation, and more broadly the roles of lawyers and of engineers in such disputes. Experiential learning-based assignments may include initial investigations, witness testimony, and legal writings that include engineers' expert witness reports and lawyers' complaints and motions.
Technology Law and Policy Clinic - LAWS 7809
Features technology law advocacy before administrative, legislative, and judicial bodies in the public interest.
Technology of Privacy - LAWS 6331
Explores the escalating debates by policymakers, scholars, advocates, and industry representatives about the
growing spread of tracking and surveillance in society. Debates are being spurred by the pace of changes to
technology and particularly of changes to Internet and mobile technology. Practicioners in information privacy law or
technology policy must understand the past, present, and likely future of the technology of privacy.
Telecommunications and Internet Law and Policy - LAWS 7241
Examines laws governing telecommunications industries, including federal and state regulation and international aspects. Includes telephone; cable; satellite, cellular, and other wireless systems; and the Internet.
The Practice of Labor and Employment Law - LAWS 6501
Focuses on aspects of the practice of employment law, rather than the examination of legal doctrines. Discusses typical issues presented in advising and litigating on behalf of employers and employees. Topics include special attention to ethical issues.
The Prosecutor's Role in the Criminal Justice System - LAWS 6315
Designed to familiarize students with the professional and ethical duties of the prosecutor in the criminal justice system, with the goal of encouraging students to think about the role that prosecutors play. While the focus of the materials and presentations will center on the Colorado criminal Justice system, the concepts and principles addressed translate to all state systems and the federal system. National trends and legislative policy decisions related to criminal law, and their potential impact on public safety and prosecution efforts will also be discussed.
The Regulation of Marijuana - LAWS 7718
is based on state and federal law regulating marijuana in Colorado. Topics include medical and recreational legalization, state and local regulation and taxation of marijuana commerce, and practical issues for marijuana businesses.
Topics in Compliance - LAWS 9222
Learn how to assess allegations of wrongdoing and recognize situations in which internal investigations are appropriate. Students will lean how to develop an investigation plan and will be introduced to the primary steps in an investigation including the following: initiating an investigation, locating and gathering evidence, conducting interviews, analyzing evidence, articulating conclusions and drafting investigative reports.
Torts - LAWS 5425
Studies nonconsensual allocation of losses for civil wrongs, focusing primarily on concepts of negligence and strict liability.
Toxics and Hazardous Waste - LAWS 7402
Examines the EPA's federal hazardous waste statutes, including the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (RCRA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). Analyzes the RCRA "cradle-to-grave" hazardous waste program, and addresses the evolving CERCLA liability scheme and cleanup process.
Trademark and Unfair Competition Law - LAWS 7341
Examines the subject matter of trademark protection, the interaction of trademark and unfair competition law with other intellectual property doctrines, the requirements for acquiring and retaining federal trademark rights, false advertising and other misrepresentations, the right of publicity and related claims, remedies for infringement, and international aspects of trademark protection.
Transactional Drafting - LAWS 7051
This course will teach the principles of contemporary commercial drafting and introduce documents used in a variety of transactions. The skills gained will be applicable to any transactional practice and will also be useful to litigators. On finishing the course, students will know the business purpose of each contract concept, how to translate the business deal into contract concepts, how to draft each of a contract's parts with clarity and without ambiguity, how to add value to a deal, how to work through the drafting process, and how to review and comment on a contract.
Trial Advocacy - LAWS 6109
Focuses on voir dire, opening statement, direct examination of witnesses, and cross examination. Uses pass/grading.
Trial Competition - LAWS 7509
Student teams further develop trial and advocacy skills in a competitive mock-trial format involving two or more rounds of trials. Preparation of trial briefs and drafting other court pleadings and documents is required. Credit is limited to the top two teams (six students). Student finalists may continue involvement in regional and national competitions.
