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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Journal: Colorado Technology Law Journal - LAWS 7936
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law.
Accounting Issues for Lawyers - LAWS 6281
Studies of accounting and auditing problems in the form they are placed before the lawyer, including a succinct study of basic bookkeeping, in-depth legal analysis of the major current problems of financial accounting, and consideration of the conduct of the financial affairs of business.
Administrative Law - LAWS 7205
The law governing the administration of statutes by the executive agencies of the federal government. Topics include the relationships of the constitutional branches with the agencies, the availability and scope of judicial review of agency action, procedural due process rights of individuals, the nature of agency processes for rulemaking and adjudication, and laws requiring open meetings and records. No prerequisites. The course is offered at least annually.
Advanced Appellate Advocacy - LAWS 6213
Advanced study and practice of written and oral appellate advocacy. Builds on the first-year advocacy course, but provides more advanced techniques for brief writing, and preparing for and conducting oral argument. Students are required to write an appellate brief and participate in several oral arguments, and receive detailed, one-on-one critiques of work product.
Advanced Applied Compliance - LAWS 9221
Enables students to discover what is takes to transform a company's compliance program beyond a "paper program." The class will explore the elements of a strong, effective and mature Compliance program. Taught by an experienced compliance professional with the support of several expert guests, the class will investigate how the best Compliance programs augment compliance policies with processes, controls and continuous monitoring.
Advanced Clinical Practicum - LAWS 7019
Enables a clinical student an optional 1-3 credits to complete advanced legal work in the Clinical Education Program. A student may participate in an advanced clinical practicum in connection with any existing clinical offering that the student already has successfully completed. A student must have the permission of the appropriate clinical faculty member, and must complete all of the advanced legal work under that faculty member's supervision. For each credit taken, a clinical student must complete a minimum of 50 hours of legal work, all of which shall be graded pass/graded. A clinical student may complete 1-3 credits of work over the course of no more than two semesters. A clinical student may earn no more than 3 credits total over the student's law school career.
Advanced Deals Lab: Advanced Real Estate Transactions - LAWS 7004
Using documents from actual real estate transactions, this course will focus on the drafting and negotiation skills required for the successful practice of real estate transactions law. Students will negotiate and draft actual real estate transaction documents. Prerequisite: Real Estate Transactions
Advanced Environmental Law: Air Pollution - LAWS 7512
Provides an in-depth examination of efforts to regulate air pollution in the United States under the Clean Air Act. Covers key provisions of the Act, the basic approach of cooperative federalism, the role of science and risk assessment in establishing health-based standards, the implications of instrument choice and regulatory design on innovation and economic growth, the development of 'first generation' climate policies under the act, and new approaches to compliance and enforcement.
Advanced Evidence: Forensic Science and the Criminal Courts - LAWS 7333
Explores the admissibility of forensic science opinion and expert testimony, its use as evidence at a trial, and the challenges that such evidence may pose for the courts and the entire criminal justice system in the future.
Advanced Legal Negotiation - LAWS 7709
Deepens students' understanding of the economic, psychological, cultural, and critical literatures related to legal negotiation and bargaining, provides students an advanced set of negotiation experiences and simulations that introduce new dynamics and problems not dealt with in the core course, and deepens students' self-understanding and ability to learn from experience. Prerequisite: Legal Negotiation
Advanced Legal Research - LAWS 6856
Offers an in-depth look at research resources and methods. Includes sources from the judicial, legislative, and executive branches of federal and state government; research in topical areas such as environmental law, taxation, and international law; and extensive coverage of secondary and nonlaw resources. Covers both print and electronic sources. Students will have several assignments and a final project.
Advanced Legal Research and Analysis - LAWS 6886
Develops students' ability to think critically about and solve current legal problems. Evaluates the benefits and detriments of both print and on-line legal resources, and how to create an efficient research plan. Formulates and applies research strategies to real-world legal problems, and uses legal analysis to refine and improve research results. Note: Students who have taken LAWS 6856 Advanced Legal Research course may not enroll in this course.
Advanced Legal Research and Writing for Practice - LAWS 6896
This course builds on the fundamental legal research and writing skills covered during the first year of law school, and requires students to develop and practice these skills in real-world ways. Every assignment will have a realistic purpose and audience, giving students the opportunity to complete work similar to that of summer associates or new attorneys. The assignments will primarily require objective analysis, but will include at least one persuasive piece of writing. Each assignment integrates the legal writing and research goals of the course, including the final project of the semester, an actual legal memo for Colorado Legal Services. Students will receive individual feedback on every assignment. The course is co-taught by a legal writing professor and a law librarian, with approximately 2/3 of the course devoted to writing, and 1/3 to research.
Advanced Legal Writing - LAWS 6226
Builds on skills learned in the first-year legal writing course to improve written legal analysis. Students will complete multiple written assignments and will receive individual feedback on their work. Sections vary significantly depending on the professor; please check the Legal Writing page of the Colorado Law website to read each professor's course description.
Advanced Oil & Gas Law - LAWS 7302
Covers the history of oil and gas conservation and its regulation, proration and allowable regulation, compulsory pooling and unitization, permitting and environment regulation, and the interplay between federal, state and local regulation. Requires LAWS 7102 Oil & Gas.
Advanced Torts - LAWS 7475
Studies selected tort actions and theories. Topics covered may include "dignitary torts" (e.g., defamation, privacy, etc.), business torts, and product liability.
Advanced Transactional Drafting - LAWS 7071
Provides students with the opportunity to further develop skills gained in LAWS 7051 and put them to use in simulations and business contexts across various areas of practice. Students will be asked to draft industry specific contract provisions, revise existing contracts, counsel and negotiate on behalf of clients and work through ethical dilemmas encountered by transactional attorneys.
Advanced Trial Advocacy - LAWS 7159
An advanced course covering trial practice elements. Open only to students who have taken Trial Advocacy. Uses pass/grading.
Advanced Water Law - LAWS 7312
Builds on the study of basic water law principles for those interested in practicing in this field. Explores in more detail the highly developed legal and administrative system of water law in Colorado and other states, including the use of special courts to adjudicate the existence of water rights and approve changes of use. Prereq: LAWS 6302 (Water Resources)
Agency, Partnership and the LLC - LAWS 6201
Surveys agency law, whose principles are important in many other areas of law. Studies the legal organizations commonly used by small businesses: partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs). Students who take this course cannot also receive course credit for Business Associations (LAWS 7621).
American Indian Law Clinic - LAWS 7309
Emphasizes the practice of federal and tribal Indian law. Students will represent individuals and Indian tribes in matters involving: the Indian Child Welfare Act, enforcement of federal and tribal rights, and code development. Focuses on select current Indian law topics and development of lawyering skills.
American Indian Law I - LAWS 7725
Investigation of the federal statutory, decisional, and constitutional law that bears upon American Indians, tribal governments, and Indian reservation transactions.
American Indian Law II - LAWS 7735
This course will investigate the legal history and current legal status of Alaska Natives and Native Hawaiians. It will also address other current topics such as tribal water rights, tribal fishing and hunting rights, tribal justice systems, religious freedom, and tribal natural resource and environmental management. Prerequisite: LAWS 7725.
American Legal History - LAWS 7155
Explores the history of American law from the Constitution to the twenty-first century Global War on Terror. It covers topics including the law of slavery and freedom, the development of civil rights law, business regulation and deregulation, the origins of the administrative state, and the rise of the conservative legal movement. Throughout, the course emphasizes the ways that political and economic change shapes the law and the practical effect law has on social movements.
Analytical Strategies - LAWS 7350
Develops analytical, writing and problem-solving skills necessary to pass the bar exam and succeed in practice. Designed for third-year law students in their final semester. Students will improve their techniques for analyzing, organizing and writing responses to essay and performance test questions through frequent written exercises and individual feedback on those exercises.
Antitrust - LAWS 7201
Studies American competition policy: collaborations among competitors, including agreements on price and boycotts, definition of agreement, monopolization, vertical restraints such as resale price maintenance and territorial confinement of dealers.
Appellate Advocacy Competition - LAWS 7529
Participation in an intermural appellate advocacy competition, in which a brief must be filed and reviewed, critiqued, and deemed credit-worthy by a member of the faculty. (Law School Rule 3-2-9 [b] should be consulted prior to enrollment.)
Appellate Advocacy Practicum - LAWS 7029
Offers the opportunity to represent parties in federal and state civil appeals. Students draft opening briefs in the fall semester, and draft reply briefs and appear for oral argument in the spring. Prior appellate advocacy experience will be helpful. Enrollment is limited to six students.
Applied Evidence - LAWS 6383
Provides the opportunity to improve the legal writing and analytical skills by practicing written analysis based on the law of Evidence. Professors Griffin and Bloom designed materials specifically for this course, which is designed to be taken concurrently with Professor Bloom's Evidence class. Student receive individual feedback on every exercise and assignment.
Arbitration - LAWS 7751
Discusses the nature of arbitration, enforcement of arbitration agreements and awards, complexities of multi-party arbitrations, fairness and efficiency of the arbitral process, and other issues related to arbitration's prevalence in contexts ranging from corporate to consumer and employment disputes.
