37 courses with the subject SEM, each shown exactly as we captured it from the college's catalog, with every element we hold. Where the wording looks broken, that is our reading of the catalog, not the college's text.
SEM 6000Criminal Law Residency2
Only offered in the spring, the Criminal Law Residency Program gives students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field. The 2-credit weekly seminar focuses on development of professional judgment as well as doctrine and skills related to the Residency. Students are placed in prosecutor's and public defender's offices, and private law firms and work 3-5 days each week. In addition to the 2-credit seminar, students receive between 8 and 13 credits for work at the Residency Placement. Students must apply and be accepted into the program before being matched with a Residency Placement. Due to the intensity of the workload, applicants should be in their final year of law school and have a demonstrated interest and prior course work in the substantive area of criminal law.
Only offered in the spring, the Health Law Residency Program gives students in their final year of law school an opportunity for intensive practical training in the field. The 2-credit weekly seminar focuses on development of professional judgment as well as doctrine and skills related to the Residency. In addition to the 2-credit seminar, students receive between 8 and 13 credits for work at the Residency Placement. Students must apply and be accepted into the program before being matched with a Residency Placement. Due to the intensity of the workload, applicants should be in their final year of law school and have a demonstrated interest and prior course work in the substantive area of health law.
This course explores law and lawyering through critical lenses as applied to current legal institutions and questions. We focus this semester on issues of Reproductive Justice – as a microcosm of the systems of White Supremacy and Patriarchy that underlie American Democracy. In so doing, we will consider various lawyering roles and skills, as well as becoming fluent in the basics of class theory, critical race theory, gender theory and intersectionality. In addition, students will learn to use the tools of narrative and critical reflection in their work as lawyers. The seminar will be highly interactive and collaborative; students will lead discussions, present materials, engage in simulations and role-plays, and write a substantive research paper. This course qualifies as a Long Paper offering. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6021.This course will examine the rights and protections that currently exist for persons with disabilities. We will focus primarily on federal disability law, including the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (as amended in 2008), IDEA, and other federal protections against disability-based discrimination.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6020 to register for this course.This course will examine the rights and protections that currently exist for persons with disabilities. We will focus primarily on federal disability law, including the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act (as amended in 2008), IDEA, and other federal protections against disability-based discrimination.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must also register for SEM 6026.This course will provide a general overview to key legal issues in public and private education. The course will focus on understanding Minnesota and federal constitutions, statutes, case law, and policies. Key legal concepts include: history of public schools and the legal systems; governance and finance of public schools; church and state; free speech; desegregation; search and seizure; students with disabilities; compulsory attendance and student rights in statutes, common law and the constitutions; teacher rights in statutes, common law and constitutions; and school liability. Particular emphasis will be placed on core legal concepts and practice skills. Blended courses open to all J.D. students.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6025 to register for this course.This course will provide a general overview to key legal issues in public and private education. The course will focus on understanding Minnesota and federal constitutions, statutes, case law, and policies. Key legal concepts include: history of public schools and the legal systems; governance and finance of public schools; church and state; free speech; desegregation; search and seizure; students with disabilities; compulsory attendance and student rights in statutes, common law and the constitutions; teacher rights in statutes, common law and constitutions; and school liability. Particular emphasis will be placed on core legal concepts and practice skills. Blended courses open to all J.D. students.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6031.This course will examine constitutional and statutory regulation of the electoral process. We will explore topics including the right to vote and the right to an equally-weighted vote; representation, districting, and partisan gerrymandering; minority vote dilution, the Voting Rights Act, and racial gerrymandering; election administration, vote-counting, voting technology, and voter identification; and campaign finance laws and reform. The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor. With the professor's prior approval, students may prepare a "long paper" to satisfy the Advanced Research and Writing requirement. You will get three credits if you write a long paper (which you may do even if you’ve already satisfied the long paper requirement) and two credits if you write a shorter paper. This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6030 to register for this course.This course will examine constitutional and statutory regulation of the electoral process. We will explore topics including the right to vote and the right to an equally-weighted vote; representation, districting, and partisan gerrymandering; minority vote dilution, the Voting Rights Act, and racial gerrymandering; election administration, vote-counting, voting technology, and voter identification; and campaign finance laws and reform. The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor. This is a seminar course with limited enrollment.This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously.
This seminar is intended to introduce students to key concepts in evolutionary biology (pre-adaptive and vestigial uses, punctuated equilibrium, path dependence, speciation, etc.) and to explore the extent to which these concepts are useful in thinking about constitutional law and how it evolves. The seminar is also intended to give students an opportunity to pull together on a macro-level multiple concepts that have already been encountered in constitutional law classes as well as in other required courses. Students will be given an opportunity to think "outside-the-box" in considering different philosophical and interpretive approaches to constitutional law as well as to the role of law in society.
