Apr 20, 2024  
2008-2009 Law Catalog 
    
Catalog Navigation
  Bulletin Home
  2008-09 Bulletin (PDF)
  View Courses by Course Title
  View Courses by Course Number
  My Personal Catalog
HELP
2008-2009 Law Catalog [ARCHIVED BULLETIN]

View Courses by Course Title

 
  

  • LAW 2750 - Accounting for Lawyers

    This course provides an introduction to accounting and finance and an analysis of component parts of financial statements. The course’s objective is to enable the student to operate more effectively as a professional when issues of accounting or finance arise. The course will help the student evaluate the accounting reports in order to make decisions, all of which can pose legal consequences. (A student who has completed more than six hours of accounting will not be permitted to elect this course.)

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3700 - Administrative Law

    This course provides a study of the processes of decision-making by administrative agencies and their control by legislators and courts. It centers on the tension between the need for delegation of power to agencies sufficient to ensure effective government and the need to limit that power and protect the citizen from government oppression. The course focuses particularly on administrative procedure and deals with the concept of administrative discretion and the constitutional, statutory and common-law doctrines that control discretion in administrative decision-making. Also considered are contemporary issues that bear upon the fairness of governmental action, e.g., right to notice and hearing, confrontation of witnesses, ex part e communications, institutional decisions, combination of functions.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2753 - Admiralty Law

    This course provides an introduction to the general maritime law and practice and procedures in admiralty. It examines such issues as admiralty jurisdiction and federalism; procedure for admiralty claims; maritime liens; the carriage of goods by sea, including Hague-Visby Rules and the Carriage of Goods by Sea Act; charter parties and arbitration; the laws relating to salvage; general average; collision; personal injury and death; limitation of liability; international treaties and conventions; and pollution of the seas.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2703 - Adoption and Family Formation Seminar

    This course will cover a range of topics within adoption law, including the historical background of the American law of adoption, adoption procedure, parental consent to adoption, termination of parental rights, choosing an adoptive family, race and sexual orientation issues in adoption, international adoption, and adoption’s role in the evolving constitution and contested nature of a family.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 2754 - Advanced Appellate Advocacy

    A more in-depth study of the appellate process than the first-year course in Appellate Advocacy, this course covers the preparation of an appeal from the decision to take the appeal through the filing of the brief and record and, finally, the oral argument.  
    In addition to preparing a brief on appeal, students will learn how to prepare other appellate papers, including the notice of appeal, preargument submissions, appellate motions (including motions for leave to appeal and reargument) and petitions for writs of certiorari. Students also will learn how to compile and master the record, assess appealable issues and develop appellate strategies.
    Through related readings and class discussions, students will conduct a critical analysis of the appellate judging process, and students will have the opportunity to observe and study actual appellate oral arguments. Writing Requirement II may be satisfied in this course.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2757 - Advanced Bankruptcy

    This course examines federal bankruptcy law and procedure on an advanced level. It includes an in-depth study of bankruptcy court jurisdiction, venue, appeals, jury trials and the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure. Professional responsibility and ethical issues facing bankruptcy lawyers are studied. Other topics may include executory contracts and unexpired leases, intellectual property rights in bankruptcy, rejection of collective bargaining agreements and employee benefit plans, and bankruptcy as a vehicle for resolving mass tort liability. Transactional problems also may be explored, such as those involving buying and selling claims against a debtor, purchasing assets from a company in bankruptcy and leveraged buyouts.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Debtor-Creditor or the consent of the instructor.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2966 - Advanced Citizenship Law

    This course examines various aspects of the law of citizenship that were not fully explored in the general immigration and citizenship law course. Topics will vary but may include different ways of acquiring and losing citizenship, the differences in rights and privileges of citizens and non-citizens, proposed constitutional amendments to birthright citizenship, and the meaning of formal and substantive citizenship in places regarded as “outside” of U.S. borders and jurisdictions.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisites:Immigration Law

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2756 - Advanced Civil Procedure

    This course will undertake an in-depth examination of special issues arising in the context of complex civil litigation, with emphasis on business and commercial disputes and mass tort proceedings. It will focus on both federal and New York procedure. Among the topics to be considered are joinder of parties, intervention, duplicative or related litigation, transfer of cases, forum non conveniens, maintenance and defense of class actions, electronic discovery, document destruction issues, assertion and waiver of privilege, claim and issue preclusion, and alternate dispute resolution techniques. Students will have an opportunity to enhance their advocacy skills by arguing motions based on the subject matter under study. The course is intended to assist students in applying knowledge of civil procedure to specific problems which are likely to be encountered in real cases.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3708 - Advanced Legal Research

    This course focuses on practical techniques and strategies of legal research and provides an in-depth view of American legal information with some emphasis upon current computer-assisted legal research. The goals of this course are: (1) to teach students to evaluate legal information sources effectively, to formulate a rational research methodology that maximizes efficiency, and to implement the strategy through concrete steps; (2) to expand students’ skills in using the primary American legal sources; (3) to introduce students to American legal sources in specialized subject areas; (4) to develop skills in compiling legislative histories; and (5) to familiarize students with the legal and non-legal information resources and electronic databases that are becoming increasingly important to the legal community. Students will learn how to formulate a research plan based on legal analysis of issues, how to find the most relevant information resources available, and how to integrate technology into the final work product.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2769 - Advanced Mediation Seminar

    Students in this course read studies by prominent mediation researchers and theorists, view tapes, read transcripts of actual mediation sessions and observe simulated mediation. Class lectures and discussions use these materials as a basis for close examination of questions about the use of mediation in general, the specific practices that mediators employ in current practice, the possibilities of alternative approaches to mediation theory and practice, and the philosophical premises that underlie both theory and practice. This intense examination of the theory, practice and premises of mediation is used to raise larger questions about the nature of conflict and dispute resolution, and the relation of dispute resolution processes and institutions to broader societal value frameworks and world views.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2768 - Advanced Patent Law Seminar

    This course is specifically directed at students who intend to practice in the field of patent law. It is recommended only for students who have completed the Patent Law course and who have an undergraduate education in science or engineering, which will qualify them for the field. The course is practice-oriented and addresses both Patent Office and federal court practice.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2956 - Advanced Problems in Estate Planning

    Chapter 14 of the Internal Revenue Code was enacted to eliminate various forms of valuation abuse, often through the use of family limited partnerships, in estate planning. At the same time, it authorized certain kinds of planning that permit taxpayers to transfer wealth on a tax-free or tax-reduced basis. The focus of the course will be Chapter 14, with a particular emphasis on sections 2701, 2703, and 2704, and on family limited partnerships. The course will consider recent court decisions, the planning strategies that will inevitably be deployed in response, and the approaches the government might adopt as counter-strategies.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisites will be at the discretion of the professor.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2772 - Advanced Tort Practice & Problems

    This course explores the conceptual, legal and practical issues of handling a tort case from the initial intake to post-trial litigation. The course uses a case-study and problem-solving approach that takes the students step-by-step through the litigation process. Students will be able to simulate the handling of a hypothetical civil case by maintaining an actual file throughout the entire course. They will learn about each phase of a litigation through discussions, role-playing, and simulations.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2712 - Advanced Trial Advocacy

    This course provides a practical and intensive experience in conducting a trial. Using fact patterns, documentary evidence and deposition testimony, students conduct all phases of a trial. Weekly exercises are devoted to specific skills utilized in examining diverse witnesses (including professional, lay, hostile, expert, sympathetic or child witnesses) or to voir dire and opening or closing statements. Students are expected to conduct an indepth analysis of the specific skill and to perform demonstrations during each class. Students are further required to justify how they have designed and conducted each examination with respect to its given purpose (advancing the student’s legal theory and eliciting facts supporting that theory, while creating an overall effect that will enhance his/her case). The course is specifically designed to provide opportunities for students to improve their ability to control witnesses and to enhance their ability to create a persona in the courtroom that will assist them in winning their case. Students submit memoranda on legal theories, requests to charge or motions in limine, in anticipation of evidentiary rulings.