Argument and Persuasion in American Law - LAWS 4808
Bankruptcy - LAWS 7021
Explores the role of debt, credit, and debt forgiveness in American capitalist society. The course begins with an overview of the state court collection procedures, and then teaches the main provisions of the three primary chapters of the Bankruptcy Code dealing with personal and corporate bankruptcies (Chapters 7, 11, and 13).
Barristers Council - LAWS 7116
Bioethics and Law - LAWS 7415
Provides an interdisciplinary study of law and bioethics. Students will read legal cases and clinical bioethics material to understand how the law has attempted to unify the goals of the two disciplines.
Business Associations - LAWS 7621
Covers the law of agency, partnerships, limited liability companies and corporations. It includes principles of agency, formation and operation of business entities, fiduciary duties of the actors in business entities, and the relevant federal and state laws related to those entities. Students who take this course cannot receive course credit for Corporations (LAWS 6211) or Agency, Partnership and the LLC (LAWS 6201).
Business Planning - LAWS 7211
Focuses on the development and use of concepts derived from a number of legal areas in the context of business planning and counseling. Topics such as formation of business entities, sale of a business, recapitalization, division, reorganization and dissolution are considered. Prerequisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007).
Business Transactions - LAWS 7601
Course provides a practical understanding of how to apply the law in both transactional and litigation settings. Gives an interdisciplinary look at how various areas of the law are brought together in common factual settings, focusing on technology transactions.
Capital Punishment in America - LAWS 6528
Surveys the history and current status of capital punishment in the United States, with a critical examination of arguments both for and against the death penalty.
Civil Practice Clinic I - LAWS 6009
Emphasizes procedural and practical remedies and defenses available in civil litigation. In conjunction with this course, students will be assigned civil cases related to the course material. Develops working knowledge of courtroom skills.
Civil Practice Clinic II - LAWS 6019
A continuation of Legal Aid Civil Practice I. Emphasizes procedural and practical remedies and defenses available in civil litigation. In conjunction with this course, students will be assigned civil cases related to the course material. Develops working knowledge of courtroom skills. Prerequisite or corequisite: Evidence LAWS 6353-3.
Civil Procedure - LAWS 5303
Studies modern practice in civil suits, including rules governing pleading, joinder of parties, discovery, jurisdiction of courts over the subject matter and parties, right to jury trial, appeals, and res judicata and collateral estoppel, with emphasis on the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and their Colorado counterpart.
Civil Rights - LAWS 7025
Presents a comprehensive study of federal civil rights statutes briefly reviewed in other courses (e.g., Constitutional Law or Federal Courts). Studies federal civil rights statutes, their judicial application, and their interrelationships as a discretely significant body of law of increasing theoretical interest and practical importance.
Climate Change Law and Policy - LAWS 6712
Examines the science of climate change and the broader role of science in public policymaking. Reviews the changing legal landscape to abate greenhouse gas emissions, and key issues in policy design. Reviews the Supreme Court's April 2nd, 2007 decision in Massachusetts v. EPA, overturning EPA's refusal to regulate greenhouse gas pollution from motor vehicle tailpipes, and the aftermath in the courts, Executive Branch and Congress.
Climate Justice - LAWS 6702
This course introduces the field of climate justice and seeks to identify legal and policy tools for advancing fair outcomes in climate change decision-making. Climate justice is concerned with the intersection of race and/or indigeneity, poverty, and climate change. This course will examine climate impacts globally and identify the strengths and weaknesses of international and domestic legal and policy frameworks regarding the most vulnerable.
Colorado Environmental Law Journal - LAWS 7916
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Colorado Environmental Law Journal.
Colorado Environmental Law Journal - LAWS 7926
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Colorado Environmental Law Journal.
Colorado Legal Research - LAWS 6866
Surveys resources and methods to effectively research Colorado law. Covers primary and secondary resources including Colorado statutes, cases and digests, regulations, and constitution and practice materials. Covers how to research Colorado municipal law and other Colorado topics.
Colorado Workers Compensation Theory and Practice - LAWS 6541
Introduces the legal theories that underlie the no-fault compensation system, its historical evolution, policy conundrums, and ethical quandaries. Teaches the application of the procedural rules most frequently utilized in administrative setting. Studies the Workers' Compensation Act, the Workers' Compensation Rules of Procedure, and the Office of Administrative Courts Rules of Procedure.
Communications For Compliance Professionals - LAWS 9226
Develops the tools students will need to thrive in the law school's MSL program. Deepens students' understanding of the United States legal system and develops their ability to communicate effectively and appropriately in writing and orally to their intended audience, and research, organize and explain their ideas clearly, using appropriate writing conventions.
Community Collaboration Law Lab - 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.
Comparative Family Law - LAWS 7145
Examines and critiques law, legal institutions and traditions of the country of focus and the US as they affect children, families, and work. 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 service learning project over spring break.
Complex Civil Litigation - LAWS 7303
Covers civil procedure in modern complex multiparty suits, including class actions in such settings as employment discrimination and mass torts, and problems in discovery, joinder, res judicata, collateral estoppel and judicial management in such suits.
Compliance - LAWS 6221
How does a corporation establish and manage expectations for the conduct of its work force? What does a corporation need to do to keep itself out of the headlines for scandals, and how should it respond to problems when they arise? This course will explore these topics. It will cover the requirements for corporate compliance programs and the key components of them, including the role of the audit committee, internal audit, and ethics and compliance. It will also look closely at a few different compliance regimes, including Sarbanes Oxley, the privacy and security components of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA), the evolution of other data privacy standards like 'Do Not Track,' and the anti-corruption standards of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the UK Bribery Act.
Computer Crime - LAWS 6321
Explores the legal issues that judges, legislators, prosecutors, and defense attorneys are confronting as they respond to the recent explosion in computer-related crime. Includes the Fourth Amendment in cyberspace, the law of electronic surveillance, computer hacking and other computer crimes, encryption, online economic espionage, cyberterrorism, First Amendment in cyberspace, federal/state relations in the enforcement of computer crime laws, and civil liberties online.
Conflict of Laws - LAWS 6108
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.
Constitutional Law - LAWS 6005
Studies constitutional structure: judicial review, federalism, separation of powers; and constitutional rights of due process and equal protection.
Construction Law - LAWS 6114
Focuses on the basic principles and practices of construction law. Provides an overview of construction industry participants and players (engineers, contractors, insurers) and discusses and analyzes the various obligations and liabilities of these parties. Covers construction and design contracting, construction claims, professional negligence, construction insurance and suretyship and ADR in construction. Provides transactional-practice oriented exercises.
Consumer Protection Laws and Policies - LAWS 6031
Focuses on deceptive trade practices and consumer rights. Reviews the law of deception/misrepresentation at common law, and federal and state laws regarding unfair acts and practices. Covers credit practices, environmental and health claims, and telecommunications and privacy. Discusses remedies, including governmental enforcement actions, and individual and class actions.
Contracts - LAWS 5121
Covers basic principles of contract liability; offer and acceptance; consideration; statute of frauds; contract remedies; the parol evidence rule; performance of contracts; conditions; effect of changed circumstances; and other issues related to contract formation and enforcement.
Copyright - LAWS 7301
Examines state and federal laws relating to the protection of works of authorship ranging from traditional works to computer programs. Studies the1976 Copyright Act as well as relevant earlier acts. Gives attention to state laws, such as interference with contractual relations, the right of publicity, moral right, protection of ideas and misappropriation of trade values, that supplement federal copyright.
Corporate Taxation - LAWS 6157
Examines the federal income taxation of "subchapter C" corporations and their shareholders. Topics may include choice of entity, operations, distributions, redemptions, formations, liquidations, taxable asset and stock acquisitions, and tax-free reorganizations (that is, mergers and acquisitions). Prerequisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007).
Corporate Transactions in Health Law - LAWS 7565
This course introduces key corporate and regulatory issues impacting the delivery of health care. The course focus will be transactional, with students first gaining an understanding of basic corporate law and regulatory principles, and then learning to integrate core federal and state laws into choice and use of corporate structures and operational strategies. As the health care industry undergoes tremendous consolidation and reorganization in response to the changing market and environment ushered in by the Affordable Care Act, the course will examine health care transactions from both the hospital's and the physician's perspective.
Corporations - LAWS 6211
Covers formation of corporations and their management; relations among shareholders, officers, and directors; the impact of federal legislation on directors' duties; and the special problems of closed corporations. Students who take this course cannot also receive course credit for Business Associations (LAWS 7621).
Courtroom Observation Civil - LAWS 5323
This course, available to first year students only, is an elective course, not required. It will require students to spend fifteen hours observing actual civil proceedings in a courtroom or courtrooms, to attend a two-hour class meeting every other week, and to prepare and submit a journal recording his or her observations. Figuring out how to gain access to appropriate proceedings is part of the student's work, although the professor is available for advice and guidance if needed. The professor will also read and evaluate the students' journals; encourage sharing and reflection on their experiences; suggest further research when useful to address perplexities or confusion encountered during their observations; and provide information designed to clarify and enrich their observations. The course is pass-fail, and the size of a section is limited to 20.
