Upper Division/Second & Third Year Courses

Negotiation

The course will emphasize learning the skills of negotiation by simulations in which students will negotiate and watch their classmates negotiate. Class members will conduct three negotiations during the weekend – a simple sales contract, a retainer agreement between an attorney and a client, and a complex multi-party dispute. There will be class all day on Saturday, and a class session on Sunday afternoon. The first negotiation will commence immediately at the start of class, so prompt attendance is vital to credit in the course. Some negotiations will be videotaped for review in class. Students who attend all class sessions, participate in good faith in the simulations, and do the readings will receive a pass for the course.

Fact Investigation and Analysis

An introduction to the world of fact investigation and analysis, this course will provide an overview of how to develop and scrutinize facts. The course will cover five major topics: 1) how lawyers gather facts; 2) how lawyers evaluate evidence/facts; 3) how to organize evidence into a comprehensive narrative; 4) how human memory, biases, and perception affect fact gathering; and 5) the ethical issues surrounding fact investigations. The course will involve a significant interactive skill development component including mock interviews, drafting exercises, guest speakers and hands-on investigation exercises.

Land Use & Zoning Law

Every Town and municipality in the country has to deal with land use and zoning law issues. Land regulations control what private property owners can do with their property. They also regulate speech; define families; control access to public and private places for people with disabilities; address housing discrimination; and implement environmental law at the local level. In this course, we cover the applied administrative law of land use and zoning, and we do hands-on projects that prepare you to be practice ready from day one for handling a zoning claim and a petition to a zoning board of appeal.

National Security Lawyering

The central goal of this course is to equip students with skills required to practice law in a political and bureaucratic context. It will teach students about the organizational structure of the national security infrastructure; how key figures make, implement, and oversee policy and operational decisions; and the unusually diverse array of legal materials that regulate national security players and thus constitute the "law" of national security law.

Negotiation for Lawyers

This course will introduce students to the theory and practice of negotiation. Students will learn basic negotiation skills and will be introduced to a variety of other skills including: valuation of a client’s position; interviewing; business communications; and basic drafting.

Problem Solving and Intelligent Lawyering

A series of problems challenge students to identify client interests and consider different options for effective representation. The problems span civil and criminal law and become more complicated as the semester progresses. Discussions with practicing attorneys will supplement students’ work on the problems. To develop skills of perception and judgment, the course also incorporates the study of mindfulness and emotional intelligence. Students will learn about concentration, awareness, and the development of compassion in legal representation. They will practice interviewing clients and making decisions in a group. If they would like, students may also be guided in mindful breathing, meditation, and yoga.

Legal Communications & Research III: Writing for Trial and Appellate Judges

This course introduces the writing process that judges and law clerks use to complete their work. By the end of the course, students should be comfortable drafting appellate court opinions, and drafting trial court orders.

Legal Communications & Research III: Writing in Criminal Litigation

The course is designed to have students write the most common types of papers encountered in a simple federal criminal prosecution. Each student will start out as an Assistant United States Attorney investigating a crime that has come to the attention of the U.S. Attorneys Office. The course will develop from an initial agent interview, through the application for a wire intercept and search warrant, and then a charging instrument. The students will be assigned to represent the defendant. Each student will prepare a memorandum in support of a motion to suppress and will also draft proposed jury instructions and a defendants motion for a new trial. Each student will argue a motion against a student representing the other side.

Legal Communications & Research III: Research and Rhetoric

This course is designed for students who experienced difficulty during their first semester of the legal research and writing program. The course will focus on personalized instruction, tailored to the individual needs of each student. The course is designed to ensure that enrollees become proficient in the field of legal analysis and legal writing. The course will reintroduce students to fundamental legal analysis and legal writing skills, closely monitor student progress, and consistently reinforce course subject matter and materials.

Legal Communications & Research III: Transactional Drafting

The course provides students with an introduction to contract concepts, terminology and drafting. Over the course of the semester, students will revise and/or draft various contracts such as attorney retainer agreements, leases and service contracts. Students also negotiate and draft an agreement for the purchase/sale of a business. In addition, students conduct legal research and draft a predictive memo based on their research.

Legal Communications & Research III: Writing in Pretrail Litigation

The course is designed to have students write the most common types of pleadings, discovery requests and responses and motion papers encountered in a simple federal court civil litigation. At the beginning of the semester, students will be presented with the most basic facts of the case, and will be divided into two-lawyer teams. Each team will represent either the plaintiff or the defendant. During the course of the semester, the teams will develop additional facts through client interviews and discovery. The course will culminate with the preparation of memos in support of and in opposition to summary judgment based on the facts developed in discovery. Each team will argue the motion against the opposing team. The course is intended to expose students to the types of writing and thinking they will have to engage in during a real litigation, as well as exposing them to non-writing litigation skills. Students will also learn how to work as a team with another lawyer and how to relate to opposing counsel.

Constitutional Law II

A continuation of Constitutional Law I (LAW 602) for second and third-year law students. This course covers Individual Rights, that is, Due Process, Equal protection and the First Amendment, including freedom of speech, the press and of religion.

National Security Law

The legal framework for the use of force abroad; incorporated international law as national security law; intelligence collection and covert operations; citizen access to national security information; government controls on national security information.

Accounting for Lawyers

Principles of financial accounting applied to business entities, proprietorships, partnerships, and corporations; accounting for and tax implications of business organizations; and problems with estates and trusts. Irregular course offering.

Administrative Law

Nature and function of the administrative process; procedural constraints on administrative investigation, adjudication, and rule making; and judicial review of agency action.

Pension & Employee Benefit Law

Tax and other consequences of various plans of deferred compensation for executives and other employees

Commercial Transactions

Commercial practices under the Uniform Commercial Code, particularly sales, commercial paper and bank collections, letters of credit, bulk transfers, and secured transactions; business background, planning, and counseling.

Comparative Law

This course will provide a comprehensive introduction to the legal systems of the civil law, with a focus on continental Europe. Many characteristic features of the Civil Law -- the absence of a jury, the relative lack of reliance on judicial precedents, the emphasis on codification -- have their origin in ancient and medieval times. Our course will therefore trace a historical review of European legal history and the civil law, beginning with Roman law, proceeding through medieval times and the early modern era of the 18th and 19th centuries, to the modern period of international law. We will focus on the emergence of the three most influential modern systems, those of France, Germany, and Italy. We will examine the civil codes, the nature of continental adjudication, the

Conflict of Laws

Legal rules applicable to disputes with contacts to more than one state or country; the historical development of such rules; and their application in contract, tort, property, and other cases.

Constitutional Criminal Procedure - Investigative

Constitutional and statutory requirements for investigative procedures in criminal cases. Topics include searches, seizures, lineups, confessions, and electronic surveillance.

Capital Habeas Defense Practicum

This course provides students with an overview of the substantive and procedural law involved in capital post-conviction litigation. Topics include an overview of some of the constitutional principles governing the imposition of the death penalty, the exclusion of intellectually disabled defendants from death-eligibility, effective assistance of counsel in capital cases, and certain aspects of state post-conviction and federal habeas corpus procedure. This course has a heavy experiential component in which students focus on developing lawyering skills needed for effective post-conviction capital litigation, including legal research and writing and effective courtroom advocacy.

Law and Sexuality

This course will focus on how the law regulates sexuality. In particular, it will examine the role of legal institutions, legislation, rules, and standards in regulating, controlling, forming, and conforming sexuality. The aim is to critically analyze and historically contextualize the political, moral, economic, and ideological factors that produce the norms regarding sexuality, while also properly comprehending the key concepts of gender, identity, body, and sexual practices. The core of the class will relate to contemporary legal controversies concerning sexual orientation and gender identity. The course will also focus on broader issues relating to sexuality and liberty. Broadly speaking, this course explores how law seeks to regulate the expression of sex and gender, the conduct of sexual intimacies, and access to state-granted benefits. Students may use this course to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement. Students who do not need to satisfy the upper-level writing requirement may elect to take a final examination instead of writing a research paper.

Business Associations

This is a business organizations course covering both unincorporated businesses and corporations. The first half of the course pertains to small business forms: partnerships, LLCs, and close corporations. The balance covers public corporations, including regulation under securities laws.

Speech & Religion Under The First Amendment

Comprehensive coverage of issues of freedom of speech, the free exercise of religion, and establishment of religion.

Deposition Practice

This course is designed for students who intend to engage in a heavy civil litigation practice. The course focuses on the skills, techniques, tactics, strategies and ethical considerations of witness preparation for depositions and the taking and defending of depositions under federal and state rules of civil procedure. 

Wills and Trusts

Law governing interstate succession; execution and revocation of wills; inter vivos will substitutes; the creation, nature, and revocation of trusts; fiduciary administration.

Environmental Law

Pollution control and toxic substance regulation; the ends and means of environmental protection; the institutional responsibilities of legislatures, agencies, and courts. This course will introduce students to the major federal laws aimed at protecting the natural/human environments as well as the range of approaches to addressing environmental harms.

Estate & Gift Taxation

Taxation of transfers during life and death. Planning and alternative modes of disposition.

Evidence

Procedural and substantive rules of evidence, judicial notice, presumptions and burdens of proof, rules governing the receipt of oral and documentary evidence,impeachment, direct and cross-examination, competency, hearsay, privileges, and the best evidence rules.

