Catalog of Courses for All School of Law Classes
This course covers the procedures courts use in deciding lawsuits that do not involve criminal misconduct. Much of it is concerned with the process of litigation in trial courts, from the initial documents called pleadings, through the pre-trial process, especially the process of discovery in which parties obtain information from one another, to trial itself.
This course is an introduction to the structure of the U.S. Constitution and the rights and liberties it defines. Judicial review, federalism, congressional powers and limits, the commerce clause, and the 10th Amendment are covered, as are the equal protection and due process clauses.
This course examines the legal obligations that attach to promises made in a business contract or otherwise, including the remedies that may be available for promises that are not kept. The course examines the legal requirements for enforceable contracts, including consideration, consent and conditions, and the effect of fraud, mistake, unconscionability, and impossibility.
This course explores the basic principles of Anglo-American criminal law, including the constituent elements of criminal offenses, the necessary predicates for criminal liability, the major concepts of justification and excuse, and the conditions under which offenders can be liable for attempt. Major emphasis is placed on the structure and interpretation of modern penal codes.
This is the first semester of the yearlong basic skills course in the first-year curriculum covering fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In this first semester, students complete various research and citation exercises and write three office memoranda of increasing length and complexity.
This is the second semester of the yearlong basic skills course in the first-year curriculum covering fundamental legal research techniques, two styles of legal writing, and oral advocacy. In this second semester, students write an appellate brief and present an appellate oral argument before a panel of alumni, faculty, and Dillard Fellows (upperclass teaching assistants).
The course is a general introduction to property concepts and different types of property interests, particularly real property. The course surveys present and future estates in land, ownership and concurrent ownership. Leasehold interests, gifts and bequests, covenants and servitudes, conveyancing, various land use restrictions, eminent domain, and intellectual and personal property issues are also considered.
The course examines liability for civil wrongs that do not arise out of contract. It explores three standards of conduct: liability for intentional wrongdoing, negligence, and liability without fault, or strict liability, and other issues associated with civil liability, such as causation, damages, and defenses. Battery, medical malpractice, products liability, and tort reform will also be covered.
This course is the first half of the combined four-credit Accounting/Corporate Finance course. This course provides an understanding of the concepts of financial accounting and published financial statements.
This course is the second half of the combined four-credit Accounting/Corporate Finance course. The central theme is understanding the sources of value for the firm from the perspective of the manager who must make financing choices (sources of funds) and investment choices (uses of funds) to maximize the value of the firm.
This course covers the role of agencies in the constitutional structure and their operations. Topics include the nondelegation doctrine, executive appointment and removal power, the legislative veto as well as the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) and other sources of law that regulate and structure the authority of agencies to determine the rights and responsibilities of the public. Prerequisite: LAW 6001-Constitutional Law
This course considers the formation and operation of corporations and compares corporations to other business forms. It examines the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence and litigate against those in control. The course also addresses the special problems of closely held corporations and issues arising out of mergers and attempts to acquire firms. The course uses both new tools derived from the corporate finance and related literature and traditional tools to explore a wide range of phenomena and transactions associated with the modern business enterprise.
The course will cover questions of relevance, hearsay, privilege, and expert testimony, among others, and it will focus largely on problems arising in concrete factual settings, as opposed to traditional case analysis. Major emphasis will be placed on the Federal Rules of Evidence, which now apply in the courts of roughly 40 states as well as the federal system.
This course is about the federal judicial system and its relationship to various other decision-makers, including Congress and the state courts. We will examine the jurisdiction of the federal courts; the elements of a justiciable case or controversy; the role of state law and so-called "federal common law" in federal courts; implied causes of action; and state sovereign immunity.
This course will concentrate on the provisions that apply to all taxpayers, with particular concern for the taxation of individuals. The course is intended to provide grounding in such fundamental areas as the concept of income, income exclusions and exemptions, non-business deductions, deductions for business expenses, basic tax accounting, assignment of income, and capital gains and losses.
This is the introductory course in public (government-to-government) international law. Topics include the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, recognition and statehood, diplomatic immunity, sovereign immunity, the law of the sea, torture, the Geneva and Hague Conventions, treaties, the European Union, and the World Trade Organization.
This course considers the formation and operation of corporations and will compare corporations to other business forms. It will examine the roles and duties of those who control businesses and the power of investors to influence and litigate against those in control. The course will also address the special problems of closely held corporations and issues arising out of mergers and attempts to acquire firms.
This course is designed for law students who want to speak the language of accounting and finance fluently: not as accountants, but as counselors, negotiators, and deal architects. No prior accounting background is required (if you have prior accounting/finance background take the Advanced course). This course focuses on is the analytical and practical literacy that separates the lawyer who reviews a contract or deal document from the lawyer who understands what's actually at stake.
This course is designed for law students who want to speak the language of accounting and finance fluently: not as accountants, but as counselors, negotiators, and deal architects. Students with any prior accounting/finance background (via coursework or work experience) are expected to take this course instead of the intro course and will be required to work with the instructor throughout the course on the completion of an advanced final paper.
In Environmental Law, we address pollution control under the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts as well as natural resource protection under the National Environmental Policy Act and Endangered Species Act. Although the primary focus will be on federal law, we will also explore some local, state and international dimensions.
This class offers an introduction to transactional legal practice at the intersection of law and business. The course topics include initial entity formation, an overview of alternative fundraising transactions, and an examination of several other complex contracting transactions. Both legal and business considerations will be discussed.
This lecture explores the theoretical foundations of freedom of speech and how free expression doctrine has emerged in the United States. Though it focuses mainly on U.S. law, the course also takes a broader global perspective, exploring how and why the U.S. free speech tradition is exceptional (and whether it should be).
This course examines legal and policy challenges stemming from rapidly evolving cybersecurity threats. The objective of the course is to contextualize cybersecurity threats and responses to them in a national and international law framework, while also recognizing the limits of current law, the need for further policy evolution, and the real-world impacts of different legal and policy options. No technical knowledge is required.
This course deals with the agency relationship and its consequences, focusing on such topics as contractual authority, vicarious liability, and fiduciary obligation. Using litigated cases, students will learn how to help clients structure their affairs in a manner consistent with their business goals, including minimizing unwanted liability.
This class will cover the process of white collar investigations as well as key statutes that are frequently invoked by the Department of Justice in white collar prosecutions.
This class studies American efforts to prevent the private subversion of free competition. In addition to analysis of the statutes and case law, students consider the history of antitrust regulation and the economic assumptions that drive much of its application.
This course will explore in detail some of the legal, theoretical, and practical issues raised by a debtor's financial distress. Principal emphasis will be on how the Federal Bankruptcy Code uses or displaces otherwise applicable law as the provider of rules that govern the relationships among debtors, creditors and others.
In this course, we will explore the constitutional rules that constrain executive actors when they investigate crime and prosecute criminal defendants. Specifically, we study the degree to which the Fourth and Fifth Amendment limit police investigations and the ways in which constitutional guarantees of due process, equal protection, and trial by jury affect criminal prosecutions. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7018 and LAW 7019.
The seminar will explore the issues entailed in the drafting and uses of a constitution. To what extent do constitutions reflect universal values (such as human rights), and to what extent are they grounded in the culture and values of a particular people? How much borrowing goes on in the writing of a constitution?
In this course, students will identify the sources of low turnout and the political participation gap between groups in the United States, examine how the low participation rate and the political participation gap impact democratic development, and develop model legislation designed to address a problem associated with democratic participation that will include explanations for how the proposed legislation will redress the particular problem identified.
This course examines the rules and principles that govern the resolution of multi-jurisdictional conflicts of laws in the United States. The central issue throughout the course is, simply, what law governs a multi-jurisdictional dispute? It considers various theoretical bases for choice of law principles, as well as the principal constitutional limitations on choice of law.
This course examines the constitutional history of the twentieth-century United States in the context of social, cultural, political, economic, and intellectual developments.
This course examines the two clauses in the Bill of Rights which define and safeguard religious freedom - the one barring laws "respecting an establishment of religion" and the other protecting the "free exercise of religion."
This course looks at the way the judicial system operates once criminal charges are filed. Topics include bail and preventive detention, the right to the effective assistance of counsel, prosecutorial discretion and plea bargaining, the right to trial by jury, appeals from criminal convictions, and habeas corpus review.
This course examines the constitutional jurisprudence that regulates the government's investigation of crime and apprehension of criminal suspects. In particular, the course will focus on the doctrines by which the judiciary polices the police, including the primary remedy (suppression of evidence) for police misconduct.
In this course laboratory, we will address problems of democratic representation. Studies have shown that marginalized groups and members of minority political parties are consistently under-represented in the democratic process. Our goal for this course is to develop model legislation that is responsive to the representation gap in the United States.
This course takes an interdisciplinary, comparative, and empirical perspective on the design and operation of courts as institutions.
This course focuses upon the principal federal statutes prohibiting discrimination in employment on the basis of race or sex, especially Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. It also examines the federal constitutional law of racial and sexual discrimination, primarily as it affects judicial interpretation of the preceding statutes.
In contrast to the traditional labor law course, this course is an introduction to the diverse body of law that governs the individual employment relationship. The course examines a selection of the important issues that employment lawyers face in practice.
This course will examine the regulation of financial institutions, with an emphasis on federal regulation of banking.
This course examines legal responses to work-related health and safety issues. The worker's compensation system and the federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) are studied in some detail.
This course explores normative and adjudicative systems associated with sports and games. These topics are intrinsically interesting, and they also cast light on legal norms and practices.
The interpretation of legal texts is an important component of a wide variety of legal subjects. This course explores legal theories of interpretation and construction, linguistics, and the philosophy of language.
This course focuses on the law surrounding intimate relationships between adults. In particular, we will focus on the institution of marriage and its changing scope and social meaning, divorce and its financial consequences, and the parent-child relationship, including establishing parenthood, adoption, child custody, and child support.
This course explores the scope and structure of federal crimes. The course covers the jurisdiction of the federal government over crime, including constitutional limitations; the emerging law of federal mens rea; four crimes that illustrate the enormous reach of the federal criminal law; and RICO, the most important organized crime statute in history. Broader policy issues are discussed.
This course considers the Food and Drug Administration as a case study of an administrative agency that must combine law and science to regulate activities affecting public health and safety.
This course examines the constitutional and statutory doctrines regulating the conduct of American foreign relations.
This course will investigate criminal justice through a critical race theory (CRT) lens.
This course will examine primarily federal disability laws, and judicial interpretations thereof, in order to understand the theoretical and policy justifications for such laws, their positive impact, and their limitations. Contexts will likely include employment, government services, public accommodations, healthcare, housing, and education.
This course explores the substantive provisions of U.S. immigration law and the procedures for deciding immigration-related issues.
This course provides a working knowledge of basic insurance law governing insurance contract formation, insurance regulation, property, life, health, disability, and liability insurance, and claims processes. The emphasis throughout is on the link between traditional insurance law doctrine and modern ideas about the functions of private law.
This is a survey course for students seeking a general introduction to intellectual property as opposed to concentrating on one or more of its special subjects. The main focus will be on Patent, Copyright and Trademark with a brief treatment of Trade Secrets and some common law treatments of intellectual property outside the realm of specially designed property rights.
From the founding of our nation, law and policy's treatment of race have shaped society. This lecture course examines the influence of race on American society beginning with slavery through modern times, with an influence on how race has shaped education and opportunity.
This course studies the law governing how brands may be legally protected.
This course is intended to introduce students to the state of U.S. (and, to some degree, international) law with respect to global climate change. Students will also develop a basic understanding of the science behind climate change and the current state of the field.
This course examines the law - domestic, foreign, and international - governing international business transactions. Areas may include trade and investment treaties, corporate law and securities regulation, commercial sales, employment discrimination, human rights, anti-corruption, intellectual property, dispute resolution and sovereign debt.
This course examines the distinctive issues that arise when civil litigation takes on an international dimension, including personal jurisdiction, choice of law, enforcement of judgments, sovereign immunity, the developing law of human rights. Arbitration and discovery outside the United States are also considered.
This course will explore the topic of pain as applied to a variety of legal contexts, including the constitutional limits on painful bodily intrusions, the application of tort law in reparations cases, and the use of civil rights litigation to redress pain.
This course focuses on the theory and practice of international human rights law including the basic principles as well as the international mechanisms and institutions established in the past half-century to protect human rights. The difficulties involved in converting those principles into practice and the effectiveness of different ways of using international human rights law to further human rights protection will also be explored.
Recently, advances in computational text analysis, machine learning, and artificial intelligence have started to affect not only the range of tools available to lawyers, but also the workings of government agencies and the adjudication of disputes. In this course, we will examine some of these new technologies, how they are being put to use, and the potential upside and downside risks associated with the further automation of legal work. No prior knowledge of coding or computer science is assumed.
This course is designed to provide a general introduction to the practice of law under the National Labor Relations Act from the late 1800s through passage of the Wagner Act (1935) and its modification by the 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments. We will review the Act's concept of concerted, protected activity, unfair labor practice or "ULP" and the way ULPs are processed through the Board and courts.