An intensive course in First Amendment jurisprudence and theory, focusing on the Freedom of Speech and Press Clauses. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits. PreReq: LAW- 1005 OR LAW- 2005
In this course, you will choose a health law topic on which to focus your attention for the semester, research intensively, and write about in a paper that will, if you desire, fulfill your Advanced Research and Writing Requirement. In the process, we will address how to choose an interesting and appropriate topic on which to write an extended paper; research topics in health law, policy, and medicine; use and cite research correctly; avoid plagiarism; write a useful paper outline; prepare a first paper draft; edit one’s own and others’ work; and write a polished final draft. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits. Blended courses open to all J.D. students.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6051.This course will examine the epidemic of youth homelessness including the history, policy trends, systems and movement for responding. Invisible, alone and thrown away, every night more than 1.3 million youth in the United States are homeless and vulnerable to abuse, disruptions to their education leading to long-term poverty and sex trafficking. These youth represent the failures of child welfare safety nets and juvenile corrections systems. In this course, students will learn about, explore and discuss youth homelessness including emerging policy issues and case law. This course will also examine the issues youth homelessness intersects with including race, racism, institutional bias, discrimination, bullying and harassment of LGBTQ youth. Students will meet and talk with leaders in the homeless youth field and be able to develop and propose promising policy solutions to youth homelessness because of this course.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6050 to register for this course.This course will examine the epidemic of youth homelessness including the history, policy trends, systems and movement for responding. Invisible, alone and thrown away, every night more than 1.3 million youth in the United States are homeless and vulnerable to abuse, disruptions to their education leading to long-term poverty and sex trafficking. These youth represent the failures of child welfare safety nets and juvenile corrections systems. In this course, students will learn about, explore and discuss youth homelessness including emerging policy issues and case law. This course will also examine the issues youth homelessness intersects with including race, racism, institutional bias, discrimination, bullying and harassment of LGBTQ youth. Students will meet and talk with leaders in the homeless youth field and be able to develop and propose promising policy solutions to youth homelessness because of this course.
SEM 6055Seminar: Information Policy, Protection & Cybersecurity2
From a legal point of view, there is a lot more to cybersecurity than the mechanics of how to secure computers and mobile devices. This course begins with the identification of the various types of information that are commonly used and stored by businesses. It then examines the legal theories and strategies by which such information can be protected, including contract law and trade secret law. Next it considers the legal obligations that information holders have to maintain the privacy, confidentiality and security of information and the potential liability that flows from a failure to do so. Technological strategies and standards for securing information that is held in digital form are also discussed.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6061.The primary focus of the course will be on international and comparative patent law, but the course will also address some facets of international trademark and copyright law. The course will present a comparative study of certain features of foreign patent laws. It will also overview the major multilateral treaties that govern the transnational assertion of patent protection of United States laws that are specifically directed to the protection of U.S. patent rights against foreign activities.This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously.
Long Paper only.Students must be registered for SEM 6060 to register for SEM 6061.The primary focus of the course will be on international and comparative patent law, but the course will also address some facets of international trademark and copyright law. The course will present a comparative study of certain features of foreign patent laws. It will also overview the major multilateral treaties that govern the transnational assertion of patent protection of United States laws that are specifically directed to the protection of U.S. patent rights against foreign activities.This is a HyFlex course that will meet at the listed times. We are planning for a portion of the students to participate in-person and a portion to participate remotely and synchronously.
This seminar will focus on contemporary issues at the intersection of law, religion, politics, and society. Topics will vary each semester, but may include U.S. court decisions on establishment of religion and religious liberty of individuals and religious bodies, comparative approaches to religious liberty issues, theological, and religious law approaches to legal issues, and jurisprudential issues such as the proper role of religion in politics, lawmaking, and the practice of law. PreReq: LAW- 1011, LAW- 1042, & LAW- 1037
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6076.This class is about the First Amendment and the Free Press. We will discuss a selection of the legal issues generated by the activities of the mass media. We will consider regulations of print, broadcast, and electronic media, including laws that govern obscenity and pornography, laws aimed at balancing free press and fair trial rights, and laws meant to preserve multiple voices in a market. We will explore publication-related issues such as libel and invasion of privacy, and newsgathering-related issues such as the extent of the reporter's privilege and restrictions on access to information. We will examine common law, regulatory law including Federal Communications Commission regulations, and statutory law including the Freedom of Information Act, but the primary focus of the course will be on how the First Amendment limits governmental control over the media.The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor.This is a seminar course with limited enrollment.
