[2007 Fall Term] [2008 Spring Term]
Course Offerings
Fall Term
First-Term Courses
Constitutional Law I (10001). 4 units. A.R. Amar (Section A), K. Yoshino (Section B), J.M. Balkin (Group 1), W.N. Eskridge, Jr. (Group 2), R.C. Post (Group 3), J. Rubenfeld (Group 4), R. Siegel (Group 5), P.W. Kahn (Group 6)
Contracts I (11001). 4 units. L. Brilmayer (Section A), A. Schwartz (Section B), R.W. Brooks (Group 1), Y. Listokin (Group 2), A. Chua (Group 3), R. Gordon (Group 4), H. Hansmann (Group 5), D. Markovits (Group 6)
Procedure I (12001). 4 units. O.M. Fiss (Section A), D.S. Days, III (Section B), H.H. Koh (Section C)
Torts I (13001). 4 units. G. Calabresi (Section A), P. Schuck (Section B), R.C. Ellickson (Section C)
Advanced Courses
Courses marked with an asterisk (*) satisfy the legal ethics/professional responsibility requirement.
Access to Knowledge Practicum (20428). 2 units, credit/fail. Students in this course will work on projects that promote innovation and distributive justice through the reform of intellectual property and telecommunications laws, treaties, and policies both internationally and in specific countries. These laws, treaties, and policies shape the delivery of health care services, technology, telecommunications access, education, and culture around the globe. Students will supplement their projects with theoretical readings and frequent contact with Information Society Project Fellows. Permission of the instructor required. Paper required. Enrollment limited to eight. E. Katz. Accountability (20438). 2 units. Lack of “accountability” seems to be the catchiest complaint available to institutional critics of every stripe. Concerns about failing schools, distrust of multi-national entities, and opposition to privatized public service delivery are all packaged as problems of accountability. What exactly is meant by this ubiquitous and apparently desirable feature of public institutions? How can institutions be designed to have the “right” accountability characteristics? These are the questions to be explored in this seminar. The first seven weeks of the term will be devoted to readings and class discussion. Each student will develop a suitable paper topic by the beginning of the fall break. Following break, one-on-one meetings will be held to discuss papers. The group will reconvene during the final weeks of the term to present each paper in a workshop format. All papers must be completed by the last day of the fall-term examination period. Paper required. Enrollment limited. J.L. Mashaw. Administrative Law (20170). 4 units. This course will review the legal and practical foundations of the modern administrative state. Topics will include the creation of administrative agencies and the non-delegation doctrine, the internal process of adjudication and rulemaking in administrative agencies, judicial review of administrative action, the organization of the executive branch, liability for official misconduct, and beneficiary enforcement of public law. Self-scheduled examination. Enrollment capped at seventy-five. J.L. Mashaw. Advanced Advocacy for Children and Youth (20327). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail, with a graded option. Limited to students who have taken Advocacy for Children and Youth in previous terms. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. R. Solomon and S. Wizner. Advanced Community Lawyering (20404). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail, with a graded option. Open only to students who have completed Community Lawyering Clinic. Permission of the instructor required. R.A. Solomon. Advanced Immigration Legal Services (20382). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail. Only open to students who have taken Immigration Legal Services. Permission of the instructors required. C.L. Lucht, S. Wizner, and H.V. Zonana. Advanced Legal Writing (20032). 3 units. This course will provide practice in writing legal memoranda and briefs. Students will have the opportunity to refine analytical as well as writing skills. The goal of the course will be to take students beyond basic competence to excellence in legal writing. Enrollment limited to ten. R.D. Harrison. *[The] American Legal Profession (20439). 2 or 3 units. A credit/fail option is available to students who so elect during the first two weeks of the term. This course will deal with selected aspects of the history, organization, economics, ethics, and future of the legal profession in the United States. Likely topics will include demographic changes in the profession, the evolution of law firms, bar associations, and law schools from the early twentieth century to the present; the development of corporate law, personal injury, mass torts and criminal defense practices, and the “public-interest” bar; the dominant professional ethic of adversary-advocacy and its critics; the regulation of lawyers; the economics of the market for legal services; the organization and culture of law firm practice; the role of the lawyer as counselor; and the export of American lawyering models abroad. Self-scheduled examination, with option of a paper for extra graded credit. R.W. Gordon. Anglo-American Legal History: Directed Research. (20009). 2 or 3 units. An opportunity for supervised research and writing on topics to be agreed. The object will be to produce work of publishable quality. Papers normally go through several drafts. Prerequisite: History of the Common Law or evidence of comparable background in legal history. Paper required. Permission of the instructor required. J.H. Langbein. Antitrust: Directed Research (20466). Units to be arranged. This seminar will provide an opportunity for discussion among students interested in writing Substantial or Supervised Analytic Writing papers on current (or historical) antitrust topics. Permission of the instructor required. G.L. Priest. *Balancing Civil Liberties and National Security after September 11 (20343). 3 units, credit/fail. This course will be a hybrid between clinic and seminar, focusing on civil liberties cases arising out of government policies in the aftermath of September 11, including citizen and non-citizen detentions, Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues, international human rights and humanitarian law issues, and so on. Students enrolled in the course will prepare memoranda on points of law at issue in some of these cases and, as the timing dictates, will help to do legal research and draft amicus briefs based on their research. The course will include a clinical component and a reading seminar focusing on the text of the cases themselves and their precedents. The class will meet at a regularly scheduled time once a week, and one additional weekly meeting period will be arranged at the beginning of the term. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J.M. Freiman, and H.R. Metcalf. Business Organizations (20219). 4 units. An introduction to the business corporation laws affecting the rights and roles of corporate boards of directors, senior executive officers, and shareholders, with an emphasis on large, publicly traded firms. Shareholders’ economic interests are examined from the perspective of limited liability and dividend standards, expectations of liquidity or transferability of shares, and the use of debt capital as a mode of financing corporate activity. Shareholders’ limited participation rights in corporate decision making will be examined from the perspective of state and federal rules governing shareholder voting and the disclosure of corporate information and the notion of managerial expertise (e.g., as evidenced by judicial application of the “business judgment rule”). The latter part of the course will focus on directors’ and officers’ fiduciary obligations to shareholders, examining the operation of these duties in a variety of settings and transactions. Issues relating to the roles and functions assumed by corporate attorneys (with respect to their clients) and the role of business corporations within society will also be addressed. Self-scheduled examination. J.R. Macey. Capital Punishment: Experience in Advocacy (20251). 4 units (2 fall, 2 spring), credit/fail. Students will assist members of the Capital Trial Unit of the Connecticut Public Defender Office in representing people facing the death penalty. Students will make practical use of research and analytical skills, and may participate in conferences with clients, witnesses and experts, and investigations; and observe court proceedings. Students must complete a Substantial Writing assignment, such as a portion of a motion, brief, or memorandum of law. The course is limited to students who have or intend to take Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage in spring 2008. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited to eight. S.B. Bright. *Community and Economic Development (20023). 3 units, credit/fail. A multidisciplinary workshop involving students from the Schools of Law, Management, Divinity, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Public Health, and Architecture. Under the supervision of faculty and members of the local bar, participants will work on behalf of nonprofit organizations and small businesses to promote job creation, neighborhood revitalization, low-income housing, access to capital and credit, and social service delivery in the New Haven area. The clinic will emphasize a non-adversarial, transactional approach to problem solving. As legal, financial, architectural, and social policy advisers, participants will research legal issues, facilitate negotiations, draft contracts, incorporate organizations, complete loan and grant applications, develop financial analyses, and draft architectural plans, among other tasks. Class topics will include professional responsibility, real estate finance, low-income housing policy, community development corporations and financial institutions, neighborhood planning, public school reform, and urban economic policy. Enrollment limited to twelve. Also MGT 694a. R.A. Solomon. Community Development Financial Institutions (20405). 3 units, credit/fail. This clinic represents a local foundation seeking to start a community development bank. Students will be involved in all aspects of starting a new community development bank, with the purpose of supporting community development activities (primarily affordable housing development, home ownership, small business, and banking the unbanked) in New Haven’s underserved areas. The curriculum will include an overview of banking law and practice, an in-depth study of community development banking, and New Haven as a community. Permission of the instructor required; priority given to students who have previously taken Community and Economic Development. Enrollment limited to twelve. R.A. Solomon and C.F. Muckenfuss. *Community Lawyering Clinic [Domestic Violence/JUNTA] (20022). 3 units, credit/fail. Community lawyering fuses traditional civil legal services representation with collaborative, community-based strategies for solving community problems and empowering clients. The Community Lawyering Clinic will offer students the opportunity to represent low-income clients in an extraordinarily wide range of cases. Students may choose to conduct outreach sessions at one of two local non-profits in the New Haven area: JUNTA for Progressive Action and the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis (CCCC) and the Yale Child Study Center (CSC). Domestic Violence: Students working with CCCC and CSC provide comprehensive legal services for survivors of domestic violence, including (but not limited to) assisting clients with divorce, child custody, visitation, support, landlord-tenant, special education, and consumer issues. Students should expect to appear in state court on behalf of clients. JUNTA: Students working with JUNTA provide comprehensive legal services to residents of Fair Haven, a predominantly Latino and immigrant neighborhood of New Haven. Clients come to JUNTA with a wide variety of legal issues, and students’ cases often include (but are not limited to) immigration law, employment law, benefits, landlord-tenant law, and consumer fraud. Enrollment limited to twelve. C.L. Lucht, R.A. Solomon, and S. Wizner. Comparative Constitutional Law: Selective Topics (20440). 2 units. This seminar will analyze, on a comparative basis, some major topics of constitutional law (e.g., separation of powers; the rule of law; the independence of the judiciary; and human rights). Special attention will be focused on the courts that adjudicate constitutional questions: a Supreme Court or a Constitutional Court. This seminar will meet in the first half of the term. Paper required. Enrollment limited. A. Barak and D. Grimm. Comparative Indigenous People’s Rights: Of Constitutions, Cultures, and Claims (20441). 2 units. Claims to, and reactions against, indigenous peoples’ rights raise fundamental questions in philosophy, law, and politics. How far should collective rights based on ethnic identity go when unbolstered by the edifice of national sovereignty? How, if at all, should national constitutions recognize claims by indigenous peoples? Are there universal principles underlying these questions that apply to all peoples and nations? Or is the realpolitik of history and force the primary driver of laws, constitutions, and rights? The first part of this seminar will examine the legal and constitutional place of indigenous peoples in principle and practice in four comparable postcolonial societies: the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. In the second half of the course, each student will prepare a paper for distribution and presentation to the class. Students may, if they choose, submit a statement of interest during the limited enrollment bidding period. Paper required. Enrollment limited to fifteen. M.S.R. Palmer. Comparative Law (20410). 4 units. An introduction to the comparative study of different legal systems. The course will focus primarily on differences between the ways that law and order are maintained, and justice pursued, in the United States, on the one hand, and in Germany and France, on the other. There will also be attention to some non-Western traditions, such as those of China, Japan, and Islam. The overarching aim of the course will be to explore the extent to which differences in legal doctrine and legal practice reflect larger differences in social structure. The course will explore a variety of issues, among them differences in the French, German, and American concepts of “human dignity” and its protection; differences in civil and criminal procedure; differences in punishment practice; differences in the maintenance of everyday order in the streets; differences in the law of consumer protection; differences in welfare and unemployment law; and differences in the structure and regulation of business and banking enterprises. It is hoped that students will come away from the course both with some knowledge of foreign law and with a heightened sensitivity to some of the ways in which foreign societies differ from our own. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. J.Q. Whitman. *Complex Civil Litigation (20286). 4 units. A casebook course in jurisdiction, joinder, discovery, complex litigation, and related topics. Emphasis on the management and reform of discovery and on complex mass tort litigation. Special focus on legal ethics. Scheduled examination. E.D. Elliott and R.T. Shepard. Complex Federal Litigation (20298). 3 units, credit/fail. The clinic will focus primarily on ongoing civil rights litigation on behalf of state and federal prisoners housed in Connecticut. Cases include Eighth Amendment claims alleging deliberate indifference to serious medical needs, and First Amendment religious freedom claims on behalf of a Muslim woman prisoner. The course will provide exposure to the substantive law of federal prison litigation, including claims and defenses under Section 1983 and Bivens and the requirements of the Prison Litigation Reform Act. We will also work on developing clinical skills, including taking depositions and negotiating settlements. The classroom component of the course will meet every week, although supervision meetings will also be scheduled in addition to the classroom discussions. B. Dignam, M. Gohara, and H. Zonana. Constitutional Interpretation: Seminar (20442). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will explore the ways in which the Constitution is interpreted, taking as its basic inquiry the question of whether it is possible to interpret with integrity. The seminar will survey defenses of the canonical modalities of interpretation, including those that look primarily to text, intent, structure, doctrine, or national ethos. Guest speakers will elaborate and defend their views. Students may satisfy the writing requirement by writing either a longer paper or a series of short papers. Substantial Paper or Supervised Analytic Writing credit available. Paper required. Enrollment limited. K. Yoshino. [The] Constitution: Philosophy, History, and Law (20190). 4 units. An inquiry into the foundations of the American Constitution, at its founding and at critical moments in its historical transformationmost notably in response to the Civil War, the Great Depression, and the Civil Rights Movement. Philosophically speaking, do we still live under the Constitution founded by the Federalists, or are we inhabitants of the Second or Third or Nth Republic? Institutionally, in what ways are the patterns of modern American government similar to, and different from, those in post-Revolutionary (17871860) and post-Civil War (18681932) America? Legally, what is or was the role of constitutional law in the organization of each of these historical regimes? Through asking and answering these questions, the course will try to gain a critical perspective on the effort by the present Supreme Court to create a new constitutional regime for the twenty-first century. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. Also PLSC 842a. B. Ackerman. Contemporary Legal Issues in Africa (20120). 1 unit, credit/fail. This reading group will meet once a week at lunchtime to discuss current events in Africa, with special emphasis on events that raise issues of international law. Each student will be given responsibility for a particular region of Africa and will report weekly on the important events in that region. One unit of credit is available for participants. Students who wish to do more extensive research into the legal issues in their particular region can make special arrangements for additional study, including the awarding of Supervised Analytic Writing credit. It is possible to take this course more than once. No previous background is assumed. L. Brilmayer and D. Wade. Convicting the Innocent (20044). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will explore the causes of and remedies for miscarriages of justice in which persons other than the perpetrators of criminal offenses are found guilty. The class will examine the processes of memory and suggestion, cognition, belief formation and resistance to change, lying and lie detection, the motivations and opportunities for fabricating evidence, impostor and unqualified experts, incompetent lawyers, poverty, and their relationships to legal rules and practices. Among the specific contexts in which the examinations will occur are allegations of child sexual abuse, stranger rapes, robberies, and murders. Some attention will be paid to the special problem of capital punishment. Papers may qualify for Supervised Analytic Writing or Substantial Paper credit. Scheduled examination or paper option. S.B. Duke. Corporate Governance: Seminar (20206). 3 units. This seminar will examine the idea of corporate governance in the large publicly held corporation. The purpose of corporate governance is to control corporate deviance. As a practical matter, corporate governance is effectuated by a number of public and private institutions and mechanisms. These corporate governance devices consist of a variety of government institutions, like states and the Securities and Exchange Commission, as well as market mechanism such as the market for corporate control, and social devices, including societal norms and whistle-blowing. While these various institutions and mechanisms of corporate governance vary enormously in terms of their organizational forms and existential motivations, they share the common characteristic of contributing to the control of agency costs faced by investors in public companies. Each week we will consider one or more of the following topics: (1) What is Corporate Governance and What is it Supposed to Accomplish? (2) Institutions and Mechanisms of Corporate Governance; (3) Political Theories of Corporate Law; (4) The Production of Legal Rules at the State Level; (5) The Securities and Exchange Commission; (6) The Organized Stock Exchanges; (7) Boards of Directors; (8) The Market for Corporate Control; (9) The Accounting Rules and the Accounting Industry; (10) Insider Trading, Short Selling and Whistle-Blowing; (12) Shareholder Voting; (13) Credit Rating Agencies; (14) Stock Market Analysts. Students will be required to write one shorter paper, which must be turned in during the term, and one longer paper due by the end of the term on topics related to corporate governance. The shorter paper will be the basis for an in-class presentation which each student will be expected to make on the subject of the readings for a particular week. The shorter paper will be due prior to the in-class presentation. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Paper required. Enrollment limited. J.R. Macey and H. Pitt. Corruption, Economic Development, and Democracy (20098). 2 or 3 units. A seminar on the link between political and bureaucratic institutions, on the one hand, and economic development, on the other. A particular focus will be the impact of corruption on development and the establishment of democratic government. Paper (2 or 3 units) or self-scheduled examination (2 units). Enrollment limited to fifteen. Also PLSC 714a. S. Rose-Ackerman. Criminal Law and Administration (20443). 4 units. This course is offered in several sections; it must be taken before graduation. This section will primarily address foundational issues in substantive criminal law, including the justifications of punishment, the requisites of criminal responsibility, defenses to liability, and inchoate and group crimes. In addition, this section will critically explore the roles of legislatures and of prosecutorial discretion (as well as courts) in the United States. Scheduled examination. K. Stith. Criminal Procedure I: Police Practices and Investigations (20444). 3 units. The course will focus on the constitutional law that governs searches, seizures, and confessions. The course will consider in detail the evolution of the exclusionary rule and the development and administration of the probable cause and warrant requirements. It will also examine stop and frisk, administrative searches, searches incident to arrest, vehicle searches, consent searches, and the admissibility of confessions. Scheduled examination. T. Meares. Democratic Constitutionalism (20373). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will explore the relationship of constitutional law and constitutional politics. It will situate the institution of judicial review within the rapidly growing body of literature in law, political science, and history that explores the life of the Constitution outside the courts. The seminar will address such topics as the interpretation of the Constitution in the executive branch and in Congress, the development of federal norms in state constitutional decisions, comparative judicial review, transnational human rights law, and the citation of foreign law. Using several case histories, including on abortion and same-sex marriage, the course will examine the roles that political mobilization and backlash can play in the development of constitutional meaning. Paper required. Enrollment limited. R.C. Post and R. Siegel. *[The] Education Adequacy Project (20403). 3 units, credit/fail. This highly focused clinical course will represent public school parents and the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CJEF). CJEF is a broad coalition made up of municipalities, school boards, unions, nonprofit organizations, parent-teacher organizations, and other interested individuals and groups. CJEF seeks to reform Connecticut’s public school finance system to provide for greater levels of funding for education by establishing a minimum level of funding needed to provide an adequate education and to alleviate the burden on local municipalities to provide the bulk of education funding. The Education Adequacy Project will meet on a weekly basis to review the progress of the students as well as to discuss the substantive issues involved in CJEF’s case and the theoretical issues involved in the adequacy movement. Enrollment limited to two new students, in addition to returning students. R.A. Solomon and A. Knopp. Employment Law (20445). 3 units. The primary source of legal rights for most American workers today is the body of statutory and common law employment protections. This course will comprehensively cover that body of law. The course will address all of the major legal issues about the employment relationship except those involving unions, which are covered in labor law courses. Among the issues to be considered in this course are legal rules governing job conditions, including workplace safety and health; the “employment at will” doctrine; legal issues related to major employee “fringe benefit” programs, especially pensions and health insurance; free speech rights of employees; legal rules governing genetic screening, drug testing, and personality testing of employees; mandatory arbitration of employment disputes; unemployment insurance; the legal treatment of employee non-compete agreements; the Fair Labor Standards Act; the Family and Medical Leave Act; and prohibitions on employment discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, disability, sexual orientation, national origin, and other protected traits. Scheduled examination. C. Jolls. Environmental Protection Clinic (20316). 3 units, credit/fail. A clinical seminar in which students will be engaged with actual environmental law or policy problems on behalf of client organizations (environmental groups, government agencies, international bodies, etc.). The class will meet weekly, and students will work eight to ten hours per week in interdisciplinary groups (with students from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and other departments or schools at Yale) on projects with a specific legal or policy product (e.g., draft legislation or regulations, hearing testimony, analytic studies, policy proposals) to be produced by the end of the term. Students may propose projects and client organizations, subject to approval by the instructor. Enrollment limited. Also F&ES 80034a. D.S. Bryk. *Ethics in the Practice of Law (20239). 3 units. This course will focus on one facet of professional ethicsthe representation of clients, with particular emphasis upon the relationship between zealous advocacy and the public interest. Every kind of practice generates serious tensions among attorneys’ and their clients, their own moral and social commitments, obligations to third parties (including adversaries), and responsibilities as officers of the court and citizens of the larger community. A second and related concern of the course will be to examine the practice of law in the public interest, whether as lawyers in firms through pro bono activities or as attorneys in public interest organizations. The goal will be to understand the continuities and distinctions among various kinds of practices in coming to grips with the tensions described above. Students who plan to practice in law firms will be encouraged and assisted in developing pro bono projects to take with them to their firms. Students who are seeking jobs in public interest organizations will be expected to assist in cases or projects developed by public interest organizations. A final paper is required and can be co-authored. Enrollment limited to twenty-four. D.E. Curtis and S. Wizner. Evidence (20166). 3 units. This course will examine the rules and doctrines regulating the presentation of factual proof in American trials, with primary focus on the Federal Rules of Evidence. Scheduled examination for three credits; paper optional for one additional credit. D.M. Kahan. Family Law (20447). 4 units. This course will examine legal and theoretical approaches to defining and regulating the family. Using materials drawn from law, political theory, and social science, the course will consider the state’s current role, and its ideal role, in regulating the creation and dissolution of family relationships and in setting family members’ rights and responsibilities. Topics will include same-sex marriage, divorce and spousal support, child custody and support, and child welfare. The course will also consider the relationship between family law, usually understood as private law governing domestic relations, and the welfare state, usually understood as public law governing income support and social insurance. While the course will cover current doctrine, its major aim will be theoretical and normative: it will examine the justifications for current law and will ask how theory might motivate alternative approaches to reform. Open-book, take-home exam, self-scheduled. No third-year preference. Graded credit only; no credit/fail option available. Self-scheduled examination. Enrollment capped at fifty. A.L. Alstott. Federal Courts (20448). 4 units. An examination of the roles of federal courts in our system of government. The focus will be on the relation between federal courts and other branches of the federal government; the relation between federal courts and organs of state government, especially state courts; and the relation among federal courts. Particular attention will be paid to the jurisdiction and remedial powers of federal courts. Scheduled examination. P. Gewirtz. Federal Income Taxation (20222). 