Mediation Skills

This applied learning skills-based course explores the stages of mediation in a variety of substantive law areas, including personal injury, landlord/tenant, commercial and contract disputes, labor relations, consumer claims, and court-annexed processes.  Mediation preparation, strategies, competencies, and ethics are examined and practiced through individual and team advocacy simulations from the perspectives of client, attorney and neutral.  Drafting of essential settlement and related documents is also a primary focus of the class.

Family Law

State regulation of family relations; family autonomy; marital and nonmarital contracts; adoption. Issues in divorce, separation agreements, spousal and child support, property division, and child custody.

Federal Courts

Essential functions of federal courts. Relationships between federal courts and the other branches of the federal government, the states, and the individual.

Federal Income Taxation I: Indivdual

A study of the structure and underlying principles of the U.S. Federal income tax system, including an introduction to tax planning. This course devotes substantial class time to the fundamentals of statutory interpretation, including: agency adjudications, judicial review of agency action, statutory interpretation techniques and methodologies and legislative history.

Federal Income Taxation II - Taxation of Business Transactions

Income tax problems of the corporation and its shareholders, emphasizing corporate organization, distributions, redemptions, liquidations, reorganizations, collapsible corporations, and S corporations. Prerequisite is Federal Income Taxation I.

Veterans Law

This course examines the substantive, administrative, and procedural process of claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs. Students will learn how to write regulations, understand the notice and comment procedures for proposed regulations, and write informal and formal briefs to the agency and courts. Students will have the opportunity to advocate for a mock veteran, third party, and VA interests. The course will devote substantial class time in covering fundamentals of administrative law, including agency rulemaking process, agency adjudication, and judicial review.

Distressed Dealmaking

Distressed Dealmaking is designed to provide students with a real world, hands-on understanding of the issues involved in a major corporate restructuring. In considering the perspectives of all stakeholders and the management of a business in financial distress, the course will explore ¿ through cases lived by the professor (including Toys R Us, BCBG, Gymboree, the Atlantis Bahamas and others) ¿ the delicate balance of legal knowledge, business acumen and crisis management skills necessary to maximize the value of the corporation. Students will participate in a simulated presentation to a board of directors to better understand the complexities of a corporate reorganization process.

Intellectual Property

Survey of the foundations of copyright, patent, unfair competition, and trade law. For students who wish to concentrate in intellectual property or who want a basic course as preparation for business planning or litigation practice. Co-requisite for Copyright--Literary and Artistic Works and for Copyright Protection of New Technologies.

International Business Transactions

This course provides an introduction to the transactional, regulatory, and litigation aspects of international business involving at least one private party. Major areas of substantive coverage include international sales of goods (with special focus on the United Nations Convention on the International Sale of Goods), licensing of technology, foreign direct investment, contract and tort liability in the United States and abroad, and the law proscribing corruption in cross-border transactions. We will also cover subsidiary litigation and regulatory topics, such as choice-of-law analysis, international commercial arbitration, international civil litigation in U.S. courts (focusing on jurisdiction and other procedural threshold issues), U.S. regulation of foreign investment and export controls, and intellectual property protection

International Law

This course introduces students to the basic subjects, processes, and problems of contemporary public international law. We begin by exploring the sources of public international law; the traditional role of states in international law formation; and the growing role of international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and subnational municipalities in transnational legal processes. Our attention then turns to the relationship between international law and U.S. law, including the principles that govern (and impede) the application of international law in U.S. courts. Rather than attempt to canvass the myriad subfields that comprise contemporary public international law, we devote sustained attention to a selection from among the following subjects: principles of jurisdiction, international regulatory regimes and globalization, state claims to natural resources, the law of war, and international human rights. With this foundation in place, the course concludes with an invitation to grapple with several perennial critiques of the international legal system.

Homeland Security Law & Policy

This course introduces students to the legal framework and underlying principles in the developing field of homeland security law. While national security is hierarchical, secretive and strategic, homeland security is collaborative, transparent and operational. This is a simulation-based course with a focus on administrative law processes in critical infrastructure protection, emergency management, border control, and counterterrorism efforts.

Labor and Employment Law

This class addresses the legal regime structuring the rights of workers to act collectively to improve  their wages and working conditions. The course is focused on labor unions, but some attention will also be paid to non-union workers acting as a group. Over the course of the semester we will address issues including (but not limited to) which workers are covered by labor law (and which workers are not), how labor law is administered by the National Labor Relations Board, the process of gaining union representation through organizing, the process of collective bargaining, and other forms of "concerted activity."

Selecting Your Jury

Students will be instructed on the procedures and laws governing jury selection in a criminal case, see jury selection modeled for them, and will also participate in simulated jury selection exercises under the supervision of experienced trial attorneys. An emphasis will be placed on identifying a theory of the case and identifying potential jurors who can be persuaded to accept the case theory. Other topics to be addressed include but are not limited to preparation, organization, interacting with the judge and opposing counsel, the role of the client, and overcoming objections. 　

Housing Law

This course examines housing law through the lenses of federal and state law. Topics will include: The Fair Housing Act, housing affordability, smart cities, gentrification, exclusionary and inclusionary zoning, federal housing policy, community development and investment, and housing discrimination.

Federal Criminal Law

Examines substantive Federal criminal law, including the following topics: The Federal Role in Enforcement Against Crime, The Consequences of Jurisdictional Overlap, Fraud and Political Corruption, Mail Fraud, The Hobbs Act, Official Bribery and Gratuities, Drug Trafficking and Money Laundering, Currency Reporting Offenses, Group and Organizational Crime (including RICO), Anti-Terrorism Enforcement, The Criminal Civil Rights Statutes, The Federal False Statement Statutes, Obstruction of Justice, Sentencing Guidelines, and Forfeiture.

Health Law and Policy

This course covers the law of health care delivery system in the United States. It explores the structure and complexities of the health care system, especially the relationships between different actors (physicians and other health care professionals, hospitals and other kinds of facilities) and private and government insurers (Medicaid and Medicare). A focus of the course is finding ways of improving the quality of and access to health care while controlling costs and ensuring respect for individual autonomy and dignity.

Entertainment Law

Will simulate actual entertainment law practice and will emphasize the process by which contracts are developed and entered into so as to make use of copyrighted properties. The student will be required to draw upon and further develop multiple legal skills, particularly substantive analysis, drafting, analysis of and otherwise dealing with "paper" from the other side, practical research, formulation of advice, and participation in various kinds of oral discussions.

New York Civil Practice

Civil practice law and rules and interpretive cases and other aspects of civil litigation in New York.

Perspectives on Terrorism

This unique, interdisciplinary course provides insight into the dynamics of terrorism and counterterrorism. Specializations are offered in four areas: law, politics, history, and communications. Law and other graduate students my register in any of the four departments, with the permission of the instructor. Although some class sessions will include discipline-specific discussions in small groups, participants will also converge in a large classroom for presentations, discussions and examinations of fundamental problems associated with terrorism.

Negotiation Skills

Negotiation Skills will introduce students to the tools they need for effective negotiation. This course will focus on the three stages of negotiation: preparation, negotiation and post negotiation self -assessment. Students will negotiation numerous times during the semester and will receive feedback on their negotiations.

Professional Responsibility

Relationship of the lawyer to the profession, community, client, and society. ABA Code of Professional Responsibility, ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and American Lawyer's Code of Conduct.

Real Estate Transactions

Expands on fundamentals of property and contract law. Materials address contracting for the purchase and sale of property, conveyancing, financing, and title issues. The course also covers foreclosure. Materials focus on developing a real estate law vocabulary, enhancing transactional lawyering skills, and acquiring the knowledge needed for the Bar examination, where up to fifty-percent of the property law related questions may come from the materials covered in real estate transactions.

Sports Law

This course will examine various areas of the law as they relate to sports (both professional sports and intercollegiate sports), including such areas as contract law, antitrust law, labor law, law regulating player agents, gender discrimination law, and personal injury law.

Religious Faith, Secular Nationalism and the Practice of Law

This course will explore the relationship between an individual’s religious beliefs and the practice of law, and will be centered around the important body of literature of the religious lawyering movement. Initially, the course will take up the fundamental question of whether one can be religious and be a lawyer. In this context, the course will explore the extent to which a secular disposition about law – for example, that law is America’s civil religion or an expression of American nationalism – precludes a space for faith in the practice of law. Subsequently, the course will examine how religious beliefs might be integrated into the practice of law, and what practicing as a religious lawyer might look like.

Securities Regulations

Securities Act of 1933: regulation of the distribution of securities, including the registration process, exempt securities, exempt transactions, enforcement, and liabilities; Securities Exchange Act of 1934: regulation of trading in securities and related market activities, including tender offers, proxy solicitations, market manipulation, disclosure requirements, insider trading, and express and implied civil liabilities.

Antitrust Law

This is a survey of federal antitrust law and policy under the Sherman, Clayton, and FTC Acts. It takes an historic, layered approach, building on the four eras of antitrust enforcement: The Foundation Period (1890-1914); The Rule of Reason Period (1915-1939); The Per Se Rule and Focus on Market Structure (1940-1974); The Modern Era (1975—Present).