    Students are graded on the basis of their overall performance in the course. This very demanding course is structured to simulate the intensity necessary to prepare and try a case to a jury.

    Enrollment is limited to 16 students. If more students register than can be accommodated in the course, selections are made by the instructor on the basis of interest, experience, career plans and law school record.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Trial Techniques.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2947 - Advanced Trial Practice: The Jury

    This course will strive to familiarize the students with the law, rules, and customs pertaining to the most important aspects of the jury in American jurisprudence. Then, with the law as a background, the course will delve into the trial as a learning/teaching process. Finally, the class will study the dynamics of convincing the jury. A secondary, concurrent objective will be to teach the skills all lawyers need: to identify, analyze and solve problems. This course will examine (1) the right to have a jury decide a case, (2) formation of the jury pool, (3) qualification of individual jurors, (4) principles of jury selection, (5) learning theory in teaching the jurors the facts and issues of the case, (6) learning theory in convincing jurors, that is, presenting a case to obtain a favorable verdict, (7) the decision process in the jury room, and (8) proposals for jury system reform.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2776 - Advanced Trial Techniques: Use of Expert Witnesses

    This course builds upon the National Institute for Trial Advocacy model of trial practice skills training. Students function in law firms that are involved in cases in which an expert witness plays a key role. The course deals with problems associated with the use of the lawyer’s own expert to examine a case file to understand whether there is a case and what its strengths and weaknesses are, principles and constraints on the discovery of the adversary’s experts, the use of the lawyer’s own expert to prepare to take the deposition of the other side’s expert, taking the deposition of an adversary expert, preparing one’s own expert to be deposed, the deposition of one’s own expert, and the preparation for and conduct of trial examination of one’s own expert and the adversary expert.

    The course has limited enrollment.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2777 - Aging and the Law Seminar

    This seminar examines the legal problems of the elderly, the fastest-growing segment of American society, and the long-range policy issues arising out of the graying of America. Focus is placed on problems of income maintenance through government benefits and private pensions; the health care system; long-term care in nursing homes and other settings; and control over decision making for the elderly through guardianship, protective services and durable powers of attorney. An interdisciplinary perspective on these issues is emphasized.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3720 - Alternatives to Litigation

    This course examines how various dispute-handling processes can and do operate as alternatives to litigation and judicial dispute resolution. It focuses on the wider dispute-handling system, of which courts are only one part. The course is both theoretical and practical in approach, and involves having students observe diverse dispute-handling processes in actual operation. It is a paper course that fulfills the writing requirement. The course traces the history of, and the recent rise of interest in, alternative dispute-handling processes; it also outlines a conceptual framework to understand the distinctions among different processes. Examination then focuses on specific processes, starting with adjudication itself, and including arbitration, mediation, negotiation, and hybrids and variants. In each case, readings and class analysis focus on various questions about the character, operation, practical uses and policy goals of the process in question. In connection with classroom study, students are assigned to make several (prearranged) field visits to various public and private agencies, and observe actual cases being handled through different processes (such as commercial or consumer arbitration and family or neighborhood mediation). Class discussion and analysis of these observations follow. This course is part of the first combined effort to establish an alternative dispute resolution curriculum by a major law school and the nation’s leading private dispute settlement organization, the American Arbitration Association.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3727 - Animal Law

    This survey course serves as an introduction to animal law and covers a broad range of cases, legislation and concepts as they pertain to nonhuman animals. Topics include a historical summary of the origins of animal law, and substantive law in the areas of property, contracts, torts, wills and trusts, and criminal law as they pertain to animals. Some specific topics include the concept of animals as property, the application of tort and remedies law to injuries by and to pets, protection of animals by statutes, and constitutional issues raised in cases involving animals. Various federal and state  legislation impacting animals such as animal protection laws, the transportation of animals and xoological parks are examined. Students will write a paper on a current issue of animal law in lieu of a final exam, and will present their papers in class.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  
  

  • LAW 2783 - Appellate Advocacy

    This required course, part of a sequence designed to develop competence in legal writing and research, teaches the skills of appellate practice, persuasive writing, oral advocacy and legal drafting, including recognition of preserved error, theory development, use of a record, use of the rules of an appellate court, writing within a procedural posture and a standard of review, and drafting persuasive fact statements, point headings, questions presented and argumentation in depth.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2784 - Applied Evidence: Evidentiary Oral Argument in Trial Courts

    An advanced evidence course that is designed to provide students with an opportunity to learn how to develop and present trial level evidence arguments. The course will cover both pre trial preparation of legal arguments as well as the skill of identifying evidence issues and  creating a persuasive arguments under the heat of the moment, whether it be in the courtroom during trial or with opposing counsel and/or judges at bench conferences.  In each class, students will argue different evidentiary issues that arise in the contexts of objections, motions in limine, or conferences with judges and opposing attorneys and will be critiqued in terms of substantive law and stylistic execution. Grading will be based on substantive and stylistic performance in class and on an final examination in which students will be required to present oral evidentiary arguments.
      

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Evidence and Trial Techniques

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2790 - Banking Law

    This course examines the basic structure of bank regulation under federal law and the differences among banking institutions. Particular attention is paid to the powers of national banks and bank holding companies and the limitations upon their operations, and the effects of the 1999 legislation modernizing the financial services industry.

    When the course is taught as a seminar a paper is required on a topic selected by the student and approved by the instructor.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3734 - Bioethics and the Law

    This seminar explores contemporary problems involving law, medicine and ethics. The rights of patients, the responsibilities of physicians and the interests of society are examined in the contexts of medical treatment, death and dying, abortion, the new reproductive technologies, genetics, research on human subjects and organ transplants. Writing credit is available.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2792 - Business Drafting Seminar

    This course provides an opportunity to draft various instruments typically encountered in a business oriented practice. Depending upon the choices made by each individual instructor, students may be expected to draft and submit weekly for review by the instructor a number of the following: certificates of incorporation for a business entity and for a professional practice with various optional control and exculpatory provisions; an amendment of a certificate; minutes and bylaws; a shareholder buy-sell agreement; partnership agreement; articles of organization and operating agreement and notice of formation for a limited liability company; conversion agreement and certificate of conversion of the partnership to a limited liability company; assumed name certificates for a partnership and a corporation; a sale and security agreement; an employment or independent contractor agreement; and various other documents. Enrollment is limited.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Business Organizations

    Credits: 2
  
  

  • LAW 2793 - Business Planning Seminar

    This seminar will focus on basic business planning concepts and apply them to a business venture over its life cycle. We will analyze, in an integrated manner, the impact of corporate, securities and tax law on choice of entity, partnership/limited liability company formation, incorporation, equity financing through private placements and initial public offerings, corporate restructurings and the eventual sale of the business. Significant emphasis will be placed on understanding the business issues and counseling the client. This course is targeted to third year students with a strong interest in business, in general, and corporate practice in particular.