4 units. An introductory course on the federal income taxation of individuals and businesses. The course will provide an overview of the basic legal doctrine and will emphasize statutory interpretation and a variety of income tax policy issues. The class will consider the role of the courts, the Congress, and the IRS in making tax law and tax policy and will apply (and question) the traditional tax policy criteria of fairness, efficiency, and administrability. Topics will include fringe benefits, business expenses, the interest deduction, the taxation of the family, and capital gains. No prerequisites. Scheduled examination. M.J. Graetz. Financial Accounting for Lawyers (20471). 3 units. Contemporary accounting and corporate financial reporting. Preparation, interpretation, and analysis of the earnings statement; the statement of financial position; and the statement of cash flows. Scheduled examination. L. Schiffres. [The] First Amendment (20450). 2 units. This course will study the constitutional right of freedom of expression guaranteed by the First Amendment. Topics will include seditious advocacy; conflicts between freedom of speech and national security; defamation and privacy; offensive and racist speech; obscenity and pornography; symbolic expression; commercial speech; regulation of campaign finance; Internet and broadcast regulation; restrictions on time, place, and manner of expression; freedom of the press; and freedom of association. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. J.M. Balkin. Groups, Diversity, and Law (20451). 2 or 3 units (depending on paper). Immigration, intra-group and inter-group differentiation, and egalitarian and diversity values are producing deep tensions and conflicts in a traditionally individualistic society. In complex ways, law influences how individuals assume group identities, how groups form, evolve, fragment, and compete with one another for social goods, and how diversity as social goal or constraint is defined and achieved. In this seminar, legal and social science materials will be used to explore the meanings of diversity, the history of diversity-as-ideal, and specific efforts by the law to implement that idealsometimes as a remedy for past discrimination, sometimes as a by-product of other values such as religious freedom, and sometimes for its own sake. The focus will be on examples such as affirmative action, political representation, language rights, immigration, residential integration, religion, and expressive associations. The emphasis will be on religious, racial, and ethnic groups, not on gender and sexual preference, which are covered in other courses. Each student must write, and some may be asked to present, a research paper. Supervised Analytic Writing and Substantial Paper credit may be given. An ungraded credit/fail option is available under certain conditions. P.H. Schuck. Happiness and Morality: Seminar (20452). 3 units. A large literature in social science attempts to measure people’s “happiness” in various ways. Are these measures valid? Convincing? How useful are they in studying the effects of law on citizens’ well-being? Most fundamentally, what is the proper normative role (if any) of happiness measures in formulating law? This seminar will draw on material from psychology, economics, and moral philosophy in tackling these questions. The course materials will consist of a photocopied course reader and possibly one or two books. Paper required. Enrollment limited. C. Jolls. Health Law and Regulation (20467). 3 units. This course will provide an overview of the legal rules and policy considerations that apply to the provision of medical care and the regulation of public health in the United States. The relevant legal rules derive from principles of tort law, contract law, criminal law, constitutional law, and state and federal regulations, most of which are adapted in important ways to reflect the unique characteristics of the provision of medical care. The course will be structured to move from the foundational building blocks of health care law toward more specific legal and regulatory topics that reflect the increasing complexity of the health care industry and the government’s role in securing public health priorities. The units of study will include topics such as the structure of the provider-patient relationship; prevention of and compensation for adverse medical outcomes (malpractice and related topics); private and government provision of medical care; constitutional law and patient autonomy; and issues relating to government regulation of the public’s health. Self-scheduled examination with limited paper option. T. Ruger. [The] History of Legal Literature (20453). 2 units. The forms of legal literature have undergone ceaseless change from the Middle Ages to the present. This seminar will explore the origin and development of the main genres of Anglo-American legal literature: (1) law reports: yearbooks, nominate reports, official reports, the West system, Westlaw and Lexis; (2) law finders: abridgments, encyclopedias, digests, dictionaries, electronic media; (3) institutional writers: the Roman models Gaius and Justinian’s Institutes; Glanvill, Bracton, Fortescue, Smith, Coke, Hale, Blackstone, and Kent; (4) the treatise; (5) practice manuals and form books; (5) legal periodical literature with particular attention to American student-edited journals; and (6) scholarly monographs. Attention will be directed to how the forms of legal literature have changed in response to changes in legal theory, legal education, the practice of law, and the technology and economics of publishing. The seminar will meet in the Paskus-Danziger Rare Book Room in order to make use of the Law School’s holdings of manuscript and early printed literature. Paper required. J.H. Langbein. Human Rights Workshop: Current Issues and Events (20134). 1 unit, credit/fail. Conducted in workshop format, the course will consist of discussions with guest speakers about their recent writings in the field, their human rights advocacy work, or newsworthy events in the human rights arena. Students may enroll and receive one unit of ungraded credit for meeting the participation requirements of the workshop. P.W. Kahn. *Immigration Legal Services (20016). 3 units, credit/fail. A clinical seminar involving class sessions and casework. The clinic will specialize in the representation of persons who are seeking asylum through affirmative procedures or in removal proceedings or post-asylum relief. Class sessions will focus on the substantive and procedural law, the legal and ethical issues arising in the context of casework, and the development of lawyering skills. Classes will be heavily concentrated in the first half of the term, with additional sessions supplementing the weekly class time. Students will also attend weekly supervisions on their casework. Enrollment limited. C.L. Lucht, S. Wizner, and H.V. Zonana. Information Privacy Law (20454). 2 units. Controversy over information privacy has grown dramatically in recent years. Information that many individuals view as private is gathered using a growing number of new technologiesRFID tags, spyware, genetic testing, and much more. Statutory and common law, both new and old, have sought to respond to rapid changes in information gathering, storage, and dissemination. This course will examine information privacy law with a special emphasis on workplace privacy, drawing on Professor Jolls’s experience drafting workplace privacy provisions as Reporter for the Restatement of Employment Law over 20012006. The course will also give coverage to consumer privacy and to information privacy as against “War on Terrorism” law enforcement demands. Students will be asked to submit short reaction papers every other week or, if preferred, may submit brief responses in lieu of the reaction papers and then a longer paper at the end of the term. Enrollment limited. C. Jolls. Insurance and Public Policy (20367). 3 units. This course will address the wide range of public policy issues implicating insurance for those who suffer losses. The course will first address the principles of insurance and insurance techniques that reduce societal and personal risks. It will then apply these principles to the range of insurance law issues. The course will combine both a practical and a conceptual understanding of insurance law. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. G.L. Priest. International Investment Law I (20396). 2 units. As foreign direct investment has increased as a function of globalization, so have disputes about investment. This seminar will examine the international law and procedure applied in the third-party resolution of international investment disputes and the critical policy issues that must now be addressed. Papers may qualify for Substantial Paper or Supervised Analytic Writing credit. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. W.M. Reisman and G. Aguilar-Alvarez. International Law Research and Writing: Seminar (20136). 4 units. This seminar is structured around writing a significant, publishable research paper relating to international law during the course of the year. The course will begin by providing an overview of the state of the debate in international law scholarship and then will focus on helping students contribute to that scholarship. Students will receive assistance in finding a good research topic, developing an effective argument, bringing the piece to completion, presenting the finished work to fellow students, and preparing the piece for publication. The class will meet intensively at the beginning and end of the academic year, with a few classes in between. Supervised Analytic Writing and Substantial Paper credit are available. A year-long commitment is required; one term of credit will be awarded for the fall term. Paper required. Enrollment limited to eight. O.A. Hathaway. Introduction to the Philosophy of Law (20141). 3 units. This introduction to the philosophy of law will cover three different kinds of topics: (1) the nature of law and of legal authority; (2) the philosophy of particular areas of law, e.g., torts, contracts, and criminal law; (3) issues pertaining to the intersection of political and legal philosophy, e.g., rights, justice, political authority. Self-scheduled examination. J.L. Coleman. Just War Theory (20455). 3 units. A study of the moral, theological, and legal theories governing the waging of war. Much of the course will deal with history, because one must understand warfare in order to reason about it sensibly. The course will largely shy away from current events. An examination is required, but a limited number of students will be permitted to write papers instead. Students interested in earning a fourth unit for the class should consult with the instructor about additional research work. Self-scheduled examination, with limited paper option. S.L. Carter. Landlord/Tenant Law (20004). 3 units, credit/fail. Students in this clinical seminar will provide legal assistance, under the supervision of clinical faculty, to low-income tenants facing eviction in the New Haven Housing Court. Topics to be covered in discussions and class materials will include the substantive law of landlord-tenant relations, the Connecticut Rules of Practice and Procedure, ethical issues arising in the representation of clients, social and housing policy, and the development of lawyering skills, particularly in interviewing, litigation, negotiation, and mediation. Weekly class sessions and supervision sessions, plus eight to twelve hours per week of casework. Enrollment limited. F.X. Dineen. Law and Finance Seminar (20463). 3 units. This reading seminar will focus on current issues in law and finance, which will be selected in accordance with the writing interests of enrolled students. Enrollment is limited to students either in the joint J.D.-Ph.D. in Finance degree program or with a comparable background. R. Romano. Law, Economics, and Organization (20036). 1 unit, credit/fail. This seminar will meet jointly with the Law, Economics, and Organization Workshop, an interdisciplinary faculty workshop that brings to Yale Law School scholars, generally from other universities, who present papers based on their current research. The topics will involve a broad range of issues of general legal and social science interest. Students registering for the seminar and participating in the workshop will receive one unit of ungraded credit per term. Neither Substantial Paper nor Supervised Analytic Writing credit will be available through the seminar. Short papers will be required during the term. J.J. Donohue, H. Hansmann, Y. Listokin, J.R. Macey, R. Romano, A. Schwartz, and H.E. Smith. *Lawyering Ethics Clinic (20114). 3 units, credit/fail. This is a clinical course in which students participate in the disciplinary process involving lawyers charged with violating ethical obligations to clients or other interested persons. The clinic’s goals are to help students understand the disciplinary process in Connecticut, and to think about how legal education should engage with the ethical issues facing lawyers. Under faculty supervision, students work with the Connecticut Office of Disciplinary Counsel, the body charged with prosecuting claims of lawyer misconduct, and are assigned to handle specific grievance cases. Students will interview witnesses, collect documentary evidence, research legal issues, draft pre-trial briefs, and examine witnesses and present closing arguments at the disciplinary hearing. Students may also be involved in negotiating disciplinary sanctions with the grieved lawyer. Enrollment limited to eight. D.E. Curtis and C. Lasch. [The] Law of the European Union (20456). 3 units. This course will introduce students to the law and institutions of the European Union. It will examine the composition, organization, functions, and powers of the Union’s governing bodies; analyze the Union’s governing treaties and constitutional law; and study the Union’s decision-making processes. The course will also explore broader questions of political, economic, and legal integration, such as the proper relation between the Union’s law and the domestic law of the Union’s member states, and the desirability and feasibility of using the EU as a model on which to pattern other transnational agreements. Self-scheduled examination. M. Lasser. [The] Law of Private Equity Funds (20475). 