This course will explore the regulation of land use, with an emphasis on the constitutional and environmental dimensions of land use law. The course will begin with the basic elements of the land development and regulation process, including the basics of planning and zoning. We will also address public ownership and private alternatives to regulation.
This course will examine both the theory and the practice of statutory interpretation. We will become familiar with the canons of construction frequently invoked by courts. Finally, we will consider some specialized but important topics in statutory interpretation, such as doctrines of severability and pre-emption.
The course surveys the role of nonprofits, reasons for use of the nonprofit form, and the different types of nonprofit organizations, with particular attention to the statutes governing nonprofit corporations. Topics include the formation, dissolution, and governance of nonprofits, state regulation of charitable solicitations, and tax and tax policy issues related to nonprofits.
This course will address legal issues regarding the needs and rights of individuals with mental disorders. Topics include the nature and treatment of mental disorders; the right to treatment; civil commitment; competence; informed consent and the right to refuse treatment; the financing of mental health care; protection from discrimination; and the regulation and liability of mental health professionals.
Following the 9/11 attack, one of the fastest growing areas of legal inquiry has been national security law. This course is a comprehensive introduction, blending relevant international and national law.
This course concerns the predominant law applicable to international sale of goods contracts, which is the U.N. Convention on Contracts for International Sale of Goods (and UCC Art. 2 where applicable). It also covers payment devices, and why knowledgeable commercial actors employ certain kinds of clauses. No detailed knowledge of Article 2 or other parts of domestic sales law will be required.
This course will consider a variety of issues involving the application of law to the president's functions. Many such issues are of constitutional stature and fall under the general rubric of separation of powers or checks and balances. Therefore we will necessarily examine as well the powers vested in other branches of government.
Professional Responsibility. Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7071, 7072, 7134, or 7605 if any taken previously.
This course will examine selected areas of professional responsibility, including the creation and termination of the attorney-client relationship, the scope of representation, conflicts of interests, confidentiality, and the attorney's ethical obligations during litigation. In addition, the course will address the attorney's relationships with the courts, the organized bar, and the community. Prerequisite:Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7071, 7072, 7134, or 7605 if any taken previously.
The course focuses on the practical application of contract law, antitrust law, and to some extent arbitration and negotiation of disputes and current legal issues relating to the sports industry. Particular attention will be given to professional sports leagues and individual sports, as well as their practical application to the business of sports today. Prerequisite: 2nd- or 3rd year or LLM status
This course provides an introduction to the basic mathematical tools that a lawyer needs. The topics covered are drawn principally from probability, statistics, and finance. The course emphasizes the use of statistical and quantitative reasoning in litigation (such as employment discrimination, toxic tort, and voting rights cases) and in policy debates.
This course will offer a systematic overview of major contemporary theories of justice, with a special focus on their concrete implications for areas of legal doctrine. Coverage will include liberal, egalitarian, libertarian, communitarian, critical race theorists, and feminist theories of justice.
Remedies is a transubstantive course crossing the boundaries both within private law and between private and public law. This course will examine the relationship between liability and remedy across diverse areas of law. While emphasis will be placed on private law remedies, public law remedies will be considered at some depth for purposes of comparison.
This course is designed to provide a survey of the spectrum of topics generally considered part of "health law." It will introduce the various institutions and players involved in health care delivery and the legal relationships between those institutions--at both the state and federal level.
This course covers the essential provisions and structure of Revised Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. The law of secured transactions facilitates the taking of security interests by creditors to secure loans they make to debtors. The course aims to provide students with knowledge of the Code sufficient to enable them to structure secured transactions and litigate secured claims successfully.
This course deals with the uses of social science by practitioners and courts. The roots of social science in legal realism are considered, and the basic components of social science methodology are introduced. No background in methodology or statistics is necessary. Both applications in the criminal context and in civil law will be considered.
Jurisprudence
This course explores the legal rules regulating professional and amateur sports. There is a substantial treatment of both Labor Law and Antitrust regulation, but neither course is a prerequisite.
This course will introduce students to law and public service, broadly defined to include all careers that serve the public interest, from litigating civil rights cases to prosecuting and defending criminal suspects to providing legal services for indigent clients to representing local, state, and federal government agencies to working for an international human rights organization and everything in between.
This course will examine the response of law to racial issues in a variety of contemporary legal contexts. Topics may include criminal justice, education, employment, interracial relationships and adoption, hate speech, voting. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7707 Race and Law (SC) and LAW 9058 Race and Law Seminar
A web of constitutional, statutory, and judge-made laws regulate the American political process. This course will examine these laws and their implications for three broad and important issues: participation, aggregation, and governance. Participation involves the right to vote and various restrictions thereon, aggregation involves apportionment and redistricting, and governance involves campaign finance and the role of political parties.
This course will review state and federal laws governing water and disputes between competing water uses. Topics will include public rights to water and resolving water use disputes; protecting water quality of lakes, rivers, and streams; federal laws affecting the allocation and use of water (the Clean Water Act, the Federal Power Act, the Endangered Species Act) and the law governing interstate water disputes.
This course introduces the institutions and rules governing international trade. The principal focus is the World Trade Organization and its rules governing tariffs, non-tariff barriers, dumping, subsidies, trade in services, health and safety standards, and intellectual property rights, as well as its international dispute settlement mechanism. The course also covers the U.S. legal framework for international trade relations.
This class will examine and explore those tactics and strategies which public interest lawyers routinely employ, and those obstacles and dilemmas that public interest lawyers must often confront, with a particular focus on the advocacy work that takes place outside of, or in conjunction with, litigation.
Delaware courts have issued a line of decisions that sparked public debates and could have significant corporate law implications. This lecture will examine those decisions in-depth.
This course will examine the constitutional history of the United States from 1845 to 1877, paying attention to how the U.S. Constitution shaped the Civil War, and also to how the war left its mark on the Constitution. Cannot enroll if have taken Law 9203
This course will primarily focus on the ways in which law structures educational opportunity. We will cover the legal and policy issues involved in school desegregation, school finance litigation, school choice, standards and testing (including the No Child Left Behind Act), and special education.
This course provides an introduction to the basic components of the residential real estate transaction with an emphasis on the listing agreement, the contract of sale, deeds of conveyance, title assurance (public and private), real estate finance, foreclosure and deficiency judgments.
This course will provide an introduction to real estate transactions and financing, including mortgages, foreclosure, the regulation of mortgage lending, the secondary market for home loans, government intervention in the housing market, and details of land transactions such as contracts of sale, recording, and brokerage agreements.
This course explores the history, theory, and practice of community development, its contemporary emphasis on housing law and policy, and the role of law and lawyering within that professionalized field.
This is a survey of individual rights under the Constitution, excluding equal protection and criminal procedure. The allocation of time to subjects will be somewhat uneven, largely reflecting the interests of the casebook editors.
This course provides an introduction to energy law and regulation in the United States. It covers the basic principles of public utility regulation; the division of jurisdiction over energy production and use among federal, state, and local governments; and the federal statutes governing natural gas, electricity, nuclear power, and hydroelectric power.
This course provides an introduction to Native American law (or 'Federal Indian law' or 'American Indian law'). The subject matter is the legal relationships among Indian nations and the U.S. government, state governments, and individuals. The course will cover both the historical development of Native American law and contemporary issues, including tribal sovereignty, property, natural resources, gaming, and civil and criminal jurisdiction.
This course introduces students to the law, theory and practice of intellectual property transactions.
The course will begin by exploring whether the class action device that allows civil claims to be resolved in the aggregate has proved to be effective for deterring illegal activity and compensating those who suffer from it. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 9132 Class Actions and Complex Litigation seminar.
This course covers advanced and applied topics in estate planning and probate, wealth management, trust and estate administration, and trust, estate, and fiduciary litigation. The course focuses on the role of an attorney as executor or trustee, and the role of an attorney in advising executors, trustees, and beneficiaries.
Economics assumes people are rational, law assumes people are compliant, but is it really so? In recent years both disciplines have come to incorporate more and more research from psychology and other social sciences about actual human behavior. We will read research about factors that affect human decision-making and then apply it to substantive and procedural issues in law.
This course will consider artificial intelligence and machine learning from the perspective of law. Students will develop a basic understanding of the computer science underlying both artificial intelligence and machine learning, the ways in which the law is adapting (or failing to adapt) to artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the ways in which these technologies may be used by lawyers and legal researchers. Students need no background in computer science or coding.
This course covers the law governing domestic and international sales of goods. It also treats legal and institutional rules applicable to important aspects of the transport of goods and payment.
This course introduces law students to the scientific study of violent crime, including factors that give rise to violence and those that may account for the remarkable decline in violence in recent years.
The emphasis throughout this course is on the bases for the imposition of liability and the constraints (including constitutional limits) on liability. Separate consideration also is given to categories of recoverable damages and to the nature and impact of liability insurance.
The economic analysis of law has generated foundational insights and a handful of Nobel prizes. It guides many scholars, judges, practitioners, and policy-makers, and it provides one of the major theoretical perspectives on the study of law. This course introduces the topic.
This course focuses on the cross-cutting elements of risk regulation to provide students with a set of general tools and concepts that can inform area-specific advanced courses and be applied in many different practice settings. This course complements the material covered in Administrative Law.
The division of power between the federal and state governments has long been a major focus of controversy and conflict. This course examines constitutional federalism disputes across a wide range of issues, including the spending power, the power to regulate interstate commerce, the Necessary and Proper Clause, unenumerated powers such as immigration and eminent domain, and more.
This course will explore the legal and environmental issues in the development of energy resources.
The goal of this class is to introduce students to negotiation theory, with a focus on the collaborative negotiation method used by most successful negotiators today.
In this course, students will learn to read, interpret, draft, aggregate, manipulate, and improve rules embodied in contracts, statutes, treaties, constitutions, customs, sports, and games. We will write, and explore the implications of, rules in assignments involving individual work, small-group work, and class discussion. Grade depends on exercises and short papers undertaken throughout the semester.
Federal law closely regulates employer-provided retirement, health, and welfare benefits. In this course, we will examine key federal statutes for this important and dynamic area of the law.
The lecture will examine the laws, regulations and policies governing wages.
This course will examine how constitutional controversies have shaped the law of medicine, and how medicine, in turn, has shaped constitutional law.
This course will examine the legal, economic, and political forces that have shaped American metropolitan areas with particular attention to the policies that have shaped American cities and suburbs.
This lecture course will address the rapidly-changing field of computer crime and data privacy, surveying the major domestic authorities in the area, such as the Wiretap Act, the Pen/Trap statute, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, and the Fourth Amendment, as applied to computers.
This course closely examines the theories and legal rules behind state and local government authority. Special focus will be put on the ways local law spatially and socially organizes American society, the rules governing intergovernmental conflict and cooperation, and the role of state and local governments in furthering or frustrating democratic participation.
Legislation and Regulation is an introduction to lawmaking in the modern administrative state. It will examine 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.
This course provides an introduction to the laws regulating food safety and food labeling and advertising in the United States. Topics to be addressed include federal regulation of adulterated and misbranded food products; enforcement and inspections; food recalls and crisis response; and state and local food regulation.
This course covers technical, ethical, and strategic aspects of eDiscovery, applying practical skills simulations and discussion to prepare law students for litigation practice.
Roman law developed over the course of more than one thousand years, and it continues to influence contemporary legal systems throughout the world. In this course, we will examine the portions of Roman private law that correspond to Anglo-American contract, tort, property, and family law.
This course is a survey of the development of private and public law in twentieth century America. Topics to be covered include jurisprudence, legal education, foreign relations law, the emergence of administrative law, the constitutional dimensions of equal protection, due process, and free speech law, and the relationship of law and politics in America.
Feminist jurisprudence is a field in which scholarly activity is rooted in a set of practices designed to excavate and revise the myriad ways in which law conditions the lived experiences of women, men, and children. In the course, we will study what are understood to be distinct schools of feminist jurisprudence and the forms of practice that each supports.
Course description: This course examines the role of race in the criminal justice system, and the role of law in both causing and countering racial injustice in that system. The course will proceed through each major stage of the criminal justice process -- policing, prosecution, adjudication, and punishment -- identifying important racial issues that arise at each stage and exploring how the law creates and responds to those issues.
The course provides students with skills training related to alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") in the workplace. The course will focus on mediation and arbitration in both union and nonunion settings.
In this course, students will learn and practice the skills associated with pretrial civil litigation (complaint through summary judgment), particularly focusing on skills and strategies relevant to civil rights litigation in federal district courts.
In this course, students (in multifunctional teams from the Schools of Law, Engineering, and Public Policy) will work on real, national security-related problems facing the U.S. Government. Students will study the structures and processes of the various national security agencies and how those agencies approach the problem of innovation, which for defense institutions is a combined problem of technology, policy, and law.
While many courses address the legal aspects of particular corporate law topics, this course will focus on thinking strategically to address business planning issues of start-ups or closely held companies. Strategic decisions will include choice of entity and change in entity as growth continues, raising debt/equity capital, and corporate growth opportunities.
This course provides an introduction to privacy law, from its common law foundations to today's complex regulatory landscape. Topics discussed are expected to include the philosophical bases of privacy protection; internet and consumer privacy; health privacy; First Amendment issues; regulation and enforcement, including international approaches; and privacy by design.