     

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Business Organizations and Federal Income Taxation of Individuals. Suggested additional prerequisites or co-requisites: Securities Regulation and Federal Income Taxation of Corporations. Enrollment is limited.

     

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 3735 - Child Abuse and Neglect

    This course examines a number of issues that arise in connection with cases of abuse and neglect of children by adults, and when state intervention is appropriate in such cases. Among the topics covered in detail are defining maltreatment, physical abuse and the privilege to discipline, neglect, sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment. The course also examines, albeit less comprehensively, the child protective process, reporting duties and impairment of confidentiality, investigations of maltreatment and limitations thereon, and representing children in abuse and neglect cases.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 5802 - Child Advocacy Clinic

    Students in the Child Advocacy Clinic represent children and youth in abuse and neglect cases, and in related juvenile delinquency, custody, PINS and special immigrant juvenile matters. Students advocate for their clients at trials and other court hearings, conduct fact investigations, develop client interviewing and counseling techniques, and formulate plans to ensure their clients receive the social services which they need and to which they are entitled. Clinic cases involve allegations of physical abuse, inadequate supervision, domestic violence, parental drug use, mental illness, abandonment, and sexual abuse.
     
    Students meet regularly with supervisors for one-on-one supervision at case rounds, discuss practical and theoretical issues relating to the representation of children at a weekly seminar, and are accompanied by a supervisor at all Family Court appearances.   
     
    The Child Advocacy Clinic is an important curricular component of the Center for Children, Families and the Law. Other courses in the curriculum, especially Trial Techniques, and Introduction to Child and Family Advocacy, are highly recommended preparation for participation in the Clinic. 

    Credits: 6
  

  • LAW 3736 - Child, Family and the State: Legal Issues Affecting Minors

    This course examines selectively a number of critical legal issues relating to children, emphasizing the allocation of decisional power among the child, the family and the state. Among the topics that may be considered are the child’s economic relationship within the family, parental discipline and child abuse and neglect, medical treatment of children, child custody, adoption, legal re p resentation of children and foster care.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 2791 - Civil Liberties and the War Against Terrorism: Continuity Change in the Aftermath of September 11

    This seminar examines the impact of September 11 on civil liberties. While the seminar focuses principally on current issues, it seeks to place these issues in a broader historical and legal context. The first two weeks identify larger themes and provide a framework in which to consider the relationship between war and civil liberties. The seminar then turns to specific issues raised by the “war against terrorism,” which are addressed under the following general topics: detention; free speech and open government; discrimination and ethnic profiling; and government surveillance and privacy. Throughout, the seminar seeks to explore the ways in which the war against terrorism reflects both continuity and change compared with America’s past responses to war. Readings combine current cases and statutes with wartime precedents and scholarly commentary. Students will be responsible for a research paper, and will work with the professor on selecting and developing a topic.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Constitutional Law I.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 1700 - Civil Procedure I

    This course provides an introduction to the nature and functioning of judicial systems, including a survey of the major phases of civil litigation under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Major emphasis is given to the reach of judicial authority, pleadings and amendments, pretrial discovery, the right to a jury trial, appellate procedure (including appeals from administrative decisions), and judgments and former adjudication. Major themes of the course are the relationship of procedure to substantive law and the purposes and characteristics of procedural rules in light of proposed reforms.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 1701 - Civil Procedure II

    This course provides an introduction to the nature and functioning of judicial systems, including a survey of the major phases of civil litigation under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Major emphasis is given to the reach of judicial authority, pleadings and amendments, pretrial discovery, the right to a jury trial, appellate procedure (including appeals from administrative decisions), and judgments and former adjudication. Major themes of the course are the relationship of procedure to substantive law and the purposes and characteristics of procedural rules in light of proposed reforms.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3738 - Classics in Law and Rhetoric: A Close Reading Seminar

    A classic is a text that has come through history, passed forward with recommendation by one generation to the next. As a consequence, there is likely to be an important core of meaning associated with the text; but that core may be more difficult to get at due to both the loss of original context and the diversity of perspectives provided by successive waves of readers. A different text or texts in law, legal or political philosophy or rhetoric, is announced for each semester and subjected to a close and intensive joint reading by teacher and students. Collateral reading (commentary and historical background, including other texts of the time) is encouraged, but not required. The student should relate the text to the practices of law. The student chooses a topic, in consultation with the teacher, for a research essay.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 2751 - Clinic Practicum

    The Clinic Practicum provides an opportunity for students who have taken the Child Advocacy Clinic, Criminal Justice Clinic, Housing Rights Clinic, Mediation Clinic or Political Asylum Clinic to continue to work on Clinic cases that carry over to a second semester, and to receive advanced training in the advocacy skills, professional responsibility obligations, and case strategy analysis required in client representation. Students advocate on behalf of the clients who they represented when they were enrolled in one of the Clinics, and may also be assigned to other cases that raise particularly complex issues of fact and law. Students are required to attend weekly supervision meetings that focus on strategic decision-making considerations, and each student must make at least one major presentation on a practice or professional responsibility issue drawn from one of his or her cases. Students are eligible for the Clinic Practicum only if they meet one or more of the following criteria: the student’s carry-over cases involve complex legal or factual issues which require more sophistication than would normally be expected of a one-semester student; the student’s carry-over cases involve upcoming trials or other significant court hearings; the student’s carry-over cases involve law-re f o rm related issues; the student has established a positive relationship with one or more of the significant professionals involved in the case that would be difficult for another student to emulate effectively; or, the student has established a positive relationship with his or her client that would be difficult for another student to emulate effectively.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Child Advocacy Clinic, Criminal Justice Clinic, Housing Rights Clinic, Mediation Clinic or Political Asylum Clinic. Instructor’s permission needed for enrollment.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2963 - Collaborative Family Law Seminar

    This course will explore a new way of thinking about the role of the lawyer as the conflict resolution advocate. It will examine in detail the collaborative process which empowers clients to settle their own disputes out of court. This course is dynamic and participatory and will involve lectures, discussion, dialogue, role playing and exercises. Students will be asked to reflect on the course content as it progresses by means of a course journal.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3740 - Collective Bargaining

    This course examines major legal principles underlying collective bargaining and contract administration. The class considers, in a representative collective bargaining context, legal procedures and practical methods to achieve labor and management objectives and to resolve labor-management disputes in private employment.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Pre-requisite:  Labor Law.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2752 - Colloquium on Contemporary Issues in Gender, Law, and Public Policy

     

    This Colloquium is designed to highlight new and important scholarship concerning gender as it relates to law and public policy. The format will be a series of presentations, akin to workshops, in which outside scholars with expertise in the area of gender, law, and public policy present papers for discussion with students. In alternating weeks, in which there is not an outside speaker, the instructor(s) will meet with the students to go over the paper that is to be delivered the following week and to have further discussion of the paper that was delivered the previous week. Students will be required to write a short (two-page)reaction paper about each outside scholar’s paper. In addition, students will write a longer paper (of 10 pages or so) about one of the scholarly papers presented in the colloquium. Students who take this seminar may satisfy the Law School’s second upper class writing requirement. The primary readings for the seminar will be the presented papers. There will some additional reading to provide the students with

    sufficient background on the topics addressed in the papers.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2745 - Commercial Development Contracts