2 units. This seminar will examine the economic and legal relationships between financial sponsors and fund investors, and among the individual fund principals in privately offered investment funds. Though the focus will be on private equity funds, the course will also cover venture capital, real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds. This course will be taught from the practitioner’s viewpoint, though conceptual and normative issues will be considered. The goal of the seminar is to give students a practical and in-depth look at private investment funds and their operation, as well as the legal practice of private equity fund formation. A significant portion of the required reading will be the documentation used in an actual fund; guest speakers will include representatives of a leading private equity firm. Students will participate in a case study of the firm and a negotiation exercise involving the terms of the fund sponsored by the firm. In addition, the course will include at least two drafting exercises designed to illustrate how to convert term sheets into agreements and how to provide legal comments on a draft private placement memorandum. Ideally, students enrolled in this seminar will have some background in finance, accounting, economics, taxation, and/or securities law. Students who wish to enroll are asked to submit a brief paragraph explaining their interest in the course and their background. Scheduled examination. Enrollment limited. S. Caplan. Legal Assistance (20107). 3 units, credit/fail. A clinical seminar, using classroom, field work, and simulation experiences in the general area of legal assistance for the poor. Students will work eight to twelve hours per week in a local legal aid office and will attend weekly classroom sessions. The seminar will be practice-oriented, moving from developing solutions for specific client problems to general discussions of landlord-tenant, consumer, domestic relations, welfare, and other legal subjects of special concern to the urban poor, as well as issues of broader social policy. The seminar will also focus on the development of professional responsibility and lawyering skills, such as interviewing, negotiating, counseling, drafting, and litigation. A few placements for criminal defense work in state court will also be available. Enrollment limited to eight. F.X. Dineen. Legal Practicum (20008). 1⁄2 unit, credit/fail. Each student enrolled in this independent writing seminar will be required to prepare a 5- to 15-page essay that reflectively evaluates how her or his experiences in legal employment or other practical professional training, acquired during the immediately prior summer recess, have influenced her or his understanding of the legal system, the legal profession, or other aspects of legal culture. Permission of instructor required. J.R. Macey. Legislation (20066). 3 units. This course will provide an introduction to theories of the legislative process and their relation to the theory and doctrine of statutory interpretation. The course begins with a case study of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and that study is used to illustrate three paradigms of the legislative process. The course will then turn to theory and practice of statutory interpretation. Students will test the theories of statutory interpretation against theories of law and the legislative process. The course will analyze the doctrines associated with statutory interpretation in detail. Self-scheduled examination. Enrollment limited to 120. W.N. Eskridge, Jr. and T. Ruger. Legislative Advocacy Clinic (20352). 3 units, credit/fail. A two-term clinical seminar designed to give students an opportunity to participate in the state legislative process by advancingand defendingthe interests of Connecticut public interest organizations (including other LSO clinics, and their clients). The primary client (Voices for Connecticut’s Children and Youth) is a key player on a broad spectrum of policy issues. Recently the clinic has focused on public education, juvenile justice, health and tax policy. The clinic’s work will include both affirmative legislative initiatives and defensive efforts to respond to proposed legislation deemed inimical to the interests of its clients. The clinic will also serve as a legislative liaison for other LSO clinics, keeping them informed of legislative developments affecting their clients’ interests. Issues of ethics and professional responsibility for lawyers working in the legislative arena will be an important focus of this clinic. In the fall term, students will participate in training sessions led by some of Connecticut’s most experienced lobbyists, meet with state legislators, and work with their client organizations to develop a legislative agenda. Once issues have been chosen for action, students will research the subject, work with other client organizations to help draft legislation, and meet with legislators. In the spring, students will work in partnership with their client organization to meet with legislators to get their bills introduced, develop oral and written testimony in support thereof, identify other witnesses, shepherd their bills through the committee process, and work to get them adopted. During the legislative session, students will also monitor other proposed legislation that might affect the clinic’s clients. To allow all students to participate in both the training/issue development and direct action aspects of the clinic’s work, priority will be given to students willing to commit to participating for two terms. Enrollment limited. R.A. Solomon, S.D. Geballe, M. Glassman, and C. Staples. *Lowenstein International Human Rights Clinic (20188). 3 units, credit/fail. Students will work on a variety of human rights projects, generally in support of advocacy efforts of human rights organizations. Projects are designed to give students practical experience with the range of activities in which lawyers engage to promote respect for human rights; to help students build the knowledge and skills necessary to be effective human rights lawyers; and to integrate the theory and practice of human rights. Class sessions will provide an overview of basic human rights principles and their application along with instruction in and development of human rights research and writing skills. The clinic will have one or more student directors. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited to eighteen. J.J. Silk.
Military Justice (20030). 2 units. This course will explore the nature and function of military justice today. Topics will include constitutional rights of military personnel; court-martial jurisdiction and offenses; trial and appellate structure and procedure; collateral review; the roles of commanders, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the President; command influence; the role of custom; and punishment. Current issues such as those involving military commissions, command accountability, military justice on the battlefield, judicial independence, transparency, homosexuality, adultery, and fraternization will be addressed. The course will consider how the military justice system can be improved and what, if anything, can be learned from the experience of other countries. Course materials will include decisions of the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces, European Court of Human Rights, and other foreign courts; the Manual for Courts-Martial; and Evolving Military Justice (Fidell & Sullivan eds., 2002). Paper required. E.R. Fidell. Natural Resources Law (20446). 4 units. This course will examine the legal regimes that govern the acquisition and control of natural resources. The course will begin with the history of the federal public domain, including statehood grants, homestead acts, and the creation of the national forests, the national parks, and the Bureau of Land Management system. This will be followed by a brief exploration of constitutional and statutory issues raised by the division of authority between the federal government and the states in the control of natural resources, as well as the division of authority among Congress, agencies, and courts in the ongoing management of resources under statutes such as the National Environmental Policy Act. The course will then turn to specific resources that present unique challenges for legal regulation, such as wildlife (including endangered species), fisheries, water, minerals on public lands, and forests. Scheduled examination. T. Merrill. Negotiated Mergers and Acquisitions (20237). 2 units. This course will examine the issues and problems that confront lawyers and their clients in business acquisition transactions involving the acquisition of privately held entities. Topics will include structuring the deal, allocating liabilities and risks of the business being acquired, valuation of the business and pricing the deal, the duties of directors and controlling shareholders to minority shareholders and other investors, and other issues related to the acquisition of privately held business. Students will engage in an exercise involving the negotiation, drafting, and interpretation of selected provisions of an acquisition agreement. Prerequisite: Business Organizations (may be taken concurrently) or equivalent. Self-scheduled examination. J.T. Hirschoff. Nonprofit Organizations Clinic (20051). 1 or 2 units, credit/fail. This transactional clinic assists nonprofit groupsthose that cannot afford paid counselto organize, incorporate, obtain tax exemption, comply with fundraising regulations, and take other steps to become operational. The clients are diverse, both geographically (ranging, in recent years, from New Haven to Iraq, Indonesia, and Tanzania) and in terms of mission (e.g., housing for the elderly, medical care for the rural poor, encouragement of fair trade, and the rescue of raptors). The entire clinic meets as a group five or six times for briefing sessions and case discussion and also self-scheduled team sessions throughout the term. Also MGT 695a. J.G. Simon, L.N. Davis, and B.B. Lindsay. *[The] Practice of Corporate and Securities Law (20199). 2 units. What is it corporate and securities lawyers do that justifies the fees they charge? This course will attempt to answer that question by analyzing what the judicial decisions that constitute corporate and securities law are attempting to do. Dealing with these opinions involves knowledge of basic corporate and securities statutory and regulatory regimens and terminology; and this course assumes such knowledge or a willingness to acquire the same. Paper optional. J.G. Deutsch and W.C. Baskin, Jr. Preparing Law Teachers (20473). 4 units (2 fall, 2 spring). This class is designed to prepare students for a career in legal academia. The focus of the fall term will be on interdisciplinary approaches to legal scholarship, and will have two key objectives. The first will be to expose students to various disciplinary approaches to legal scholarship, with the objective of making them methodologically aware, both as consumers of scholarship drawing on different disciplinary approaches, and as potential producers of scholarship within a particular tradition. The second will be to help socialize students into the life of legal scholarship, with a focus on how legal scholars choose subjects for research, select appropriate methods for analysis, situate themselves within scholarly communities (both in law and academic disciplines), and maneuver between the different standards of law schools and the social science and historical fields. The spring term will focus on designing research and the preparation of publishable-quality papers, and familiarizing students with how to both give and receive serious feedback on their work. Students who are admitted to this course and who accept the place in the course may not drop the course during the add/drop period at the beginning of the term. Paper required. Permission of the instructor required. S. Teles, S. Rose-Ackerman, A.L. Alstott, J.M. Balkin, R.W. Brooks, D.M. Kahan, T. Meares, R.C. Post, R. Siegel. Problems in Evidence (20338). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will focus on the allocation of functions between judge and jury, the problem of expert and scientific evidence, evidentiary privileges, character evidence, and shortcuts to proof (such as judicial notice, presumptions, and burden of proof). The seminar will include a brief historical survey of the law of evidence and occasional forays into comparative systems of proof. The course in evidence is not a prerequisite. Scheduled examination or paper option. Enrollment limited to sixteen. M.R. Damasˇka and S.B. Duke. *Professional Responsibility and the Legal Profession (20012). 3 units. Comprehensive and critical coverage of the Rules of Professional Conduct and the Code of Professional Responsibility, including proposals for change. Also considered will be major problems currently facing the legal profession, including multidisciplinary practice (MDP), unauthorized practice of law by lay competitors of lawyers, restrictions on interstate law practice, funding of legal aid, the risks and benefits of increased specialization by individual lawyers, taking advantage of new technologies, and lawyer quality-of-life problems from long workdays and high billable hours requirements. Scheduled examination. Q. Johnstone. Property (20207). 4 units. This course will inquire into a pervasive set of human institutionsthe arrangements for getting, controlling, using, transferring, and forfeiting resources in the world around us. The course will begin by exploring what property regimes are and the range of purposes they might serve, and then move through the topics of acquisition, transfer, shared interests, and limitations on property. While the main focus will be property in land, the class will discuss the implications of property in other resources, such as wild animals, body parts, water, and information. The course will also examine recording and other notice-giving devices, interests in land over time, easements and deed restrictions, planned communities and “private government,” landlord-tenant relations, issues of differential wealth and civil rights, and public land-use regulation. Scheduled examination. H.E. Smith. Property: Individual Research (20457). 3 units. The instructor will separately supervise up to six students who wish to write a paper on a property topic. To receive credit for satisfying the Supervised Analytic Writing requirement, a student must devote two terms of work to the paper. Enrollment limited to six. R.C. Ellickson. Property and Public Rights: Seminar (20458). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will explore the variety of ways in which private property interacts with and is constrained by different concepts of public rights. The issues to be considered will include, among others, the public use doctrine as a restraint on the power of eminent domain, the public trust doctrine as a limit on the disposition of public assets, the concept of the police power as an overriding constraint on the use of private property, the doctrines of implied dedication, customary rights, and public easements, the idea of the public domain in the history of American land law, and the idea of the public domain in intellectual property. The seminar will begin with discussion of readings in these areas and selected secondary literature. It will conclude with students presenting drafts or outlines of papers on topics of their choice. Paper required. Enrollment limited to twenty. T. Merrill. Property, Social Justice, and the Environment (20202). 