This survey course will introduce students to various areas of Internet law, such as Internet governance, jurisdiction, contracts, trespass and computer fraud, copyright, trademarks and domain names, speech, search engines, spam, and social media.
This course will survey significant issues in the law of aging, with special emphasis on intergenerational justice and the public policy challenges presented by an aging population.
How do we govern the police? What rules and rights shape police encounters? This course explores the complicated web of federal, state, and local laws that regulate police officers and departments and influence how the police interact with the public.
International criminal law studies a grim but important subject: the prosecution of war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression. In addition, we will study the extraterritorial application of US criminal law to address crimes of transnational character.
"Constitutional Originalism" examines both theory and practice of an originalist approach to constitutional theory. Combining lecture, discussion, and problems the goal of the course is to equip students to engage in originalist advocacy, judging, and scholarship.
This class examines exchanges and transactions that are traditionally repugnant, and sometimes illegal. Importantly, what constitutes a repugnant transaction is culturally dependent, changing over time and across cultures. For example, typical repugnant transactions in modern western societies include organs, blood, babies, sexual relations, votes for money, and a wide range of other issues.
"This class will explore the topic of taboo trades (e.g. prostitution, marijuana, paying college athletes) through the production of a weekly podcast in with a guest scholar, lawyer, or regulator. Students will read relevant work of the guest and develop questions and content for the podcast. Two students will be ""guest producers"" for each podcast and take the lead in selecting questions and materials, and help conduct the interviews."
This course uses the lens of international debt finance to provide students with an advanced course in securities law, corporate law, and contract law. The course has both a theoretical component that involves learning the basics of this multi-trillion dollar market and an experiential one that involves trying to design a debt restructuring plan for the private debt of a country currently in or on the brink of crisis.
This course will examine the traditional law of trade secrets and the federal statute with the goal of familiarizing students with the theoretical and doctrinal underpinnings of this area of legal practice.
This course will help students develop the language skills and knowledge to properly represent monolingual Spanish-speaking clients. Students will study Spanish language legal vocabulary and practice explaining legal concepts to Spanish speakers. Students will also develop core cultural competency and legal skills.
This class covers major themes in federal poverty law policy and then focuses on national and local policies on specific issues. It will consider the role of lawyers in planning, achieving, and implementing reforms, and particularly the techniques, strategies, challenges, and struggles in ensuring that people living in poverty have access to advocacy.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has begun to have profound effects on law and society. Topics will include: algorithmic bias, AI and privacy, tort liability for self-driving cars, autonomous weapon systems and the laws of war, and legal person-hood for artificial intelligences. Introductory classes will include a primer on the present and future of AI technology.
In this course, we will study the law codes of the Salian Franks (France), the Lombards (northern Italy), and the Anglo-Saxons (England). We will examine, inter alia, the rules for using fixed payments to buy off the blood feud, the rules for ownership and transfer of property, the rules concerning social status and familial obligations, and the peculiar procedures for deciding lawsuits (trial by ordeal, trial by compurgation, and trial by combat.
UVA has initiated a "The Gun Violence Solutions Project" which seeks to harness the intellectual assets of the entire University to develop innovative and effective solutions that will both curb gun violence and pass constitutional scrutiny. This class is designed to be one part of the University's overarching commitment to finding new constitutional methods to decrease gun violence.
This short course will cover Delaware law from litigation lenses. The course will discuss major cases in Delaware courts, pillars of corporate litigation procedure, and recent changes to Delaware law.
In this course, we will seek to identify problems with American constitutional democracy, and to draft and debate concrete solutions in the form of constitutional amendments: what challenges or problems (if any) does our system of government face that ought to be addressed at the constitutional level, and how should they be addressed?
Roman law developed over the course of more than one thousand years, and it continues to influence legal systems throughout the world. In this course, we will examine the portions of Roman private law that correspond to Anglo-American contract law and tort law.
This course examines international law and U.S. foreign policy relevant to China, Taiwan, North Korea, and South Korea.
This course examines the theory and practice of international investment arbitration.
A series of Law courses specific to military application. The series will be designated by different sections of the course.
Various short topics offered at the Law School.
This is a topics course on issues pertaining to banking law and financial regulation.
This short course will examine the basic substantive and procedural doctrines in federal maritime law and compare them to analogous doctrines in other areas of law. Among the topics to be covered are: jurisdiction in admiralty, carriage of goods by sea, collision, personal injury and wrongful death, salvage, and piracy.
This short course will help students seeking careers in arbitration practice --- whether in U.S. or international law firms or within public or private institutions --- involved in managing cross-border investments and disputes.
This short course will cover the most current issues with respect to the striking rise of ESG & social responsibility in corporate law and governance.
Most leaders in public interest organizations are elevated to their roles without much formal training in organizational management. New lawyers, especially, often have little insight into how an organization works beyond the narrow work they are assigned to do. Through readings, case studies, active discussion, and in-class exercises and simulations, this course explores a wide range of topics focused on what organizational leadership in these spaces entails.
Public interest lawyers have long played a critical role supporting and advancing social change in the United States. This course examines the nuts and bolts of engaging in law reform and impact litigation to effectuate systemic change.
This short course will focus on plea bargaining and the guilty plea system in modern America.
This short course will study the various sources of French Law, the French Civil Code, the increasing significance of case law and the impact of the European Convention of Human Rights, Towards a European Civil Code, basic principles of contracts and new directions, key notions on torts (recent trends in case law) and modern trends in family law (spouse, so-called Pacs, effects of foreign polygamy and repudiation in France, inheritance).
Blackstone described the writ of habeas corpus as "the most celebrated writ in the English law." Today we call it "The Great Writ." In this short course, we will trace the Great Writ from its origins in England to its roll in federal courts today.
This class explores various legal/policy issues that arise in the context of the new genetic technologies.
This short course will examine traditional principles of private international law in the context of the rapidly changing global business environment. Areas covered will include the concept of international jurisdiction, choice of law rules in inter-jurisdictional contracts and in internet transactions, the implications of electronic commerce for private international law, and the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments.
This short course will provide insight into the peculiar issues of the financing of a biotechnology company and will touch on the entrepreneur's evaluation of a scientific opportunity, the business issues in negotiating and drafting a patent license term sheet, the key elements of the business plan, and developing and delivering a power point presentation to potential investors.
This short course will take a deep dive into how key trade secret misappropriation cases have been litigated and their impact on business practices.
The short course is a compressed offering discussing the most significant issues in mergers and acquisitions.
In this short course, students will learn negotiation theories and techniques, and they will apply them to legal situations.
This short course is designed to help students improve their ability to communicate persuasively in the wide variety of settings in which non-litigators are called upon to speak including client meetings, business negotiations, and presentations to public agencies. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 9053, 9055, and 9185. Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7626, 9053, 9055, or 9185 if any taken previously.
In recent years shareholder activism has emerged as a major force in shaping and influencing corporate governance. This short course will review major sources of this influence: shareholder proposals, proxy advisory companies, index funds activism, and hedge fund activism.
Students will study international and comparative law approaches to family law. The course will cover the role of the state and religion in marriage, divorce, child custody, relocation and abduction, support, and adoption as well as surrogacy and other forms of assisted reproduction.
This short course covers prevailing mediation methods along with a survey of case law on legal and ethical issues associated with mediations along with simulated mediation scenarios to develop written and oral advocacy and negotiation skills.
Twentieth-century European legal theory was dominated by the question of what gives law its validity, whereas American legal theorists have been preoccupied with rather different questions. Yet in Europe and the United States, legal theorists have ultimately found themselves worrying about much the same set of problems.
This short course will examine the process by which monuments commemorating the Confederacy went up and the legal issues presented by attempts to take them down. The instructors were involved in several such cases involving monuments in Virginia. In doing so, we will discuss matters involving government speech, separation of powers, and the law of real property.
The Trial Advocacy College is a week-long course offered each January through the offices of Virginia Continuing Legal Education (CLE). This advocacy skills, hands-on course is the most advanced advocacy training offered at the law school. Each student gets to practice every aspect of advocacy culminating in a jury trial.
This course will introduce students to the world of white collar prosecution and defense (federal primarily but not exclusively), from investigation to prosecution, through trial, sentencing, and appeal.
This short intensive course seeks to offer students a highly selective introduction to the legal and political systems of the People's Republic of China.
This short course offers an introductory comparative look at Jewish law and American legal theory. No prior familiarity with Jewish law, culture, or religion will be assumed.
In this short course, we will begin traversing the post-Dobbs landscape, with special attention to the difficult questions about access to reproductive care and family support that legislators, law enforcement agents, health care professionals, lawyers, judges, and ordinary people now must confront.
This course examines the effect of various laws and law-like rules on Major League Baseball. Suitable for non-experts and will include (optional) session aimed at bringing them up to speed.
This course will address legal and policy issues related to cryptocurrency. We will study what cryptocurrency is, why people demand it, and what advantages and disadvantages it has compared to conventional money. We will connect cryptocurrency to tax, criminal law, smart contracts, and other legal topics. The course is meant to be complementary to, and not mutually exclusive with, Cryptocurrency Regulation (SC) (LAW 7808).
This short course will provide an overview of federal sentencing policy and practice. Students will be introduced to the history and goals of sentencing, the types of sentences available to judges, the collateral consequences of conviction, and the sentencing reform movement that led to the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
In this course we will discuss issues involved in litigating challenges to government policies, using case examples from the instructor's time in the San Francisco City Attorney's Office and on the bench in the Northern District of California.
Participants in this short course will explore the legal, literary, and cultural mechanisms that amplify the voices of some speakers, while silencing the voices of others.
In this short course we will explore the issues of team management and leadership applied in various settings. Students will learn about how failures in leadership evolve and how to prevent them; how to manage crises effectively; and how to build an organization that is less susceptible to significant preventable failures.
This short course will examine the philosophical foundations of some of the most pressing debates in contemporary constitutional theory, and explore the implications of these debates for how we think about law, politics, and public policy. Some topics that we will discuss include the following: originalism, legal positivism, and the rule of law.
This short course exposes students to a set of situations where contract provisions risk blowing up a deal (or actually do) and shows them how sophisticated practitioners worked to solve the problems.
This short course will provide an exploration of the investigation and prosecution of the crime of sex trafficking. Students will delve into the law and history of the key federal statutes, and explore concepts such as law enforcement investigations, charging and plea considerations, evidence and trial, sentencing, and alternatives to prosecution.
This short course introduces high level commercial and regulatory considerations applicable to private investment funds and their advisers.
This course will provide an introduction to domestic and international legal issues arising from economic and financial sanctions, with an emphasis on sanctions imposed by the United States and its partners outside the U.N. multilateral process.
This course will confront historical and modern controversies in administrative law. Topics will change from year to year, but may include: the appropriate contours of executive, legislative, and judicial control over federal government decisionmaking; the scope of judicial review of agency action; and the meaning of major statutes, such as the Administrative Procedure Act, governing the administrative state.
This short course will examine the evolution of asylum law in the United States since the post-WWII period.
This short course will cover the content and structure of different types of agreements used in cross-border business transactions, as well as the process by which these agreements are negotiated, the role of the lawyer in identifying and resolving underlying commercial issues, and the allocation of responsibility for decision-making between business leaders and lawyers.
In American corporate governance, a "proxy fight" occurs when one or more dissident candidates challenge the board's own nominees for election to the board of directors. In the last few years, the rise of shareholder activism and major changes to the SEC's proxy regulations have reinvigorated the proxy fight as a shareholder tool. This Course will explore the proxy fight, with an emphasis on current trends.
The course will cover federal and state laws and proposals that have been applied to various employment-related AI practices; anti-discrimination principles used to allege bias in the use of these tools; traditional labor law governing workplace surveillance; and the continuing evolution of novel legal theories being advanced by employee advocates.
Delaware courts have issued a line of decisions that sparked public debates and could have significant corporate law implications. This short lecture course will examine those decisions.
This course offers a practical and strategic exploration of the General Counsel (GC) role, which has emerged as a critical C-Suite member in the modern business environment.
This short course examines contemporary controversies, influences, research, and roles surrounding school choice programs.
This course explores the foundation of transformative justice through a lens of holistic defense.
This short course will explore a historical sequence of important innovations in the design of corporate law, emphasizing the creativity that drives the field.
This course will examine the Supreme Court from the perspective of its institutional role and the behavior of its members and of those whose professional lives circle around it. Since our aim is a better understanding of how constitutional law is made, the focus will be on the making, rather than on the substantive law. The readings are drawn primarily from political science and judicial behavior literature, along with recent Supreme Court opinions.
This course introduces students to various topics within the broader field of artificial intelligence law.
This short course will examine salient features of the legal and economic framework in which we provide medical care in the United States.
This short course offers a quick but intensive training course in effective verbal communications.
This intensive interdisciplinary experience brings medical students and law students together for two-weeks to explore topical issues at the frontier of clinical care, law, and neuroethics through multidisciplinary readings, immersion experiences, hands-on interdisciplinary group projects, and in-depth discussions.