Courtroom Observation Criminal - LAWS 5513
This course, available to first year students only, is an elective course, not required. It will require students to spend fifteen hours observing actual criminal proceedings in a courtroom or courtrooms, to attend a two-hour class meeting every other week, and to prepare and submit a journal recording his or her observations. Figuring out how to gain access to appropriate proceedings is part of the student's work, although the professor is available for advice and guidance if needed. The professor will also read and evaluate the students' journals; encourage sharing and reflection on their experiences; suggest further research when useful to address perplexities or confusion encountered during their observations; and provide information designed to clarify and enrich their observations. The course is pass-graded, and the size of a section is limited to 20.
Courtroom Observation International - LAWS 5803
This course, available to first year students only, is an elective course, not required. It will require students to spend fifteen hours observing proceedings before an international tribunal or tribunals, to attend a two-hour class meeting every other week, and to prepare and submit a journal recording his or her observations. The proceedings observed will be available streaming online, and the professor will provide guidance and information about how to gain access to them. The professor will also read and evaluate the students' journals; encourage sharing and reflection on their experiences; suggest further research when useful to address perplexities or confusion encountered during their observations; and provide information designed to clarify and enrich their observations. The course is pass-fail, and the size of a section is limited to 20.
Creditors' Remedies and Debtors' Protections - LAWS 7011
Examines typical state rights and procedures for the enforcement of claims and federal and state law limitations providing protection to debtors in the process. Includes prejudgment remedies, statutory and equitable remedies, fraudulent conveyance principles, and exemptions and other judicial protections afforded debtors.
Criminal and Immigration Defense Clinic - LAWS 6029
Provides thorough grounding in problems of criminal defense. Students defend indigent misdemeanants in Boulder courts. Develops working knowledge of courtroom skills.
Criminal Defense Clinic - LAWS 6079
Provides a thorough grounding in problems of criminal defense. Students will defend indigent misdemeanants. Develops working knowledge of courtroom skills, advocacy, and evidence presentation. Concludes with full mock trial.
Criminal Defense Clinic II - LAWS 6039
Provides a thorough grounding in problems of criminal defense. Students will defend indigent misdemeanants in Boulder courts. Develops working knowledge of courtroom skills.
Criminal Justice Policy and Practice - LAWS 7315
Focuses on policy and practice issues rather than case law. Examines how American criminal justice is (and has been) dispensed in the vast majority of cases that never reach trial. Devotes attention to systemic issues rather than case-specific problems. Studies policy behavior, prosecutorial charging and bargaining discretion, the provision of defense services, bail and preventive detention, plea negotiation, and sentencing--aspects of the criminal process that affect huge volumes of cases and require thought in global terms.
Criminal Law - LAWS 5503
Statutory and common law of crimes and defenses, the procedures by which the law makes judgments as to criminality of conduct, the purposes of the criminal law, and the constitutional limits upon it.
Criminal Procedure: Adjudicative Process - LAWS 7045
Criminal Procedure at the University of Colorado School of Law is taught in two parts. This second part, "The Adjudicative Phase," focuses primarily on criminal procedure at and after trial. It examines such topics as bail, prosecutorial discretion, discovery, plea-bargains, speedy trial, jury trial, right to counsel at trial, double jeopardy, and appeal.
Criminal Procedure: Investigative Phase - LAWS 6045
Criminal Procedure at the University of Colorado School of Law is taught in two parts. This first part, "The Investigative Process," focuses primarily on the constitutional limitations applicable to police investigative techniques such as arrest, search, seizure, electronic surveillance, interrogation, and lineup identification.
Cultural Property Law - LAWS 6602
Concerns domestic and international regulation of property that expresses group identity and experience. Organized around traditional categories of property (real, personal, and intellectual), the course covers historic preservation, archaeological resources, art and museum law, with attention to indigenous peoples' advocacy on burial sites, traditional lands, ceremonies, music, symbols, ethnobotany, genetic information, and language.
Cybersecurity - LAWS 7361
Introduces students to the laws that regulate the basic technologies of the Internet and the management of information in the digital age. It examines the most significant statutes, regulations, and common law principles that comprise this emerging legal framework, including the Federal Wiretap Act, the HIPAA Privacy Rule, and the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Deals Lab - LAWS 6271
Provides an umbrella for several advanced business law sections, each of which provides an intensive intellectual experience for law students by requiring them to connect deep concepts and knowledge from basic business courses to complex transactional environments. Students are required to solve client problems and negotiate transactions in the face of intricate and conflicting legal regimes that sprawl across doctrinal fields. Examples of specific offerings include Advanced Venture Capital; Advanced Securities Offerings; Advanced Securities Regulation (Investment Funds, Intermediaries, and Markets); and Advanced Mergers & Acquisitions. Because these are advanced courses, students must first take the relevant introductory substantive course (e.g., Venture Capital or Mergers & Acquisitions or Securities Regulation).
Deals: Engineering Financial Transactions - LAWS 7101
Explores the business lawyer's role in creating value by helping clients identify, assess, and manage business risks through efficient contract design while achieving the optimal legal, tax or regulatory treatment for the deal. Includes case studies of actual transactions.
Deposition Skills - LAWS 6119
Provides valuable skills to assume active roles in the deposition process. Explores why and when to take depositions; drafting and objecting to deposition notices for individual deponents, non-party witnesses, and corporate designees; drafting successful outlines, proper questions and objections; using exhibits; furthering case theory, making and using stipulations; using depositions in pretrial motions and at trial.
Disability Rights - LAWS 6555
Explores the theories of disability, including whether disability is the product of society/social construction or medicine. The course will then explore some of the major federal protections for disability, including the Americans with Disabilities Act, which prohibits discrimination in employment and public accommodations, and the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act.
Dispute Resolution Digital Age - LAWS 7461
Explores the need for expanded and equalized access to remedies in consumer cases, and how the internet opens doors to online dispute resolution (?ODR?) systems that utilize cost-effective negotiation, mediation, and arbitration processes for resolving complaints. ODR has its drawbacks, but it can be especially effective and satisfying for low dollar claims such as those in most consumer contexts because of its efficiencies. ODR also has potential to ease power imbalances that have hindered market regulation. Accordingly, this course will look at the various systems currently used by major companies such as eBay, as well as the rules and treaty developments in global markets. We also will do ODR simulation exercises, led by Colin Rule, who has been a leader in creating ODR systems. The class also will include deep consideration of both the potential and drawbacks of ODR systems. All ODR processes are not beneficial, and thus we will also discuss development of best practices and question policy directions.
Domestic Violence - LAWS 7513
Explores the law, policy, history and theory of domestic violence. Students will approach legal aspects of the problems from a variety of perspectives, which may include criminal justice, family law, civil rights law, tort and/or international human rights. The course examines the limits of legal methods and remedies for holding batterers accountable and keeping victims safe. Students will also study such topics as the dynamics of abusive relationships; the history of the criminal justice system's response to domestic violence; the defenses available to battered persons who kill their abusers; the legal paradigm of the sympathetic victim; psychological and feminist theories about abusive relationships; civil rights and tort liability for batters and third parties; and the intersection of domestic violence with international human rights. The goal of the course is to provide practical information about the challenges involved in legal advocacy for battered persons, as well as theoretical, ethical and historical approaches to the problem of domestic violence.
E-discovery - LAWS 6170
Exposes students to the legal and practical challenges presented by E-discovery and how electronically stored information shapes litigation and the pretrial process. Students gain an understanding of how electronically stored information can impact an overall discovery strategy and how this complicates a lawyer's ethical and professional obligations.
Econ of Am Legal System - LAWS 7318
Explores the economics of the American legal system. Topics include the cost of producing lawyers, the market for legal services, the practical challenges of running small and large law firms and the government's role in making legal services available.
Economic Analysis of Law - LAWS 6318
Introduces the basic elements of economic theory and emphasizes demand and utility, cost and optimality.
Education Law - LAWS 7055
Considers issues raised by the interaction of law and education. Issues may include the legitimacy of compulsory schooling, alternatives to public schools, socialization and discipline in the schools, and questions of equal educational opportunities.
Elder Law - LAWS 6525
Designed to provide students with a focused perspective from which to gain a deep understanding of the varied legal issues that arise at the intersection of law and aging. "Elder law" is the legal practice of counseling and representing older persons and their representatives with respect to the legal aspects of health and long-term care planning, public benefits, surrogate decisionmaking, older persons' legal capacity, the conservation, disposition, and administration of older persons' estates, and the implementation of their decisions concerning such matters, as well as the broad ethical issues of representing clients in this field of practice.
Election Law - LAWS 7325
Examines the rapidly evolving field of election law: The right to vote, voting procedures, redistricting, candidate selection, campaign finance laws, and direct democracy. Emphasizes federal law, including applicable constitutional jurisprudence.
Employee Benefits and Compensation Law - LAWS 6551
Examines past and present employee benefits and compensation practices among private and public employers. Covers ERISA and defined benefit, defined contribution, and welfare benefit plans; equity awards granted by corporations; equity awards granted by LLCs and partnerships; nonqualified deferred compensation and Section 409A of the Internal Revenue Code; golden parachutes and Sections 280G and 4999 of the Internal Revenue Code.