2 or 3 units. This seminar will explore the relationship of property to social and environmental concerns in the context of several past and present controversies over property rights. Topics on the “social justice” side will include some or all of the following: racially restrictive covenants; privated and especially “gated” communities; land titling programs in less developed areas; and (time permitting) the expansion of intellectual property, particularly as this affects indigenous peoples or persons in less developed countries. Issues on the “environmental” side may include the free-market environmental movement; the so-called takings question in relationship to the environment; private wildlife rights; conservation easements; governmentally created private rights such as appropriate water rights, tradeable emission permits, and habitat trading programs; and community ownership of forests and other natural resource bases. While this seminar will search for common themes about the range, capacities, and limitations of property regimes, theoretical purity should not be expected in this overview; moreover, topics may change in response to particular student interest. The class will meet twice weekly during the first six weeks of the term. Take-home exam essay for 2 credits; research paper for 3. Enrollment limited to sixteen. C.M. Rose. Prosecution Externship (20139). 2 or 3 units, credit/fail. Students in this clinical externship will assist state or federal prosecutors with their responsibilities, both before and at trial. Placements are available in New Haven and surrounding cities and in a variety of fields, including misdemeanors, felonies, or specialized areas such as career criminal, traffic, or appellate work. Weekly sessions will range from discussions of assigned readings to field trips to prisons, police laboratories, and other locations. Students will be required to keep journals and time records. Placements at the U.S. Attorney’s Office must be arranged at least four months in advance to allow time for security clearance procedures. Applications and interviews for the State’s Attorney placements will take place during the first week of the term. Although enrollment is limited and permission of the instructor is required, timing and the involvement of outside agencies remove this clinic from the usual sign-up process for limited enrollment courses. K. Stith and W.J. Nardini. Public Order of the World Community: A Contemporary International Law I (20040). 4 units. This introduction to contemporary international law will study the role of authority in the decision-making processes of the world community, at the constitutive level where international law is made and applied and where the indispensable institutions for making decisions are established and maintained, as well as in the various sectors of the public order that is established. Consideration will be given to formal as well as operational prescriptions and practice with regard to the participants in this system (states, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, political parties, pressure groups, multinational enterprises, other private associations, private armies and gangs, and individuals); the formal and informal arenas of interaction; the allocation of control over and regulation of the resources of the planet; the protection of people and the regulation of nationality; and the allocation among states of jurisdiction to make and apply law. In contrast to more traditional approaches, which try to ignore the role of power in this system, that role will be candidly acknowledged, and the problems and opportunities it presents will be explored. Special attention will be given to (1) theory; (2) the establishment, transformation, and termination of actors; (3) control of access to and regulation of resources, including environmental prescriptions; and (4) nationality and human rights. Scheduled examination or paper option. W.M. Reisman. Reading the Constitution: Method and Substance (20459). 4 units. An advanced constitutional law course focusing intently on the Constitution itself (as distinct from the case law interpreting it). The course will begin by studying the document in detail, article by article, and amendment by amendment. The main text for this segment of the course will be Amar, America’s Constitution: A Biography (2005). The course will canvass various methods of constitutional interpretation (associated, for example, with writings by Ackerman, Amar, Balkin, Black, Bobbitt, Ely, Tribe, Rubenfeld, Siegel, and Strauss). Permission of the instructor required. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. A.R. Amar. Reconstruction from the Right (20460). 2 or 3 units. Centering on the 1970s, an examination of changes in policy and society that moved the United States from the liberalism of the Kennedy-Johnson years to the conservatism of the Reagan era. Topics to be considered include the backlash against the women’s and the civil rights movements, deregulation, tax, and economic policies, the rise of the religious right, the federalization of crime, the new immigration and regional migrations, the emergence of the personal computer, biotechnology and reproductive technologies industries, and energy, environment, and globalization. Enrollment limited to eighteen, of which ten places are for Law students. Also AMST 778a, HIST 778a, PLSC 814a. M.J. Graetz and D.J. Kevles. Regulating Love, Sex, and Marriage: Seminar (20379). 3 units. The current controversy about state recognition of same-sex marriage implicates broader issues of the justification for any state role in regulating the entry by adults into intimate, consensual relationships. In some contexts, state criminal sanctions have been used to prohibit such relationshipsfor example, prostitution, pornography exchanged between willing sellers and buyers, polygamous relationships, same-sex intercourse. In other contexts, state authority has been deployed to encourage some formats for such relationships without criminally prohibiting alternative arrangementsfor example, restricting marriage licenses on various grounds (no same-sex, no mixed-race, no incest, no bigamy), or providing such financial incentives as tax benefits for preferred relationships. The seminar will explore and evaluate the justifications advanced, both in the past and today, for such state regulations. Paper required. Enrollment limited to twenty. R.A. Burt. Research Methods in International Law (20196). 1 unit, credit/fail. International legal research, whether for scholarly or professional purposes, must use materials and methods that are quite different from those encountered in domestic legal research. This workshop will examine those methods and help students develop improved techniques for international legal research using both print and electronic resources. There will be no paper or examination and grading will be credit/fail. The workshop will meet for five or six weekly two-hour sessions. M.L. Cohen and J. Nann. Rights in Comparative Perspectives (20461). 2 units. This research seminar will dealon a comparative basiswith human rights: their historical origins, their jurisprudential analysis, and their analytical structure. The course will consider specific rights (e.g., freedom of speech, dignity, social, economic, and cultural); positive rights and negative rights; rights under national constitutions and international documents; and rights and the battle on terror. Paper required. Students will meet individually with the professor during the term to discuss their papers. Enrollment limited. A. Barak. Secured Transactions (20317). 3 units. This course will provide an in-depth examination of the basic structures and purposes of secured credit transactions under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code. Discussions will focus on the essential elements of secured financing (including the creation and enforcement of security interests in various types of tangible and intangible property) as well as the longstanding debate over the essential utility and fairness of contractual security devices and the secured creditor’s priority. The course will also consider the treatment of security interests in bankruptcy proceedings and the rise of securitizations as an alternative to traditional methods of secured lending. Prior courses in commercial transactions, corporate finance, and bankruptcy, although helpful, are not required. Relevant commercial concepts will be explained as they arise. Students will discuss a number of important issues of current and enduring significance in the study of commercial law. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. G.E. Brunstad, Jr. Securities Regulation (20288). 4 units. A comprehensive examination of federal laws and regulations relating to the issuance of securities, fraud, insider trading, control transactions, brokers and dealers, investment companies, and private and public enforcement mechanisms. Scheduled examination. R.K. Winter. Sentencing (20345). 3 units. An examination of the history, philosophy, and administration of the criminal sentencing process. Particular attention will be devoted to (1) how judges, apart from guidelines, exercise discretion in light of the circumstances of crimes, discretionary decisions by prosecutors, characteristics of offenders, and choices among permissible sanctions and purposes of sentencing; and (2) whether, in the wake of guidelines, even “advisory” guidelines, and mandatory penalties, fact-finding judges may continue to individualize sentences and if so, how. The course will explore different kinds of sentencing regimesstate guideline systems, international models on which sentencing standards have evolved from common law decision making or judge-imposed guidelines (Australia, Israel, England), the American Law Institute’s revision of the Model Penal Code’s sentencing provisions, and the federal sentencing guidelines. The course will also explore the relationship between sentencing guidelines and the criminal code; the interplay among principles of proportionality, severity, and parsimony; and the impact of race, class, and gender on case outcomes. Paper required. Enrollment limited. D.E. Curtis and N. Gertner. Specialized Legal Research (20470). 1 unit, credit/fail. This course is an optional continuation of Research Methods in American Law, which is a prerequisite for enrollment. The course will meet twice weekly over seven weeks. Students will learn how to use print and online legal resources effectively to research such specialized areas of the law as environmental law and tax. Students will be required to complete a series of short research assignments. Prerequisite: Research Methods in American Law. Permission of the instructors required. M. Cohen and M. Chisholm. *Supreme Court Advocacy (20431). 6 units (3 fall, 3 spring). This course will furnish the opportunity to combine hands-on clinical work with seminar discussion of Supreme Court decision making and advocacy. It will begin with several sessions analyzing the Court as an institution, focusing on the practicalities of how the Court makes its decisions and how lawyers present their cases. Students will then work on a variety of actual cases before the Court, preparing petitions for certiorari and merits briefs, which will constitute the bulk of the course, under the supervision of Yale faculty and experienced Supreme Court practitioners. The course will be a two-term offering and will satisfy the Substantial Writing requirement. The course demands a significant time investment. Permission of instructors required. Enrollment limited to twelve. B. Dignam, D.M. Kahan, A. Pincus, C. Rothfeld, and T. O’Malley. Taxation of Executive Compensation (20474). 2 units. Barely a day goes by without an executive compensation headline. From Grasso to Google, these headlines give life to the materials in this course. The income tax consequences of executive compensation are explored through the study of arrangements in effect at major corporations or headlined in the “news of the day.” The course will cover nonqualified deferred compensation; rabbi and secular trusts; restricted stock and restricted stock units; incentive and nonqualified stock options; SARs; the deduction limits of Section 162(m); and golden parachute payments. This course will also provide a guide through the maze that confronts the executive compensation practitioner, including financial accounting, ERISA, securities laws, stock exchange requirements, shareholder activism, Congressional responses to perceived compensation “excesses” and corporate law. Mock presentations to the class as the Board of Directors of real life cases will permit the student to test his or her vote against the triumphs and tragedies of others. No prerequisites. Scheduled examination. A.R. Susko. [The] Two Bibles and Injustice: Seminar (20464). 3 units. The central event of the Christian Bible is an unjust actthe crucifixion of Jesus. Responding to injustice as such is thus a more explicit and pressing concern in the Christian than in the Hebrew Bible. For this very reason, it is instructive to explore contrasts between the treatments of injustice in the two texts. The differing emphasis on retribution versus forgiveness for wrongdoing is an especially rewarding subject for inquiry. The seminar will review some portions of the Hebrew Bible which have been explored in much greater depth in the seminar, The Book of Job and Injustice. (Participation in that seminar is not a prerequisite for enrollment though it will be a basis for preference in filling the limited slots.) The seminar will focus on close reading of the Christian Bible. It will explore the contrasting responses to injustice of the two Bibles (and, in particular, the competing roles of retribution and forgiveness) as applied to such contemporary issues as the application of the death penalty in the U.S. criminal justice system and the processes for transition from dictatorial to democratic regimes in Latin America and South Africa. Paper required. Enrollment limited. R.A. Burt and J.E. Ponet. Worker and Immigrant Rights Advocacy Clinic (20465) and Fieldwork (20468). 2 units, credit/fail, with a graded option, for each part (4 units total). Open only to students who took the first half of WIRAC in spring 2007. See spring course listings for full description. The clinic and fieldwork must be taken simultaneously in both terms. Permission of the instructors required. M. Wishnie and C. Lasch. Workshop on Chinese Legal Reform (20135). 1 unit, credit/fail; 2 or 3 graded units with paper. This workshop will examine legal development in China today. Typically, guests from other universities in the U.S. or China will present papers or discuss current issues. P. Gewirtz, J.P. Horsley, T. Kellogg, and J.M. Prescott.