The course covers basic economic theory of the free-market; the Rule of Reason and per se offenses; price fixing, market division, and boycotts; trade association behavior; monopoly and attempts to monopolize; mergers and joint ventures; vertical restraints like resale price maintenance; exclusive dealing and tie-in agreements; selected exemptions from antitrust liability.

Trial Practice

Courtroom techniques and tactics drawing on substantive and procedural law and evidence courses. Students prepare and conduct trial exercises under direction of instructor.

Trademarks & Unfair Competition

A practical review of current intellectual property issues relating to trademarks, trade dress, false advertising, internet and the First Amendment, and rights of publicity. The course features mock courtroom presentations by experienced litigators and guest presentations by practitioners in the field.

Mergers & Acquisitions

This course is for students with a strong interest in capital markets, public corporations, and modern corporate practice. Topics covered include source of gains in business combinations, duties and risks of sellers, buyers' risks in acquisitions, and securities laws.

Computer Crimes

This course is organized around three questions: 1) what conduct involving a computer is prohibited by criminal law? 2) What legal rules govern the collection of digital evidence in criminal investigations? 3) What powers do state, national, and foreign governments have to investigate and prosecute computer crimes? More specifically, topics will include computer hacking, computer viruses, encryption, online undercover operations, the Fourth Amendment in cyberspace, the law of Internet surveillance, laws governing access to e-mail, forum-shopping, jurisdiction, national security, and federal & state relations and international cooperation in the enforcement of computer crime laws. Special attention will be paid to cyber terrorism. No advanced knowledge of computers and the Internet is required or assumed.

Patent Prosecution

This course is designed primarily for students who plan to practice in the area of Patent Law before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) which permits only registered patent attorneys and agents to represent clients in the prosecution of patent applications. The course will cover the process of procuring a patent from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The course will also enhance students' understanding of the legal standards for patentability (building upon the principles explored in Patents and Trade Secrets), will familiarize students with the PTO's elaborate rules of practice in patent cases, and will provide students with practice applying these standards and rules to facts and situations encountered in basic patent prosecution practice. Patents and Trade Secrets is a prerequisite to this course.

Appellate Advocacy Skills

Development of skills used in the appellate process, including postjudgment practice, creation of the record, finding error, brief writing, and oral argument structure, emphasizing written skills. Required for second-year students seeking Moot Court Board membership.

Employment Discrimination

This course examines the law regulating employment discrimination and equal employment opportunity. It is an introductory, but comprehensive, course that emphasizes the major analytical frameworks for conceptualizing discrimination and equality in the workplace while surveying the relevant doctrine, focusing primarily on federal employment discrimination statutes.

Disability Law

This course introduces students to federal laws prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities, focusing primarily on the American Disabilities Amendments Act (ADAA). The goal of this course is to provide students with a legal, conceptual, and practical understanding of the legal rights of people with disabilities, forms of discrimination that occur on the basis of disability, and the protections against such discrimination that currently exist under federal law. Because the focus of this course is on a federal statute and its implementing regulations, we will devote substantial class time to discussions about statutory interpretation, including the various canons and approaches to statutory interpretation, judicial review of agency action, the role of agency decision making and the rulemaking process, and the role of legislative history in judicial decision-making.

Bankruptcy Law: Creditors Rights and Debtor Protection

This course will cover state law remedies (how to collect a judgment), the rights of secured and unsecured creditors under state law and in bankruptcy, and the protections available to individuals and businesses in bankruptcy. The course will devote substantive class time to covering the fundamentals of statutory interpretation, including statutory interpretation techniques and methodologies, canons of statutory interpretation, and the role of legislative history in statutory interpretation.

Patents and Trade Secrets

This course examines the U.S. patent system and focuses on issues of patentability, validity, and infringement. The protection and enforcement of trade secrets are also covered.

Lawsuit

Lawsuit emulates, as realistically as possible, a lawsuit from start to finish. Students will represent either the plaintiff or the defendant. The case begins when your client walks into your office. For the plaintiff, you must decide which claims to make. For the defense, it is your job to figure out how to defend your client against that claim, or what counter-claims you should bring. The class ends with a final trial. In between, you will represent your client at every stage of the litigation - from drafting the initial complaint and answer, filing discovery demands, answering interrogatories, conducting a deposition and participating in settlement discussions.

Student teams are supervised and classes are taught by the course's co-instructors. Guest lecturers from the SUCOL faculty will also help teach students specific advocacy focused skill sets in preparation for the litigation's various stages. In doing so, Lawsuit utilizes the collective expertise and experience of the SUCOL faculty to help best prepare students for the world of litigation.

The course is a year long and consists of three experiential credits for each semester.

Copyright-Literary & Artistic Works

Advanced copyright course. In-depth exploration of a number of copyright-law areas in music, fine arts, and film and issues on the boundaries of copyright law. Includes fair use, work for hire in both industry and academia, compensation for ideas, moral rights, right of publicity, the impact of new technologies on research, data bases and fact-based works, infringement on unpublished works, and international copyright protection.

Advanced Trial Practice

Advanced training in direct and cross-examination, witness interviewing and preparation, negotiation techniques, voir dire and jury preparation, final arguments, discovery, pretrial and trial motions, pretrial conferences, jury trial techniques, and posttrial procedure.

Compliance Law

This course examines the rules and standards that govern the burgeoning subject of compliance and risk management. It will examine questions of governance: boards of directors, executives and third party vendors. It will examine the compliance function, organized by the nature of the enforcer: managers, regulators, prosecutors, whistleblowers, gatekeeper and plaintiffs; attorneys. It will also examine particular areas of law: information security, off-label drugs, foreign corrupt practices, money laundering, sexual harassment, etc.

Voting Rights

This course examines past and current developments in voting rights law. Topics include: the right to vote, the Voting Rights Act, laws that govern the political process, political representation, gerrymandering, election administration, political parties, ballot initiatives, and campaign finance.

Alternative Dispute Resolutions

An introduction to the spectrum of processes other than courtroom litigation that are available for resolving disputes. This includes such "pure" processes as negotiation, mediation, and arbitration, and such "hybrid" processes as the Mini-Trial and the Summary Jury Trial.

Not-for-Profit Organizations Law

A study of the Federal and State laws (corporate, tax, administrative) governing and regulating not-for profit organizations, the case law related to those laws and the policy considerations underlying those laws. Among the many organizations to be considered are: charitable, educational and religious organizations; social clubs; civic and business leagues;; and State and local Governments. The course will also examine the application of these laws in modern legal practice.

Asian Americans & the Law

In this seminar we examine Asian American legal history and contemporary issues within historical context; and refine research, writing, presentation, and discussion skills. We cover topics and cases such as the Chinese Exclusion Acts, Yick Wo v. Hopkins, US v. Wong Kim Ark, Japanese American incarceration during World War II, the model assimilated minority myth and the bamboo ceiling, Asian Americans in the legal profession, and countering anti-Asian pandemic harassment. Students select cutting edge research topics. Substantial research papers and a class presentation are required. This course satisfies the upper level writing requirement.

Internet Law

A survey of legal issues relating to computers and computer networks, including electronic commerce, the protection and enforcement of proprietary rights in software and electronic works, privacy and security, and content regulation. This course also explores the evidentiary use of computer records and other emerging issues in computer law.

Investigating and Reopening Civil Rights Murder Cases

This three-credit course is the result of SUCOL's effort to re-open the 1964 murder investigation of Frank Morris, a 51 year old African American business owner in Ferriday, Louisiana. Mr. Morris was pushed at gunpoint back into his burning store by suspected members of the Ku Klux Klan. He died four days later of burns over 100 % of his body. Although the FBI identified witnesses who pointed to two local law enforcement agents, no charges or indictments followed and the case was dropped. Seventy-five such cases have been identified by the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice with the assistance of the NAACP, the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Urban League. Students will each be assigned a different case to work up as a possible one to encourage the FBI to reopen. They will prepare chronologies, potential witness books, assess evidence and draft working memos of law on issues related to bringing this case to prosecution. Course projects will require consideration of a variety of legal issues, including state/federal jurisdiction, federal laws on civil rights crimes, statutes of limitations/speedy trial/double jeopardy, immunity, federal investigative and prosecutorial efforts, state and local prosecutions, and evidence.

Elder Law

This course will address ethical issues related to the competency assessment of elder clients. Income maintenance, including Social Security, Supplemental Security Income, and other public and private pensions as well as Medicare and Medicaid will be considered. Guardianship, long-term care, and estate planning will be considered as well. Additional topics may include employment discrimination, housing, health care decision making, and elder abuse.

International Human Rights Seminar

After introducing human rights law in the context of a case study on the death penalty, this course examines international human rights law from both a practical and theoretical perspective. The course is designed to provide students with an informed and critical perspective on international instruments, intergovernmental organizations, and domestic legal arrangements articulating and implementing human rights. Topics will include the historic origins of modern human rights law; the content of and connections between civil, political, social, and economic rights; relationships between human rights law, international criminal law, and the law of armed conflict; transnational strategies associated with implementation and enforcement of human rights law; the importance of soft law; and international responses to mass atrocities.

Adoption Law

Legal theories involved in adoption law, the attorney's role in adoption practice, and the various legal documents involved.

