General Course Descriptions for Terms: constitutional
601 - Intro to American Law
This course is intended for students in the LL.M. program whose first degree was not in the United States. It provides an introduction to U.S. law and the American legal system, including the case method of legal education, common law, legislation, constitutional law, civil litigation, contracts, torts, and corporate law.
725 - Introduction to Criminal Procedure
This course examines the law governing police behavior, primarily by examining the constitutional doctrines of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments that regulate law enforcement action. We will focus on U.S. Supreme Court cases. Topics covered include search and seizure, stop and frisk, electronic surveillance, probable cause, warrants and their exceptions, police use of force, custodial interrogation, eyewitness identification procedures, and exclusionary remedies. In addition to doctrinal examination, the course will also ask broader policy questions about the regulation, democratic accountability, and scope of policing in the United States today.
727 - Advanced Criminal Procedure (formerly Law 725 Intro to Crim Pro)
This course examines the law governing police behavior, primarily by examining the constitutional doctrines of the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments that regulate law enforcement action. We will focus on U.S. Supreme Court cases. Topics covered include search and seizure, stop and frisk, electronic surveillance, probable cause, warrants and their exceptions, police use of force, custodial interrogation, eyewitness identification procedures, and exclusionary remedies. In addition to doctrinal examination, the course will also ask broader policy questions about the regulation, democratic accountability, and scope of policing in the United States today.
731 - Constitutional Law
740 - Advanced Constitutional Law
The required 1L Constitutional Law course provides a foundational understanding of constitutional structure and individual rights. This advanced course is for students who wish to deepen that foundation by exploring more advanced topics. These may include the scope and limits of executive power—particularly the unitary executive theory—the role of professionals operating within or alongside the state (such as doctors, lawyers, and military officers), theories of constitutional interpretation, and the evolving meaning and historical context of individual rights, including in areas such as the Second Amendment, substantive due process, and equal protection as applied to classifications based on race, sex, wealth, and sexuality.
744 - Administrative Law
This course is an introduction to the federal administrative state. We will study both the powers that agencies possess and the constitutional, statutory, and other limitations on those powers. We will explore the relationship of agencies to Congress, the courts, the President, and the public; the procedures through which agencies operate; and the availability and scope of judicial review of agency action. Along the way, we will consider the rationales for delegating power to agencies, the implications of the ways agencies are structured, and the values that do or should guide agency conduct.
790 - Law of Democracy
This course will examine the laws that structure the U.S. democratic system. Topics will include voting rights, electoral districting, the regulation of political parties, and campaign finance. We will address the key constitutional principles and federal statutory provisions that govern these areas, with special emphasis on recent legal developments. In addition to covering doctrine, the course will consider the theoretical underpinnings of the electoral system, the role of courts in overseeing the system, and proposals for reform.
801 - Evidence
This course will examine the rules and doctrines of evidence law with a focus on the Federal Rules of Evidence (“FRE”) and pertinent constitutional law. We will cover relevance, prejudice, character evidence, impeachment, hearsay and its exceptions, and other important topics in evidence law. Emphasis will be on the practical application, policies and purposes, and theoretical considerations of evidence law.
830 - Land Use Controls
Limitations imposed upon the use of privately owned land by the court-made law of nuisance, by private covenant, and by public action; master plan, official map, subdivision regulation, zoning, and urban redevelopment. This course will attempt to demystify the legal system by providing an interdisciplinary approach to understanding the operation and functioning of the legal system and its impact on planning. The course will provide a brief historical overview of the operation of law within a federalist form of government and provide students with an appreciation of the behaviors and structures of the different units of government available to bring about sound planning outcomes. The course will introduce students to the basic legal principles governing the areas of local government, real estate, contract, planning, zoning, environmental, administrative, and constitutional law. The course will explore the role of planners and lawyers within this system. While the course is primarily focused on the legal system in the United States, students will be exposed to foreign legal systems for comparative purposes.
854 - Clinical Program: Constitutional Litigation, Appeals & Sentencing Project (CLASP) (AKK Session)
868 - State and Local Taxation
This course examines how state and local governments raise revenue through a variety of taxes and fees, including business and personal income taxes, retail sales and use taxes, and the property tax. It examines constitutional and statutory provisions—including the Commerce Clause, Due Process Clause, intricate state statutes and regulations, and certain federal statutes—that govern the ability of states to impose taxes. It also addresses core doctrines that govern when a state or local government has jurisdiction to tax (often referred to as “nexus”) and how to determine the fraction of income of a multistate business that a state can tax. Because a substantial and increasing portion of the economy relates to services and intangibles – such as software, patents, copyrights, trademarks and digital products – the course also addresses issues relating to these items. As the demand for tax professionals increases, this course will be an excellent addition to a student’s resume. Even for those who do not plan to pursue a career in tax law, this course will help students to think critically and with rigorous curiosity regarding the constant interplay between federal, state, and local governments and the policy objectives that inform tax legislation at each of these levels.
901 - First Amendment
Explores American constitutional law governing speech, association, the press, and religion. It focuses on the leading First Amendment cases that have created the most expansive protection for expression anywhere in the world. Consider not only the reasons for protecting these rights, but also countervailing interests - such as public safety, national security, and equality - that may justify restrictions on expression. Consider arguments that the U.S. Supreme Court has gone too far in protecting some forms of speech and association, such as false statements, sexually explicit materials, hate speech, and corporate political spending.