Understanding (and Investigating Violations of) US and Foreign Anti-Bribery and Human Trafficking Laws - LAWS 6401
Surveys the twin global scourges of bribery and human trafficking/forced labor and examines the role private practitioners play in the fight (including as lawyers investigating allegations of misconduct, interacting with US and foreign authorities, conducting due diligence, and ensuring compliance). We all expect what we buy will not be tainted by bribery/corruption/forced labor. This market reality has generated a need for lawyers able to help clients adapt to these rapidly developing areas of law.
Venture Capital and Private Equity - LAWS 7271
Provides overview of the legal and financial principles to represent privately held companies, their founders and managers, and their investors. Emphasizes transaction structuring rather than judicial opinions. Includes the organization and financing of start-ups, structuring buyout transactions, exit strategies, legal organization of investment funds and other financial intermediaries. Discusses the relevant regulatory landscape, including securities law, bankruptcy, ERISA, and tax law.
Wage Law and Litigation - LAWS 7531
Teaches federal and state wage statutes, common-law claims for unpaid wages (e.g., fraud, contract/quasi-contract, etc.), and complex statutes outside employment law (racketeering, antitrust, etc.) that creative wage litigators sometimes use. Coverage of the limits of wage law scope may include non-employee contractors (both traditional and gig economy workers), undocumented workers, students, volunteers, and/or prisoners. Teaches litigation practice and strategy, including class/collective action practice, plus experiential learning assignments that may include deposition-taking/client-interviewing, claim-strategizing, damages-calculating, and/or motion-writing.
Water Resources - LAWS 6302
Analysis of regional and national water problems, including the legal methods by which surface and ground water supplies are allocated, managed, and protected.
White Collar Crime - LAWS 6035
Examines distinctions between white collar crime and other types of criminal activity and the needs for and arguments against white collar laws and law enforcement. Studies securities fraud, mail and wire fraud, insider trading, money laundering, false statements, conspiracy and criminal forfeiture statutes. Includes use of the grand jury, privileges applicable in the corporate setting, immunity, discovery and the impact of parallel civil proceedings. Examines effect of government policy on corporations and their counsel, pre-trial and trial strategy, jury selection, and victim notification and restitution options.
White Collar Crime Practicum - LAWS 6060
Addresses the non-trial portion of white collar criminal law. Drawing examples and problems from wire fraud, securities fraud, healthcare, and computer fraud contexts, explores a white collar case's major investigative and charging phases, corporate and organizational issues, as well as pleas and punishment.
Wildlife and the Law - LAWS 6502
Examines the law that protects wildlife, its habitat, and biodiversity. Explores human-caused threats including habitat destruction, illegal trade, and climate change. Focuses on statutes, case law, environmental ethics, and current controversies to highlight legal, scientific, and political strategies for protecting biodiversity. Particular emphasis is placed on the U.S. Endangered Species Act.
Wills and Trusts - LAWS 6104
Covers intestate succession; family protection; execution of wills; revocation and revival; will contracts and will substitutes; creation of trusts; modification and termination; charitable trusts; fiduciary administration, including probate and contest of wills; construction problems in estate distribution.
Writing In Context - LAWS 6228
Provides the opportunity to improve legal writing and analytical skills in a particular field of law. This course will be offered in conjunction with a doctrinal course, and the writing assignments will be based on the law taught in the doctrinal course. Students enrolled in this course will need to be concurrently enrolled in the doctrinal course.
Writing in the Regulatory State - LAWS 6207
Focuses on developing the research, writing, and analytical skills necessary to operate within any highly-regulated field. Weekly research and writing assignments will focus on exposing students to the kinds of authority typical in the regulatory context: legislation, legislative history, administrative regulations, agency opinions, cases, and advanced secondary sources. Student writing assignments will include drafting opinion letters, pleadings and motions, contracts, and policies and procedures.
Wrongful Conviction - LAWS 7079
Focuses on the issues and remedies in cases of people who have been convicted, whose traditional appellate remedies have been exhausted, and who continue to claim actual innocence. Preference will be given to those who have taken or are taking more criminal procedure courses.