Employment Discrimination - LAWS 7541
Examines statutory and constitutional prohibitions of discrimination in employment on the basis of race, gender, age, religion, national origin, and disability.
Employment Law - LAWS 6521
The course examines the rights and obligations of employers and employees. It is a far broader course than Employment Discrimination but covers discrimination only minimally. The wide range of topics includes: the status and decline of the employer's traditional right to terminate employees "at will"; employees' rights to sue for termination against public policy or under various statues, such as whistleblower and discrimination laws; minimum/overtime wage claims; public employees' constitutional First Amendment, Fourth Amendment, and Due Process rights; the enforceability as of employment handbooks, letters, and oral communications; employees' rights to family/medical leave; and various employee/employer rights and obligations -- for example, privacy rights, defamation, and non-competition/non-solicitation agreements; employers' mandatory arbitration policies for employee claims; unemployment insurance; and workplace health and safety regulation.
Energy Justice - LAWS 7232
Establishes why nearly a third of the world populated by the energy oppressed poor, presents a major national and international "legislative" or socio political problem calling for answers from governments and civil societies in the developed and developing world. Explains and elucidates the concept of energy justice, its jurisprudential heritage, and its meaning and relevance in contemporary society. Case studies present problem solving frameworks spanning the political, social, behavioral, engineering, natural sciences, and law.
Energy Law and Regulation - LAWS 6722
This course provides an introduction to energy law and regulation in the United States. It covers basic principles of rate regulation and public utilities, the division of jurisdiction between federal and state governments, and the key federal statutes and regulatory regimes governing natural gas, electricity, and nuclear power. Much of the course will focus on the basic federal frameworks for natural gas and electricity regulation, with an emphasis on understanding the messy and uneven transition to wholesale competition in these sectors and, in the electricity context, the experience with state restructuring and retail competition. The course will also introduce students to the distinctive federal regime governing nuclear power. The last part of the course will address new challenges confronting electricity regulation (and energy law generally) as a result of emerging mandates for renewable energy and greenhouse gas emissions. This course does not cover traditional oil and gas law.
Entrep Innovation and Public Policy - LAWS 5201
Explores cutting edge questions around entrepreneurship, including being an entrepreneur, leadership and what makes a great founding team, building and scaling a business, entrepreneurial communities, financing entrepreneurial companies, leadership in government, entrepreneurship and innovation policy.
Entrepreneurial Law Clinic - LAWS 7619
Entrepreneurial Law Clinic ("clinic") student attorneys provide legal services to clients in connection with their start-up businesses. The Clinic focuses upon basic corporate work, commercial contracts, and select intellectual property matters. Typical tasks include: advising clients regarding choice of entity; forming corporations and limited liability companies; drafting shareholder agreements and operating agreements; drafting employment agreements, consulting agreements and intellectual property agreements; counseling clients regarding trademark and other intellectual property strategies and prosecuting patents.
The Clinic acts as a law firm for its clients' business related legal matters. As a prerequisite, a student must take three courses within the areas of corporate law, agency, tax, securities, intellectual property, transactional drafting, or transactional law. Clinic students work in teams of two under the supervision of local attorneys. Each team counsels several clients during the academic year. Students draft documents and memorandum on behalf of their clients. Each week students engage in a roundtable discussion where they present and analyze issues related to their client matters. Student attorneys' work in the Clinic is graded.
In addition to work on behalf of clients, student attorneys read materials on topics salient to entrepreneurial law. On a weekly basis, student attorneys also participate in seminar discussions with local attorneys and entrepreneurs. The seminar component focuses on issues that transactional attorneys frequently address in working with entrepreneurs and emerging companies. Finally, in addition to client work, each student team completes a project that focuses on the local entrepreneurial community. Representative projects include presenting legal issues to underserved entrepreneurs, researching ethical issues related to transactional practice, and drafting agreements for use by professors who teach classes in which startups are formed.
Environmental Decision-Making - LAWS 7222
Explores the foundational issues the 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.
Environmental Justice and Law - LAWS 7242
Examines issues of unequal environmental protection across various contexts, including air and water pollution, siting of toxic and hazardous waste, noxious land uses, and access to environmental goods such as public lands. The course will explore the role that U.S. law has played in constructing the unequal distribution of environmental harms and benefits. It will then examine efforts within the U.S. to use law and other tactics to redress environmental injustice.
Environmental Law - LAWS 7202
Examines and analyzes federal, state, and tribal regulation of clean air and water, hazardous wastes, toxic substances, and contaminated properties. Considers related environmental justice theory, economic, ethics and policy issues.
Estate and Gift Tax Planning - LAWS 6217
Explores structural and planning aspects of the current federal wealth transfer tax system, including the federal tax code provisions governing estate and gift taxation. Topics may include estate planning for families and married individuals, estate valuation issues, retirement assets and life insurance, charitable giving, and trust and estate administration. Prerequisite: Wills and Trusts (LAWS 6104); Suggested pre-/co-requisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007). Students may not receive credit for both Estate and Gift Tax Planning (LAWS 6217) and Estate Planning (LAWS 7217).
Estate Planning - LAWS 7217
Deals with the practical application of estate planning principles to a broad array of client situations, some of which present federal wealth transfer taxation issues. Topics may include planning for young adults, individuals contemplating marriage, unmarried couples, couples with children, gifts to grandchildren, asset protection, perpetual trusts, charitable gifts, and an overview of estate administration. Prerequisite: Federal Estate and Gift Tax (LAWS 7207). Suggested prerequisites: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007); Wills and Trusts (LAWS 6104). Students may not receive credit for both Estate Planning (LAWS 7217) and Estate and Gift Tax Planning (LAWS 6217).
Ethical Organizations and Professionals - LAWS 9003
Provides students, particularly those in the Master of Studies in Law (MSL) in Ethics and Compliance program, the opportunity to examine what drives ethical behavior within organizations and the role that ethics and compliance professionals play in promoting ethical behavior. Investigates ethical challenges and decision making, methods to assess ethical organizational culture and qualities of ethical leadership.
Ethics Compliance Capstone - LAWS 7103
Integrates skills and knowledge from the introductory compliance course and other courses in law school compliance curriculum as students develop a compliance program for an institution.
Evidence - LAWS 6353
Studies the methods and forms of proof in litigation, including detailed consideration of hearsay, impeachment of witnesses, relevancy and certain restrictions on authentication and best evidence doctrines, and privileges.
Evidence and Trial Practice - LAWS 6363
Studies methods and forms of proof in litigation, including detailed consideration of hearsay, impeachment of witnesses, relevancy and certain restrictions on authentication and best evidence doctrines, and privileges. Applies rules and doctrine of evidence in simulated trial settings. Combined Evidence and Trial Practice course. This course combines Trial Advocay and Evidence. You CANNOT get credit for LAWS 6363 (Evidence and Trial Practice) and either of the following LAWS 6353 (Evidence) and LAWS 6109 (Trail Advocacy).
Extern Program - LAWS 7939
Extern credit may be earned for uncompensated work for a sponsor, which may be any lawyer, judge, or organization that employs lawyers or judges, and is approved by the Academic and Student Affairs Committee. Work is done under the direction of a field instructor, who shall be a lawyer or judge at the sponsor, and of a member of the law faculty. A substantial writing component is required. Fifty hours of working time per credit hour is required.
Family Law - LAWS 7105
This course will address the legal rules regulating the family, examining in detail the rules of marriage and divorce. The course will focus in particular on how these rules differ depending on whether the family is
wealthy or poor, traditional or nontraditional, self-supporting or receiving public aid. This course will cut across traditional law school disciplines, such as civil, criminal, and constitutional law. We will consider some of the following important and complex questions: What is a "family"? This theme will arise throughout the course as we examine how the definition of "family" varies according to the context, reflecting society's values and policy goals. How does, and how should, family law address nontraditional families? How do race, gender, and class affect family law?
Federal Civil Litigation Practice Clinic - LAWS 6069
This is a one semester clinic offered in the fall and spring semesters for 4 credits each semester where students, under the supervision of the clinic director, will represent clients in administrative proceedings before the Federal Immigration Court, the U.S. District Court and in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, and federal district court cases involving immigration habeas proceedings, prisoners' civil rights cases challenging the conditions of their confinement and employment discrimination cases. In the classroom component of the clinic, students will learn the three core substantive areas of the law covered in the clinic, and procedural and practice rules, including the federal rules of civil procedure, evidence, and the local rules of court. The course will include mock pre-trial and trial simulations to hone students' trial advocacy skills.
Federal Courts - LAWS 7003
Structure and jurisdiction of the federal courts, with particular emphasis on problems of federalism and separation of powers and their relationship to resolution of substantive disputes. Invaluable for students planning a federal court practice or clerkship.