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Spring Term
Courses marked with an asterisk (*) satisfy the legal ethics/professional responsibility requirement.
Access to Knowledge Practicum (21264). 2 units, credit/fail. Students in this course will work on projects that promote innovation and distributive justice through the reform of intellectual property and telecommunications laws, treaties, and policies both internationally and in specific countries. These laws, treaties, and policies shape the delivery of health care services, technology, telecommunications access, education, and culture around the globe. Students will supplement their projects with theoretical readings and frequent contact with Information Society Project Fellows. Permission of the instructor required. Paper required. Enrollment limited to eight. E. Katz.
Administrative Law (21048). 4 units. A course on the behavior of administrative agencies and their interaction with courts and legislatures, emphasizing the contributions of social science. In addition to studying some of the procedural issues of primary concern to reviewing courts, the course will consider the use of economic and scientific expertise in helping to determine agency choices. The course will blend substantive policy issues with procedural questions by focusing on the regulation of health and safety in the environment, in the workplace, and in the product market. Self-scheduled examination. S. Rose-Ackerman.
Advanced Advocacy for Children and Youth (21513). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail, with a graded option. Open only to students who have completed Advocacy for Children and Youth. Permission of the instructor required. J.K. Peters.
Advanced Community Lawyering (21476). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail, with a graded option. Open only to students who have completed Community Lawyering. Permission of an instructor required. C.L. Lucht and R.A. Solomon. Advanced Contracts and the Principal-Agent Problem (21514). 2 units. This course will apply economic principles to an analysis of contract law. It will critically examine economic and non-economic rationales behind various areas of contract law, interrogating the degree to which legal doctrines and philosophies comport with economic efficiency and critiquing economic models that fail to account for important legal principles. After developing a basic understanding of the law and economics of contracts in the first half of the course, the course will build up models of incomplete contracts and principal-agent relationships. These models will be explored in the context of fiduciary law. The second half of the course will aim to (1) provide students with a rich institutional understanding of fiduciary law, (2) show how economic analysis may refine our understanding of that topic, and (3) demonstrate how fiduciary law can usefully inform the economics of contracts. Prerequisite: Contracts; Business Organizations suggested but not required. Supervised Analytic Writing or Substantial Paper credit available. Paper and examination required. Self-scheduled examination. Enrollment limited. R.W. Brooks. Advanced Immigration Legal Services (21168). 1 to 3 units, credit/fail, with a graded option. Open only to students who have completed Immigration Legal Services. Permission of an instructor required. C.L. Lucht, J.K. Peters, and S. Wizner. Advanced Legal Research: Methods and Sources (21027). 3 units. An advanced exploration of the specialized methods and sources of legal research in some of the following areas: administrative law; case finding; computer-assisted research; constitutional law and history; court rules and practice materials; international law; legislative history; and statutory research. Class sessions will integrate the use of online, print, and other research sources. Notebook computer recommended. Research problems and paper required. R.D. Harrison and J.B. Nann. Advanced Legal Writing (21343). 3 units. This course will provide practice in writing legal memoranda and briefs. Students will have the opportunity to refine analytical and writing skills. The goal of the course will be to take students beyond basic competence to excellence in legal writing. Enrollment limited to ten. R.D. Harrison. Advanced Topics in Comparative Law (21515). 2 units. This seminar is intended for students who wish to do research and writing on a topic in comparative law. Students will read and discuss a variety of texts on comparative law, as well as host guest scholars, who will present research to the class. The goal of the seminar will be to encourage and train students to do publishable work in comparative law, without prejudice to methodological approach. The course is also open to students with no intention of entering academia. The only prerequisite is that students have an active interest in the law of some country other than the United States, and have a desire to understandor to explainhow and why practices, traditions, processes, or outcomes differ across legal systems. Paper required. Enrollment limited. M. Lasser and J.Q. Whitman. Advanced Trial Practice (21516). 2 units. Open only to students who have taken the basic Trial Practice course. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited to twelve. S. Wizner. *Advocacy for Children and Youth (21387). 3 units, credit/fail. Students in this clinical seminar will represent children and youth in cases of abuse, neglect, uncared for, and potentially termination of parental rights in the Superior Court for Juvenile Matters, and certain related matters. Class sessions will focus on substantive law, ethical issues arising from the representation of children and youth in the relevant contexts, interviewing and lawyering competencies, case discussions, and background materials relating to state intervention into the family. Class will meet weekly with occasional supplemental sessions to be arranged. Additionally, students will attend weekly case supervision sessions. Casework will require, on average, ten to twelve hours weekly, but time demands will fluctuate over the course of the term; class time will be concentrated in the first half of the term. Enrollment limited to four. J.K. Peters. American Legal History, 18801980 (21063). 3 units. This course will deal with selected topics in the modern history of American law, legal thought, legal institutions, and the legal profession. Among topics expected to be covered: the law and regulation of corporate organizations and labor relations in the age of enterprise; the law of race relations in the Jim Crow South and urban North; the development of “classical” legalism in the private law of contract and tort and the public law of constitutional limitations; the Progressive and legal-realist critiques of “classical” legalism; the rise of the modern administrative state; the regulation of public order and perceived threats to itpolitical dissent, deviant sexuality, immorality, alcohol, and immigration; the construction of law schools, law firms, the organized legal profession, the personal-injury bar, and public-interest law; the legal thought of O.W. Holmes, Jr. and Louis Brandeis; New Deal legal thought and legislation; the legal order of the 1950s; expansion of enterprise liability and rise of the mass tort class action; civil rights movements and enforcement from the 1940s through 1980s; the “rights revolution” of the Warren Court and Great Society and the ensuing backlash. Self-scheduled examination with an option (open to a limited number of students) to write a research paper based on primary sources. Also HIST 760b. R.W. Gordon. American Legal Thought in the Twentieth Century (21517). 2 units. In this course students will read and discuss a series of leading scholarly articles in twentieth-century American legal thought and will seek to understand these central works both in their own right and as pieces of broader intellectual movements. The course will cover how and why these scholarly works came to play a role in American legal thought. Works to be read include “Some Fundamental Legal Conceptions as Applied in Judicial Reasoning” by Wesley Hohfeld; “Coercion and Distribution in a Supposedly Noncoercive State” by Robert Hale; “Toward Neutral Principles of Constitutional Law” by Herbert Wechsler; “Hard Cases” by Ronald Dworkin; “Form and Substance in Private Law Adjudication” by Duncan Kennedy; “Violence and the Word” by Robert Cover; “Law’s Republic” by Frank Michelman; “The Problem of Social Cost” by Ronald Coase; and “Property Rules, Liability Rules, and Inalienability: One View of the Cathedral” by Guido Calabresi and Douglas Melamed. Students will be asked to submit short reaction papers every other week. C. Jolls. Antitrust (21068). 4 units. This course will survey a range of issues in the law and economics of antitrust, including horizontal agreements, monopolization, and vertical arrangements. The course will presume students have no training in economics, but it will aspire to remain of interest to students with substantial economics backgrounds. Self-scheduled examination. G.L. Priest. Antitrust: Directed Research (21212). Units to be arranged. This seminar will provide an opportunity for discussion among students interested in writing Substantial or Supervised Analytic Writing papers on current (or historical) antitrust topics. Permission of the instructor required. G.L. Priest. Antitrust and Regulation: Research Seminar (21518). 3 or 4 units. Research and writing on current problems in antitrust and regulation. Topics to be arranged with the instructor. Prerequisite: the basic antitrust course or its equivalent. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. A.K. Klevorick. *Balancing Civil Liberties and National Security after September 11 (21391). 3 units, credit/fail. This course will be a hybrid between clinic and seminar, focusing primarily on civil liberties cases arising out of government policies in the aftermath of September 11, including citizen and non-citizen detentions, Fourth and Fifth Amendment issues, international human rights, and humanitarian law. Students enrolled in the course will prepare memoranda on points of law at issue in some of these cases and, as the timing dictates, will help to do legal research and draft amicus briefs based on their research. The course will include a clinical component and a reading seminar focusing on the text of the cases themselves and their precedents. The class will meet at a regularly scheduled time once a week, and one additional weekly meeting period will be arranged at the beginning of the term. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. H.H. Koh, M. Wishnie, J.M. Freiman, and H.R. Metcalf. Bankruptcy (21204). 3 units. This course will provide a comprehensive survey of basic bankruptcy law with emphasis on the structure and process of business reorganizations under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. Discussion will focus on the basic elements of liquidations and reorganizations, as well as contemporary issues of interest and importance. Significant portions of the course will be devoted to examining the use of the reorganization laws to solve a variety of corporate ills, from product liability disasters to labor difficulties to over-leveraging. Consideration will also be given to some of the grand issues of bankruptcy including issues that arise as a result of the impact insolvent enterprises may have on their competitors, and the essential interplay between bankruptcy and other substantive bodies of law. In addition, time will be devoted to discussion of the current debate over bankruptcy reform. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. G.E. Brunstad, Jr. [The] Book of Job and Injustice: Seminar (21123). 3 units. The Book of Job is a template for thinking about the unjustifiable sufferings inflicted during this past destructive century. The Nazi Holocaust, for example, provokes the same questions that Job posed: “Where was God that this was permitted to occur?” “What justice is there in the universe that this could occur?” “In the face of this occurrence, how, if at all, can belief in the ideal of justice based on faith in the goodness of the universe be rekindled?” The seminar will consider such questions in three principal ways: by a close study of the perspectives offered in the Book of Job; by a comparison of the conceptions of justice and the possibility of its vindication treated elsewhere in the Bible; and by exploration of the ways that secular institutions have tried to assert norms of justice in response to such shattering events. Paper required. Enrollment limited to twenty. R.A. Burt and J.E. Ponet. Business Organizations (21241). 4 units. A general introduction to the role and structure of organizational law. Although broadly held business corporations will be the principal focus of the course, attention will also be paid to other modes of organizing both commercial and noncommercial enterprise. Scheduled examination. H. Hansmann. Business Organizations (21274). 