     

    This course will start with a parcel of vacant land suitable for commercial development. The course will explore each step of the process from the moment when a developer and landowner agree in principle on a purchase price for a vacant parcel of land through permanent financing for the project contemplated by the developer. The course will offer a bird’s-eye-view of the contracts that underpin each of the principal milestones of the development of process including the acquisition, the site investigation, the design process, the approvals process, the construction process, leasing, and finally the ultimate permanent financing.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Real Estate Transactions

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2802 - Commercial Leasing

    An introduction to the commercial lease negotiation process, this course concentrates on the basic issues underlying commercial leases. We dissect leases clause by clause and learn how compromise clauses emerge from the competing interests of landlords and tenants. The economic forces, industry traditions and court decisions that underlie the needs of landlords and tenants are explored. Negotiating and drafting techniques are emphasized. The principal issues are: 1) what clauses ought to be in a lease and 2) how to draft the clauses clearly and understandably. Types of leases are distinguished from each other to demonstrate how clauses that fit well in one kind of lease are senseless in another.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 4711 - Commercial Transactions Survey

    This course provides a survey of commercial law. It consolidates into one course topics considered separately in the courses Secured Transactions and Commercial Paper. Articles III, IV and IX of the Uniform Commercial Code, related federal statutes and regulations, and related provisions of the Bankruptcy Code are examined in depth. (The course is not open to students who take Secured Transactions or Commercial Paper.)

    Credits: 3 or 4
  

  • LAW 2806 - Communications Law and Regulation of Broadcast Mass Media

    This course is designed to explore the legal standards and policies of federal communications
    laws and regulations that affect broadcast radio and television. Attention will be given to the
    licensing and regulation of broadcasting, and, for comparative purposes, of cable television.
    Considerable attention will be given to the effect of federal regulation (and deregulation) on
    economic competition, and on diversified media ownership and content in the communications
    marketplace. Students will be introduced to regulations that aim to prevent bad content and those
    aimed at promoting good content, and will also consider how technology, market economics, and
    social norms combine to constrain or encourage behavior in radio and television broadcasting.
    Grades will be based primarily upon a minimum twenty page research paper of law review
    quality on a topic that requires the professor’s pre-approval. Grades will also be based on the
    outline proposal for the paper, the draft of the paper, and overall class participation.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Students who have taken Telecommunications Law can not take this class.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 5805 - Community and Economic Development Clinic

    Clinic students will provide transactional assistance to nonprofits, community-based organizations, and micro-enterprises in low-income communities in and around Nassau County, with a focus on choosing clients that will increase social and economic justice in the target communities. The clients will include newly-forming organizations with start-up issues (such as choice of entity, incorporation, tax matters, governance structures and regulatory compliance) and more mature organizations that need help with the more complex issues that arise in connection with organizational success and growth. Students will learn the lawyering skills necessary to assist our clients to achieve their organizational goals and maximize their community impact. To do so, students will conduct interviews to determine client needs, counsel clients, negotiate and draft contracts and other agreements, draft documents and represent clients in oral and written communications with government agencies and other organizations. The Clinic will also emphasize the special ethical issues arising from the representation of groups.

    Credits: 6
  

  • LAW 2919 - Comparative Consumer and Products Liability Law

    The course explores consumer protection and product liability laws from a comparative and, where relevant, an international perspective. The approach is primarily transactional. The class considers cases of deception, fraud and injury that arise when consumer products and services are purchased. We study how similar problems are handled differently by laws and administrative rules in the United States and selected countries of the European Union. The response of U.S. agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Food and Drug Administration, and rules provided by the common law and Uniform Commercial Code, are compared to European analogs, including the rulings of pan-European courts and administrative tribunals. Topics covered include the comparative study of remedies available under warranty and contract laws; the study of product disclosure and labeling requirement; the treatment of automotive injury claims; legislative actions affecting food safety and public health; antifraud and privacy protections for electronics commerce; and challenges to deficiencies in the delivery of healthcare.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2795 - Comparative Criminal Law

    This course looks at how different legal systems in the Western tradition approach the problem of controlling crime, with special emphasis on the criminal laws of England, France, Italy, Germany, and the United States. After an overview of the different systems, including a discussion of courts, legal traditions, legal actors, and criminal procedure, we will turn to a comparison of theories of criminal liability, comparing standard Western theories of legality, crime and punishment with those of other traditions, including that of the former Soviet Union. We will then select topics from the special part of the substantive criminal law – for example, homicide and provocation, sexual offenses, terrorism, organized crime – and topics from the general part – such as culpability, acts and omissions, the excuse of insanity, the justification of self-defense. Finally we will look at the rights of defendants protected in constitutional and supranational courts like the European Court of Human Rights.

    Credits: 2
  
  

  • LAW 3752 - Comparative Law

    This course explores the legal systems of civil law countries and the different practices and procedures of the English legal system. At the same time, it affords an opportunity to reexamine fundamental assumptions of the American legal process from a comparative viewpoint. A substantial component of the course consists of contrasting the historical development of both the common law and civil law systems, as a prelude to an analysis of contemporary institutions and issues.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2817 - Comparative Refugee and Asylum Law

    Throughout this century, millions of refugees have been forced to flee their homes to escape persecution, war, and other threats, and the world has been forced to respond to these crises. This course will look at the international development of modern refugee law. The primary text will be Refugee Law and Policy, A Comparative and International Approach, by Musalo, Moore, & Boswell (Carolina Academic Press). We will examine the treatises and instruments that have attempted to address the problems facing refugees and displaced people, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, the 1967 United Nations Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for Determining Refugee Status, and the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. We will review how refugees have been defined and treated in the United States, and we will compare United States asylum law to the laws of various other countries. If time allows, we will discuss the treatment of specific types of asylum/refugee claims, including claims based on gender, sexual orientation, and religion.


    Prerequisites & Notes
    Note: Course is approved for Curacao program only.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2812 - Complex Corporate Transactions Seminar

    This course is designed for students who expect to participate in complex corporate transactions during their careers and are looking for an introduction to this transaction process from a business and legal perspective. We review actual transactions such as mergers and acquisitions, corporate restructurings, derivatives, corporate inversions and theatrical productions to identify the common issues that arise from complex and dynamic transactions as well as those issues that cut across the functional boundaries of the different advisors, and then develop an approach to effective transaction management. Students will gain familiarity with the economic and public policy framework of deals and the mechanics of product development, transaction structuring and execution. We will also analyze the motivation of the principals and the roles of lawyers, financial advisors and accountants, and their interactions with the principals as well as each other.
    The course is targeted to those with a strong interest in business in general, and corporate practice in particular. It would be especially relevant to J.D./M.B.A. students. Grades are based equally on two client focused papers and class participation. Prerequisite: A very strong interest in the subject matter as demonstrated by prior course work and work experience. The course may meet Writing Requirement II. Enrollment is limited to 12 students with the permission of the professor.