Political Advocacy in Disability Rights

The course provides students with an introduction to strategies for advocating equality, inclusion and belonging for people with disabilities in the United States. Students will gain a basic understanding of the Americans with Disabilities Act and how the law can be used to promote disability rights, using non-litigation strategies. Also covered are the principles of Structured Negotiation. Over the course of the semester students will develop a plan of action in collaboration with members of the disability community in Central New York.

Employment Law

This course provides a survey of the common law and statutory principles relating to modern employment. Among the topics we will cover: the nature of the employment relationship, the at-will rule and its limitations, layoffs and unemployment insurance, employee mobility issues (e.g., covenants not-to-compete), employee privacy, family leave, worker safety and wage and hour law. This course is intended to provide an overview and survey of the field and there is some overlap with topics traditionally covered in Employment Discrimination and Labor Law courses. While we will touch on some issues ordinarily covered in those courses, we will not do so in the depth they are given when taught in distinct 3 or 4 credit courses. During the semester, I hope to be able to provide those students who are interested with the opportunity to represent a claimant in an unemployment insurance administrative hearing under my supervision. Assisting a claimant in an unemployment insurance case provides students with the opportunity to learn about employment law in a very practical way.

Advanced Torts

This course will explore the substantive laws of products liability, medical malpractice, workplace injuries, defamation and invasions of privacy; through use of case studies will develop action plans, draft pleadings, and other mechanisms used in tort litigation.

Real Estate Law for Business

Expands on fundamentals of property and contract law. Materials address contracting for the purchase and sale of property, conveyancing, financing, and title issues. The course also covers foreclosure. Materials focus on developing a real estate law vocabulary, enhancing transactional lawyering skills, and acquiring the knowledge needed for the Bar examination, where up to fifty-percent of the property law related questions may come from the materials covered in real estate transactions.  

Children and the Law

Parent-child, child-state relationships. Education, health, welfare, child abuse, juvenile delinquency, and representation of children will be covered in this course.

Immigration Law

This course offers an introduction to the laws, practices, and policies governing the ability of non-United States citizens to enter and remain in the United States either temporarily or permanently. The topics of study include the rights of non-U.S. citizens, the bases upon which the United States admits non-U.S. citizens either temporarily or permanently and the procedures for admission, the bases upon which non-U.S. citizens may be removed from the U.S. and the procedures for removal, the principles and policies behind the current and past system of immigration law, the complex and intricate statutory and regulatory framework governing immigration, and the roles and powers of the different branches of government in the development and implementation of immigration law and policy. The material in this course will implicate and develop your understanding of other areas of law, including administrative law, international law, and constitutional law.

Counterterrorism and the Law

This course will concern U.S. and international law responses to terrorism. The course will include a brief overview and history of terrorism. Topics will include legal definitions of terrorism, investigation and intelligence collection in the U.S. and abroad, apprehension of terrorists across borders, immigration and border controls, prosecution of terrorists, sanctions against terrorism and its supporters (including reprisal, assassination, asset freeze and forfeiture), crisis and consequence management in the event of terrorist attacks (including martial law and detention, domestic use of the military, catastrophic emergency measures, hostage and rescue operations), and law reform issues.

Privacy Law

As information technology advances, so do concerns about the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information. As a consequence of the digital revolution, the field of privacy law has grown exponentially in the past two decades.

This course focuses on the concept of information privacy generally and examines its tension with other competing values and interests, including free speech, national security, law enforcement, public health, and commercial interests. The course includes units on information privacy issues that arise in: media, law enforcement, national security, health records, government records, financial information; consumer data; and employment information. The course will also include a unit on international privacy law approaches (including, in particular, the E.U. Data Protection Directive).

Regulatory Law & Policy

An advanced exploration of regulatory decision making, focusing on the reasons for and methods used in implementing regulation; how policy and politics impact on regulatory decisions and relate to the legal authority of agencies; case studies of regulatory programs, their successes, and failures. Course requirements include one or more research papers that will meet the College of Law writing requirement. Administrative Law or Public Administration and Law are prerequisites for this course. This one-semester course is a J.D./M.P.A. program requirement.

Constitutional Criminal Procedures - Adjudicative

Constitutional and statutory requirements for adjudicative procedures in criminal cases. Topics include accusatory instruments, bail, discovery, guilty pleas, double jeopardy, speedy trial, fair trial, jury trial, assistance of counsel, and confrontation.

Foundational Skills - Attorney Licensing

The course will provide an understanding of the bar review and bar exam process as well as the skills necessary to be successful in the licensing process . A significant portion of the course will be spent discussing how to approach and do well on practice bar exam questions, including essays, performance tests and multiple choice questions. Time will be spent discussing how to learn from bar review outlines and lectures, and how to conduct a self-assessment to understand personal study habits and adjustments which must be made prior to the review of bar-tested subjects. The course will also cover specific topics and skills to help students understand how to manage their attitude, stress, and study time.

Capital Punishment

The death penalty is society's ultimate legal sanction. Given the finality and enormity of the State's deliberate taking of a human life, the United States Supreme Court has attempted to ensure that the death penalty is fairly administered. As a result, a complex jurisprudence has developed, addressing fundamental issues of the constitutionality of capital punishment and also more procedural issues concerning the processes States may employ to obtain and enforce a death sentence. In this course, we will explore this Supreme Court jurisprudence. First, we will study the foundational elements of the Supreme Court's modern death penalty jurisprudence and evaluate the efficacy of the Supreme Court's efforts to eliminate the arbitrary application of the death penalty. Second, we will look at the processes required by the Supreme Court for sentencing a defendant to death. This will entail a study of the critical structural role played by aggravating and mitigating circumstances in the infliction of capital punishment. Third, we will study the Supreme Court's jurisprudence concerning the scope of capital punishment, looking at issues such as the eligibility of juveniles and persons with mental retardation for the death penalty. At that time we will also look at issues such as proportionality review, the role of international law in the Court's evolving standards of decency, jurisprudence, and restrictions on the types of crimes for which a State may execute a defendant. Fourth, we will study the processes by which a death sentence is implemented, discussing issues such as the method of execution, competence to be executed and clemency. Finally, we will conclude the course by studying federal habeas corpus issues and looking at issues such as the sentencing of innocent persons to death.

Law Practice Management

Law Practice Management comprehensively examines all aspects of the formation, management, development and growth of a law firm. The course will focus primarily on solo practitioners and small partnerships. The course will explore forms of partnership, licensing requirements, insurance, human resources and employment practices, accounting and finance, IT, marketing and business development, and dissolution.

International Commercial Arbitration

The course will start by laying out the differences between domestic and international arbitrations, and between commercial and investor-state (or other international public law) arbitrations. It will then move into a detailed study of international commercial arbitration’s legal framework, beginning with the arbitration laws of various jurisdictions, moving through arbitration clause drafting, and all phases of arbitration proceedings, concluding with enforcement of arbitral awards in court. In addition to doctrinal knowledge, students will begin to acquire the practical skills needed to draft and negotiate arbitration agreements, to compel or resist arbitration of a dispute, to represent clients in arbitration, and to seek or oppose enforcement of an award.

Legal Interviewing and Counseling

Legal Interviewing and Counseling is a practical skills course that will introduce students to the theory and practice of legal interviewing and counseling. The class will include interviewing clients to identify and obtain relevant facts and evaluate the information obtained; attorney-client communication skills; identifying client's legal needs and objectives; assisting clients in evaluating options, weighing consequences, and decision making. Classes will include interactive discussion, and interviewing and counseling simulations.

Constitutional Civil Rights Litigation

Constitutional civil rights litigation deals with constitutional theory and interpretation, emphasizing practical aspects and procedural tactics inherent in suing or defending a civil rights claim in federal court. The course covers who are proper defendants under 42 U.S.C. § 1983, what kind of constitutional violation must be shown, how causation works for constitutional torts, immunity and other defenses that have been read into the statute, how damages are assessed, and when successful plaintiffs can recover attorneys’ fees.

Advanced Disability Law & Policy

This is a one semester applied learning course. The goal of this course is to expose students to disability law and policy as applied to real situations. Each student will work on a project that has originated from a request from a "real client" or client organizations, such as the National Council on Disability, the World Bank, Mental Disability Rights International, or other organizations that work with and for people with disabilities.

General Counsel

This applied learning course is designed to expose students to a number of areas of practice that are common for house counsel. Students will work individually and in teams and undertake simulations in litigation management, agreement negotiation and drafting, employment problems, and intellectual property practice. Students will learn how lawyers handle complex problems in such diverse areas and may conduct research, draft agreements and file memoranda, conduct interviews, and negotiate to resolve the issues found in practical exercises that will be the backbone of the course.

Technology Transactions Law

This course provides students with an in-depth understanding of the technical, business, and legal factors involved in bringing new technologies to market. Fall semester covers basic intellectual property law, securities and debt finance related to intellectual property, monetizing intellectual property, employment law pertaining to ownership of intellectual property, covenants not to compete, licensing basics, antitrust restraint of trade and monopolization. Spring semester covers design patent, design copyright, trade dress, trade secrets, licensing negotiation, antitrust treatment of mergers, and patent assertion entities. At the conclusion of each semester, students will have a broad knowledge of technology innovation law and practice.