Federal Estate and Gift Tax - LAWS 7207
Analyzes the federal estate and gift taxation of inter vivos and testamentary transfers, introduces the federal income taxation of estates and trusts, and explores elementary estate planning. Prior or simultaneous enrollments in Income Taxation (LAWS 6007) and Wills and Trusts (LAWS 6104) are helpful, but not required. Students may receive credit for this course and either Estate Planning (LAWS 7217) or Estate and Gift Tax Planning (LAWS 6217).
Federal Income Taxation of Individuals - LAWS 4007
Provides an introduction to federal income taxation of individuals. Enrollment restricted to undergraduates.
Federal Litigation - Everyting But the Trial - LAWS 6373
Litigates through all pretrial phases as plaintiff's counsel, a mock federal case: an employee's challenge to compensation and termination, with possible claims including breach of contract, breach of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of wage payment statutory and regulatory requirements, and fraudulent inducement to contract.
First Amendment - LAWS 7015
Examines speech and religion clauses of the First Amendment. Includes the philosophical foundation of free expression; analytical problems in First Amendment jurisprudence; and the relationships between free exercise of religion and the separation of church and state.
Food Law and Practice - LAWS 7520
Surveys the basic regulatory landscape of food law with insight into critical legal issues facing industry and consumers. Covers federal, state and municipal regulation, litigation, government incentives, international standards and soft-law. Combines doctrinal approaches with simulation and problem solving to introduce systems-level thinking. No prerequisites or prior knowledge is required, though interest in food law and corporate law are helpful.
Foundations of International Legal Thought - LAWS 6008
Provides students with a broad historical and philosophical introduction to international law. Addresses the basic concept of sovereignty as it was understood between 1492 and World War II, in the contexts of the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the international legality of the slave trade, relations between the Ottoman Empire and the so-called Great Powers, the Chinese opium wars, and the rise of modern international institutions. In the foundational style of the humanities, this course offers an intellectual context for LAWS 6400 and the rest of the international law curriculum.
Foundations of Legal Research - LAWS 5646
Designed to move students from the brief introduction to legal research offered in the first-year legal writing classes to the problem-centered research students will perform starting in the summer after their first year. Provides students with a conceptual understanding of the organization and connectivity of legal authority and with instruction in research methodology at both the project and resource levels. Uses pass/grading.
Foundations of Natural Resources Law - LAWS 6112
Introduces students to the law of natural resources. Examines the legal, historical, political, and intellectual influences that shape natural resources development and conservation.
Framing and Legal Narrative - LAWS 5211
Explores the role of framing effects in constructing a legal argument. From an appellate court opinion to closing statement to a jury to a white paper to a regulatory agency to a public campaign for a ballot proposition, the role of an overarching narrative is critical to effective persuasion. Uses pass/grading.
Global Law and Global Governance - LAWS 6540
Addresses contemporary theories of globalization. We will explore questions such as: What is globalization, and in particular, what is the globalization of law? What is the extent of legal globalization, and how can we know? Are global law and global governance good things? How are these categories any different from what has traditionally been called 'international law'? Our search for answers will be guided by a selection of recent books from theorists of globalization and global governance, such as David Held, Immanuel Wallerstein, and David Kennedy.
Health Care Compliance - LAWS 7426
Introduces students to the primary laws and regulations that govern serious medicare and medicaid fraud and abuse. Major topics include: The Anti-Kickback Statutes; the Civil False Claims Act and its qui tam provision, the Stark Self-Referral laws, and criminal health care fraud statutes.
Health Law and Policy - LAWS 7425
Acquaints students with the issues arising at the interface between law and medicine through analysis of cases and other materials. Critically analyzes methods used by courts and legislatures to address medical/legal problems in an effort to determine whether the legal resolution was reasonable and appropriate in light of medical, social and political considerations.
Health Law II: Medical Malpractice Litigation - LAWS 7405
Explores (1) the law controlling ethical issues that
arise during the delivery of medical care, (2) the
substantive law of medical malpractice and tort reform
aimed at reducing the frequency and severity of
medical malpractice verdicts, and (3) the practical
aspects of litigating a medical malpractice case.
Cross-listed at the Health Sciences Center; will
include field trips there.
Immigration and Citizenship Law - LAWS 7065
Covers legal issues pertaining to noncitizens of the United States, especially their right to enter and remain as immigrants and nonimmigrants. Specific topics include admission and exclusion, deportation, and refugees and political asylum. This course approaches these topics from various perspectives, including constitutional law, statutory interpretation, planning, ethics, history, and policy.
Immigration Law and Immigrants' Rights - LAWS 7615
Addresses four broad questions: Who is a citizen of the United States? Who else can come to this country? When and why can noncitizens be forced to leave? Who has the authority to answer these questions? These questions prompt us to examine the history of U.S. immigration, the constitutional-statutory-regulatory framework that governs immigration and citizenship law, and the federal agencies that administer it. Also addresses contemporary challenges to, and assertions of, immigrants? rights.
Income Taxation - LAWS 6007
Examines the fundamental concepts underlying the federal income taxation of individuals and businesses. Topics may include the scope and timing of income, personal and business deductions from income, the taxation of families, and the tax treatment of certain property transactions. Serves as the introductory course for most taxation courses at the Law School.
Independent Legal Research - LAWS 7846
Involves independent study and preparation of a research paper under faculty supervision. Students produce a research paper equivalent to a seminar research paper. A draft is submitted, subjected to critique by the faculty member, and redrafted. Available during or after the fifth semester of law school. Instructor consent required.
Indigenous Peoples In International Law - LAWS 7715
Studies developments in the substance and procedure of international human rights law pertaining to indigenous peoples, examining these developments through varying perspectives, doctrinal and political, pragmatic and critical. Students will become familiar with indigenous peoples' involvement in the human rights movement both before and after WWII, and corresponding developments in the United Nations, Organization of American States, and other institutions.
Information Privacy and Cybersecurity - LAWS 6361
Explores the laws that regulate the basic technologies of the internet and the management of information in the digital age. It examines the most significant statutes, regulations and common law practices that comprise this emerging legal framework.
Insurance Law - LAWS 7445
Provides a general understanding of the law governing the nature of insurance transactions as well as the nature of insurance, fundamental assumptions, regulating the insurance relationship, life insurance transactions, automobile insurance, and tort of bad faith.
Intellectual Property Counseling and Licensing - LAWS 7381
Introduces strategic development and procurement of IP, including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and trade secrets. Evaluates the latest cases and legal trends from a practical and strategic perspective. Focuses on widely accepted best practices and critical thinking in these areas. Prerequisites: Introduction to Intellectual Property OR Patent Law.
Intensive Intro to Fin Info, Accounting & Law: Accounting Bootcamp - LAWS 6280
Exposes students to the basics of financial accounting and when and how lawyers encounter accounting problems. Students will leave the course with an understanding of the basic framework of accounting, including the double-entry method, balance sheets, income statements, and statements of cash flows; time value of money; discount rates; basic methods of business valuation; and risk and diversification concepts.
Interactive Programming For Lawyers - LAWS 6826
Teaches students how to develop simple computer applications that would help in the practice of law and the delivery of legal services, using a drag-n-drop application development platform. Students will learn programming logic and principles of user-centric design. No programming experience is required. Includes substantial legal research and analysis.
International Business Transactions - LAWS 7611
Examines the sources of international business law, the relationship between such law and the U.S. legal system, the choice of law in international business disputes, the special issues that arise when doing business with foreign governments, the law governing international sales and the shipment of goods, and international intellectual property protection.
International Dispute Settlement - LAWS 7310
Examines various mechanisms for the settlement of international disputes, including negotiation, inquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration and adjudication. Focuses on intergovernmental dispute resolution before the International Court of Justice.
International Environmental Law - LAWS 6510
Examines international environmental law, including transboundary impacts and global issues. Addresses such issues as intergenerational equities, principles of compensation, and if developing countries should receive special environmental norm consideration.
International Human Rights Law - LAWS 7440
Surveys international human rights both in law and in philosophy, both current and historical. Consists of three parts: (1) the concept and philosophical foundations of human rights; (2) the content of international human rights law; (3) selected rights from a comparative perspective.
International Law - LAWS 6400
Examines the nature, structure and sources of international law, the relationship between international law and domestic U.S. law, the role of international organizations such as the United Nations, the methods of resolving international disputes, the bases of international jurisdiction, and select substantive areas of international law that may change from semester to semester.
International Moot Court Competition - LAWS 7406
Open only to students who actively participate in the seminar preparing for the competition, in the preparation of memorials for the competition, and in the practice oral arguments or regional oral arguments.
International Natural Resource Law and Policy - LAWS 6122
Examines the suite of policy issues and Legal ramifications associated with sustainable natural resource development. Examines most recent recent research on the "resource curse" theory. Examines recent policy developments and discussions that have occurred among industry, NGOs, multilateral development agencies and governments. Examines issues related to bribery and corruption in developing country environments, and dispute resolution mechanisms at national and local levels.
International Taxation - LAWS 7617
Explores the United States income taxation of international activities, principally U.S. persons doing business abroad and foreign persons doing business in the United States. This course focuses on the Internal Revenue Code as well as tax treaties. Prerequisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007).