This course will explore corporate litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery, the nation's preeminent forum for resolving business disputes, from a doctrinal and practical perspective. It will introduce students to the Court's unique features and role in the world of corporate litigation.
At the most basic level, it is easy to conceive of the role of a general counsel as giving advice to the entity and its agents on what the law requires, and what it prohibits. In practice, the general counsel is rarely called upon, or even able, to provide a simple up or down judgment about a proposed course of action. This course will examine the duties and tensions that attend the role.
This short course offers a introductory survey of the constitutional and legal structure of the European Union.
The course will focus on the federal regulation of investment companies (mutual funds, close-end funds, ETFS) and their investment advisors.
This short course will provide students with a unique perspective into the many aspects of a start-up business - from creation and capitalization to IP protection and skills needed for day-to-day operations. Students will engage and explore business planning, entity choice, governance, financing, and exit opportunities.
This short course aims to provide an understanding of the fundamental principles of public international law pertaining to settlement of disputes between states, the procedures (methods) available and the institutions (forums) that makes up the settlement system.
This short simulaton course helps prepare students for the nuts and bolts of cyber security and privacy practice.
This class will provide a comprehensive overview of energy trading and commodities regulation by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), including with respect to traditional energy products (such as natural gas, power, crude oil and coal), and environmental products (such as carbon offsets, acid rain allowances, and renewable energy credits).
This course will explore the division of authority between the states and the national government. We will focus on the "federalism revolution" in the Rehnquist and Roberts Courts, paying attention to recent decisions about the limits on federal regulatory power and federal court jurisdiction. Grades will be based on class participation and a writing assignment.
This course will examine the foundations of Critical Race Theory, a scholarly movement that began in the 1980s. The course will apply core principles of CRT to contemporary legal challenges.
How do less-developed countries and nations in transition, independently or with outside assistance, facilitate the rule of law? This seminar will explore that question through the writings and experience of scholars, policymakers, and others working in the field of law and development.
This short course will examine various cannabis legalization regimes, both domestically and internationally, with a focus on the market and financial aspects of legalization.
The course will examine ethical & legal issues related to reproduction. While some historical coverage will take place, primary emphasis will be on current topics, such as abortion regulation, coerced medical interventions, conscientous provider accommodations, state ultrasound legislation, prenatal genetic testing, the pregnant woman in research, & regulation of the fertility industry.
This course explores the process of judicial decision-making and how lawyers influence those decisions, and how law clerks aid in the process, with a focus on analytical, writing, and communication skills that aid in the process.
This short course explores the constitutional dimensions of U.S. cyberspace operations.
This course will concentrate on the business lawyer's role in three significant stages of a company's development with an emphasis on the practical elements that enable lawyers to contribute to successful client outcomes. Prerequisite: JD student and LAW 6103 or LAW 6109
This J-term course, taught in Israel, will familiarize students with the unique legal aspects of Israel's entrepreneurial culture through a series of lectures, meetings with practitioners, businesses and government institutions.
This course is designed to provide students with a practical perspective on the governance and management of global law firms and how the structure of firms manifests itself in the culture of a firm.
This short course examines the legal regimes that regulate interests in cultural property. Topics include the repatriation of antiquities, the rights of artists to control or profit from their works, and the enforcement of limitations on access to documents of significant public interest. The course also examines the property rights of indigenous peoples in cultural artifacts and traditional knowledge.
Deciding on an appropriate rule involves a complex process that implicates social norms, available scientific evidence, and policy goals. The introduction of new technologies or making better use of existing ones, or in facing suboptimal performances, highlight the need for sensible rulemaking.
This short course will explore the genealogy and contested contemporary use of the category "political prisoner."
This short course will focus on selected topics that pose contentious policy challenges for law enforcement, including crafting and implementing effective crime control strategies, implementing investigative practices that are both fair and useful, establishing rules to govern investigations of political activity, and calibrating use of force policies to maximize both officer and civilian safety.
This class will introduce students to the basic concepts and principles of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and reflect on the current challenges the GDPR is facing, most notably the question of data transfers between the US and Europe.
This short course will explore pressing issues in AI governance, the underlying perspectives and motivations of the different players in AI governance debates around the world, and areas where legislative and regulatory activity is most active.
The course will focus on the responsibilities of public company Boards of Directors and the issues Boards deal with from the routine to crisis management. Emphasis will be on practical knowledge which will enable lawyers to understand the Board process and how various aspects of law impact the Boardroom.
Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions of private companies is very different from public company transactions. This course explores the structuring and negotiating of private deals by strategic (another company) and financial (private equity) purchasers through detailed discussion of and exercises focused on actual transactions.
This is a short course about how countries tax the income of multinational companies. The course will provide an overview of the fundamentals of U.S. transfer pricing rules in the global context, with due attention to how countries work out their differences when it comes to sharing the tax base.
This short course will teach students how to use professional skills to protect free-ranging wild animals. This course will introduce wildlife biology and animal ethics as they relate to various areas of federal and state law (including constitutional, statutory, and administrative law). Via several in-class simulations, students will practice how to protect free-ranging wildlife using a variety of regulatory and advocacy tools.
This discussion-based course will examine in depth a number of current topics in law, medicine, and society, such as organ transplantation, recent human research scandals, vaccination policy, unilateral treatment withdrawal, and posthumous reproduction. Topics vary year to year.
Through a simulation oriented course, students will be exposed to recent economic history of the People's Republic of China, foreign direct investment law of China, and negotiating norms of US and Chinese investors.
An examination of the numerous and increasingly sophisticated ways in which science and scientific evidence impacts the legal system and how scientifically unsophisticated judges try to deal with it.
Designed primarily for students pursuing clerkships and careers in federal litigation, this course examines the relationship between judicial decision-making and effective advocacy in federal courts.
This short course will develop managerial and leadership competencies through the case method and course dialogue. Readings include organizational psychology research and cases featuring UVA alumni and defining moments in their careers.
This short course will introduce students to the practice of "art law,' which lies at the intersection of several bodies of law. Contract doctrines such as meetings of minds, mistakes of fact, warranties, and good faith will be explored. The Uniform Commercial Code, which is the primary regulatory schema in the U.S. governing disputes over art transactions, including claims of looted art and fake art, will also be studied.
This course will examine the legal tools and frameworks available to United States government policymakers in dealing with threats from states and non-state actors. These tools -- most notably sanctions -- allow the government to use coercive measures to promote peace and security, further foreign policy objectives, and stem the rise of terrorism.
The course will focus on the prudential regulation of banking through capital, liquidity, and related requirements. It will begin by describing the business of banking before turning to prudential regulation and finishing with an in-depth look at the Liquidity Coverage Ratio in Basel III.
This short course focuses on public equity investing and related company analysis. The course is designed to give students a practical understanding of how professional equity investors at large investment firms analyze companies and make investment decisions.
"Tech giants now rank among the largest and most valuable companies in history. This course will explore the implications of ""big data"" and economic concentration in the New Economy, and whether and to what extent antitrust law is the proper mechanism to address issues like consumer privacy, filter bubbles, ""fake news,"" and the financial challenges facing journalism, print media, and brick-and-mortar businesses."
This course will explore the arguments for and against our great Constitution. Only by understanding the original debates can you understand the document's original meaning. And to understand the original debates you cannot read the Federalist Papers alone. During this class, we will have the opportunity to discuss the reasons for and against the Constitution, the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Power, and the need for the Bill of Rights.
The short course will review federal regulations and legal issues involving cryptocurrencies, digital assets, and initial coin offerings. This class explores the interplay of different federal regulators of cryptocurrencies and digital assets, including principally the SEC and the CFTC. Criminal laws as they relate to emerging technology of cryptocurrencies and digital assets also considered in context of DOJ criminal prosecutions.
In this course, students will learn how to analyze client goals, manage client preferences and risks, negotiate and structure agreements from opposing viewpoints, and provide comprehensive legal services to different players in the music industry.
This course focuses on the common economic problems, such as moral hazard, information asymmetry, and rent-seeking, that drive deal structuring and deal contracting. Students will apply economic tools, such as alternative contractual regimes, transaction costs, and risk-sharing to evaluate and solve economic problems in a variety of real-world deals.
This course will examine the history of discrimination against girls and women that led to the enactment of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 as well as current Title IX law and policy. We will assess Title IX's application to athletics, sexual harassment and single-sex schools as well as other topics as time permits.
Developing a successful project proposal for a postgraduate public interest fellowship requires multifaceted research, creativity, and strategic advocacy. In this class, students interested in becoming public interest attorneys will learn about the process for developing a fellowship project; conduct research about a timely legal problem that motivates them; and design, in collaboration with others, the foundations for a compelling project.
This course will introduce students to the legal and institutional complexities that are encountered by institutions of higher education. Students will examine the social and political factors that impact the programs and systems that shape higher education. Students will learn to apply legal concepts to the varied issues that are encountered in higher education settings.
This short course will explore the history of pro bono at law firms, how law firms partner with public interest organizations on impact litigation and policy reform, how law firms measure social impact, and the relationship between pro bono and other aspects of law firm practice and culture.
This short course explores Reproductive Justice as a paradigm for understanding reproductive oppression -- that is, the subordination of individuals through their bodies, sexualities, and abilities to reproduce.
This short course will explore why internal investigations are initiated, how they are conducted, and what remedial actions may follow from their results. The course will combine practical considerations that impact internal investigations with the legal parameters controlling them. Course work will be a combination of lectures, discussions, and skills work such as conducting interviews and developing investigative plans.
This class will cover the basics of statistical analysis as relevant to lawyers.
This course will cover the development of U.S. and international initiatives against public-official bribery; address cutting edge issues around key provisions of the FCPA and its extraterritorial application; related offenses such as money laundering and private sector bribery; and the anti-corruption legal practice, both before the DOJ and SEC, and advising clients.
This short course will provide an overview of the issues most frequently encountered by real estate practitioners.
Sovereigns take on debt - money owed or due at some point in the future - to finance their present expenditures. What mechanisms, if any, ensure that the promises to pay are credible and enforceable? In this short course, we examine this question against the backdrop of U.S. constitutional law.
This course examines print and electronic research. Topics include basic primary and secondary sources, including legislative history and administrative law; using Lexis and Westlaw; research in specialized areas and transnational law; business and social science resources; the role of the Internet in legal research; and nontraditional approaches to finding legal information.
This course introduces students to the law, theory and practice of intellectual property transactions and licensing.
This course concerns corporate bankruptcy and reorganization, and focuses on the reorganization of financially distressed firms under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The emphasis of the readings and class discussion is less on bankruptcy case law and more on the economic fundamentals of financial deal-making and restructuring. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7007 Bankruptcy. Prerequisite: Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7007 or 8002 if either taken previously.
This course focuses on lawsuits against public officials and governments. The bulk of the course looks at constitutional and statutory claims brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. Topics include what it means to act "under color of state law," absolute and qualified immunities, government liability for the acts of individual officials, monetary and injunctive relief and attorney's fees awards.
This course offers an intensive, albeit introductory, study of First Amendment law relating to freedom of speech and press (and corollary freedoms, such as freedom of political association).
This course deals with the tax considerations involved in the formation, operation, reorganization, and liquidation of corporations. It analyzes the relevant sections of the Internal Revenue Code and regulations and explores alternative directions that the law might have taken.
This course studies financial instruments other than common stock and conventional debt securities. Topics include options and financial futures, structured preferred stocks, exotic debt securities such as commodity-linked bonds, and swap agreements. What is the economic function of these instruments; how are they valued; and how are they treated by the regulatory system?
The federal copyright statute protects rights in literary and artistic property. Topics covered in this course include the subject matter of copyright; ownership; formalities; duration and transfer; infringement; fair use; rights and remedies of copyright owners; pre-emption of state copyright laws; the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998.
Patent protection is increasingly important in the knowledge economy. Advances in biotechnology, controversial uses of patent rights, and divergent court opinions are impacting this area in far-reaching ways. This course will explore many of these developments while maintaining a primary focus on the principal rules pertaining to patent protection and enforcement.
A survey of the income tax aspects of (1) foreign income earned by U.S. persons and entities, and (2) U.S. income earned by foreign persons and entities. The principal focus will be on the U.S. tax system, but some attention will be devoted to adjustments made between tax regimes of different countries through tax credits and tax treaties.
This course examines legal issues that arise from different financing choices made by corporations, the relationship between a corporation and its investors, and how the courts have treated that relationship. Topics include firm valuation in change-of-control transactions and in bankruptcy, the rights of debt-holders and preferred stockholders, and common stockholders' claims to dividends.
This course focuses on the corporate and securities law issues relevant to mergers and acquisitions, including the Williams Act; state statutory and case law; as well as important forms of private ordering such as poison pills, lockups, earnouts, and the allocation of risks by the acquisition agreement. Relevant accounting and tax issues will be covered as well.
This course will examine the basic principles in the application of the federal income tax to partnerships and their partners. Due to recent changes in the law, an increasing number of private firms, whether or not organized as partnerships, will be subject to these rules in the future. The course is taught by using problems that illustrate the principles discussed in class.