Innovation Law Practicum

This applied learning course allows students interested in the areas of intellectual property and business law to apply their knowledge to actual new technology. Students work in supervised teams consulting with companies, entrepreneurs or universities that are seeking to commercialize new technologies. The finished product includes a report and presentation that cover such things as: analyzing the technology, investigating intellectual property protection, examining the market landscape, identifying any regulatory concerns, and exploring opportunities for funding or licensing. Instructor guides the issue-spotting and provides feedback on reports through the individual team supervisors: Professor of Practice Jack Rudnick and adjunct professors Dean Bell, Dominick Danna, Brian Gerling, and Hoda Rifai-Bashjawish.

Commercial Real Estate Practice

This applied learning course will build on the fundamentals of the Real Estate Transactions I course, and will focus on the development of a regional shopping mall which will provide a framework for the course outline. The course will not only provide ways to convey many of the concepts found in this type of real estate, but will also provide the basis to explore the relationship between the real estate concepts and the business framework of which they become a part. Case law will be utilized to supplement certain interpretations of Real Property Law. Real Estate Transactions I is a prerequisite for this course.

End of Life Planning: Advance Directives & Community Legal Education

This course will address NY health care advance directives and will include and experiential component conducted in collaboration with Luvenia Cowart, Professor of Practice in Public Health, and Dr. Maria Brown, Research Professor in Social Work, both of Falk College. The legal services will be offered in conjunction with Professor Cowart and Dr. Brown's "Healthy Living" program, which provides services to predominantly African American caregivers of people with dementia. This grant-funded initiative provides education, wellness activities, information and referral, and other services to caregivers in central Syracuse. Students will learn the substantive law relevant for advising clients, in this case typically the caregivers, on preparing health care directives, provide a community education presentation on these issues, and assist caregiver participants in a "limited legal assistance" capacity in completing these documents.

Family Law Mediation and Collaborative Law

This Course will focus on alternative dispute resolution in the family law area. Students will study mediation and collaborative law through written materials and mock exercises. The ethical issues involved in these forms of ADR will also be addressed.

Emerging Issues in Labor & Employment Law

Today’s workplace looks both very different from and very similar to workplaces of decades past. On the one hand, technological and managerial changes have reshaped both the workplace and the actual work being done by many people. Working from home and working on flexible schedules have become a routine part of work life, instead of an unusual exception to the rule. Workers are far less likely to spend their careers as a loyal employee of one employer and are instead expected to take an entrepreneurial approach to their training and work. This entrepreneurial approach is supposed to allow workers more control over their work lives, balancing work and family commitments more easily and following better working opportunities as they emerge.

On the other hand, many workers continue to work in professions that have not been dramatically altered by the rise of the supposed “knowledge economy.” And even when the workplace or type of work has changed with the advent of the internet, the experience of work continues to be one of tight time management by employers and ever-increasing expectations for productivity with fewer benefits for workers. In other words, much of what seems “new” about today’s economy just looks a lot like the old economy on steroids.

Simultaneous to these changes in the workplace, economic inequality has surged in the United States with the very top earners and wealth-owners commanding ever-larger shares of our national economic pie. In the midst of all of these changes and challenges, what rights do workers have as workers within their workplaces? How can working people exert more control over their own working lives?

This course focuses on the law of the workplace with special attention to the rights of workers, specifically as groups of workers. The course will address both canonical Labor Law and what is commonly called “Alt-Labor,” but with an eye toward emerging issues within these fields. The class will approach these questions through an interdisciplinary lens. Each class session will include both some core doctrinal law and some reading in other fields (most prominently history and political science, as well as recent news articles). In other words, this course is not a substitute for core courses like “Labor Law” or “Employment Discrimination Law.” Instead, this course is a kind of “hot topics” class that focuses on the emerging, unsettled issues of the present moment.

Nat’l Security/Terrorism Center

The National Security and Counterterrorism Research Center serves as a working research laboratory for law and other graduate students interested in national security and counterterrorism issues. Students will work in teams on research projects assigned by the director. Typically, the projects will involve assessments of legal and law-related issues of concern to federal, state, and local government officials in responding to national security and terrorism threats. Other projects may examine private sector security concerns.

Advising the Startup I

This course is the first part of a two part year-long sequence on legal issues arising from start-up companies as they develop and move towards an initial public offering. This first part covers the legal issues arising from protection on inventions and creations through intellectual property law, choice of business entity, basic securities law, contracts, employment law, licensing, and antitrust. The course is designed for students across disciplines (law, business, engineering, information science, public policy) who are interested in the legal foundations for start-ups and entrepreneurship. For JD students, pursuing LAW 815 and the Technology Commercialization track, the two-semester sequence of LAW 824 and LAW 825 replaces and expands upon the previous LAW 814 and is strongly recommended for LAW 815 and technology commercialization career. JD students must take both LAW 824 and LAW 825; non-JD students can take either or both semesters. Writing credit is available for law students.

Advising the Startup II

This course is the second part of a two part year-long sequence on legal issues arising from start-up companies as they develop and move towards an initial public offering. This second part covers the legal issues arising from protection of design through intellectual property law, licensing drafting, exhaustion of intellectual property rights, FDA regulation introduction, Telecom and Internet regulation introduction, and the relationship between antitrust and regulation. This course is designed for students across disciplines (law, business, engineering, information science, public policy) who are interested in the legal foundations for start-ups and entrepreneurship. For JD students pursuing LAW 815 and the Technology Commercialization track, the two-semester sequence of LAW 824 and LAW 825 replaces and expands upon the previous LAW 814 and is strongly recommended for LAW 815 and a technology commercialization career. JD students must take both LAW 824 and 825; non-JD students can take either or both semesters. Writing credit available for law students.

Emerging Technology & the Practice of Law

This class will provide students with an understanding and the fundamentals of emerging technologies and how they intersect with the legal profession. The class is being offered in partnership with the NewYork State Bar Association. It will be held every other week. Tentative topics include the practice of law and: artificial intelligence, block chain and cybercurrency, legal analytics, privacy, algorithms and oppression, privacy, social media ethics, drones and autonomous vehicles, among other topics.

Corporate Financing Transactions

This course teaches corporate finance by guiding students through all aspects and phases of a syndicated commercial loan transaction. Students will examine the design, negotiation, finance, and implementation of a real-world deal, from both a law and business perspective. In addition to teaching the substantive law and principles of finance, the course also teaches essential deal skills and provides students with practical insights (from an experienced senior lawyer) that will enable them to be effective transactional lawyers and bankers. This course is cross-listed with the Whitman School of Management and will contain a combination of JD and MBA students.

Advanced Criminal Evidence

The course will cover Federal and New York rules of evidence, and constitutional rules pertaining to the rights to confront and present a defense, in connection with a range of issues typically arising in criminal cases. Weekly assignments will be designed to simulate work that would be performed in a prosecutor's or defender's office. They will include motions in liminie and supporting memoranda, inter-office trial preparation memoranda, and both trial court and appellate advocacy of evidentiary issues. The course is a limited enrollment course and the grade will be based exclusively on written and oral advocacy.

Criminal Justice Reform Seminar

Across the country, fiscal pressures, political changes, and a growing embrace of evidence-based approaches to policymaking have created a momentum around criminal justice reform. These reform efforts seem especially promising because of their interdisciplinary roots and their bipartisan support. While some data points - like drops in prison populations and declining arrest rates - demonstrate the these initial efforts are having an incremental impact, more transformative reforms are needed. The seminar will address criminal justice reform broadly, covering a range of criminal justice reform topics including, for example, prosecutorial discretion, right to counsel, sentencing and punishment, reentry, mental health issues, risk assessment, juvenile rights, plea bargaining, privatization, and comparative international criminal justice reform. The course will include special focus on three particular areas of criminal justice reform that are currently capturing significant attention in the criminal justice community: (i) policing, (ii) pretrial detention and bail reform, and (iii) the opioid crisis. Students taking this course will learn about these topics through in-class guess speakers, assigned readings, and their own outside research. Students will assemble a final report focusing on criminal justice reform topics. The final projects are expected to include practical blue prints for federal, state, or local policymakers. In developing their own writing projects for the course, students will have the option of working alone (to satisfy the College of Law Writing Requirement) or collaborating with others to develop reports on the aforementioned topics.

Refugee and Asylum Law Seminar

The 1951 Refugee Convention relating to the Status of Refugees is over 60 years old. The number of people forcibly uprooted by conflict and persecution stands at over 40 million and is unlikely to diminish. Against this background, international debates continue regarding the nature of the protection that refugees should be granted, the role of the international community, and the obligations of receiving countries towards refugees. This course aims to introduce students, through comparative legal studies, to how the 1951 Refugee Convention has developed. The module covers the international legal framework for refugee protection, its main challenges and shortcomings, by referring to how international, regional, and national courts interpret and implement refugee and asylum law. Main areas of discussion will include international criteria for the attainment, exclusion and withdrawal of refugee status, the development of the non-refoulement principle, and the changing role of UNHCR, as well as how the EU, the AU and OAS employ the term 'refugee' while also noting how states react to those decisions.