International Trade Law - LAWS 6410
Examines the law of the World Trade Organization and the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Examines rules restraining national restrictions on trade that addresses tariff and non-tariff barriers, discrimination, regionalism, anti-dumping, countervailing duties, and safeguards. Considers the relationship between trade and other regulatory areas or social values, such as environmental protection, health and safety standards, human rights, intellectual property protection.
Internet and Media Law - LAWS 7005
Provides a survey of common, statutory, and regulatory law as applied to the media, including the internet. Topics include: the law as it affects the gathering of news; publisher liability online and offline; First Amendment issues; and related regulation of the internet and computer technologies.
Intro To US Legal Practice: Legal Writing, Research and Analysis - LAWS 9246
Assist LL.M. students develop their legal writing skills as well as teach practical skills needed in the U.S. legal environment including locating cases, statutes and other legal source materials, citing legal authority correctly, and checking the validity of case citations.
Introduction to In-House Practice of Law - LAWS 7629
Explores cutting edge questions around the practice of law as an employee of a business. Demonstrates how the combination of law and business can be valuable to businesses and also innovative, challenging and rewarding to legal professionals. Legal services to corporate America is changing dramatically with more entities relying on in-house counsel, compared to private practitioners, to obtain legal advice and counsel.
Introduction to Intellectual Property Law - LAWS 6301
Provides an overview of our nation's intellectual property laws, including patent, copyright, trademark, trade secret, and also discusses other assorted matters related to intellectual property, including licensing, competition policy issues, and remedies.
Introduction to Islamic Law - LAWS 6518
Develops student understanding of the internal working of Islamic law at its theoretical roots. Analyzes the various methodologies that are represented in Islamic legal literature, heling to enable the students to identify modern manifestations of these methodologies in contemporary Muslim discourses. Contextualizes the subject of Islamic law within various governmental and constitutional structures, beginning with the classical period, continuing through colonialism and reaching into the present day.
Introduction to Law and Literature - LAWS 4458
Explores the intersection between law and literature and will provide an opportunity to think about the law by reading engaging works of fiction and non-fiction, viewing important films and examining the law from a humanistic and philosophical perspective.
Introduction to U.S. Law for Undergraduate Student - LAWS 4075
Introduces undergraduate students to the American legal system and to legal reasoning and argumentation via case studies of prominent litigation. Students will learn basic conceptual building blocks of American law, basic lawyering skills and an understanding of how the American legal system structures and resolves complex disputes.
Introduction to United States Legal System/Legal Reasoning, Research, and Writing - LAWS 6246
Introduces students without a law degree to the basic structure and content of the United States legal system, examining how the three branches of government at the state and federal levels make law and policy in the United States. The course will provide a basic introductory overview of the following: the various sources of law, including and understanding of how statutes are enacted by legislative institutions; the role of the United States court system in interpreting laws; application of judicial precedent in common-law systems; trial and appellate court procedures; and judicial review standards. The course will also introduce students to the methodology of American law, including legal reasoning, research, and writing, through a variety of in-class and outside research and writing assignments.
Introduction To US Law For LLM Students - LAWS 9025
Reviews the fundamentals of the U.S. legal system, including an overview of the U.S. Constitution, federalism, the structure and function of courts, sources of legal authority, and common-law methodology. Restricted to students in the LLM program
Introduction to US Law For MSL Students - LAWS 9005
Provides an overview of the US legal system and will help MSL students begin to 'think like lawyers'. Students will be provided with the necessary vocabulary and skills to use legal resources and legal reasoning in academic and professional environments, including reading and analyzing cases, statues and regulations, doing legal research, and applying existing law to the issue at hand to predict answers to legal questions.
Investigating Allegations of Bribery, Human Trafficking, and Related Misconduct - LAWS 6401
We, as consumers, expect that the products we purchase will not be tainted by bribery, corruption, or any form of forced labor (including trafficked and child labor). This interactive class examines private practitioners' role in the fight, including their role as lawyers investigating allegations of misconduct, interacting with US and foreign authorities, conducting due diligence, and ensuring compliance. The legal market recognizes the need for lawyers who understand these rapidly developing areas of law. This class is designed to give students that competitive advantage.
Investigations - LAWS 9223
Learn how to assess allegations of employee wrongdoing and recognize situations in which internal investigations are appropriate. They will learn 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.
Journal: Colorado Technology Law Journal - LAWS 7946
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the Journal on Telecommunications and High Technology Law.
Journal: University of Colorado Law Review - LAWS 7896
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the University of Colorado Law Review.
Journal: University of Colorado Law Review - LAWS 7906
Participation in the research, writing, and editing activities involved in publishing the University of Colorado Law Review.
Judicial Opinion Writing - LAWS 6236
Considers the contemporary American judicial opinion in historical and comparative context. Examines institutional constraints and emerging challenges to judicial decision-making. Analyzes individual opinion authors' writing styles. Builds upon the first-year legal-writing curriculum. Challenges students to develop a personal style and approach to writing and editing opinions.
Jurisprudence - LAWS 7128
This course 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.
Jury Selection and History - LAWS 7023
Studies the history of the jury from ancient times through the implications of Apprendi, the grand jury from the time of Henry II through modern federal practice, and current jury selection procedures, both federal and Colorado, both civil and criminal. Experienced trial attorneys will work with students to demonstrate jury selection.
Juvenile & Family Law Clinic - LAWS 7449
This is a year-long course.
Students in the Juvenile Law Clinic represent children and youth who have been abused and neglected or accused of a crime. This year long clinic allows the student to develop significant attorney client relationships, providing the student attorney with the best information to advocate for his clients. The clinic involves clients, when age appropriate, in all legal decisions, and actively encourages client participation in the legal process. Student attorneys represent the whole child, addressing all of the legal needs of the child client. In addition, student attorneys represent school districts as the petitioner in truancy matters, which allows the students ample court experience in presenting a case. The second semester of the clinic continues with an advance trial advocacy focus, culminating in a mock child welfare trial with the juvenile law clinic students of DU law school, judged by local child welfare practitioners. The clinic seminar focuses on the substantive law of child welfare, delinquency, and education law as well as the collateral areas of mental health, immigration, poverty, disability, family law, and alternative dispute resolution. The clinic begins with a three-day orientation seminar before classes begin. This pre-semester class time is deducted from class time during the term.
Juvenile Justice - LAWS 7115
Covers how the judicial system deals with minors accused of crimes, and the collateral consequences for youth in the educational and child welfare systems.
Labor Law - LAWS 6511
Studies the subjects of evolution of labor relations laws; how a collective bargaining relationship is established; negotiation of the collective bargaining agreement; labor and the antitrust laws; and rights of the individual worker. The course materials frame the issue of how a developed or post-industrial democracy deals with the problems that arise out of the employment relationship: of the choices between laissez-faire, substantive regulation, and the private ordering of the employment relationship through the collective bargaining process. This course is offered at least every other year.
Land Use Planning - LAWS 7154
The course focuses on the regulation of private land use and development, with topics that include planning, zoning and other primary land-use regulatory regimes, as well as the constitutional and statutory limitations on the public regulation of land use. There are no prerequisites for this course.
Law and Finance for Entrepreneurs - LAWS 7451
Study of unique legal problems faced by entrepreneurs, including formation issues (choice of entity, rights of the founders, initial investors), operation issues (governance, key employees, intellectual property, financing), IPOs, and buy-outs.
Law and Mathamatics - LAWS 6270
Covers basic mathematical concepts frequently encountered in the practice of law. Examines the relationships between evidence, calculation, and truth. Intended especially for students who lack confidence in their math skills and/or have not previously studied statistics, but all are welcome.
Law and Religion - LAWS 7085
Uses judicial decisions and historical and theoretical materials to explore significant aspects of the relationship between law and religion. The religion clauses of the First Amendment are a central but not exclusive subject of study.
Law and the Holocaust - LAWS 6420
Explores comparative law, jurisprudence, conflicts of laws and international law. Examines the Nazi philosophy of law emanating from its egregious racial ideology, and how it was used to pervert Germany's legal system to discriminate against, ostracize, dehumanize, and eliminate certain classes of people. Studies the role of international law in rectifying the damage by bringing perpetrators to justice and constructing a legal system designed to prevent a repetition.
Law Practice Management - LAWS 7609
Studies the establishment of a solo or small-firm legal practice. Topics include the business structure (PC, LLC, etc.) office systems, marketing and development, staffing, liability insurance, managing time, technology, and billing. Course supported by the Section of Law Practice Management of the ABA in memory of Harold A. Feder, CU Law '59.
Legal Analysis - LAWS 5064
Designed to help students develop the analytical skills necessary for success in law school and on the bar exam. Students will strengthen their core analytical skills, written communication skills, and ability to retain information. The ability to engage legal questions at the highest level is a skill that can be practiced and improved.
Legal Ethics and Professionalism - LAWS 6103
Examines the legal profession as an institution, its history and traditions, and the ethics of the bar with particular emphasis on the professional responsibilities of the lawyer. Discusses the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.
Legal Ethics and Professionalism: What Kind of Lawyer Do You Want to Be - LAWS 5103
Explores both the kind of law students might decide to practice and the ethical, personal and professional commitments central to the practice of law.