    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2964 - Condemnation for Redevelopment

    This new seminar, for two credits, will examine the local government use of eminent domain as part of certain urban and suburban redevelopment strategies. In addition to legal doctrine, the seminar will be cross-disciplinary and will draw upon the insights of historians, political scientists and economists. Students may earn graded credit by preparing EITHER a research paper OR by completing a final exam. Students may earn a higher seminar grade by replying to weekly TWEN messages prepared by the instructor.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Pre-Requisites or Co-Requisites: All students must have completed the Property course and the course in Constitutional Law. Students who are taking the Property or Constitutional Law Courses also qualify for enrollment.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2965 - Congress Enforcement of Civil Rights

    This course will focus on congressional power to enforce the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments, from Reconstruction to the present. Analysis will include historical debates and cases concerning enforcement legislation during Reconstruction and early resolution of issues of civil rights and suffrage, as well as how the Court revisited its earlier constitutional interpretations following congressional enactments during the Civil Rights Movement. The course will then examine the expanded categories of discrimination addressed by Congress in recent years, including age and disability and protection of rights like free exercise that were applied to the states through the Fourteenth Amendment.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisites: Constitutional Law I and Constitutional Law II. These classes are pre-requisites because students will be expected to build on a foundation of knowledge of the Fourteenth Amendment. They will be presented with issues of constitutional interpretation that would prove difficult without prior exposure to constitutional law.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3760 - Constitutional Law I

    The object of this course is to present the constitutional problems raised by the relationship of each of the branches of the federal government to one another and those presented by the relationship between the federal government and the states. Emphasis is on the role of the courts as a part of and as a definer and arbiter of those relationships. Specifically, the course covers Articles I, II and III of the Constitution and the related problems of the federal courts in operation, the powers of Congress and the president, and the controls of each over the other, and state powers as they are affected by the existence or exercise of federal powers. The thrust of each inquiry is related to contemporary problems and issues. This is a required course during the fall semester of the second year.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3761 - Constitutional Law II

    The object of the course is to present a thorough analysis of the Bill of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment (exclusive of criminal due process questions). Special emphasis is given to the constitutional developments in due process and equal protection with particular reference to the rights of the individual against state and federal authority. The extent of First Amendment protection is also examined. This is a required course during the spring semester of the second year.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2799 - Constitutional Theory

    Much recent debate has centered around the proper way to interpret and apply our Constitution. This course examines the theoretical concepts that guide constitutional decision making. Students analyze various theories of interpretation, such as “neutral principles,” “original intent,” “representation reinforcement,” “fundamental rights” and “civic republicanism,” which have been developed in an attempt to explain how the text should be understood. The theories and their limitations are then examined in the context of specific areas of constitutional decision making, including separation of powers, federalism, judicial review and equality, with attention to the implications that these theories have for the resolution of specific current problems.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Constitutional Law I and II.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 3773 - Consumer Transactions

    This course explores substantive law and policy considerations related to consumer protection and consumer behavior in the marketplace. The primary approach is transactional and is grounded in those purchase and use arrangements that are available to retail consumers of goods and services. The Federal Trade Commission Act, the Truth in Lending Act, the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act and laws affecting telemarketing, billing, credit reporting and debt collection are discussed, as well as common law approaches to fraud and deception. The course also considers aspects of tort law and food and drug regulations as they relate to product liability and product safety.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 1705 - Contracts I

    The concept of contract, which is concerned with relations based upon consent, is central in law as well as in political philosophy and theology. The course in contracts provides an opportunity to explore conflicts between fundamental social values, such as stability versus reform and freedom of contract versus regulation of fairness in dealing. The study of contracts also provides an introduction to a variety of lawyering skills, including analysis, drafting, counseling, statutory construction, and adversary method. The course covers legal remedies of contracting parties, creation and termination of contractual rights, consideration, conditions, assignments, third-party beneficiaries, consumer credit transactions, sales of goods under the Uniform Commercial Code, the relationship between contract and tort, and professional ethics.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 1706 - Contracts II

    The concept of contract, which is concerned with relations based upon consent, is central in law as well as in political philosophy and theology. The course in contracts provides an opportunity to explore conflicts between fundamental social values, such as stability versus reform and freedom of contract versus regulation of fairness in dealing. The study of contracts also provides an introduction to a variety of lawyering skills, including analysis, drafting, counseling, statutory construction, and adversary method. The course covers legal remedies of contracting parties, creation and termination of contractual rights, consideration, conditions, assignments, third-party beneficiaries, consumer credit transactions, sales of goods under the Uniform Commercial Code, the relationship between contract and tort, and professional ethics.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2959 - Controversies in Corporate Law

     

    This seminar shall explore four broad (often overlapping) areas of controversy in corporate law today: (1) the nature of the corporation (e.g., is the corporation a nexus of contracts, or an entity owned by its shareholders?); (2) corporate governance (e.g., should the board of directors follow the shareholder primacy norm, or a multi-fiduciary stakeholder model instead?); (3) corporate social responsibility (e.g., can and should a corporation adopt more environmentally sound practices if that would come at the expense of corporate profitability and shareholder returns?); and (4) the Constitution and the corporation. Each student in the seminar shall draft and present a paper within one of these general areas (of his or her choosing), and finalize the paper in response to the feedback received. 

    Prerequisites & Notes
     

    Prerequisite:    Business Organizations

    Prerequisite or Co-requisite:    Securities Regulation

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2808 - Cooperatives, Condominiums, and Homeowner Associations

    This course examines the tremendous increase and sweeping changes taking place in modern types of housing involving community types of living. The course delves into the organization, sale and operation of each type of development stressing New York state law as a model from which both federal and other states have borrowed extensively. It includes the legal benefits and disadvantages of each development from the prospective of owner and developer. Students work with a course book, which includes cases, applicable statutes, governmental regulations and documents of existing developments.

    The course emphasizes problem solving in actual situations, using basic understanding of applicable statutes and cases. A student’s grade is based on an examination.

    Credits: 2
  
  
  

  • LAW 2810 - Corporate Government Seminar

    This seminar will focus on the governance of the modern American corporation. We will look more deeply at recent governance failures such as Enron and WorldCom, and evaluate efforts to address those failures. The seminar begins by reviewing the structure of the corporation, paying close attention to the different stakeholders in the corporation and examining other potential corporate structures. The role of the board will be closely examined, with particular focus on the role of independent directors and the importance of the board as a corporate monitor. We will explore new federal investor protections, particularly the Sarbanes Oxley Act, and discuss the responsibilities that investors have for good corporate governance. The seminar will also look more closely at the role of employees, particularly employees as shareholders. Finally, we will discuss the role of corporate counsel in promoting good governance, as well as reporting bad governance. An effort will be made to bring in speakers and set up field trips in order to better understand the issues we will cover. Enrollment is limited. A paper is required.