The course will examine the federal statutes and regulations relating to the sale of securities and the duties of issuers, underwriters, brokers, dealers, officers, directors, controlling persons, and other significant market participants. We will discuss the regulation of public and private offerings, trading markets, and disclosure and corporate governance of publicly traded companies. Enrollment not allowed in LAW 8016 or 8017 if either taken previously.
The course will examine the federal statutes and regulations relating to the sale of securities and the duties of issuers, underwriters, brokers, dealers, officers, directors, and other market participants. Topics will include the regulation of public and private offerings, trading markets, accounting standards, the lawyer's role in verifying financial information, and the use of finance theory in securities litigation.
The course will cover intestate succession; requirements for the execution, revocation, republication, and revival of wills and codicils; probate procedure and grounds for will contests; requisites for the creation and termination of private trusts; inter vivos transactions that serve as will substitutes; planning for incapacity; and problems in the interpretation of wills.
The course is organized and presented primarily for students who intend to practice law in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The course includes a study of the Virginia judicial system and problems of jurisdiction and venue within that system; pleading and practice both at law and in equity; a study of the Rules of Court; and the procedural statutes and applicable case law.
This course will provide an in-depth look at the case law and theory of the Equal Protection Clause.
This course will examine various advanced topics in patent remedies, ownership and licensing issues, patent exhaustion, antitrust, inequitable conduct and administrative aspects of patent practice.
In this course, students will learn in detail the rules and procedures associated with taking depositions in federal litigation. This is a hands-on, practical problem simulation course.
This student-initiated study abroad program permits students to spend one semester studying law in a foreign university law school or law department and complete a research paper written as part of the study abroad experience under the supervision of a selected Virginia law professor.
A series of Law clinics. The series will be designated by different sections of the course.
This yearlong clinical course provides students the opportunity to brief and argue one or more appeals before a federal appeals court. The rules and procedures applicable in the federal appellate system will be examined. Fundamentals of oral and written appellate advocacy will be discussed, with a focus on each student's individual work project.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinical course providing students the opportunity to brief and argue one or more appeals before a federal appeals court. The rules and procedures applicable in the federal appellate system will be examined. Fundamentals of oral and written appellate advocacy will be discussed, with a focus on each student's individual work project.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic. Students may represent children with legal issues in the areas of education law, laws governing access to services for incarcerated children, mental health and developmental disabilities law, and foster care and social services law. Students will be given an opportunity to work on policy issues.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic offered in conjunction with JustChildren, a program of the Legal Aid Justice Center in Charlottesville. Students may represent children with legal issues in the areas of education law, laws governing access to services for incarcerated children, mental health and developmental disabilities law, and foster care and social services law. Students will be given an opportunity to work on policy issues. Prerequisite: 2nd-year or 3rd-year Law
The semester-long Criminal Defense Clinic provides a first-hand, experience-based study of the processes, techniques, strategy, and responsibilities of legal representation at the trial level.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic designed to give students first-hand experience in the practice of employment law, from both the plaintiff and defense side.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic offered in cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center and local attorneys. The clinic is designed to give students first-hand experience in the practice of employment law, from both the plaintiff and defense side.
There is currently a groundswell for criminal justice reform. At the same time, much is being written about the lack of hard facts and reliable data to inform these changes. This is the first half course of a year-long clinic that aims to step into that void and take on collaborative projects to produce those hard facts and reliable data for all types of organizations in the criminal justice reform movement needing that information.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic where students develop trial skills using housing law as the substantive background, and eligible students appear and argue in local courts.
Offered in conjunction with the Legal Aid Justice Center, this is the second semester of a year-long clinic that teaches and develops trial skills using housing law as the substantive background, and eligible students appear and argue in local courts.
This semester-long clinical course gives students first-hand experience in human rights advocacy under the supervision of international human rights lawyers. Projects provide practical experience with activities lawyers engage in to promote respect for human rights; build the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective human rights lawyers; and integrate the theory and practice of human rights.
This clinic involves instruction and practical training in patent drafting as well as the negotiation and drafting of patent and software license agreements. Topics include the evaluation of inventions and computer software; preparation, filing and prosecution of patent applications; dealing with patent examiners; and researching intellectual property issues and technology transfer.
In this clinic, students can choose to work exclusively with patent attorneys drafting, filing, and prosecuting patent applications or working exclusively with licensing agents to draft license agreements, negotiate licensing terms and conditions, prepare confidentiality agreements, and marketing documents.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic in which students explore a range of practical, ethical, and intellectual issues involved in the discharge of a prosecutor's duties and responsibilities including discovery and exculpatory evidence, duty not to prosecute on less than probable cause, cross-warrant situations, prosecution of multiple defendants and joint trial, witness recantation and preparation, and improper argument at trial.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic in which students explore a range of practical, ethical, and intellectual issues involved in the discharge of a prosecutor's duties and responsibilities including discovery and exculpatory evidence, duty not to prosecute on less than probable cause, cross-warrant situations, prosecution of multiple defendants and joint trial, witness recantation and preparation, and improper argument at trial.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic introducing students to all aspects of current U.S. Supreme Court practice through live cases. Working on teams, students will handle actual cases from the seeking of Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic introducing students to all aspects of current U.S. Supreme Court practice through live cases. Working on teams, students will handle actual cases from the seeking of Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits.
This one-semester clinic introduces students to all aspects of current U.S. Supreme Court practice through live cases. Working on teams, students will handle actual cases from the seeking of Supreme Court review to briefing on the merits.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic to investigate three potential wrongful convictions of incarcerated individuals in the state of Virginia. One case will have forensic evidence (usually DNA) that could potentially be tested, and two will be non-DNA cases. Student will interview potential clients and witnesses, review case files, collect records, search court files and more.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinic to investigate three potential wrongful convictions of incarcerated individuals in the state of Virginia. One case will have forensic evidence (usually DNA) that could potentially be tested, and two will be non-DNA cases. Student will interview potential clients and witnesses, review case files, collect records, search court files and more.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinical course providing students the opportunity to work with nonprofit organizations and assist with legal issues in their formation and day-to-day operations.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinical course providing students the opportunity to work with nonprofit organizations and assist with legal issues in their formation and day-to-day operations.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinical course offering law students the opportunity to gain practical legal experience involving timely free speech and press issues.
This is the second semester of a yearlong clinical course offering law students the opportunity to gain practical legal experience involving timely free speech and press issues. Supervised by the legal staff of the Thomas Jefferson Center, students work as a team in conducting legal research, meeting with clients and co-counsel, and drafting legal memoranda and briefs. Prerequisite:2nd-year or 3rd-year Law
This clinic offers law students the opportunity to deepen their advocacy skills and assume primary responsibility for representing indigent clients in serious criminal matters.
The clinic involves instruction and practical training on advising start-up companies and drafting basic corporate documentation. As part of the clinic, students will work with and advise Darden students who have been accepted to participate in the Darden Business Incubator.
This is the first semester of a year-long clinical course that gives students first-hand experience in human rights advocacy under the supervision of international human rights lawyers.
This is the second semester of a year-long clinical course that gives students first-hand experience in human rights advocacy under the supervision of international human rights lawyers. Prerequisite: 2-yr or 3-yr JD LAW
The Environmental Law and Community Engagement Clinic fits within the Law School's Program in Law, Communities, and the Environment (PLACE). Students in this semester-long clinic have the opportunity to work on real-world environmental cases in a variety of venues - before courts, administrative agencies and public utility commissions.
This is the first semester of a yearlong course that requires students to participate in case work in both the fall and spring semesters. Students will learn basic information about various consumer protection statutes while doing exercises covering the entire range of client representation.
This is the second semester of a yearlong course that requires students to participate in case work in both the fall and spring semesters. In addition, in the fall, there will be a seminar which will meet once a week. Students will learn basic information about various consumer protection statutes while doing exercises covering the entire range of client representation.
This is the first semester of a yearlong clinic in which students represent low-income clients in a variety of legal matters pertaining to their health needs.
Students in this second semester of a yearlong clinic represent mentally ill and elderly clients in legal proceedings, negotiations, administrative hearings and court proceedings (to the extent permitted by law) on a variety of legal matters.
In this 1st semester of a year-long clinic, clients come from diverse backgrounds and frequently have unusual factual scenarios that bring them to the doors of Legal Aid. Students will be expected to work with the clients and understand what they want and what can be pursued through available legal mechanisms. The Clinic will focus on complicated asylum cases arising out of emerging areas of the law as well as other cases.
This is the 2nd half of a year-long clinic (LAW 8647 & LAW 8648)
In this clinic, students will work on cases that have potential to provide real and concrete relief and legal support to people and communities that have been harmed by the criminalization of poverty and other forms of discrimination or deprivation of rights. Students will provide direct representation to individual clients as well as engage in impact advocacy.
This is single-semester clinic offered in cooperation with the Legal Aid Justice Center (LAJC) and local attorneys. The clinic is designed to give students first-hand experience in the practice of employment law.
This course deals with legal and business issues that arise in representing emerging-growth technology companies, with a particular emphasis on venture capital transactions, liquidity events, intellectual property, and corporate formation, governance, and capital structure.
This seminar explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of so-called "emerging markets" and in particular in the restructuring of formerly socialist economies.
This course considers the principal tax and non-tax aspects of estate planning, with emphasis on sophisticated tax planning techniques for wealthy individuals.
This course explores the most common evidentiary challenges in litigation, in addition to covering important trial strategy and components (opening & closing statements, and jury selection). The keys to success include forms of proof where the factual foundations are challenging, the law demands unexpected elements to support offered proof, or the unwritten aspects of trial practice interfere with "textbook" efforts to get proof in the record.
This is a single-semester clinic for students to explore consequences arising from mass incarceration and developing legal skills to support formerly incarcerated clients and families with resolving collaterial consequences of incarceration.
This seminar will consider the theory and practice of drug product liability litigation lawsuits before, and now after, the Supreme Court's recent landmark decision in Wyeth v. Levine (2009). We will consider the legal principles governing such lawsuits, such as inadequate warning; the learned intermediary doctrine; and medical causation.
This is the 1st semester of a year-long course using a mock litigation as a lens for studying issues in international tax law. The case study may implicate domestic tax law of any jurisdiction, tax treaties, and EU law. Students will be given a fact-pattern and will identify legal issues raised by the fact pattern. Students will draft briefs for both the government and taxpayer on the issues raised by the mock litigation.
This is the 2nd semester of a year-long course using a mock litigation as a lens for studying issues in international tax law. The case study may implicate domestic tax law of any jurisdiction, tax treaties, and EU law. Students will be given a fact-pattern and will identify legal issues raised by the fact pattern. Students will draft briefs for both the government and taxpayer on the issues raised by the mock litigation.
This is the 2nd half of a year-long Civil Rights Clinic in which students work on cases that have potential to provide real and concrete relief and legal support to people and communities that have been harmed by the criminalization of poverty and other forms of discrimination or deprivation of rights.
This course is the first half of a year-long clinic. Students in this clinic provide research and analytical assistance to members of the Virginia General Assembly, officials in state executive branch agencies, and/or local government officials as they develop legislative or policy proposals and, when appropriate, assist their government clients in advocating for the proposals or legislative ideas they develop.
This course is the second half of a year-long clinic. Students in this clinic provide research and analytical assistance to members of the Virginia General Assembly, officials in state executive branch agencies, and/or local government officials as they develop legislative or policy proposals and, when appropriate, assist their government clients in advocating for the proposals or legislative ideas they develop.
Many federal defendants are serving sentences in excess of what they would receive for the same offense today, due to errors in the original case, changes in law that were not made retroactive, and/or evolving community standards. Students in this clinic will work to reduce the sentences of indigent federal defendants and gives students a unique opportunity to practice in federal court.
This course focuses on the common economic problems, such as moral hazard, information asymmetry, and rent-seeking, that drive deal structuring and deal contracting. Students will apply economic tools, such as alternative contractual regimes, transaction costs, and risk-sharing to evaluate and solve economic problems in a variety of real-world deals.
The Holistic Youth Defense Clinic will provide students an opportunity to practice holistic and zealous lawyering by representing juvenile clients on delinquency matters, as well as related school discipline and special education matters, in order to help keep youth in their homes, schools, and communities with appropriate supports. Law students will have the opportunity to handle cases from the initial intake to the case disposition.
This course is about the federal judicial system and its relationship to various other decision-makers, including Congress and the state courts. We will examine the jurisdiction of the federal courts; the elements of a justiciable case or controversy; the role of state law and so-called "federal common law" in federal courts; implied causes of action; and state sovereign immunity.
The Community Organization and Social Enterprise Clinic teaches structured, team-based problem solving through collaborative engagement with community groups.
The clinic can be taken whether or not a student has taken LAW 8671 (Comm Org & Soc Ent Clinic I). The clinic assists clients with structured, team-based problem solving through collaborative engagement with community groups.
Students who have completed the International Human Rights Clinic may take this offering by instructor permission to obtain advanced practical experience with activities lawyers engage in to promote respect for human rights.
This is the second half of a year-long clinic aiming to take on collaborative projects to produce hard facts and reliable data for all types of organizations in the criminal justice reform movement needing that information.