4 units. A survey of the law of business organizations, emphasizing the control, management, and financing of publicly owned corporations. The key problem for corporate law is one of agency relationshow to align management’s incentives with shareholders’ interests. The course will accordingly examine how legal rules, markets, and institutional arrangements mitigate, or magnify, the agency problem. Scheduled examination. R. Romano. Capitalism (21308). 3 units. This seminar will survey the theory, practice, and moral foundations of capitalism. It will use major works describing and explaining capitalist methods and institutions, such as works by Adam Smith and Hayek, as well as those of modern economists. The seminar will address the major criticisms of capitalism, including those by Marx, as well as modern welfare economists criticizing income inequality. This course will also review the success or failure of efforts to introduce capitalism to Eastern Europe, South America, and Africa. Paper required. G.L. Priest. Capital Punishment: Experience in Advocacy (21082). 4 units (2 fall, 2 spring), credit/fail. Students will assist members of the Capital Trial Unit of the Connecticut Public Defender Office in representing people facing the death penalty. Students will make practical use of research and analytical skills, and may participate in conferences with clients, witnesses and experts, and investigations, and observe court proceedings. Students must complete a substantial writing assignment, such as a portion of a motion, brief, or memorandum of law. The course is limited to students who have taken Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage or intend to take it in spring 2008. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited to eight. S.B. Bright. Capital Punishment: Race, Poverty, and Disadvantage (21426). 3 units, credit/fail option. This course will examine issues of poverty and race in the criminal justice system, particularly with regard to the imposition of the death penalty. Topics will include the right to counsel for people who cannot afford lawyers, racial discrimination, prosecutorial discretion, judicial independence, and mental health issues. Paper required. Permission of the instructor required. Enrollment limited. S.B. Bright. [The] Changing Nature of the Private Firm and Entrepreneurship (21519). 2 units. Most economic activity in the United States is outside the scope of public markets. In the aftermath of the technology bubble, a variety of public market dynamics have fed back through the value chain and significantly changed the very nature of the private firm and the economic ecosystem surrounding it (capital providers, law firms, government, and universities). As always, many of the innovations in financial and legal structuring reflect evolving assessments of risk allocation and game strategies among stakeholders from the beginning of the value chain such as entrepreneurs and angel investors all the way through private equity funds seeking to control deal flow from earlier stages of corporate development. This course will explore the continuum of private company development from set-up and governance to the influence of corporate structure on product roadmap and innovation policy, as well as the financial, legal, and policy implications of changing private markets. Topics will include (I) Steering Away from Regulation and Public Markets; (II) Changing Nature of the Private Firm; (III) Financing Strategies and Incentives; (IV) Legal Strategies and Incentives; (V) Innovation Policy, Private Capital Expenditure, and the University; (VI) Economic Policy. The class will include real problem-solving cases from a variety of companies including Plain Sight Systems located in New Haven. Paper required. W.M. Reisman and P. DeSouza. Child Development and the Law: Current Issues (21266). 1 or 2 units. This course will discuss current issues related to legal institutions that affect child development. Topics may include child welfare, special education, the transition to adulthood for vulnerable children (e.g., children in foster care and children with disabilities), grandparent visitation statutes, bilingual education, and parent education programs. The course will focus on efforts to improve developmental conditions, including discussions of policy and proposals for reform. Class participation and short papers are required. With the permission of the instructor, students may write longer papers for a second unit of credit. Permission of the instructor required. Students should submit a statement of interest during the limited enrollment bidding period. Enrollment limited to ten. A.L. Alstott. *Colloquium on Contemporary Issues in Law and Business (21502). 2 units. This course will bring leading members of the corporate bar, business, and investment communities, judges, and regulators, to the Law School to discuss emerging practice and regulatory issues, as well as scholars from other institutions to present their ongoing research on corporate governance and finance. An aim of the colloquium will be to provide a realistic sense of the varieties of business law practice. Short papers required during the term. Prerequisite: Business Organizations. Enrollment limited. R. Romano. Community Development Financial Institutions (21474). 3 units, credit/fail. This clinic represents a local foundation seeking to start a community development bank. Students will be involved in all aspects of bank start-up, with the purpose of supporting community development activities (primarily affordable housing development, home ownership, small business, and banking the unbanked) in New Haven’s underserved areas. The curriculum will include an overview of banking law and practice, an in-depth study of community development banking, and New Haven as a community. Permission of the instructors required; priority given to students who have previously taken Community and Economic Development. Enrollment limited to twelve. R.A. Solomon and C. Muckenfuss. *Community and Economic Development (21016). 3 units, credit/fail. A multidisciplinary workshop involving students from the Schools of Law, Management, Divinity, Forestry & Environmental Studies, Epidemiology and Public Health, and Architecture. Under the supervision of faculty and members of the local bar, participants will work on behalf of nonprofit organizations and small businesses to promote job creation, neighborhood revitalization, low-income housing, access to capital and credit, and social service delivery in the New Haven area. The clinic will emphasize a nonadversarial, transactional approach to problem solving. As legal, financial, architectural, and social policy advisers, participants will research legal issues, facilitate negotiations, draft contracts, incorporate organizations, complete loan and grant applications, develop financial analyses, and draft architectural plans. Class topics will include professional responsibility, real estate finance, low-income housing policy, community development corporations and financial institutions, neighborhood planning, public school reform, and urban economic policy. Enrollment limited to twelve. Also MGT 694b. R.A. Solomon. *Community Lawyering Clinic [Domestic Violence/JUNTA] (21015). 3 units, credit/fail. Community lawyering fuses traditional civil legal services representation with collaborative, community-based strategies for solving community problems and empowering clients. The Community Lawyering Clinic will offer students the opportunity to represent low-income clients in an extraordinarily wide range of cases. Students may choose to conduct outreach sessions at one of two local nonprofits in the New Haven area: JUNTA for Progressive Action and the Coordinating Council for Children in Crisis (CCCC) and the Yale Child Study Center (CSC). Domestic Violence: Students working with CCCC and CSC provide comprehensive legal services for survivors of domestic violence, including (but not limited to) assisting clients with divorce, child custody, visitation, support, landlord-tenant, special education, and consumer issues. Students should expect to appear in state court on behalf of clients. JUNTA: Students working with JUNTA provide comprehensive legal services to residents of Fair Haven, a predominantly Latino and immigrant neighborhood of New Haven. Clients come to JUNTA with a wide variety of legal issues, and students’ cases often include (but are not limited to) immigration law, employment law, benefits, landlord-tenant law, and consumer fraud. Enrollment limited to twelve. R.A. Solomon, and S. Wizner. Comparative Constitutional Law (21520). 2 or 3 units. This course, a seminar in comparative law, will focus on systems of constitutional justice. The first part of the seminar will be devoted to structural issues, including the contrast between the “American Model” of judicial review and the “European Model” of constitutional review, while the second part will focus on rights adjudication. Themes will include balancing and proportionality, the horizontal effect of rights, and the relationship between constitutional adjudication and legislative authority. We will read and discuss a combination of legal theory, empirical research, and selected rulings of supreme and constitutional courts. Students will be evaluated on the basis of (1) a research paper, (2) three short (one- to two-page) “response papers” on the weekly readings of their choice, and (3) attendance and participation. Students may also take the course as a 3-unit option, in which case a major paper would be required. Enrollment limited. A. Stone Sweet. Comparative Law: The Civil Law Tradition (21521). 3 units. This course will introduce students to the institutional and conceptual organization of “civil law” legal systems (which govern almost all of Western and Eastern Europe and Latin America, as well as significant portions of Africa and Asia). The course will provide a broad overview of “civilian” private law and procedure, criminal procedure, administrative law, and constitutional law. The course will be particularly focused on the differences between common law and civil law understandings of the relationship between law and politics; it will focus simultaneously on forms of bureaucratic and professional organization and on the relationship between law-making, interpretation, and the judiciary. Self-scheduled examination. M. Lasser. Comparative Sentencing Law: Research Seminar (21258). 3 units. This seminar will examine criminal sentencing, within the larger context of the criminal law regime and punishment practices, of various countries and regions throughout the world, drawing parallels where appropriate with sentencing laws, procedures, and practices in the United States. Particular attention will be given to recent changes in law or recent reform movements (such as sentencing guidelines). The focus will be on sentencing of routine and serious crimes, not on the issue of capital punishment. This is an advanced research seminar. Students who enroll should already have some experience with or other demonstrated knowledge of sentencing law in the United States and/or of comparative criminal law. Each student will examine and be expected to write a publishable paper on criminal sentencing in another country. The seminar will provide an opportunity for students to present their ongoing research to other seminar participants, and outside guests where appropriate, throughout the term. Our focus will include common law and civil code countries such as Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and Scotland; France, Germany, and Italy; Israel, South Africa, and Japan. We also hope to study systems whose sentencing law and practices derive from very different political and criminal law traditions, such as China. Permission of the instructors required. Enrollment limited. D.E. Curtis, N. Gertner, and K. Stith. Conflict of Laws (21522). 2 units. This seminar will deal with theoretical topics regarding choice of law, as it has developed over the last century. No prior knowledge of choice of law is required. Paper required. Enrollment limited to fifteen. L. Brilmayer. Constitutional Litigation Seminar (21345). 2 units. Federal constitutional adjudication from the vantage of the litigator, with an emphasis on Circuit and Supreme Court practice and procedural problems, including jurisdiction, justiciability, exhaustion of remedies, immunities, abstention, and comity. Specific substantive questions of constitutional law currently before the Supreme Court are considered as well. Students will each argue two cases taken from the Supreme Court docket and will write one brief, which may be from that docket but will likely come from the Second Circuit. Students will also join the faculty members on the bench and will, from time to time, be asked to make brief arguments on very short notice on issues raised in the class. Enrollment limited to twelve. G. Calabresi and J.M. Walker, Jr. [The] Constitution of American Empire (21523). 