    Prerequisites & Notes
     Business Organization

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2820 - Crime and Communities

    This course considers the emerging law enforcement trend toward “community policing” and “community prosecution.” It begins with a general overview of the community-based approach to law enforcement, which provides an enhanced role for citizen actors in the criminal justice system and prioritizes “quality of life” offenses in an effort to enhance neighborhood livability, increase citizen confidence, and prevent more serious crimes. The bulk of the course addresses the constitutional questions presented by individual governmental responses to community crime concerns, such as anti-gang loitering ordinances, “drug - free” zones, juvenile curfews, aggressive panhandling bans, limitations on property rights based on criminal activity, and community-based courts. In discussing the issues, we assess competing models of criminal procedure and current debates about the proper goals of policing.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 5800 - Criminal Justice Clinic

    Students in this clinic represent indigent clients charged with misdemeanors in Nassau County District Court and Queens County Criminal Court. Pursuant to New York’s Student Practice Order and under close faculty supervision, students provide the entire range of legal representation, from initial interview to sentencing. Courtroom advocacy includes arraignments, bail arguments, bench conferences, evidentiary hearings, oral arguments on motions, bench and jury trials, plea dispositions and sentencings. Lawyering skills practiced outside the courtroom include interviewing, counseling, fact and crime scene investigation, negotiation with assistant district attorneys, and researching and drafting pleadings, motions and other memoranda.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Students are expected to have taken Criminal Procedure and Evidence.

    Credits: 6
  

  • LAW 1710 - Criminal Law

    This course is designed to enable the student to deal with substantive criminal law problems in both practical and policy terms. There is inquiry into the proper scope and objectives of the criminal law and exploration of the practicality of using the criminal law to achieve posited objectives. The elements of a crime are examined expositionally and critically, as are problems of criminal responsibility. The course also provides an opportunity for critical examination of statutes at an early stage in the law student’s career. Part-time students take Criminal Law and Lawmaking Institutions in their second year. Legal Writing and Research may be taken during the spring of either the first or second year for a part-time day student and must be taken during the first year summer for a part-time evening student.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 4751 - Criminal Procedure I: Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments

    This course considers the administration of criminal justice in all its aspects, with a focus on the constitutional issues raised during the investigatory phase of a criminal case. Particular attention is given to the right of counsel, transcripts and other aids; police/court relations; the law of arrest, search and seizure; wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping; entrapment; police interrogation and confessions, lineups and other identification procedures; and the scope of the exclusionary rule. It also examines the legal and practical problems presented in the administration of criminal justice, such as, preliminary examination, discovery, joinder and severance of parties, speedy trial, guilty pleas, and the function of the jury.



    Credits: 4
  

  • LAW 2767 - Criminal Procedure II: Adjudication

    This course examines selected criminal procedure topics that arise during the adjudication of a criminal case, organized along the procedural stages of a typical prosecution. Such issues may include the following: bail and pretrial release, prosecutorial charging discretion, discovery battles, plea bargaining, grand jury practice, petit jury selection and trial tactics, double jeopardy, trial by the media, sentencing issues, appeals and collateral attacks on convictions, and other related issues.



    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 2824 - Current Problems in Constitutional Law

    In this limited enrollment course each student role plays a Supreme Court member by discussing and deciding pending cases before the court. Each week a group of nine members of the course meets for two hours, having read the briefs and record in a case pending before the Supreme Court. The students do their own research and come to class prepared to discuss and vote on the case. Each week a different student acts as Chief Justice, begins the discussion, and then assigns the writing of the opinions after a tentative vote is taken. Thereafter, a student writes the opinion to which he or she has been assigned. Each student writes at least two full opinions during the semester. These generally consist of one majority opinion and one dissent, but a student may be assigned two dissents or two concurring opinions.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3791 - Death Penalty

    This seminar is an introduction to a controversial and expanding field of law that implicates a number of fundamental problems of our judicial and political systems. Topics covered include the problems posed by the unique finality of the death penalty, the requirements that the Supreme Court has imposed in an attempt to deal with these problems, the procedural requisites for invoking those requirements, and the history and effectiveness of political agitation on the issue.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3794 - Debtor Creditor Law

    This course relates to the rights and obligations of debtors and creditors, including bankruptcy, attachment, execution and enforcement of judgments, judicial and statutory liens, priorities, supplementary proceedings, fraudulent conveyances, and preferential transfers under federal and state laws. The course includes a study of the forms of relief available under the Bankruptcy Code for consumers and business debtors, with particular attention to Chapter 7 (liquidation), Chapter 11 (reorganization), and Chapter 13 (adjustment of debts for individuals with regular income).

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Pre or co-requisite: Business Organizations.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2825 - Debtor Rehabilitation Seminar

    This seminar focuses on the methods of restoring a debtor to financial health through rehabilitation and avoidance of liquidation. Although individual debt adjustments under Chapter 13 of the Bankruptcy Code are covered, the major emphasis is on nonbankruptcy business arrangements and business reorganizations under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. A research paper is required.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Debtor-Creditor or p e rmission of the instructor.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2831 - Developing a Theory of the Case

    This is an intensive one credit course, which teaches students how to analyze the facts of a case and use them to develop a case theory, from which they can develop a winning trial or negotiation strategy. The purpose of this course is to set out and utilize a framework for constructing a case theory and to provide some experience in using it. Students will engage in factual analysis, drafting of pre-trial motions, and arguing openings and closings, which reflect their case analysis. The course will be graded pass/fail.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    None.

    Credits: 1
  

  • LAW 3795 - Disability Law

    This course provides an introduction to the legal protections of the rights of people with disabilities. It will focus on the Americans with Disabilities Act, but may also examine the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and its guarantee of equal access to education, the Fair Housing Act’s prohibition against disability-based discrimination in housing transactions, and parts of the Rehabilitation Act that prohibit disability-based discrimination in federally assisted and operated programs. We will consider application of these statues to a wide range of public and private conduct, with special emphasis on employment. Throughout the course, we will critically evaluate the distinct response of disability rights law to the problem of disability-based disadvantage and will consider the merits of alternative responses.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2823 - Discovery Skills I and II: Written Discovery and Depositions

    This course introduces students to the conceptual, legal, strategic and practical issues posed by the discovery phase of civil litigation. Instruction emphasizes learning by doing. Students will get a theoretical overview of the nature and purposes of discovery, and practice in applying those concepts to simulation problems. The course will be graded pass/fail.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2818 - DNA Unraveled – Demystifying Forensic DNA Evidence

    This seminar is designed to provide students with the fundamental knowledge necessary to handle
    cases in which forensic DNA evidence is in issue. The course will familiarize the student with
    the various terms associated with forensic DNA analysis. The program addresses the legal
    principles controllong the proper evaluation and presentation of DNA evidence, and the scientific
    and statistical principles underlying forensic DNA analysis. It examines basic principles of
    biology, population genetics, and statistics as they apply to forensic DNA analysis, as well as
    specific evidentiary foundations and techniques for presenting DNA evidence in a trial. It also
    examines legal challenges to the underlying scientific principles and statistical analysis of DNA
    evidence, together with legal strategies to effectively address these challenges.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Evidence

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2816 - Domestic Commercial Arbitration

    This course provides an introduction to the law of arbitration within the United States, both federal and state, and to the procedures typically followed in arbitral proceedings. In this regard, the following topics will be considered: the nature and scope of arbitration agreements, the defenses to arbitration, the issue of preemption as between federal and state statues, the remedial powers of arbitral panels, judicial review of arbitral awards, and ethical issues applicable to the selection of and performance by arbitrators.