Cyber Security Law & Policy

The 2009 White House Cyberspace Policy Review states: The United States needs to conduct a national dialogue on cybersecurity to ensure an integrated approach toward the Nation's need for security and the national commitment to privacy rights and civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution and law. This three-credit, one-semester seminar intends to be part of that dialog. Some cyber security law already exists. Other laws of long standing present issues of applicability or adaptability to the cyber realm. Many proposals remain in Congressional committees, such as bills that would mandate security measures for all entities receiving federal money, establish a federal certification for technicians serving computer networks of entities receiving federal money, and provide the President with authority to "pull the plug" on national Internet connectivity in times of emergency. This course is premised on the belief that much policy and law to implement it will be made in the next few years to institute a national policy to protect U.S. interests in cyberspace. The seminar uses an interdisciplinary approach, but no special background or prerequisites are required.

Social Deviance & the Law

Deviant behavior characterizes a course of action that violates recognized social norms. First, formal social norms govern human behavior through legal institutions. Conversely, informal social norms gather energy through no concrete regulatory structure, but through social approbation. This course focuses on both types of norms. Students will explore informal norms as an alternative way of thinking about power and governance outside the provenance of law. They will develop critical thinking skills about the authority of manners and society as equally forceful, or perhaps even more so, than formalized law. This interdisciplinary course brings together law, literature, philosophy, and film. Topics covered will be: Manners, Propriety, Violence, Sexuality, Blue laws, and Intercultural competence.

Feminist Jurisprudence

This course examines the historical and contemporary treatment of women under the Constitution, statutes, and common law. Students will examine how the legal system has constructed and applied notions of gender and gender equality. It will introduce students to significant contemporary legal scholarship on the status of women in modern America, and will explore how gender affects legal relationships and status. Feminist jurisprudence, or feminist theory, will be applied to doctrinal legal issues. Satisfies the upper-level writing requirement.

Class Actions: Complex Litigation

Class action is the most controversial procedural device. After studying the technical issues (prerequisites, certification, notice, opt out, settlement, res judicata) and its specific applications (consumer, antitrust, security, discrimination, mass tort) in concrete cases (tobacco, asbestos, Wal-Mart), you will be able to better understand the political and social implications behind class actions. Although class actions may bring social change and right injustices, it may also be improperly used to harass and blackmail defendants into settling non-meritorious claims. The course also deals with non-class aggregation, like joinder, impleader, interpleader, intervention, consolidation, transfers, and bankruptcy. It is also an excellent opportunity to review civil procedure concepts.

European Union Law

This course will introduce students to the European Union, its legal system and legal doctrines. Topics covered include the European Union and its principal institutions, the constitutional framework of the European Union, the operation of the Court of Justice of the European Union, legislative procedure, the internal market, and fundamental rights.

Binary Economics and Property Rights

This Seminar may be taken in two ways: (1) as a two-semester, three-credit seminar that may satisfy the writing requirement with instructor permission or (2) as a one–semester, two-credit seminar (in the Fall Semester only) that does not Satisfy the Writing Requirement. The seminar does not require prior exposure to economics or an above average mathematical aptitude. The seminar explores the relationship among the following subjects: capitalism, property rights, economics, democracy, professional responsibility, and skills of advocacy. It examines (and provides a conceptual alternative to) the mainstream economic theories that provide the foundation important private, business, and public decision-making that dominate political and economic discourse nationally and globally. It provides an alternative economic policy for those who believe that “too much government is the problem” and those who believe that “more government is a necessary part of the solution.” Particular attention will be given to fuller-employment and growth consequences of broadening capital acquisition with the earnings of capital. There are no pre-requisites for this Seminar except an open mind and a willingness to explore these subjects from a foundation grounded in professional responsibility. The seminar will provide important understanding regarding (1) legal, economic, and political controversy regarding the regulation and protection of property rights, (2) corporations, corporate finance, fiduciary duties and social responsibility, (3) private and governmental economic policy, (4) the principles of private property, (5) the requisites of a robust democracy, (6) the economic and property rights organization of society and ways to improve it, and (7) the relationship between economic theory and various conceptions of economic justice.

Laws of Armed Conflict

Mankind has attempted to regulate the horror of war for centuries. This seminar will review those attempts, focusing on the modern era. Particular attention will be paid to recent challenges related to the war on terror and the ramifications for future enforcement of these key principles. Any student interested in practicing national security law or going into international criminal justice must have a clear understanding of the law of armed conflict. This seminar will assist in that understanding. The student will have the opportunity to be involved in several practical exercises that will reinforce their learning and write a paper on various cutting edge issues, of their choosing, related to the law of armed conflict.

Natural Resources Law

The natural resources law course is a survey of federal natural resources law, with an emphasis on current legal issues and a focus on the judicial resolution of disputes. The course will cover the constitutional issues in federal control of natural resources; environmental planning; wildlife protection; public land management; energy extraction on public lands (renewable energy as well as oil and gas), and the unique challenges posed by climate change and the adaptive environment.   We will also discuss the history and politics of natural resources law and the practical aspects of practicing in this area. Please know that this course is designed to prepare students for practice not just in natural resources law or environmental law, but in any area of the law that requires government regulation (e.g. administrative law, national security law and others). In studying the regulatory responses to those problems, we build a toolkit of regulatory models that can be helpful in solving any resource problem across disciplines.

Legal & Literary Writing on War & Peace

This is a class on the craft of writing for the future lawyer or policy professional.  We will study great writing on war, peace, and national identity politics to see how the masters convince readers, sentence by sentence.  A reading list might include famous court cases, attorney general and other legal memoranda, political essays, journalistic pieces, short stories, and excerpts of novels.  We will read well to write well.  We will focus on prose and structure.  We will study how the masters keep readers engaged with storytelling and suspense and persuaded by specific details and rhetorical devices, all essential tools for legal practitioners.  Students will do both professional and creative writing exercises in and out of class.  We will emphasize revision and concision.  This course is especially intended for Security Policy and Law students.

Introduction to American Legal Thought

This course will explore a variety of contemporary schools of legal thought, with an emphasis on their understanding of the nature of law and, where applicable, the appropriate objectives of law and law reform. The course will begin with an overview of the historical roots of today's thinking, exploring Langdell's orthodoxy, Oliver Wendell Holmes reaction thereto, and the highly influential legal realists. The course will then turn to its more central focus: the legal process school and the contemporary progeny of legal realism (e.g., law and economics, critical legal studies, law and feminism). The course will also expose students to a powerful new alternative to these popular schools of thought, namely the cultural study of law.

Big Pharma & Biotech: Life Sciences Law and Economics

The course provides an introduction to the law and economics of the life sciences sector, with an emphasis on US and European Union pharmaceutical regulations and institutional frameworks. Students will be guided along the fascinating connections that currently characterize the relationships between medicine, biology and drugs manufacturing, exploring the legal and economic aspects of major industry trends, including some frontier issues related to the increasing personalized nature of orphan drugs and new advanced therapies. Particular attention will be paid to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on drugs’ discovery/repurposing processes, as well as to the issue of guaranteeing a fair access to vaccines. No previous exposure to medical studies is needed or expected, because the course will provide the informative basis for understanding the relevant topics; selected readings and study materials will be provided along the course.

Comparative Privacy Law

Domestic legal systems vouchsafe and define "privacy," and its first cousin "dignity," in different ways that strongly reflect local legal and cultural values. Yet, in an increasingly globalized world, purely local protection of privacy interests may prove insufficient to safeguard effectively fundamental autonomy interests - interests that lie at the core of self-definition, personal autonomy, and freedom. This short course will survey constitutional privacy rights in the United States, Canada, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and in the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights. Consideration of constitutional privacy protections in these jurisdictions will establish important points of transnational agreement about how to define and protect privacy interests; it will also demonstrate that serious disagreements exist about protecting privacy - most notable in resolving the inherent tension between protecting both privacy and freedom of speech. The course will give sustained attention to the potential benefits and challenges that will confront any serious efforts to harmonize constitutional privacy protections across national borders. A comparative legal analysis of privacy will also illuminate, some of the important underlying social and political values that lead the U.S. to fail to protect privacy as reliably or as comprehensively as other liberal democracies. Finally, and no less important in this era of Big Data, drones, and society-wide surveillance programs, the short course will consider carefully the significant interrelationship that exists between privacy and speech in the context of sustaining and facilitating democratic self-government.

Global Antitrust

The course provides an introduction to antitrust laws and economics, explaining both the processes of competition and most recurrent anti-competitive business conducts.

Lessons will focus on legal basis and enforcement practices in the United States and the European Union, considered as the most well-developed antitrust experiences, using cases and materials from both jurisdictions: references to Chinese and Russian anti-monopoly systems will also be offered. General topics include horizontal and vertical agreements among firms, monopolization (US) and abuses of dominant position (EU), mergers, while case-law analysis will touch upon some more specific topics, such as intersections of antitrust practice with regulation and intellectual property rights, digital platforms market power, protectionism and investment controls.

prior exposure to economics, finance or corporate law is necessary or presumed, because the course will provide the informative basis for understanding the relevant topics; selected readings and study materials will be provided along the course.

Public Health Law

This course deals with the law which empowers, tailors and limits federal, state and local governmental efforts to enhance and protect the health of the general population. It will make use of case studies of government educational and regulatory efforts in several areas of historic and very current controversy to examine issues which commonly arise with that law.