Legal Ethics, Professionalism, and Creative Problem Solving - LAWS 5203
The goal of this course is to help develop reflective, creative problem solving, and ethical legal professionals. To do so, it will touch on a core set of issues that lawyers face, including the duty of confidentiality to clients and the hazard of conflicts of interest, providing students with an opportunity to confront these challenges in an interactive and engaged environment. By working through such issues, as well as methodological approaches for addressing them, the course aims to help students develop of a set of pre-commitments as to what type of professional they want to be and what it means to be a creative problem solver. Moreover, the course aims to provide a rich context on the real pressures and tensions that inhere in practicing law, such as the conflict between being a professional and a trusted counselor and, in most environments, billing clients by the hour.
Legal Imagination - LAWS 7418
Advanced course in reading and writing for law students. Varied literary and other works are read. May be of interest to the student interested in the question: Does my choice to become a lawyer mean the sacrifice of my ambitions to be a serious writer (or person)?
Legal Negotiation - LAWS 7409
Explores the fundamentals of effective negotiation techniques for lawyers. Students engage in simulations of legal disputes, transactions, and other kinds of negotiations.
Legal Reasoning - LAWS 6823
This course aims to present legal reasoning skills crucial to the crafting and criticism of legal arguments. The classes will cover topics that include rules and standards, the art of the legal distinction, dealing with legal contradictions, facts and framing, level of abstraction, baselines, legal interpretation, formalism and realism, policy analysis, the performative character of law, metaphors for law, and others.
Legal Research Skills for Practice - LAWS 6876
Focuses on preparing students to research in a transactional law legal practice. Students will learn how to research in transactional law subject areas using practitioner-focused research platforms, including Westlaw Practical Law, Lexis Practice Advisor, and Bloomberg Law. Students will also learn how to research corporate and industry data, property records and dockets as well as acquire other competencies and skills helpful for researching in a transactional law practice.
Legal Writing I - LAWS 5226
Provides an intensive introduction to the resources available for legal research. Students also prepare written material of various kinds designed to develop research skills, legal writing style, and analysis of legal problems.
Legal Writing II - LAWS 5223
Students prepare appellate briefs and related documents and deliver oral arguments before a three-judge court composed of faculty members, upper-class students, and practicing attorneys. Practice arguments are videotaped and critiqued.
Legislation and Regulation - LAWS 5205
Introduces lawmaking in the modern administrative state. Examines the way Congress and administrative agencies adopt binding rules of law (statutes and regulations, respectively) and the way that implementing institutions ? courts and administrative agencies ? interpret and apply these laws. Considers the structure of the modern administrative state, the incentives that influence the behavior of the various actors, and the legal rules that help to structure the relationships among Congress, the agencies, and the courts.
Legislative and Policy Drafting - LAWS 6123
Exposes students to the process of drafting and amending enacted legal texts such as statutes, regulations, and polities of both governmental and non-governmental entities. Students will critically examine lawyers' roles as counselors, advocates, and experts in different legislative and policy-drafting contexts.
LILAC Symposium Course: Leadership in Law and Community - LAWS 6808
Addresses issues in law, community, and leadership, explored through multiple pedagogies in teaching and learning, in a symposium-style setting. After introductory classes on the theme of leadership in law and community, and related topics of professional responsibility and personal identity, social change, creative lawyering, the course will turn to spring service projects in law and community. Uses pass/grading.
LL.M Thesis - LAWS 9856
Provides eligible LL.M students the option to enroll in this 2-credit LLM Thesis
course. The course requires a significant work of original research on a topic
chosen in consultation with a faculty supervisor and other law school faculty with set assignments for topic selection, drafts, and a workshop.
In exceptional circumstances and only after pre-approval, an LLM student may
enroll for a third or fourth credit.
LLM Seminar - LAWS 9846
LLM students study academic legal writing in this 1-credit per semester yearlong course. Topics covered will include: the purpose of academic legal writing; how academic legal writing differs from other forms of legal writing; topic selection; legal research (methods and ethics); first drafts; editing; academic workshops; and publishing. In addition, guest speakers will talk to LLM students about career planning and job seeking. International LLM students will learn about the American legal system. Restricted to Law students only.
Local Government - LAWS 7255
State legislative and judicial control of the activities, powers, and duties of local governmental units, including home-rule cities and counties; some problems of federal, state, and local constitutional and statutory limitations on governmental powers when exercised by local governmental units (e.g., the powers to regulate private activities, tax, spend, borrow money, and condemn private property for public uses).
Marshall-Brennan Constitutional Literacy Project - LAWS 7285
Teaches students how to educate high school students in the local Denver Metro area high schools about the constitution, public speaking, and logical reasoning. Interested students must apply and requires a commitment teaching once per week in a local high school. Encourages individual development as teachers, writers, and critical thinkers and provides an opportunity to grow as colleagues and teammates.
Mediation - LAWS 7439
Explores mediation, one of the more important methods of alternative dispute resolution, and the legal issues that may arise related to mediation. Considers what kinds of persons and disputes are most appropriate for mediation. Includes role playing exercises.
Mergers, Acquisitions and Reorganizations - LAWS 7411
Studies the planning of corporate mergers, acquisitions, and reorganizations, examining the application and integration of state corporate law, federal securities law, accounting principles, tax law, labor law, products liability law, environmental law, ERISA, and antitrust law. Prereq of LAWS 6211.
Mining and Mineral Development Law - LAWS 7122
Addresses major issues affecting the development of mineral resources in the western United States. Includes the regulation of the impacts of hardrock and coal mining and oil and gas development on the environment under federal and state laws. Covers the Mining Law of 1872, the Mineral Leasing Act, 'split estates,' and state regulation of mineral development
Motions Advocacy - LAWS 7169
Provides practical training in preparing and arguing pretrial, post-trial and chambers motions to an experienced federal judge based on materials from actual case files. Assigns some research papers. Limited to students with interest in trial advocacy and willingness to participate in confrontational exercises. Uses pass/grading.
Natural Resources & Environmental Law Clinic - LAWS 7209
In this clinic, students will engage in litigation and advocacy aimed at protecting the natural resources of the Rocky Mountain region. Students will represent clients in matters involving public lands, wildlife, and other resources. The seminar component will focus on practical aspects of environmental litigation, including administrative practice and decision-making, client representation, citizen suits, and ethical issues. No prerequisites necessary.
Non-Profit Law - LAWS 7251
Examines the legal and policy issues raised by non-profits. Topics may include the formation of a non-profit, qualification for federal tax exemption, the rise and role of private foundations, fiduciary duty issues, restrictions on political activity and private benefit, and the unrelated business income tax. Also focuses on broader social questions raised by giving, charities, and philanthropy.
Oil and Gas - LAWS 7102
Deals with the legal problems associated with private arrangements for the ownership and development of oil and gas: deeds and leases to oil and gas rights, trespass, adverse possession, implied covenants in leases, conveyances of fractional interests, and the interaction of private rights and conservation regulation.
Parent, Child and State - LAWS 7135
This course will examine the legal rights of parents and children in a constitutional framework, as well as the state's authority to define and regulate the parent-child relationship. This course will be offered every other year.
Partnership Taxation - LAWS 6167
Examines the federal income taxation of partnerships and other pass-through entities, which represent most small businesses in the United States. Topics may include the allocation of operating income and deductions among owners, contributions and distributions of property, and acquisitions and dispositions of partnership interests by partners. Prerequisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007).
Patent Drafting & Prosecution - LAWS 7321
This course will provide an in depth look into the strategic development and procurement of patents. Each class will include both substantive and experiential portions to give the student the opportunity both to learn and to practice patent preparation and prosecution skills.
Patent Law - LAWS 7311
Covers selected topics such as patentable subject matter, patentability, and utilization of patent rights through licensing and infringement litigation. Practice and procedure of the Patent and Trademark Office will also be covered.
Patent Litigation - LAWS 7323
Focuses on unique aspects of patent litigation: substantive patent law, civil procedure, federal jurisdiction and litigation strategy; includes claim construction, infringement, anticipation and obviousness defenses, unenforceability challenges, declaratory judgments, injunctions, damages, settlements, licenses and trial strategy. Of interest and useful to those interested in intellectually property generally, not just patents or litigation.
Philosophy of Law - LAWS 6508
Questions the nature of law, characteristics and considerations of a legal system, rights and from where they come; thinking like a lawyer, basic techniques of legal reasoning, difference between doctrinal and normative legal analysis. Explores law's frontier and what distinguishes law from morality or politics. Focuses on influential texts from the end of WWII to the end of the Cold War.
Post-Conviction Criminal Procedure - LAWS 6055
Addresses sentencing process and schemes, direct appeals, probation modification and revocation, parole revocation, pardon and commutation processes, post-conviction litigation and appeal in both state and federal court, federal review of state convictions through habeas and/or the AEDPA, and ethical issues that arise in post-conviction proceedings.