    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3792 - Domestic Violence Seminar

    This course examines the problem of domestic violence between adult intimate partners (not as against aged parents or regarding direct child abuse, although the course will look at the effects upon children exposed to domestic violence and the law’s response). The course considers problems of domestic violence starting with psychological origins of violence. It focuses on domestic violence and its consequences in the legal system in a number of arenas, including family law, civil litigation in various forms (from restraining orders to tort recovery), criminal law response, federal law response, race issues, immigration, and legal responses to same sex or other forms of non-marital intimate domestic violence. The class will meet generally in the three-hour conventional seminar format, with individual students or teams of students occasionally being in charge of particular classes. A paper, which may satisfy Writing Requirement I or II, is required.

    In addition to the classroom component, there is an externship component that will be available to a limited number of students. This will involve one day a week spent in the domestic violence division of the Suffolk County court system, representing abused complainants who are seeking orders of protection. Under the Suffolk Student Practice Order students can appear in court, can argue before the bench and can examine witnesses. One additional credit will be given for the externship experience. The one-credit externship may not be taken apart from the course, and is not a requirement of the three-credit course.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3803 - Economic Analysis of Law

    The course examines the use of economic analysis in the development and study of legal rules and institutions, considering the extent to which economic theory can and should be applied to legal problems. After a short introduction to economic principles, we examine the application of economic theory to specific legal issues in the law of property, contract, tort and business regulation, and consider the philosophical justifications and critiques of the economic approach to legal policy.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2804 - Eminent Domain and Real Estate Tax Review

    This course explores the Sovereign’s right to acquire private property for public use in eminent domain proceedings, as well as the structure of, and challenges to, real property taxation. The common thread that pulls these two subjects together is the topic of valuation, which is central to each area of law. 

     

    The first part of the course will consider historical antecedents and development of takings law, as well as the current state of the law. It will also consider the various valuation approaches employed to ascertain and prove damages (just compensation) incurred by property owners through the appropriation of property in Eminent Domain proceedings.

     

    The second part of the course will consider the process by which owners of real property can challenge local real estate taxes imposed upon their property. The modern system of real property taxation, used to finance local government and schools, will be analyzed primarily from the perspective of the judicial review of real property tax assessments, focusing on the doctrines of inequality, overvaluation, and illegality of assessments. Various approaches to the appraisal of real property for real estate tax purposes will also be discussed and analyzed.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Notes:

    a. There are no texts for courses of this nature, so the materials for this course consist of cases, statutes, and readings collated by the professor.

    b. The course will be graded on the basis of short assignments during the semester, class participation, and a final examination. 

    c. This course is suitable to be part of a concentration in real estate. 

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3806 - Employment Discrimination

    This course explores the federal statutes that govern nondiscrimination in employment The focus is on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (which prohibits discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, and national origin), the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Section 1981, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, and the Americans With Disabilities Act.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3805 - Employment Law

    This course analyzes state and federal regulation of the employment relationship. Among the issues to be considered are the employment-at-will doctrine; the regulation of wages; worker health and safety; workers’ compensation; the use of lie detectors and drug testing; the regulation of benefits such as health insurance and family and medical leave; pensions and Social Security; and unemployment compensation.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3808 - Energy Law and Policy

    This course examines the federal regulation of the natural resources used in the production, distribution and consumption of energy. It explores the basic ideas behind government regulation and the basic concepts of energy law and policy in the context of decision making and policy-making processes. The course takes an interdisciplinary approach and considers the economic, legal, political and ethical dimensions of energy law.

    The course is comprised of three parts. Part I is Decision-Making and Policy-Making Structures and presents the necessary background for the course. It presents basic economic and political concepts and analyzes the legal framework in which energy law and policies are made. Part II is Decision-Making Methodologies and examines two analytic tools, rate making and cost-risk-benefit analysis, which are used to make decisions involving public policy. Part III is Energy Resources and applies the concepts in the first two parts to specific natural resources. A detailed examination is made of oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear power, hydropower, electricity and alternative energy sources such as solar, geothermal and synthetic fuels.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2826 - Energy, the Environment, and the Global Economy

    This course explores substantive energy and environmental laws in a way that demonstrates their growing interdependence and internationalization in the emerging global marketplace. All lawyers practicing in the 21st century increasingly must be prepared to analyze domestic legal problems in an interdisciplinary, global context. The course examines the interrelationships of domestic energy and environmental laws on such energy topics as coal, oil, natural gas, electricity, nuclear power and nuclear waste, alternative energy sources, and such environmental topics as global warming, deforestation, and air and water pollution. It also addresses regional and global international law, including institutional structures, treaties, custom, state responsibility, sovereignty over resources, human rights and trade.

    The course is taught using a combination of techniques, including lectures on the fundamental principles of energy law, environmental law and international law, and group discussion of specific case studies to demonstrate the integration of energy and the environment, the interrelationship of domestic and international laws and policies, and the interplay of economic principles and ethics.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2827 - Entertainment Law

    This seminar offers a comprehensive survey of the areas of law pertaining to an entertainment law practice and examines the major entertainment industries, with particular focus on industry contracts and drafting issues relevant to the business and practical aspects of entertainment law. Class attendance and participation are required and considered in determining the grade for the course. Knowledge of copyright or trademark law is not required but is encouraged as background. An examination is required.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3812 - Environmental Law

    This course examines the common law and statutory responses to contemporary environmental issues. These responses are considered on local, state and national levels. Federal statutes that are emphasized include the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund). Legal intervention in areas such as resource management and allocation are considered, as well as emerging legal, political and economic issues surrounding land ownership and use.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2830 - Environmental Law in Commercial and Real Estate Transactions

    This course integrates substantive environmental law issues into real estate and commercial transactions. Statutes and regulations affecting both regulated and nonregulated businesses, such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (Superfund), are analyzed, and issues arising from them that are frequently encountered in transactions are considered and resolved in the context of specific transactions. This is a problem method course, and grading is based upon written work, including drafting of environmental portions of transactional documents.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2835 - ERISA and Pension Rights Seminar

    The ERISA and Pension Rights Seminar introduces fundamental concepts essential to a basic understanding of the pension benefits field. The course reviews relevant provisions of the Internal Revenue Code and ERISA together with related regulations, administrative rulings and court cases. Initial class sessions and readings provide a basic introduction to the legal concepts and complicated technical requirements applicable to tax-qualified retirement plans and review alternative types of retirement plans and demographic, economic and practice considerations related to plan selection and administration. The course then branches out to explore the interaction of pension rules and concepts with other areas of law such as fiduciary principles, corporate law (e.g., mergers, acquisitions and divestitures), labor management relations, securities laws, employment discrimination laws (Title VII, ADEA, ADA, FMLA, etc.), bankruptcy laws, debtor-creditor rights and domestic relations laws. The course examines legislative regulatory and case law developments in the context of contemporary legal and policy considerations.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 2838 - Estate Planning

    This course provides an extensive examination of the techniques of estate planning and the drafting of wills and trusts. Through the distribution of problem and other materials, students are provided with an opportunity for analysis of various methods of handling potential estates in light of income, gift and estate tax considerations. Prerequisite or co-requisite: Federal Estate and Gift Tax. For third-year students only, the professor may waive the prerequisite.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 2833 - Ethical Problems in Federal Tax Practice

    This seminar addresses the legal and ethical obligations of tax lawyers serving in different roles, including return preparer, audit representative, litigator, planner, negotiator, ruling seeker, tax policy commentator and government lawyer. Students draft memoranda on the application of ethical standards to tax lawyers in varying circumstances.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisite or co-requisite: Federal Income Taxation of Individuals.