Estate Planning

This course will explore estate planning from two perspectives. First, it will deal with the substantive aspects of estate and gift tax and property law (including joint interests, life insurance and retirement plan proceeds) which must be considered in developing an estate plan. Wills, trusts and other planning techniques will be considered in detail. Second, the practical aspects of dealing with estate planning clients will be considered in depth, including how to explain difficult technical matters to the client, how to present documents to clients in an understandable format, and issues of ethics and professionalism. Short drafting and writing exercises as well as a substantial paper, consisting of a package of client memoranda and documents, will be required.

Banking Law

Federal and state laws and regulations affecting banks in the United States.

Smart Grid:Sec. Prov. & Ecn.

This highly interdisciplinary, team-taught course covers the fundamental engineering, economic, and legal principles underlying the smart grid. It focuses on building the skills needed to design and test the protocols, policies, and specifications for enabling technologies that will guarantee the security and integrity of the smart grid while preserving personal privacy and providing maximum market flexibility with minimal need for new regulation. Students who complete the course will be able to integrate four perspectives—technology, security, economics, and law—allowing them to lead the development of the next generation electric grid.

Corporate Finance Seminar

This seminar will study of the basis for financial decisions of corporations and the shareholders, including an introduction to basic techniques of investment decisions, valuation and financial structure. We will concentrate on valuing the firm and its securities and senior securities (bonds, debentures and notes). Interest and time permitting, we will explore capital structure and leverage and possibly do some work in mergers and acquisitions. Pre/co requisites: Business Associations

Race and the Law

Race and the Law is a 3-credit graduate law discussion class critically examining the ways laws and courts address issues of race and construct race relations in the United States. Primary readings are historical and modern legal cases, the U.S. constitution, relevant U.S. statutes, and interdisciplinary scholarship on race and law. This course studies the history of treatment of African-Americans, Native peoples, Latinos, Asians and White people in American law before we look at particular topic areas and contemporary legal analyses. Topics may include equality doctrine, education and segregation, civil rights (e.g., housing, employment, public accommodations, and legal responses to civil rights organizing), criminal laws, policing and profiling, and prisons, sexuality and family, immigration, and existing and potential legal remedies. Weekly reading assignments, periodic online exercises, and active, engaged class discussions of assigned materials are critical components of the course. Students are required to write a 10-12 page analytical paper on one of the topics covered in the course and based on course materials and readings. Students may also be required to facilitate a class discussion on reading assignments and create a research bibliography. This law school course is open to non-law graduate students on a limited basis. Non-law students are required to get permission of the professor before enrolling in this law school class.

The Law and Practice of Electronic Discovery

The advent of the digital age has changed the way lawyers exchange information in litigation. Whether it be on computers, cell phones, tablets, data management portals, or social media, the key documents and information necessary to litigate are stored electronically, posing never before seen challenges for today’s lawyer. Whether advising a client of litigation holds and data retention policies, propounding or responding to discovery demands, preparing for and taking depositions, or engaging in motion practice on evidentiary issues, understanding technology is paramount to the modern day litigator. In this course you will be that lawyer. Employed as an associate at a fictional law firm, you will be responsible for managing all aspects of electronic discovery in two cases, from the initial client interviews, through and including depositions and trial preparation. Taught by a lawyer with experience as an associate and partner at large law firms in New York City and Boston, boutique practices, a federal clerkship, and as in-house counsel, this course offers a great opportunity to learn both the law, and the requisite skills to be a successful lawyer in the digital age.

Central Challenges in National Security

Using a series of case study modules that jump off the front page, the course examines critically the hardest U.S. national security law and policy challenges of the decades ahead. The case studies range from decisions to intervene and what laws apply if we do intervene in humanitarian crises, insurrections, or civil wars, and what laws should govern when we are involved; dealing with the Arab Spring; dealing with Iran and North Korea related to nuclear weapons; anticipating and controlling new technologies in warfare and surveillance; managing civil/military relations in protecting the homeland; countering the cyber threats to our infrastructure and cyber attacks waged by nation states, such as China and Russia; managing public health as a national security issue; resource depletion and global warming as a national security issue. Students will learn to integrate legal and policy analyses, and will gain lessons in how policy is made and implemented with significant legal guidance. Students will present analyses of case studies to the class, and will write briefing memoranda concerning some of the case study modules.

Advanced Litigation Skills

Trial work is a relatively modest fraction of a litigator's life. Yet most law schools routinely offer trial advocacy courses, and largely ignore the other practical forms and occasions for litigation advocacy. This is a one-semester program where aspiring litigators would confront the more typical litigation problems that would combine and hone their training in legal writing and written advocacy, civil and criminal procedure, and privilege and other issues arising in the course of discovery, motion practice, negotiation and oral advocacy. This experiential course would accomplish this through a series of classroom simulations and written homework assignments that required the students to address a series of typical litigation problems.

International Human Rights and Comparative Disability Law Seminar

This course introduces students to recent developments in international human rights and comparative disability law, including an analysis of the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities (CRPD). The CRPD was entered into force in 2008 as the first treaty to protect the rights of people with disabilities under international law. This course is for law students and other graduate students who are interested in disability rights and international human rights law, generally. The course uses disability as a case study for the study of the development of international human rights protections for certain groups; the adoption, monitoring, and implementation of UN treaties; the role of regional human rights tribunals in enforcing human rights protections for people with disabilities; and the relationship between international human rights laws and domestic disability-related laws in selected countries.

Climate Change: Science, Perception, and Policy

Climate change (global warming) is rapidly becoming one of the most pressing issues of the twenty-first century. This course introduces students to the challenges posed by climate change through a unique multi-disciplinary exploration of the scientific, economic, policy, communicative, and even philosophical dimensions of the issue. The course will cover topics such as the current state of scientific knowledge about climate change, the role of the media in shaping public opinion on the issue, competing discourses of climate change, risk and uncertainty in decision-making, costs and benefits of different types of policies, the Kyoto protocol and other policy initiatives, actions being taken to address the issue, and the ethical dimensions of the choices facing humanity. Faculty from SU and ESF in law, economics/public administration, earth science, and environmental studies will co-teach this course and bring to students a unique dialog that crosses traditional disciplinary boundaries. Moreover, emphasis will be placed on drawing out the general lessons obtained from a multi-disciplinary approach to climate change: many of the insights will be applicable to other complex, highly technical environmental problems. This course is intended to bring together students from a diverse range of backgrounds and does not have specific prerequisites.

Atrocity Law and Policy: Practicing before International Criminal Tribunals

International criminal law is a new discipline within the legal profession. Over the past 12 years, the discipline has developed at an exponential rate. Cutting edge rulings and decisions are setting the cornerstones in international criminal law for years to come. It is a rare opportunity for teachers, students, practitioners, and policy makers to be present at the beginnings of a new area of the law. Rarer still is the opportunity for students to be able to take a seminar from one of the senior international practitioners in the field, using his work as the basis for this seminar. Drawing upon unique experiences in West Africa, a great deal of the new ideas and fresh thinking began with our work as the Chief Prosecutor of the international war crimes tribunal in Sierra Leone, called the Special Court for Sierra Leone. The seminar will use, as a case study, the entire creative process in West Africa of establishing the Office of the Prosecutor of the Special Court for Sierra Leone; from planning, preparation, and executing the many tasks necessary to prosecute war criminals in a forgotten and tragic land. Using real world and contemporary cases, vignettes, and scenarios this 2 credit hour seminar will give students a rare opportunity, to study and do research with the practitioner who created the entire prosecutorial plan to prosecute those who bore the greatest responsibility for war crimes and crimes against humanity that resulted in the murder, rape, maiming, and mutilation of over 1.2 million human beings.

Externship Seminar

The Externship Program allows students to earn credit while gaining legal experience that will stand out on their resumes. The program consists of a one-credit online seminar with asynchronous content that meets virtually several times throughout the semester and a 2-12 credit externship placement (depending on hours worked at the placement) during which students work under the supervision of a lawyer in offices outside of Central New York, including New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. (Law 902). Professional Responsibility is a pre/co requisite class to any externship. Registration in the accompanying placement (Law 902) is required.

Externship Placement

This is a 2-12 credit externship placement during which students work under the supervision of a lawyer in offices outside of Central New York, including New York City, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C. Students gain hands-on lawyering experience working with and as lawyers in real office settings. Placement areas can be in private firms, corporations, government offices, public interest/legal aid offices, judicial placements, and non-traditional placements. The Family & Elder Law Practicum is a focused externship which offers students the unique opportunity to gain hands on experience in the broader family law practice, which includes opportunities to advocate for and protect children's rights and servicing those aged 60 and over and who are of low or moderate incomes. These placements can be remote or in person. All work must be performed under the direct supervision of an attorney. Professional Responsibility is a pre/co requisite class to any externship. Participation and registration in the accompanying, one credit externship seminar (Law 901) is required.

Criminal Defense Law Clinic

Student attorneys represent clients charged with misdemeanors and violations in Syracuse City Court. They engage in extensive fact investigation, interviewing, client counseling, and plea negotiations, and appear regularly in local courts. They also assist clients with civil matters related to the pending criminal charges.