This course builds on work undertaken in the introductory clinic, giving students an opportunity to progress in litigation, policy, and community education projects.
This is a single-semester course using a mock litigation and an international tax competition as a lens for studying issues in international tax law.
This is the first semester of a year-long clinic for students to explore consequences arising from mass incarceration and developing legal skills to support formerly incarcerated clients and families with resolving collaterial consequences of incarceration.
This is the second half course of a year-long clinic to develop legal skills for supporting formerly incarcerated people and their families with resolving the collateral consequences of incarceration, while empowering their clients and the communities to which they return to create sustainable systemic change and drive community economic development.
Students who have completed the Youth Advocacy Clinic may take this offering by instructor permission to obtain advanced practical experience with activities lawyers engage in to represent children with legal issues in the areas of education law, laws governing access to services for incarcerated children, mental health and developmental disabilities law, and foster care and social services law.
This is the first semester of a yearlong practicum in which selected upper-level students serve as teaching assistants in the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program.
This is the second semester of a yearlong practicum in which selected upper-level students serve as teaching assistants in the law school's Legal Research and Writing Program.
This course introduces LL.M. students to the fundamentals of U.S. legal research materials, methods, and strategies as well as various forms of legal writing.
This field experience is one part of a two-part full-time externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This directed study is one part of a two-part full-time externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This course continues to introduce LL.M. students to the fundamentals of U.S. legal research materials, methods, and strategies as well as various forms of legal writing.
This field experience is one part of a two-part externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This directed study is one part of a two-part externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This field experience is one part of a two-part full-time Washington, DC externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This directed study is one part of a two-part full-time Washington, DC externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
Eligible students receive credit for serving as research assistants supervised by selected law school faculty members.
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member
This course is a semester-long independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This course is the second semester of a yearlong independent research project resulting in a substantial research paper supervised and graded by a selected law school faculty member.
This field experience is one part of a two-part externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This directed study is one part of a two-part externship combining academic study and work experience under the supervision of a faculty member and an educational, charitable, governmental or nonprofit host organization.
This course will introduce students to solo and small firm practice, both criminal and civil, providing valuable insight into the day-to-day lives of Little Law lawyers and teaching practical skills for success. It will touch upon the substantive practice areas that Little Law attorneys often handle, the mechanics of establishing one's own practice, and how to make that practice successful, including how to leverage emerging technology for efficiency.
This simulation-based course will introduce students to the core skills and professional judgment required for modern contract drafting and negotiation.
This course immerses students in a series of fact-rich business simulations designed to bridge the gap between legal theory and the high-pressure reality of modern deal-making.
Eligible students receive 2 credits for participating in a sustained, productive and educationally valuable project for at least 85 hours of work supervised by an eligible faculty member.
This course is the first semester of a yearlong international combined-degree with University Paris 1 Pantheon - Sorbonne Law School and Sciences Po/Paris in which selected students can participate during their third year.
This course is the second semester of a yearlong international combined-degree with University Paris 1 Pantheon - Sorbonne Law School and Sciences Po/Paris in which selected students can participate during their third year.
The Tri-Sector Fellowship offers a unique opportunity to learn how successful cross-disciplinary leaders think about real-world problems.
By application, students who have previously participated as LRW Fellows for 1Ls can take this simulation course to enhance their skills reviewing and commenting on different types of legal documents, including contracts, demand letters, and short motions, which are skills similar to those required by a junior attorney in general practice.
This is the first semester of a yearlong intensive research project resulting in a thesis completed under close faculty supervision coupled with an oral defense before a faculty committee.
Third-Year Thesis (YR)
The fellow for the International Tax Practicum will be a rising 3L, typically one who took the Practicum in the previous year. The fellow will work with the instructor to develop tax-treaty practice problems and litigation scenarios to be completed by the students; give students written feedback on their responses to the problems and/or cases, and meet with students (together with the instructor) to provide oral feedback.
This course focuses on legal writing technique, going beyond the first year LRW program to develop writing skills that can be used to produce seminar papers, law review notes, policy papers, and other forms of advanced legal writing.
This course will examine the body of legal, sociological, and psychological research that is relevant to singlehood and the law. Legal topics will include family law, private benefits, public benefits, employment, and general issues of discrimination.
This seminar will examine domestic and global defects in democracy, assessing the opportunities and possibilities of trying to harness AI technology to address those flaws.
This course develops advanced oral advocacy skills, including effective performance techniques, writing for speaking, and the ability to handle difficult speaking situations.
From 1940 to 1990, the United States eventually led the democratic world to victory in two worldwide struggles'World War II and the Cold War' against authoritarian systems. This course examines this pair of victories, especially the Cold War, through the role of international law, as well as the interplay between U.S. domestic law and foreign policy.
In this seminar students will examine the law's treatment of children's rights. Students will explore the current state of the law regarding the complexities involved with assigning rights and responsibilities to children and those who care for them, and the barriers and limitations courts and legislatures confront when making decisions regarding children.
What constitutes powerful storytelling in literature and the law? How does literature make truth and justice claims? And what can we learn from literature about how to craft compelling stories on behalf of our clients? We'll explore these questions and more through our investigation of literary and legal texts after a brief theoretical grounding in law and literature.
This is a seminar on comparative constitutional law, with an emphasis on separation of powers, federalism, and rights.
This seminar examines the major legal issues facing the wine industry. Specific topics include Prohibition and Twenty-first Amendment jurisprudence, federal and state alcohol beverage regulatory systems (market structure, licensing, trade practices), wine labeling, wine and health.
This seminar will focus on the law relating to construction contracts. It will use a textbook and local construction contracts as source materials. The seminar will cover issues relating to private and public construction, from selection of contract models to disputes resolution. Prerequisite: 2nd-year or 3rd-year Law
This course will explore the development of the American administrative state from the nineteenth century through the present. We will engage political and theoretical debates over the bureaucratic state's role, and its implications for democracy and inequality.
This seminar provides an introduction to liberal political thought and then surveys various antiliberal critiques from the political right and the left.
This course gives students those fundamental building blocks that they need to become effective storytellers in their legal writing.
This seminar will examine the contours of the police power, the foundational government power to regulate health, safety, and morals. Particular attention will be paid to the limits placed on the police power by the due process and takings clauses of the Constitution, as well as to the expansive use of the police power in times of crisis.
Students in this course will participate in the Online Workshop on the Computational Analysis of Law (OWCAL). OWCAL is a global workshop that highlight innovate research in empirical legal studies.
After the Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs, overruling Roe v. Wade, new restrictions on abortion raise a host of questions involving religious freedom. This seminar will survey the First Amendment doctrines necessary to address these questions, explore the history of religious freedom arguments for abortion rights, and examine pending challenges to state abortion laws.
This seminar provides students with knowledge regarding the history, development and salient legal issues facing tribal nations in the United States.
This course will briefly examine the theory of tax policy but will also look at the myriad events that have shaped our current tax system. Students will come to understand that "tax policy making" is not an ivory tower activity, but in fact is intensely political, because, at its heart, it involves the money that governments spend to meet their citizens' needs, defend those citizens, etc.
The course will provide an in-depth look at the roles played by lawyers and investment bankers in advising boards of directors of target and acquirer companies as well as those played by other transactional professionals. Emphasis will be on how the case law and various state statutes and SEC regulations inform the acquisition process.
In recent years, there has been growing recognition that the cultivation of mindfulness --- a focused, non-judgmental awareness of the present moment --- can be a powerful tool for enhancing the well-being and effectiveness of legal professionals. In this course, we will explore the theory and practice of mindfulness as it relates to the unique challenges and opportunities of the legal profession.
This seminar will examine the Supreme Court by intensive study of the Court's most recent Term, October Term 2008, which concludes in June 2009. After a brief introduction to the workings of the Court, the seminar will closely examine the most significant decisions from last Term.
This seminar will explore the legal issues pertaining to animals, the laws that govern their treatment, as well as a number of topics that fall within the general headings "animal law" and "animal rights." We will examine the historical and philosophical treatment of animals, and how those views impact the way law currently governs treatment and use of animals.
This course interrogates the role of corporations in frameworks of law and global governance and engages with their contributions, both positive and negative, to the attainment of social priorities.
This course will follow the progression of a tax dispute from the planning stages through to litigation.
This seminar focuses on the intersections of constitutional theory, political history, and democratic legitimacy.
This course will offer students an opportunity to develop and polish an academic paper on a topic concerning law and inequality, with the goal of publishing it as a student note or article. Over the course of the semester, we will work through each component of a legal academic piece of writing, from the abstract to the conclusion. We will also review topic selection, preemption checking, and methodology.
The concept of dignity plays a role in several legal settings, ranging from antidiscrimination law to the law of "dignitary torts" to administrative cost-benefit analysis. At the same time, there is little consensus on what "dignity" means and how dignitary values can be best instantiated in law. This class will examine a variety of applications of dignity in legal contexts. The class will emphasize dignity's function within real-world legal doctrine and practice, while also considering theoretical frameworks surrounding dignity.
This course treats oral advocacy as an effort to persuade any audience of the merits of a cause or proposal and of the credibility of the proponent. The first seven weeks treat advocacy in settings outside the courtroom. The last half deals with advocacy in the most common trial settings: direct and cross-examination, opening statements, closing arguments and appellate advocacy. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7626, 9055, and 9185.
The rise of creative "artificial intelligence" poses deep issues concerning the extent to which rights protecting creativity should be limited to human creativity alone. This seminar will examine the rapidly evolving law on these issues both in the United States and in foreign countries and will also discuss the relevant economic and policy considerations.
This seminar focuses on the practical and strategic applications of Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. The seminar examines applicable statutory and case law with particular emphasis on hypothetical and actual fact situations to demonstrate how the Chapter 11 process works.
This course explores legal and policy issues confronting the airline industry. Topics include current issues such as airline bankruptcies, modernizing the air traffic control system, air transportation security, whether the U.S. should permit foreign control of domestic airlines, and other similarly timely topics.
This seminar is a deep dive into the role of race in American public education. It will trace the arc of school desegregation and school integration law, from the early civil rights struggles and litigation strategy that lead up to the Supreme Court's seminal pronouncement in Brown v. Board of Education through the ongoing challenges to more equitable, integrated public schools in the present day.
This seminar begins with an overview of writings about the freedom of religion, including both philosophical and historical treatments. Following weeks consist of a close critique of one (relatively short) law review article on the subject. The principal objectives are to sharpen skills of close reading and critical analysis as well as to deepen understanding of the difficult issues surrounding the freedom of religion. Prerequisite: Constitutional Law.
This seminar will examine the emergence of state constitutionalism, sometimes described as a "new judicial federalism." The course will examine why so many state constitutions were interpreted in lockstep with the Federal constitution for decades, as well as the new opportunities and challenges posed by independent state constitutional interpretation.
Reproductive Rights and Justice explores the economic, political, legal, and social factors that influence procreation and parenting.
The seminar reviews the structure of historic preservation law in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local level, and the policy issues facing governmental units regarding the preservation of historic buildings and sites. Comparisons are made to programs in other countries and to efforts undertaken at the international level to foster preservation.
Mergers and acquisitions are reviewed under antitrust laws, with an emphasis on U.S. antitrust law at the federal level. Topics include market definition and measures of market concentration; theories of liability for anticompetitive horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate mergers; methods for predicting anticompetitive effects; failing firm, efficiencies, and other defenses; remedies; and enforcement mechanics.
Participants in this seminar will explore the legal, literary, and cultural mechanisms that amplify the voices of some speakers, while silencing the voices of others.
There is increasing concern in Congress and state legislatures about the rules governing conflicts of interest, lobbying and campaign finance. We will examine what restrictions legislatures and courts have placed on the financing of campaigns, and what reforms are necessary.
Each student in this seminar will draft legislation and supporting documentation on an issue of particular interest to the student. Each student will be required to prepare a draft statute, and a supporting commentary of usual seminar paper length.
Basic courses on contracts tend to assume that provisions among sophisticated commercial parties are rationally and perfectly designed, except maybe for a few remote and unanticipated contingencies. In reality, things aren't quite so perfect. This seminar explores those situations where contract provisions risk blowing up a deal (or actually do) and shows them how sophisticated practitioners worked to solve the problems.
The seminar surveys the laws and policies governing the management of lands and natural resources under federal ownership (some one-third of the nation's continental land area).
From the founding of this nation to the present, Asian Americans have been at the center of many legal controversies with profound implications for American society. This seminar will examine the legal history of people of Asian descent in the United States.
In this seminar, students are prepared for work in the trial court and for the atmosphere of the courtroom. Students will be given the opportunity to perform one or more of the functions of trial lawyers on their feet, such as direct and cross examination, opening statements, handling of exhibits, objections, and closing argument.
The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was implemented 10 years ago. It has survived multiple death blows and has fundamentally changed health care in the United States. This course will explore its passage, implementation and future.
This theory-and-practice seminar explores both the historical and theoretical role of litigation in social movements as well as the nuts and bolts of actually engaging in law reform and impact litigation to effectuate systemic change.