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3815 - Ethics and Economics of Law Practice

    This course covers the economic and ethical issues surrounding fees for legal services, including: the history of legal fees; provisions in the New York Code of Professional Responsibility, the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct, and other sources regarding legal fees; methods of charging for legal fees; advertising legal fees; pro bono work and government- funded legal services; the prohibition on sharing legal fees with nonlawyers; misconduct that can lead to denial or disgorgement of legal fees; rationales for prohibiting contingent fees in criminal defense matters but permitting them in civil matters; and related topics. The course is designed as an introduction to the ethical responsibilities of lawyers and the legal profession, but has a sharper focus than the traditional survey course on Lawyers’ Ethics. This course satisfies the Law School’s graduation requirement for a course on professional responsibility.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Either Lawyers’ Ethics or the Ethics & Economics of Law Practice will satisfy Hofstra’s ethics requirement.  Students may not take both courses.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2773 - European Tort Law

    This course introduces the students to European tort law and its ongoing process of international harmonization. The class will deal with the definition and function of tort law in the main European tort systems (UK, French, German, Italian) in comparison to American tort law.  The course will also concentrate on the transnational and harmonization processes to date (e.g. Principles of European Tort Law and the Draft Common Frame of reference of the European Union).

    Prerequisites & Notes

     

    Credits: 1
  

  • LAW 2837 - European Union Law

    This course examines the legal and institutional framework of the European Union. The evolution of the EU is set in a historical framework by examining the particular challenges faced by Europe on the road to economic, social and political integration. The course also includes a strong comparative theme, contrasting the EU to other international organizations as well as to such federal structures as the United States. Specific topics considered include the operation of EU decision making and judicial powers; implementation of the free movement of goods, services, workers and capital among member states; and recent controversies surrounding security, immigration and monetary policy.

    Credits: 2 or 3
  

  • LAW 4761 - Evidence

    This course introduces students to the body of law that protects the integrity of our trial process. Information is the factual material that parties wish to introduce in judicial proceedings. Evidence is the set of rules that have been created to distinguish between admissible and inadmissible information. The law of evidence is the set of policies and rules that have been developed to ensure that the information considered by the trier of fact is of sufficient integrity to justify its use to decide a case. Students learn the core concepts of relevance and competence. They are introduced to the special problems of expert witness and hearsay testimony, as well as on the critical rules concerning the introduction of documentary evidence. The focus of these studies is on the applied use of the rules of evidence in a trial context.

    Credits: 4
  

  • LAW 3826 - Externship Program

    In this course students are placed in the offices of judges or other nonprofit agencies, including regulatory, prosecutorial and legal defense agencies. Each student works 12 hours per week at the assigned office, and must produce a minimum of 25 pages of substantial written work based upon legal research over the course of the semester. The course includes a weekly seminar in which students examine substantive and ethical legal issues that have arisen during their placements. Each student presides over a session of the seminar on at least one occasion. Additionally, all students meet with a supervising faculty member on a regular basis to review their written work, the substantive and ethical issues with which they have been dealing, and the functioning of their placement in general. The faculty supervisor is also in contact with the attorney in charge of each placement during the semester to ensure the continued quality of the placement. This course may be taken only once by a student and is graded on a pass/fail basis.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3822 - Externship Program, Civil Law

    In this course students are placed in the offices of judges or other nonprofit agencies, including regulatory, prosecutorial and legal defense agencies. Each student works 12 hours per week at the assigned office, and must produce a minimum of 25 pages of substantial written work based upon legal research over the course of the semester. The course includes a weekly seminar in which students examine substantive and ethical legal issues that have arisen during their placements. Each student presides over a session of the seminar on at least one occasion. Additionally, all students meet with a supervising faculty member on a regular basis to review their written work, the substantive and ethical issues with which they have been dealing, and the functioning of their placement in general. The faculty supervisor is also in contact with the attorney in charge of each placement during the semester to ensure the continued quality of the placement. This course may be taken only once by a student and is graded on a pass/fail basis.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3824 - Externship Program, Criminal Law

    In this course students are placed in the offices of judges or other nonprofit agencies, including regulatory, prosecutorial and legal defense agencies. Each student works 12 hours per week at the assigned office, and must produce a minimum of 25 pages of substantial written work based upon legal research over the course of the semester. The course includes a weekly seminar in which students examine substantive and ethical legal issues that have arisen during their placements. Each student presides over a session of the seminar on at least one occasion. Additionally, all students meet with a supervising faculty member on a regular basis to review their written work, the substantive and ethical issues with which they have been dealing, and the functioning of their placement in general. The faculty supervisor is also in contact with the attorney in charge of each placement during the semester to ensure the continued quality of the placement. This course may be taken only once by a student and is graded on a pass/fail basis.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3828 - Externship Program, Judicial Law

    In this course students are placed in the offices of judges or other nonprofit agencies, including regulatory, prosecutorial and legal defense agencies. Each student works 12 hours per week at the assigned office, and must produce a minimum of 25 pages of substantial written work based upon legal research over the course of the semester. The course includes a weekly seminar in which students examine substantive and ethical legal issues that have arisen during their placements. Each student presides over a session of the seminar on at least one occasion. Additionally, all students meet with a supervising faculty member on a regular basis to review their written work, the substantive and ethical issues with which they have been dealing, and the functioning of their placement in general. The faculty supervisor is also in contact with the attorney in charge of each placement during the semester to ensure the continued quality of the placement. This course may be taken only once by a student and is graded on a pass/fail basis.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 2962 - Fact Investigation

    This course will introduce students to methods for investigating, organizing, and analyzing facts relevant to litigation, transactional matters, and public policy advocacy and will provide them with hands-on experience in developing fact theory in their cases. Students will work in teams investigating and analyzing one or more simulated or actual matters. Techniques and skills covered include interviewing, working with experts, obtaining documents and other information through freedom of information laws, effective use of Internet and print resources, methods for marshaling evidence, and the use of computers to manage and analyze large quantities of factual information. The course touches on the discovery process, but is not intended to replace Law 2823 (Discovery Skills I and II: Written Discovery and Depositions), which focuses on formal discovery in civil litigation.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Prerequisites:Evidence

    Credits: 2
  

  • LAW 3831 - Family Law

    This survey course is a study of state intervention in family relationships. The teacher may select topics from among the following: informal and nontraditional familial relationships, control of reproduction and current reproductive technology, antenuptial and separation agreements, adoption, termination of parental rights, divorce, property distribution, child custody, spousal and child support, paternity proceedings, and the role of the lawyer as counselor.

    Credits: 3
  

  • LAW 3830 - Family Law (With Skills Component)

    Family Law (with Skills Component) will integrate skills training into the traditional basic family law course, which focuses on state intervention in family relationships.  The teacher may select topics from among the following: informal and nontraditional familial relationships, control of reproduction and current reproductive technology, antenuptial and separation agreements, adoption, termination of parental rights, divorce, property distribution, child custody, spousal and child support, paternity proceedings, and the role of the lawyer as counselor.  In addition, the course will include regular skills training sessions, designed to afford the students the opportunity to learn skills related to modern family and matrimonial court practice.

    Prerequisites & Notes
    Students may not take both Family Law and Family Law (with Skills Component)

    Credits: 4
 

Page: 1 | 2 | 3