Bankruptcy Clinic

The pro bono bankruptcy clinic consists of a clinic open to second and third year students, and a pro bono volunteer program open to first year students. The upper division clinic students will representing an indigent client in filing a bankruptcy case, and will be in charge of the team supervising the first year student volunteers. The clinic students will be responsible for obtaining from the clients all of the information required by the Bankruptcy Code for filing a bankruptcy case, organizing that information, drafting the petition and schedules, and representing the client at the official meeting of creditors. Students will also address any legal issues that arise in the case. The class component will involve formal training basic consumer bankruptcy law and practice, and an open discussion of issues that arise in the cases.

Law in London: Clinical Internship

Students will spend the first week of the seven week program attending lectures by authorities in English law.  This introduction to the English Legal System will prepare the students for their internships by providing an overview of the fundamental tenets of English law, with an emphasis on English legal institutions, court structure, the legal profession, and adjudicative procedure in both civil and criminal cases. Classes during this first week will meet for a minimum of 15 hours and will be supplemented by visits to one of the Inns of Court and the Houses of Parliament and by a guided tour of Legal London.  Following this first week of classes, students will undertake six-week internships with barristers, solicitors, public agencies or other legal organizations, under the supervision of Syracuse University College of Law faculty.  Internships are full-time jobs, and students are expected to work the normal hours at their placements..  During this six-week period these internship experiences are augmented by once-a-week, two-hour evening seminars conducted by the program faculty and cooperating English practitioners.

Elder Law Clinic

This clinical course will focus on representation of the elderly in a variety of substantive areas, with initial focus on administrative proceedings regarding public benefits, especially Medicaid. Students will have substantial opportunities to interview and counsel clients, conduct fact investigation, grapple with thorny ethical issues unique to elderly clients, and advocate for clients in a variety of settings, including in administrative proceedings. Students will have primary responsibility for their cases, under the guidance of the faculty member. There may be opportunities for collaboration with medical staff from the SUNY Upstate Geriatric Clinic and other professionals working with the elderly.

Low Income Taxpayer Clinic

The Low Income Taxpayer Clinic offers legal assistance to low income taxpayers who have controversies with the I.R.S. The controversies may include collection, examination, appeals or Tax Court matters. Student attorneys will also be involved in community outreach and education regarding income tax matters.

Externship Seminar

The Externship Program allows students to earn credit while gaining legal experience that will stand out on their resumes. The program consists of a one-credit online seminar with asynchronous content that meets virtually several times throughout the semester and a 2-12 credit externship placement (depending on hours worked at the placement) during which students work under the supervision of a lawyer in offices throughout Central New York (Law 921). Professional Responsibility is a pre/co requisite class to any externship. Registration in the accompanying placement (Law 921) is required.

Externship Placement

This is a 2-12 credit externship placement during which students work under the supervision of a lawyer in offices throughout Central New York. Students gain hands-on lawyering experience working with and as lawyers in real office settings. Placement areas can be in private firms, corporations, government offices, public interest/legal aid offices, judicial placements, and non-traditional placements. The Family & Elder Law Practicum is a focused externship which offers students the unique opportunity to gain hands on experience in the broader family law practice, which includes opportunities to advocate for and protect children's rights and servicing those aged 60 and over and who are of low or moderate incomes. These placements can be remote or in person. All work must be performed under the direct supervision of an attorney. Professional Responsibility is a pre/co requisite class to any externship. Participation and registration in the accompanying, one credit externship seminar (Law 920) is required.

Securities Arbitration Clinic

Provides legal assistance to small investors who have lost some or all of their investments as a result of improper conduct on the part of stockbrokers, investment advisors, securities firms, and mutual funds. Students enrolled in the SAC provide representation to eligible investors who are required to use the arbitration process for the resolution of their disputes.

Disability Rights Clinic

The Disability Rights Clinic is dedicated to providing representation to individuals and groups in our community who are unable to secure representation elsewhere. One reason DRC clients are unable to find other lawyers to represent them is due to their lack of financial resources. In our community, as elsewhere, the vast majority of lawyers provide legal assistance only to those who can afford to pay for their services. And in recent years, federal funding, the major source of funding for legal services for people with low or no incomes, has been reduced dramatically. A second reason DRC clients are unable to find lawyers elsewhere relates to the types of cases they may have which may involve controversial issues or conflicts of interest for other lawyers. DRC student attorneys practice in federal and state courts, and before administrative agencies in a broad range of civil rights matters, including race, gender, age and disability discrimination, sexual harassment, prisoners rights, immigration, accessibility under the Americans with Disabilities Act, and employment matters.

Social and Economic Justice in South Africa

The week-long visit to South Africa will study the constitutional, economic, and social history of South Africa as it has moved from apartheid to a multi-racial republic. Students will visit the Constitutional Court; government agencies including the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration; several townships and municipalities; and a historically Black and historically White University. The students will meet with Constitutional Court justices, government officials, and University faculty involved in social and economic justice issues and learn about the entrenched systemic poverty, racism, and injustice that is the legacy of apartheid, and the efforts including legislation, policies, and programs to reverse the effects of apartheid. Students will earn one credit. The grading will be based upon an 8-10 page paper researched before, during, and after the trip to South Africa. Papers may involve topics guided by the Constitutional Court justices regarding topics presently before the Court, or topics chosen by the students involving issues of community economic development law, constitutional law, and comparative law. There will be two one-hour class sessions scheduled before the trip and two one-hour class sessions scheduled after the trip. Applications for this course must be completed and approved before registration.

Veterans Legal Clinic

The Veterans Legal Clinic offers legal assistance to veterans on discharge upgrade cases and benefits claims before the Department of Veterans Affairs. Students will have substantial opportunities to interview and counsel clients, conduct fact investigation, and advocate for veterans in a variety of settings. Students will assist veterans in navigating the process of applying for disability benefits, appealing decisions at the local level, and providing assistance all the way up to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims in Washington, D.C. Students will have primary responsibility on their cases, under the guidance of a faculty member. In addition to case work, students will learn about military culture and the military discharge process. Students will understand the intricacies of VA administrative law process, including the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury on these cases. Students will also focus on the policies behind the regulations set forth by the VA and how those intersect with the statutes set out by Congress.

Pro Bono Scholars Seminar

The Pro Bono Scholar seminar is a forum that facilitates discussions related to lawyering as a profession and where issues particular to the student’s placement experience are addressed. It is a forum to discuss the role of lawyers in our justice system; the responsibilities lawyers have in obtaining access to this system and the practical implications of upholding the ethical standards demanded by the profession. Students will discuss the stresses particular to this profession, and explore the emotional commitment the profession demands.

Pro Bono Scholars Program Externship

Students in their final year of law school to devote their last semester of study to performing pro bono service for the poor through an approved externship, legal services provider, law firm or corporation. Placements are available in Central New York and Washington, DC. Only students selected by the Pro Bono Scholars Program committee and approved the New York Court of Appeals may register for the course. Students accepted for the Program will spend 12 weeks working fulltime in a placement beginning in March. Students will also have a seminar component, Pro Bono Scholars Seminar, for which they will earn two credits.

Journal of International Law and Commerce

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Law Review

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Moot Court

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Community Development Law Clinic

The Community Development Law Clinic is one of only a handful of law school clinics nationwide which provide students the opportunity to represent not-for-profit housing and community organizations involved in affordable housing development and community economic development for people with low incomes. The Community Development Law Clinic was founded in 1988 with a grant from the United States Department of Education Clinical Legal Experience Program. Since 1989, Associate Professor Deborah Kenn has directed the Community Development Law Clinic, which upon the conclusion of the United States Department of Education grant in 1992, has been funded in full by the College of Law.

Journal of Science and Technology Law

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Childrens Rights and Family Law Clinic

This combined clinical offering is designed for students interested in developing legal skills in the area of children's rights and in handling various civil cases. Students will assist in cases pertaining to education, school disciplinary hearings, suspension hearings, children's access to public education and public housing. Students will also represent clients in court and in negotiations to enforce child and spousal support and on divorce and custody cases. Representation of the clients includes interviewing witnesses, gathering evidence, negotiation settlements, appearing in court, and conducting hearings and trials. During the seminar, students will discuss the fundamentals of interviewing, counseling, negotiation, and written and oral advocacy as well as the substantive areas of family and public interest law, public assistance, and social security.

Advanced Legal Research

Advanced Legal Research expands upon the foundation of research skills acquired in the first year. The course addresses effective research methods and strategies, examines the structural and theoretical underpinnings of traditional and automated research systems, and explores specialized areas of research (such as legislative history, administrative law, and non-legal resources). Students will have ample opportunities to refine research techniques through hands-on practice sessions in the law library.

NIABA Journal

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Law of the Global Commons: Law of the Sea, Space Law, and Cyberlaw

Law of the Global Commons is a national security and international law-based course that will address emerging legal and policy challenges within the maritime, space, and cyber domains. The course will begin with an overview of international law and the literature on collective action and tragedy of the commons before moving to a substantive discussion of each domain. First, within law of the sea, we will discuss the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the current challenges facing the world’s oceans, which constitute 70% of the earth’s surface. How is climate change impacting the ocean? What is the future for Arctic governance and the South China Sea? Second, within space law, we will discuss the Outer Space Treaty, its follow-on agreements, and the emergence of private space exploration. Where are the gaps in space law? Is this a domain for international collaboration or confrontation? Third, we will address the cyber domain, with a focus on the ongoing cybersecurity challenges facing the United States and the rest of the world.

Impunity Watch

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