4 units. This course will examine the development of American law as the three branches of the U.S. government, especially the judiciary, sought to construct a normative framework to guide the process of U.S. territorial expansion from the nineteenth century onward. It will analyze the legal doctrines fashioned to justify the acquisition of new territories, to define their constitutional relationship with the United States, and to govern their inhabitants. Attention will be given to the Northwest Ordinance and the Louisiana Purchase as relevant antecedents. However, the course will focus mainly on the acquisition of Alaska, Hawaii, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the territories acquired after the Spanish American War: the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. This will include a thorough review of the Insular Cases, a series of decisions handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court from 1901 to 1922 that established the basic constitutional structure of U.S. territorial relations at the beginning of the twentieth century. The discussion will address not only the legal doctrine developed by the Court, but also its historical, social, political, and cultural underpinnings and the vision of power inherent in the decisions. The course will also look at the colonial responsibilities adopted by the United States after World War II. It will look at U.S. efforts during the past century to redress the grievances of the diverse communities living in its territories as well as their current condition. Finally, some time will be devoted to explore the relevance of the legal doctrines developed to govern the territories to other contemporary issues, such as extraterritorial law enforcement activities by U.S. federal agents, the invasion of Iraq, and the situation of detainees in Guantánamo Base. Efforts will be made to identify common threads in all of these developments and to try to understand the forces, vision, consequences, and normative and political implications of what some have described as the emergence of a true American Empire. Scheduled examination. E. Rivera Ramos. [The] Constitution of the Modern Republic: Seminar (21541). 2 units. An intensive consideration of the distinctive shape that the American Constitution has assumed since the New Deal. Preference will be given to students who have taken the course on the Constitution in the fall, or the fall 2007 introductory course in constitutional law. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. Enrollment limited. Also PLSC 850b. B. Ackerman. Contemporary Legal Issues in Africa (21139). 1 unit, credit/fail. This reading group will meet once a week at lunchtime to discuss current events in Africa, with special emphasis on events that raise issues of international law. Each student will be given responsibility for a particular region of Africa and will report weekly on the important events in that region. One unit of credit is available for participants. Students who wish to do more extensive research into the legal issues in their particular region can make special arrangements for additional study, including the awarding of Supervised Analytic Writing credit. It is possible to take this course more than once. No previous background is assumed. L. Brilmayer and D. Wade. Corporate Taxation (21524). 3 units. The United States has a “classical,” or two-level corporate tax system, which aims to tax corporate income twice: once when earned at the corporate level and again when distributed to individual shareholders. This corporate “double tax” is problematic because its policy rationale is thin and its implementation is tricky. This course will focus on both the policy and the technical aspects of taxing corporations. On the policy side, it will consider current and past proposals to integrate the corporate tax with the individual income tax. On the technical side, it will consider the tax problems that arise when corporations engage in transactions with their shareholders or with other corporations, including contributions, distributions, and reorganizations. Prerequisite: Federal Income Taxation. Self-scheduled examination. A.L. Alstott. Criminal Law and Administration (21525). 3 units. This course will relate the general doctrines of criminal liability to the moral and social problems of crime. The definitions of crimes against the person and against property (as they are at present and as they might be) are considered in the light of the purposes of punishment and of the role of the criminal justice system, including police and correctional agencies, in influencing behavior and protecting the community. Scheduled examination. T. Meares. Criminal Procedure I (21217). 3 units. This course will cover the law regulating interrogation of suspects, witnesses, and defendants; bail; preliminary hearings; grand jury proceedings; the right to effective assistance of counsel; the right to trial by jury; discovery; guilty pleas; various trial procedures; and double jeopardy. Little attention is paid to the Fourth Amendment. Scheduled examination. S.B. Duke.
Criminal Procedure: Research Seminar (21398). 2 or 3 units. Students will do research and writing on a topic in criminal procedure to be selected by agreement with the instructor, with the goal of producing a publishable article. Substantial Paper and Supervised Analytic Writing credit available. Not ordinarily open to third-year students. Paper required. Enrollment limited to eight. S.B. Duke. [The] Development of the Western Legal Tradition (21220). 4 units. This course will examine the rise and spread of the Western legal tradition, especially in the cultural centers of continental Europe. Topics discussed will include the development of the learned legal traditions of Roman and Canon law; the separation of law from religion in the Western world; relations between city and countryside; and the structures and eventual breakdown of social hierarchy. The course will also give some attention to the spread of Western legal forms and practices into Latin America and Asia. Self-scheduled examination or paper option. J.Q. Whitman. Distributive Justice and the Constitution (21077). 4 units. In 1954, Brown v. Board of Education condemned the racial caste structure that had long characterized American society and brought into being a period of American history known as the Second Reconstruction. This seminar will seek to uncover the principles of justice that guided this reconstructive endeavor and then to measure contemporary social reality by them. Looking at schools, housing, employment, voting, welfare reform, and the criminal justice system, the seminar will try to identify the practices of inequality that persist and then attempt to construct the agenda of Third Reconstruction. Paper required. Enrollment limited. O.M. Fiss. *[The] Education Adequacy Project (21470). 3 units, credit/fail. This highly focused clinical course will represent public school parents and the Connecticut Coalition for Justice in Education Funding (CJEF). CJEF is a broad coalition made up of municipalities, school boards, unions, nonprofit organizations, parent-teacher organizations, and other interested individuals and groups. CJEF seeks to reform Connecticut’s public school finance system to provide for greater levels of funding for education by establishing a minimum level of funding needed to provide an adequate education and to alleviate the burden on local municipalities to provide the bulk of education funding. The Education Adequacy Project will meet on a weekly basis to review the progress of the students as well as to discuss the substantive issues involved in CJEF’s case and the theoretical issues involved in the adequacy movement. Students interested in participating in the project should submit a brief statement of interest that discusses any pertinent experience that the student may bring to the project, willingness to continue with the project for more than one term if needed, and any other related information. Enrollment limited to two new students, in addition to returning students. R.A. Solomon and A. Knopp. Emerging Trends in Labor Law (21526). 3 units. This course will focus on the statutory, judicial, and administrative law governing the collective organization of workers and the interaction between such collective organizations and employers. The course will introduce students to the basics of traditional labor law and will explore how labor law is evolving in response to innovative forms of union organizing and collective bargaining. The class will consider the legal status of new, privately negotiated processes for organizing and recognizing unions, new forms of workplace organization, and new modes of bargaining collective agreements. It will also explore emerging forms of worker organizing that rely not on the National Labor Relations Act but on other federal statutes, with a particular focus on the Fair Labor Standards Act. No prerequisites. Self-scheduled examination. B.I. Sachs. Empirical Law and Economics (21527). 2 units. The goal of this course will be to develop an understanding of the major tools of statistics and econometrics that are used to empirically investigate causal claims about law and public policy. Through a careful examination of some of the major empirical debates in the area of criminal law and criminal justice policy, the course will hope to convey a sense of the difficulties of establishing causal relationships and the attendant uncertainty associated with econometric evaluation of complex social phenomena. The goal is to develop both substantive understanding of particular academic debates, and the ability to evaluate other empirical debates. Open to any law student who has not yet take an Empirical Law and Economics course from the instructor. For the final examination, students will write a “referee report” on an assigned empirical paper. Enrollment limited to twenty. J.J. Donohue. Employment Discrimination Law (21436). 4 units. This course will examine the federal legal regimes designed to achieve and maintain equality in the workplace. Its principal focus will be on jurisprudence developed with respect to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (as amended), which prohibits discrimination based on grounds of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Attention will also be given to enforcement and remedial structures established pursuant to the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, Reconstruction Era legislation, the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (prohibiting discrimination in wages on the basis of sex between workers performing equal work), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). Examination. D.S. Days, III. [The] Engineering and Ownership of Life (21441). 2 units. This seminar will consider the development of biological knowledge and control in relation to intellectual property rights in living organisms. Topics will include agribusiness, medicine, biotechnology, and patent law. Paper required. Permission of the instructor required. This course will meet according to the Yale College calendar. Also HIST 938au, HSHM 676au. Enrollment limited to ten Law students. D.J. Kevles. Environmental Protection Clinic (21321). 3 units, credit/fail. A clinical seminar in which students will be engaged with actual environmental law or policy problems on behalf of client organizations (environmental groups, government agencies, international bodies, etc.). The class will meet weekly and students will work eight to ten hours per week in interdisciplinary groups (with students from the School of Forestry & Environmental Studies and other departments or schools at Yale) on projects with a specific legal or policy product (e.g., draft legislation or regulations, hearing testimony, analytic studies, policy proposals) to be produced by the end of the term. Students may propose projects and client organizations, subject to approval by the instructor. Enrollment limited. Also F&ES 80064b. D.S. Bryk. *Ethics and Litigation (21485). 2 units. This course will expose students to many of the ethical considerations faced by practitioners engaged in litigation. In addition to providing an overview, the course will identify various ethical problems that commonly arise during the litigation process, beginning with the decision of whether to take a case in the first place and when and how to use litigation as an effective tool for change. Other specific areas of inquiry will include issues relating to jury selection, a witness’s intent on testifying untruthfully, the limits of cross examination, the lawyers’ use of the media, the discovery process, and the presentation of evidence in ways that promote adversarial fairness without forsaking the client. The course materials include a textbook supplemented by a number of articles, all of which are designed to give students an in-depth appreciation of these ethical issues. Credit/fail option available. Paper required. Enrollment limited to twenty. J. Katz and R.N. Palmer. Federal Courts in a Federal System (21124). 4 units. The Federal Courts play a central role in today’s political debates. This class will focus on these courts, examining the allocation of authority among the branches of the federal government and the relationships among state, federal, and tribal governments within the United States. Questions of the meaning of national and state “sovereignty” will be addressed. Be |