This seminar deals chiefly with the role and impact of traditional public international law and policy, particularly multilateral environmental agreements, on international environmental issues. It also emphasizes the practical aspects of representing clients in the international context, by focusing on the regulatory and liability aspects of environmental law, both domestic and international.
Key figures on the modern Supreme Court will be the focus of this seminar. We will consider selected justices - their background before coming to the Court, their major decisions, their jurisprudence, their interaction with other justices, their legacy. We will take stock of these justices both through their own writings and through the views of commentators, including judicial biographers.
This is the first semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
This is the second semester of a yearlong seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
This is a 1-term version of the seminar designed to enhance students' understanding of ethical issues and address the broader ethical and moral responsibilities of the lawyer as citizen and leader.
This course explores the breadth and scope of the work of state attorneys general, as well as the limitations, constraints, and ethical challenges they face.
Using the holdings of the Law School's Special Collections, this hands-on seminar explores research methods in the legal history of the Anglophone Atlantic world.
This course will introduce students to empirical methods and ask them to design an empirical legal study that contributes to an area of law. No experience with statistics or quantitative analysis is required or expected.
This course continues and builds on Empirical Legal Studies I (LAW 9102). Students will use the methods and materials they develop in the first course to conduct and write an empirical legal study. Students who have not completed LAW 9102 may take this course only if they possess the skills covered in that course and obtain instructor permission.
Examining enterprise data governance through the lens of the modern privacy office, this seminar focuses on how privacy, data protection, and emerging AI oversight are translated into institutional structure, authority, and executive decision-making within complex public and private sector organizations.
This course will examine the legal, economic, and political forces that have shaped American metropolitan areas with particular attention to the policies that have shaped American cities and suburbs. The course will consider issues such as sprawl, racial segregation, housing, education, land use, concentrated poverty, and community economic development.
This seminar will offer a systematic overview of major contemporary theories of justice, with a special focus on their concrete implications for areas of legal doctrine. Coverage will include egalitarian, libertarian, communitarian, critical race theorists, and feminist theories of justice.
This seminar explores the role of the law in shaping the social meaning of heterosexuality and of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender identities in a number of contexts, including employment, education, sexual expression, family relationships, and the military. There is an emphasis on constitutional doctrines, including equal protection, due process/privacy, and freedom of speech and association.
This course will introduce the student to the full scope of the contemporary law of war including international humanitarian law, centered on the Geneva Conventions, customary practice, numerous other treaties such as the Hague accords of 1899 and 1907, and rulings in hundreds of war crimes trials. It will contain a mixture of humanitarian and pragmatic concerns.
This seminar will consider the responsible deployment and governance of AI systems and solutions, including the data they leverage. Students will be introduced to relevant U.S. federal/state/and local laws, regulatory guidance, and business-use cases that help guide legal teams on considerations of legal and regulatory compliance, consumer harm, fairness, and transparency.
This course will follow and critique the major cases arising out of the 2024 election in order to answer questions such as: why was the case brought, is it structured to achieve its stated (or unstated) goals, what are its likely legal (and nonlegal) problems, how much does its success depend on moving the law, what are its implications for elections more generally, and are the lawyers advancing their claims in and out of court appropriately.
This seminar will review leading decisions from the most recently-concluded term of the U.S. Supreme Court.
This seminar will examine the role of international law and institutions in addressing major policy concerns that transcend the boundaries of individual states.
In this course, students will learn individual and team leadership and communication skills using real-life case studies and current events that place students in situations where they are being called upon to lead.
This course introduces law students to foundational components of the business of sport, including stadium/arena development, M&A and equity investment, sponsorship/commercial activation, and media rights.
Many public service legal organizations -- from impact civil rights to direct service -- deploy integrated advocacy strategies that embrace organizing as an essential tool. However, the vast majority of attorneys still have little to no exposure to the work of building collective power. This course will explore theories of law's relationship to those efforts, from local community organizing to international social movements.
This seminar will explore freedom of expression from a comparative law and international human rights perspective.
This class is designed to expose students to new research and to engage in critical discussion about various facets of the criminal legal system. It is targeted both towards students interested in considering a scholarly path as well as those interested in criminal legal practice or reform.
Legal research increasingly utilizes AI tools and big data, and the importance of computational analysis will only grow. And legal employers are signaling that they prefer lawyers who are proficient in emerging technologies---most notably, generative AI---and who understand the limitations of these tools. The course will introduce students to empirical methods and AI-assisted research and ask them to use these skills to design an empirical legal study that contributes to an area of law.
Legal practice and research increasingly involve analysis of big data to resolve legal questions, and the importance of quantitative analysis is likely to grow. Also, legal employers may value lawyers who have at least basic familiarity with empirical research methods. This is the second half of a year-long course introducing students to empirical methods. No experience with statistics or quantitative analysis is required or expected.
The past decade has witnessed rising geopolitical tensions, and as states have become wary of interdependence, questions arise: can the international legal regimes that govern international trade, investment, and finance survive? How can they adapt? This seminar will explore these questions.
This seminar examines the legal architecture of authoritarian rule and democratic backsliding, with particular attention to the logic of law in authoritarian settings. We analyze how constitutions, courts, elections, emergency powers, and administrative institutions can entrench executive power while preserving the appearance of legality.
This seminar will provide a survey of internet governance, with a focus on those areas of cyber-regulation experiencing the most active debate.
This course is a forum for students to engage with their peers, faculty, and invited scholars on cutting-edge issues in criminal law, criminal procedure, and criminal justice policy. Each week, we will focus on a scholar and read a sampling of their work; the following week, that scholar will join us to present their most recent work.
This seminar examines challenges confronting international law in an era of geopolitical upheaval, armed conflict, intensifying climate change, and profound disruption to the international order.
Protest or riot? Civil disobedience or insurrection? Cities, universities, and other governmental entities must simultaneously protect free speech and public safety while managing mass demonstration events. The legal, ethical, and practical issues presented by these events will be the focus of this course.
This course uses the lens of international debt finance to provide students with an advanced course in securities law, corporate law, and contract law. The 2-credit version of the course has a theoretical component about the basics of this multi-trillion dollar market but not the experiential component of the 4-credit version involving the design a debt restructuring plan for the private debt of a country currently in or on the brink of crisis.
This seminar is aimed at giving students a full view of Political Law as a field from a legal practitioner's standpoint. Topics include constitutional and public policy underpinnings of regulation, formation and entity choice, campaign finance, lobbying, and foreign participation. Voting rights, redistricting, and election law will not be covered.
This seminar examines the development of U.S. citizenship through law, history, and politics, including topics such as naturalization, birthright citizenship (jus soli), citizenship by descent (jus sanguinis), and expatriation/denaturalization.
This seminar will focus on how literary and other creative works might help one to derive sociological insights that are relevant to public policy.
Underlying the Rules of Evidence are many assumptions about how people behave and how people (in particular jurors) reason. We will think about the origins and necessity of the rules in general, and specifically look at things like the usefulness of the examination/cross-examination style, character evidence, and other variables.
Financing the climate transition is expected to cost trillions of dollars in the coming decades. This seminar will examine how debt markets are (and aren't) adapting to fund adaptation to climate change. Issues discussed will include green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds and loans, carbon trading, and other related topics.
This course begins with an in-depth explication of the theory and practice of classical socialism (as defined by the Hungarian economist Janos Kornai) in countries such as the former Soviet Union, the PRC, the European Eastern block, Venezuela and selected African countries. It then explains the varieties of capitalism by comparing U.S. style capitalism with European and East Asian capitalist systems.
This seminar will be jointly offered in the Law School and the Department of Environmental Sciences and co-taught by members of those departments. The course will use several species restoration initiatives of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) to study biodiversity conservation.
This seminar will examine the extent to which international law successfully regulates the use of force in the international community. We will focus on the prohibition on the use of force found in the U.N. Charter, and the exceptions to that prohibition.
This seminar is designed to help students improve their ability to communicate persuasively in the wide variety of settings in which non-litigators are called upon to speak including client meetings, business negotiations, and presentations to public agencies. Mutually Exclusive with LAW 7626, 9053, and 9055. Enrollment not allowed in LAW 7626, 9053, 9055, or 9185 if any taken previously.
This course is intended to introduce students to the theories behind the public utility--both historically and in its new iterations. Students will learn about public utility regulation as the precursor to much of modern administrative law.
The goals of this course are (i) to introduce students to transactional law, (ii) to provide negotiations training in the context of transactional practice, and (iii) to further practical legal skills. The focus is on having students apply their legal and non-legal knowledge in the context of serving as a lawyer negotiating an international business transaction within the controlled environment of the classroom.
This course seeks to complement the law school's robust trial advocacy curriculum by focusing on the litigation that takes place before trial, and how every step in a case's lifespan affects the ultimate outcome of the case. Students will focus on developing their advocacy skills in the pretrial motion process and gaining a practical understanding of the increasingly important role of discovery in civil cases.
This seminar offers an introduction to state constitutional law with a comparative approach to analyze the text, structure, and interpretive traditions of various state constitutions.
This course addresses the intersection of the immigration and criminal justice systems, focusing on: 1) the effect of criminal convictions on noncitizens' immigration status; 2) the criminalization of immigration law violations; and 3) immigration officials' adoption of surveillance and enforcement tactics used to police crime.
This seminar will focus on the history and law of the financial infrastructure of our nation's government.
Constitutions around the world guarantee sex equality, or gender justice, in a variety of ways: through general equality clauses, gender-specific non-discriminating guarantees, political and other quotas, reproductive and social rights, and a broader range of international human rights guarantees. This course will explore these provisions, and their interpretation via courts around the world.
What is neoliberalism? What distinguishes it from liberalism, libertarianism, and conservatism? What values, principles, and institutions, does neoliberalism promote? And what are the strongest moral, political, and philosophical arguments for them? What are the strongest objections? This course will address these questions by providing an introduction to neoliberal social, political, and legal thought and its main critics on both the left and the right.
This is a colloquium inviting scholars writing in public law to present works in progress. The class will meet to dissect the work before having the scholar present the work to the group.
This seminar commences with the basic principles of international arbitration, such as consent of the parties. It then examines arbitration proceedings, from the constitution of the tribunal to applicable rules of arbitral procedure.
This seminar will address the potential moral underpinnings of contract law. Our primary focus will be on the relationship between contract and promise.
This course is designed for students in the Program in Law & Public Service and/or students considering a public-interest career. During the seminar, we will confront pressing questions of what it means to be a lawyer working in the public interest.
This course explores the intersection among medicine, technology and the law. Topics may include human reproduction and birth, human genetics and the privacy and ownership of genetic information, death and dying, research involving human subjects, organ transplantation, and public health and bioterrorism. Prerequiste: Equivalent to LAW 7008
This course considers European legal regimes as they moved around the globe. It examines those regimes interactions with one another and with non-European legal cultures from roughly 1500 to 1900.
The course enables students to spend time in administrative settings within the UVA Medical Center as "participant-observers," in order to gain first-hand experience of the subject matter that is the focus of the theory, teaching, and practice of ethics, law, and health policy in relation to the organization and operation of healthcare institutions.
This course will look at the evolution of "Biglaw" institutions from the early days of law practice partnerships, why they developed, how they operate and what they look like today.
This course will ask whether and how the Constitution can be read to protect the poor. We will explore the Supreme Court's flirtation with such protection during the 1960s and 1970s. Prerequisite: LAW 6001
This seminar examines the role of markets in promoting (or inhibiting) the full participation of women in society.
This seminar will address the evolution of therapeutic justice, looking at specialty courts, primarily as they function in the criminal justice system. The focus will be on the theoretical and practical aspects of functioning drug courts, mental health courts, juvenile and family law courts, veterans' courts and other specialty courts.
This is a simulation course in which students act as outside lawyers hired to defend a hypothetical corporation in every phase of a criminal investigation from the discovery of potential misconduct through the criminal resolution.
In this seminar, we will examine the ways in which poverty in the United States is defined, represented, and regulated by legal and literary texts. Our main objectives will to be to develop an understanding of the myriad ways in which law and legal doctrine interact with the lives of those who exist on the economic margins of our culture.
This is the first semester of a yearlong study project. Part of the class will be focused on identifying research topics in advance of a fieldwork trip to a site country to be determined. The second goal of the class is to practically prepare for human rights fieldwork.
This is the second semester of a yearlong study project. Part of the class will be focused on identifying research topics in advance of a fieldwork trip to a site country to be determined. The second goal of the class is to practically prepare for human rights fieldwork.
This interdisciplinary seminar examines the role of mental illness, intellectual disability, and other psychological phenomena (e.g., trauma) among criminal defendants, and examines ways criminal law and policies allow (or prohibit) consideration of these conditions.
The statutes, regulations, case law and other requirements that govern the Federal Government's expenditure of over $500 billion every year are addressed in this seminar. The course serves as an introduction to this body of law, which can be described as a blend of traditional contract law, administrative law and litigation practice.
This seminar will examine what exactly discrimination is and what makes it wrong.
This seminar will explore the ways in which each branch of government keeps secrets and whether structural and statutorily-created tools to check secret actions have proven effective.