Poverty Health and Law Practicum - LAWS 7555
Interdisciplinary class involving students in medical-legal partnerships (MLP). Readings introduce law students to substantive areas of health and poverty law, while introducing public health students to legal and policy advocacy on behalf of vulnerable populations. Students will work in MLP teams providing services to low-income patients to directly impact their social determinants of health by legal representation and public health advocacy. Students will also help to transform health care delivery model for low income patients by educating health care providers to identify social determinant issues and refer for legal and public health professionals. Legal services, provider education, and advocacy topics include the role of law and public health advocacy in addressing health disparities, standards of care for vulnerable populations, relationships between income, employment, housing, education, and health. Students will staff cases under the supervision of a Colorado Legal Services staff attorney or a pro bono attorney working on behalf of CLS, and will develop competency in community based advocacy, case planning, collaborative problem solving, cooperative decision-making, and client counseling.
Poverty Law - LAWS 7515
Explores the legal and policy responses to poverty in the United States and addresses how the law shapes the lives of poor people and communities. Examines the extent of poverty in the United States, the root causes, and the historical development of social welfare policy. Focuses on the rights-based aspect of poverty law and various policies that attempt to ameliorate poverty.
Poverty, Health and Law - LAWS 7535
Introduces students to the substantive areas of health and poverty law. Topics include health disparities and the role of law, cultural competence, standards of care for vulnerable populations, relationships between income, employment, housing, education, and health. Students will also help with intake of clinic patients and support client representation by the attorney of record.
Poverty, Health and Law Practicum - LAWS 7545
A service learning course in which students draw from the substantive materials studied in LAWS 7535 (Poverty, Health and Law) to develop competency in case planning, problem solving, cooperative decisionmaking, and client counseling. Students will staff cases under the supervision of a Colorado Legal Services (CLS) staff attorney or a pro bono attorney working on behalf of CLS. Prerequisite: Poverty, Health and Law.
Problem Solving, Professional Judgment, and Decision Making - LAWS 6813
Drawing from materials in psychology, behavioral economics, and mathematics, the course studies a range of patterns, fallibilities, and best practices concerning the complex problems commonly encountered by attorneys. Topics include general problem-solving strategies, techniques for operating in environments of uncertainty and complexity, empirically supported cognitive biases and errors, and strategies for recognizing and overcoming those errors.
Problem-Solving and Writing - LAWS 6816
Enhances students' ability to solve problems and writing concise coherent memos to clients or other legal documents outlining their legal analysis and strategic thinking. Uses diagnostic exams in which students are given multiple documents for fact patterns to begin their analysis.
Professional Communication in Business - LAWS 4226
Property - LAWS 5624
Topics include personal property, estates and interests in land, landlord-tenant, basic land conveyancing, and private land use controls.
Public Health Law & Ethics - LAWS 7465
Explores rules of law pertaining to the American public health care system and the ethical issues raised by federal, state, and local government efforts to protect the health of the American people through mandatory reporting, quarantine, health promotion, health surveillance, and other powers that necessarily challenge individual liberties. To be held at Health Sciences Campus.
Public Land Law - LAWS 6002
Deals with the legal status and management of resources on federal lands, including national forests, parks, and BLM lands. Explores federal law, policy, and agency practice affecting the use of mineral, timber, range, water, wildlife, and wilderness resources on public lands. Prereq. LAWS 6112.
Real Estate Planning - LAWS 7024
Considers various contemporary legal problems involved in the ownership, use, development, and operation of real estate, with particular emphasis on the federal income tax aspects of these issues. Topics may include sales, leases, and loans; choice of entity; leveraged partnerships; tax credit financing, foreign and tax-exempt investors; and real estate investment trusts. Prerequisite: Income Taxation (LAWS 6007).
Real Estate Transactions - LAWS 6004
Focuses on legal issues that arise in all phases of real estate transactions, with an emphasis on the role of the lawyer in the business of real estate as well as on the regulation of real estate markets.
Refugee and Asylum Law - LAWS 7605
Focuses on protections offered under international and domestic law for persons who are threatened by persecution or other adverse conditions in their country of origin. Covers who is a refugee and the protections they have or do not have under United States and international law.
Regional Human Rights Protection - LAWS 7450
Examines how human rights law and policy is created, interpreted and enforced within regional systems. Explores the main sources of human rights law including treaties, international customary law, constitutional law, municipal law, comparative law and principles; the jurisprudence of regional courts and tribunals, the institutions that support human rights advocacy and the cultural perspectives of affected communities and peoples.
Regulation of Financial Institutions - LAWS 7031
Focuses on the core banking law and works outward to cover a broader spectrum of bank-like financial institutions. Covers bank licensing, restrictions on bank business, regulating safety and soundness of banks, consumer protection of depositors and other bank customers, and regulatory examination and enforcement.
Remedies - LAWS 7433
Examines the types of relief available to vindicate various rights. Covers damages, specific performance, injunctions, and restitution. Emphasizes the planning aspect of enforcement, in view of the limitations and problems of proof associated with specific remedies.
Remote Externship Component - LAWS 7949
Accompanies remote externship placements and provides and opportunity for structured and interactive reflection on the educational experience afforded by the externship placement.
Renewable Energy Project Finance and Development - LAWS 6732
Examines renewable energy and how legal topics impact financing projects. Reviews structure, regulation, and functioning of electric energy industry and laws applicable to development, ownership and operation of renewable energy projects across technologies. Addresses legal policy, economic and financing issues associated with expansion and improvement of the transmission grid to support renewable energy development.
Representing Spanish-Speaking Clients - LAWS 6115
This course is a survey of the substantive law of matters likely to be encountered by attorneys representing Spanish-speaking clients in Colorado. Topics may include, among others, family law, criminal law, employment law, wage theft, and consumer rights. The course will not only introduce legal Spanish vocabulary, but more importantly, it will teach students how to communicate legal concepts so as to be understood by the clients.
Research and Writing in the Regulatory State - LAWS 6223
Focuses on developing the research, writing, and analytical skills necessary to operate within highly-regulated fields, focusing on topics chosen from those fields, such as environmental, natural resources, and energy regulation, food law, and health law regulation. Weekly research and writing assignments will focus on exposing students to the kinds of research (both regulatory and legislative) and the formal and informal writing produced by practitioners in these fields.
Rothgerber Moot Court Competition - LAWS 7106
Intensive involvement in legal research, appellate brief writing and oral arguments in a competitive context. Student finalists may continue involvement in regional and national competitions. Credit is limited to students who complete two rounds of the competition.
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
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 before considering how such apply and interact in response to current threats to national security.
Sem: Special Topics in Law - LAWS 8002
Explores special topics in law. Students will be given the opportunity for in-depth discussion and study on law-related topics. Law topics will vary.
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: Comparative Law - LAWS 8210
Develops student understanding of the internal working of Islamic law at its theoretical roots. Analyzes the various methodologies that are represented in Islamic legal literature, helping to enable the students to identify modern manifestations of these methodologies in contemporary Muslim discourses. Contextualizes the subject of Islamic law within various governmental and constitutional structures, beginning with the classical period, continuing through colonialism and reaching into the present day.
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: Equity and Sports - LAWS 8331
Examines equality law and theory as applied to sports. Focuses on sex/gender/identity but includes treatment of disability, race, and class. Compares and contrasts the formal regime of legal equality, primarily in the form of Title IX, with equality norms developed in the larger society and within sports organizations themselves. Considers how the meaning of equality shifts across contexts, such as whether sport is treated as a business, as pure competition, or as an opportunity/public accommodation. Course is inactive and no longer offered.
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: History and Law of American Policing - LAWS 8145
Explores the development of policing in the United States since the nineteenth century. We will examine a number of related topics including professionalization, strikebreaking, order maintenance policing, racial profiling, police brutality, federal law enforcement, militarization, and sheriffs. We will also discuss the process of suing police under § 1983, including barriers such as qualified immunity.
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: Pharmaceutical Regulation - LAWS 8446
This course will explore how overlapping regulations affect how pharmaceutical companies innovate and how patients access medicine. It will cover FDA, patent, and Medicare regulations that govern how the government approves drugs and pays for them, as well as the role of antitrust law. Throughout the course, we will discuss political debates around prescription drug prices and seek to understand: why are drug prices so high? No prerequisites required.
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
Explores special topics in law.
Special Topics In Law - LAWS 4001
Special topics in the study of law. Topics will be determined by the instructor.
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.
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.
Tribal Law - LAWS 7745
Tribes are sovereign nations with inherent powers of self-government, including the right to make their own laws and be ruled by them. Williams v. Lee, 358 U.S. 217, 220 (1959). This course provides a historical and contemporary overview of the internal laws of Tribal nations. It serves as a general introduction to the diverse types of laws by which Tribal nations govern themselves, with attention paid to topics such as oral tradition, Tribal governments, membership, Tribal constitutions, criminal and civil jurisdiction, and Tribal court jurisprudence. This course is intended to not only familiarize students with traditional and continuously developing aspects of Tribal law, but also to examine external impacts and limitations on the internal law of Tribal nations. Although this course primarily considers the laws of Tribes located in the United States, we may also from time to time explore the laws of indigenous peoples in other parts of the world.
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.