904 - SP Con Law: Comparative Constitution-Making
Thomas Jefferson argued that each generation has the right to govern itself and thus constitutions should last for no longer than nineteen years. A recent academic study found that in fact the average life of constitutions across the globe is around nineteen years. While the U.S. Constitution is of much greater vintage, State constitutions have indeed been rewritten more frequently. When one takes constitutional amendments into consideration, there is a much greater degree of constitutional change then what we normally assume. The last two decades have produced many new constitutions and a variety of constitution-making processes around the globe, often with direct involvement by U.S. lawyers serving as advisors to different parties. Furthermore, drafting constitutions, whether for clubs, corporations or communities is more ubiquitous than what we often assume. Students in this course will both explore the theory and practice of constitution-making.
915 - SP Crim. J. Admin: Criminal Injustice in America
Examine historical and structural injustices that drive racially discriminatory practices and outcomes in the criminal legal system. Explore the system’s racially discriminatory approach to surveillance, street detention, arrest, charging, pretrial detention, trial, sentencing, and probation. Consider how constitutional “rights” expand the discretion of state actors to exert unaccountable power. Critically examine narratives within the criminal legal system and law school curriculum that legitimize a mass incarceration crisis that targets communities of color and undermines public safety. This course meets with Prof. Meyn's undergraduate Legal Studies course of the same name. Undergraduate students are assessed separately from law students. Where undergraduate students take exams that test their understanding of the presented material, JD students will be expected to understand course material and thus are expected to write a term paper that deepens our understanding of course concepts through independent research. Law students will be expected to meet with Prof. Meyn as a group biweekly to discuss paper topics and course material. The biweekly meeting times are TBD and will be scheduled at a mutually convenient time.
939 - Sel Prob Family Law: Adoption Law & Policy
The Adoption Law & Policy Seminar addresses the fundamental and evolving issues that arise when adoptive families are created by law. The seminar will begin with an examination of the history and evolution of adoption in the United States and an overview of the legal process in both domestic and intercountry adoptions. In the seminar, we will study the intersecting legal regulations governing adoption at the state, federal and international levels, as well as constitutional limitations on regulation and existing practices. We will study the role and ethical obligations of attorneys, social workers, physicians, and other actors involved in adoption practice. The seminar will also consider independent or “gray market” adoptions and examine whether the legal system adequately addresses the fraud, abuses and financial exploitation that takes place in this unregulated domain. We will explore current challenges and controversies related to the adoption of Native American children and legal challenges to the Indian Child Welfare Act, adoption by gay and lesbian individuals, the shifting government policy concerning the adoption of children from foster care, and developing effective legal rules that facilitate and are responsive to the increasing openness in adoption. Finally, throughout the semester we will consider the broader historical, societal and geopolitical elements shaping adoption law.
940 - State Courts
Most attorneys will conduct at least part of their practice in state courts, and many law school courses teach state court cases. This course will center state courts themselves as a topic of study. We will focus on what state courts do, how they are organized, and what powers they have. We will also consider the relationships between state courts and other entities, including the other branches of state government, federal courts, and the people. Specific topics will include state courts' jurisdiction and justiciability doctrines; the organization of state court systems and the work flow within them; questions of state constitutional and statutory interpretation; how state legislatures fund and govern state courts; and access to justice in the states. Along the way, we will consider the ways in which state courts are different from their federal counterparts, and the ways in which state courts' organization and jurisdictional rules affect substantive rights. This course will be taught as a seminar, with a 2-hour meeting each week. Students will produce two memos over the course of the semester--one on an assigned topic, and one on a topic of the student's choice that has some connection to state courts. We will have a number of guest speakers during the semester.
950 - European Union Law
Course Description: The subject of this six-week, one-credit course taught by Professors from Justus-Liebig University in Giessen, Germany, will be an "Introduction to the Law of the European Union." This will be a general introduction to the legal system of the European Union covering both its constitutional and institutional architecture and focusing on a selection of issues including (1) the EU institutional setting, (2) sources of EU law (treaties, secondary legislation, law-making procedures, direct effect, supremacy), (3) remedies in EU law (enforcement proceedings, preliminary references, direct actions, liability), (4) general principles of EU law (human rights, citizenship, rule of law, discrimination, proportionality), (5) the internal market (free movement of goods, persons, services and capital), and (6) a brief overview of other policies of the EU. The focus will be on understanding the underlying principles of European legal integration and becoming familiar with European Union legal sources. Note: The course will meet starting on September 15th and meet each Friday thereafter until October 20th; the final exam will be a take-home exam on Saturday, October 21st.
988 - SP: Environ. Law: Natural Resources Law
This course covers the law and policy of the disposition and use of natural resources in the United States. We will emphasize federally owned and managed resources, especially the nearly one-third of this country’s land area that is owned by the federal government, although you will also learn a little about the management of state and private lands as well. Main topics include the history of public land law; the constitutional basis for federal control of natural resources, and legal doctrines and principles that cut across the whole field. We will study two important statutes that, while often included in environmental law curricula, are equally pivotal to natural land use and management in the United States: the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act. We will then turn to studies of particular types of resources, including fisheries, wilderness and recreational areas, water, rangelands, federally owned minerals, and forests. Although the general public often perceives natural resources law as part of “environmental law,” natural resources law, as presented in law school courses and casebooks, covers the government’s role as owner and regulator of publicly owned resources, such as land and use of navigable waters. In contrast, environmental law tends to focus on the regulation of private conduct to minimize and provide remedies for various forms of pollution of natural resources. Natural resources law follows a property law model, whereas environmental law’s common law heritage is traceable first and foremost to tort law. While having taken environmental law will, like a number of other courses (structural constitutional law; federal courts; legislation), prove helpful for your studies of this course, it is not a requirement, and I will not assume knowledge of environmental law.