This seminar will explore planning techniques and legal issues surrounding protection of landscapes of natural, historical and cultural value and public uses of those landscapes. The seminar will be conducted in coordination with seminars in the Architecture School and the Department of Environmental Sciences.
In this seminar, students learn about current research in law-relevant psychology and will apply it to various tasks like: engaging with clients, witnesses, & juries; negotiating; group problem solving; and planning for the future.
This seminar will examine the rule of law in theory and practice. What is the rule of law and why (if at all) is it valuable? We will take up such questions by reading the philosophical literature on the rule of law and and by looking at case studies of situations where many have seen the rule of law to be under threat.
This seminar will explore legal issues from a philosophically informed perspective. The course offers the opportunity for students to interact with prominent scholars, to help shape cutting-edge work, to hone their writing skills, to develop their own ideas through independent research, and to gain practice and feedback about the art of asking a good question.
This course will explore how economic reasoning informs constitutional and public law processes, including bargaining, voting, delegating, and enforcement. We will consider the incentive effects of legal rules and institutional designs and evaluate their implications for public and semi-public goods (like civil rights and international cooperation on climate change) and club and private goods (like welfare benefits and the right to immigrate).
This seminar will examine the extent to which constitutions and constitutionalism reflect the history, traditions, culture, and politics of a particular people. How do countries give voice, in their constitutional arrangements, to national impulses and aspirations? Using Anglo-American constitutionalism as a point of reference, we will consider what other countries do.
This lecture course covers the development of legal institutions, legal ideas, and legal principles from the medieval period to the 18th century, emphasizing the impact of transformations in politics, society, and thought on the major categories of English law: property, torts and contracts, corporations, family law, constitutional and administrative law, and crime.
In each meeting, a leading scholar will present a current legal research paper using the methodology of law and economics.
This seminar will explore the history of the juvenile courts, troubling issues within the current juvenile justice system, recent Supreme Court cases regarding juveniles, and advocacy and policy reform currently occurring at the state and national level. This seminar will also explore related topics, such as the school-to-prison-pipeline and the recent push to consider community based alternatives to incarceration.
This course examines the history of the "social determinants of health" (SDOH) concept starting in the 19th Century, as well as deeper questions involving health policy, ranging from how to conceptualize SDOH within public and clinical health frameworks, to issues involving reimbursement and clinical care guidelines.
Feminist jurisprudence is a field in which scholarly activity is rooted in a set of practices designed to excavate and revise the myriad ways in which law conditions the lived experiences of women, men, and children. In this seminar, we will study what are understood to be distinct schools of feminist jurisprudence and the forms of practice that each supports.
This seminar will consider the theory and practice of such lawsuits before, and now after, the Supreme Court's landmark decisions in Wyeth v. Levine (2009), Plia v. Mensing (2011), and Barnett v. Mutual Pharm. (2013).
This seminar will explore the legal authorities underlying the executive branch's use of economic tools of national security, the role that Congress plays in authorizing and overseeing executive branch actions, and the role of courts in reviewing challenges from regulated parties.
This seminar course addresses the psychology research regarding behaviors in the criminal justice system -- by police, prosecutors, jurors, judges, and witnesses -- that can result in wrongful convictions.
This seminar is designed to teach the skills required of appellate advocates. We will begin with the necessary steps lawyers must take at the trial level to preserve issues for appeal and present an adequate record for appellate review.
This class explores legal controversies from the period preceding the American Revolution to the ratification and early implementation of the Constitution.
This course will allow students to delve deeper into the theory and practice of representing nonprofit organizations. Throughout the term, students will have the opportunity to supplement their reading with hands-on simulated case studies.
Legal practice has always been shaped by technology as lawyers seek out new ways to better meet the needs of their clients at the lowest cost. In this seminar, we will examine some of these new technologies, how they are being put to use, and the potential upside and downside risks associated with the further automation of legal work. No prior knowledge of coding or computer science is assumed.
The course will examine current developments and controversial issues in private securities litigation and SEC enforcement, as well as the special considerations raised by securities class actions.
In this seminar we will study liberalism and its conservative critics. We will begin by considering what liberalism is, in its political, philosophical, economic, and legal forms. Then we survey various conservative (traditional, libertarian, communitarian, religious, and postliberal) responses -- both historical and contemporary.
This course takes a deep dive into the prosecution and defense of professional liability cases. Students will learn how to prosecute and defend professional liability cases while gaining competency with the nuts and bolts of pretrial and trial litigation generally.
This course examines issues ranging from food and drug regulation, clinical trials, assisted reproductive technology, telemedicine, and stem cell development/regulation to the commercialization of the human body. The course examines ethics, socioeconomics, and market demands for technologies, exploring whether the various issues emerging from biotechnological conflicts are best resolved by regulation, judicial intervention or private negotiation.
In the United States, education serves as the foundation of our democracy and economy. Law and policy determine the quality of educational opportunities in the United States. Although law and policy have made substantial inroads in reducing discrimination in education, they also tolerate and exacerbate inequalities in educational opportunities that influence the academic, professional and social outcomes of students and communities.
In each meeting, a leading scholar will present a current research paper using the methodology of law and social science.
Initially, Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged as an offshoot of Critical Legal Studies in the late 1970s and early 1980s to address how "race" is socially constructed and manipulated in American society. This seminar takes an historical approach and focuses on the nexus between "race" and law and legal institutions.
This course will examine how law and policy have shaped the provision of education inside prisons, review social science research regarding their effectiveness, and discuss contemporary debates taking place in Congress and state capitols. We also will discuss a range of innovative models to address a long_debated question: are prisons designed for corporal punishment, human improvement, or a combination thereof?
Recent political and administrative changes have led to rapid and dramatic shifts in the types of humanitarian protection available to migrants seeking safety outside of their countries of origin. This course will investigate how these changes affect asylum-seekers, refugees, and individuals petitioning for other forms of protection, and how attorneys operating in this quickly changing legal landscape can understand clients' interests and risks.
This is the second half of a year-long course. In this course, selected students will track current developments in U.S. practice related to international law, foreign relations, and national security and assist the instructor in drafting short essays analyzing and contextualizing such developments for the American Journal of International Law.
This course will provide an in-depth look at the Medicare Program and, to a lesser extent, Medicaid, with a focus on coverage, payment, and compliance requirements for health care providers. Instructors will employ several practical skills exercises and problem-solving elements requiring students to digest client fact patterns and provide analysis.
This skills simulation seminar will focus on selected topics that pose contentious policy challenges for law enforcement, including crafting and implementing effective crime control strategies, implementing investigative practices that are both fair and useful, establishing rules to govern investigations of political activity, and calibrating use of force policies to maximize both officer and civilian safety.
This class will explore key issues in criminal justice reform with the goal of understanding problems and evaluating potential solutions. Students will learn how to read social science literature to provide empirical foundation for the discussion.
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) issues have become a major focus of institutional investors. This class will examine the law and economics of ESG factors in investing by reviewing recent research and legal developments.
This class will examine how the topic of corruption is addressed in several different legal domains including criminal law (bribery, extortion, fraud, and deprivation of honest services, etc.), election law, constitutional law (including the Emoluments Clauses and the First Amendment's treatment of campaign finance laws) and others. In addition, the course will explore how best to define and understand corruption.
This seminar analyzes current issues surrounding the First Amendment freedom of religion. It covers historical, philosophical, and judicial background, current issues in free exercise and establishment clause doctrine, including government funding of religion, "corporate" religious liberty, the future of Employment Division v. Smith, conflicts between religious freedom claims and anti-discrimination law/norms, and government religious speech.
This experiential class is devoted to helping students with the nuts and bolts of contract provisions typically encountered at law firms and corporate jobs. Beyond the basics, the main portions of the class will consist of review and markup of specific transactional documents accumulated from real life transactions, and then practice negotiations of small groups within the class, with feedback on substance and style.
The goal of the seminar is to give students a grounding in the theory of privacy law -- our evolving conceptions of privacy and its necessity for a life of meaning and love.
The workshop provides a unique opportunity for students to engage with peers, faculty and outside speakers, exchange ideas, and witness, participate in, and contribute to legal scholarship. At most meetings, a leading scholar will present a current legal research paper in the area of law & technology.
This seminar will explore questions related to the technological systemization of the powerful granting privilege to itself, with a focus on free expression.
This seminar will explore the current state of thinking about the relationship between identity, politics and legal regulation.
This is the second half of a yearlong seminar exploring important current topics and issues in international human rights law.
This seminar will explore the development of separation of powers through litigation in the federal courts. How are checks and balances effectuated through the federal courts? What role, if any, should courts should have in public powers disputes? What is the effect of litigating powers disputes, rather than negotiating them?
The first half of the semester will be a survey of major considerations in commercial contract negotiations, and the second half of the semester will proceed as a mock negotiation with half the class on the vendor side and half on the customer side.
Law harnesses medical authority to enhance its power. This seminar will study how this phenomenon occurs, its consequences, and the normative issues that arises from it. Such issues range from civil rights consequences to those involving criminal justice, housing, and education law.
This research seminar will explore the historical intersections of slavery, race, and law on UVA's North Grounds. Class readings, discussions, and field trips will investigate the history of this landscape within a broader historical context of enslavement in Virginia and at the University, land use in Virginia, and the Jim Crow South.
"This seminar will explore the current state of thinking about the relationship between identity, politics and the law. The seminar will focus on the idea of ""reparations,"" exploring the history of the concept, theoretical justifications, and empirical evidence of its significance. Will explore the idea of reparations both in the domestic context and in the global south, and explore the relationships among race, colonial identity, and other factors grounding claims for reparations and the amount that is owed."
This colloquium offers students the chance to engage with leading scholars exploring law's relationship to inequality. In each session we will discuss a current work of legal scholarship on inequality, first as a class, then in the following session with the author as our guest. Interested UVA law faculty will also be invited to attend. Students will leave the class having grappled with the most up-to-date research on topics involving law's role in reinforcing or challenging various forms of inequality, such as race, class, gender and sexuality, disability and their intersections.
This class explores a variety of topics that arise in the practice of business law. The colloquium will include classroom overview lectures and featured guest speakers who will discuss their professional experiences as practitioners in various areas of law and business.
This seminar explores consumer financial regulation in the U.S., focusing on federal laws and regulations. Key statutes, including the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, will be examined along with their implementing regulations.
This seminar traces the legal treatment of domestic violence. The course will examine local, state, federal, and international law and policy concerning domestic violence, and contemporary debates about how to approach domestic violence. The focus will be on the multiple different contexts in which domestic violence appears and how it is addressed.
The internet has radically transformed how we communicate with friends, conduct business, and consume entertainment. That transformation has triggered debates about federal telecommunications policy on such issues as net neutrality, media consolidation, digital equity, and market-opening competition initiatives. This seminar will cover all aspects of these debates---their technological and economic dimensions as well as the governing cases and legal framework.
This seminar will investigate the legal, institutional, and cultural practices that condition the lives of transgender people. We will devote substantial attention to the contemporary push by some lawmakers to restrict, or even eliminate, transgender lives.
This colloquium will engage with guest speakers who write, practice, and make policy in the field of corporate law and governance.
This seminar examines how law regulates sex, gender, and sexuality in the United States and in other constitutional systems around the world. It offers a comparative perspective on how legal systems and approaches to feminist theory conceptualize gender equality, representation and identity, and how those rights are guaranteed -- statutory regimes such as employment and civil rights law, constitutional equality guarantees and constitutional litigation.
This seminar will both examine, and interrogate, the ways that law, policy, politics, and individual bias may negatively, and disproportionately, impact children of color across a range of child-serving systems. The class will also explore, and test, the different approaches and strategies that lawyers employ to tackle these disparities, and the limits and successes of these efforts.
Law firms are increasingly designing and building tools to supplement legal workflows in-house on top of commercial large language models (LLMs). Students will work in groups to identify components of real legal workflows susceptible to AI augmentation and learn to build tools to partially or fully automate these tasks. No technical background is required, but students will be expected to develop the skills needed to create operational (if not fully deployable) tools.
This seminar will examine the tactics, strategies, and arguments deployed by potential litigants and by the government during rulemaking and in subsequent litigation. We will view matters from the perspective of the rule challenger, and from the perspective of government officials conducting rulemaking and opposing court challenges.
This seminar will examine how the Trump administration has worked to reshape the administrative state. It will examine recent Supreme Court rulings on administrative law issues and the reach of Presidential Power.
This seminar examines the fundamental structural issues that states confront as they attempt to impose income taxes on cross-border transactions involving the movement of goods, services, capital, and individuals.
Various short courses covering topics in race and law.
The Colloquium assists S.J.D. candidates in planning and writing their dissertation, as well as to expose candidates to a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives widely used in legal scholarship. The Colloquium will also allow candidates to present their work in progress, to comment on each others work, and to receive comments from the instructors.
The Colloquium assists S.J.D. candidates in planning and writing their dissertation, as well as to expose candidates to a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives widely used in legal scholarship. The Colloquium will also allow candidates to present their work in progress, to comment on each others work, and to receive comments from the instructors.
For doctoral research taken under the supervision of a dissertation director.