Students must be registered for SEM 6075 to register for this course.This class is about the First Amendment and the Free Press. We will discuss a selection of the legal issues generated by the activities of the mass media. We will consider regulations of print, broadcast, and electronic media, including laws that govern obscenity and pornography, laws aimed at balancing free press and fair trial rights, and laws meant to preserve multiple voices in a market. We will explore publication-related issues such as libel and invasion of privacy, and newsgathering-related issues such as the extent of the reporter's privilege and restrictions on access to information. We will examine common law, regulatory law including Federal Communications Commission regulations, and statutory law including the Freedom of Information Act, but the primary focus of the course will be on how the First Amendment limits governmental control over the media.The final grade will be based on class participation, an exam, and preparation of a paper on a topic selected by the student and approved by the professor.This is a seminar course with limited enrollment.
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6081.This course analyses the Supreme Court cases, the federal statutes, and the regulations and policies necessary for addressing terrorism, and other major threats to American safety and well-being.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6080 to register for this course.This course analyses the Supreme Court cases, the federal statutes, and the regulations and policies necessary for addressing terrorism, and other major threats to American safety and well-being.
This seminar is based on a very simple assumption: Human beings are "hard wired" to distort information in the process of assimilating it. Thus, for example, it is "natural" for negotiators to act “irrationally,” for clients to make decisions "against interest", and for lawyers to fail to accurately assess benefits and risks of litigation. Learning a bit about the cognitive science of decision-making will help make you a better interviewer and counselor, allow you to be more successful in negotiation and other ADR processes, and increase your ability to persuade judges and other decision-makers about the "right" course of action. Moreover, an exploration of cognitive science may assist you in making sense of our "post-truth" world. Outright denial of objective fact—from climate change to voter suppression to pandemic risk and vaccine safety—has become a new normal. Why do so many people appear to respond to complexity with the easy shrug and slide from "it’s hard to know" to "it’s unknowable?" The law you have studied, flawed as it is, provides unrivaled tools for dealing with complexity: burdens of production and shifting burdens of proof, rigorous testing of evidence, procedures to qualify experts to name a few. We need these tools more than ever. And lawyers wielding them are incredibly important participants in a civil society dedicated to justice. But those tools are even more powerful in the hands of advocates who understand how psychology influences decision-making. The seminar will be highly interactive. Students should expect to lead discussions, present topics, engage in simulations and role-plays, and write a substantive research paper. This course qualifies as a Long Paper offering.
Explores the many ways in which race and the law have interacted historically and continue to interact. Students read and discuss a wide variety of materials, presenting a variety of viewpoints. Materials include historical, social-scientific, critical race theory, and feminist writers, as well as current legal materials. The goal in the seminar is to assist each participant to develop his or her own thinking on this important current issue. Students may take this course for 2 or 3 credits. Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, and students who have already satisfied the long paper requirement and plan to write another long paper in this course, should register for three credits.
There is much power in the law. Power to create and take away rights, power to protect, and power to influence. But what if such power directly affected certain groups based on race, gender, sexuality, or all three? Whether that effect is good or bad is a subject of discussion for this course. From the macro aspect of Title VII to the narrowed CROWN Act, the influence of race, gender, and sexuality on the law is ever present. This course will examine the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality. It will include an overview of substanative law and the latest legal developments involving race, sexuality, and/or gender. The primary aim of this course is to study how race, gender, and sexuality have influenced today's laws overtime through the present. This course constitutes a Long Paper Offering. In addition to writing a final paper, you will present about your paper topic to your colleagues in the approved format of your choosing (tradional presentation, op-ed, podcast, etc.).
The Institute of Medicine defines public health as "what we, as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy." Unlike health care, which focuses on medical interventions to improve the health of individual patients, public health takes a broader look at the wide-ranging determinants of population health. Although various interventions have been devised to protect health at the population level, disparities in health outcomes persist, with marginalized communities--racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, low socioeconomic status people--bearing a disproportionate amount of negative health outcomes. These inequitable health outcomes are largely products of structural and institutional factors that are grounded in the law. This course will adopt a critical approach to law--along the axes of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity, and class--to examine how the law creates, sustains, and legitimizes inequitable health outcomes. This critical approach will be used to analyze the legal dimensions of current public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the obesity epidemic, tobacco control, healthcare access, natural disasters & climate change, and socio-political determinants of health to challenge students think beyond the traditional paradigms of legal reasoning. This is a HyFlex course.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6100 to register for this course.The Institute of Medicine defines public health as "what we, as a society do collectively to assure the conditions for people to be healthy." Unlike health care, which focuses on medical interventions to improve the health of individual patients, public health takes a broader look at the wide-ranging determinants of population health. Although various interventions have been devised to protect health at the population level, disparities in health outcomes persist, with marginalized communities--racial and ethnic minorities, sexual minorities, low socioeconomic status people--bearing a disproportionate amount of negative health outcomes. These inequitable health outcomes are largely products of structural and institutional factors that are grounded in the law. This course will adopt a critical approach to law--along the axes of race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual identity, and class--to examine how the law creates, sustains, and legitimizes inequitable health outcomes. This critical approach will be used to analyze the legal dimensions of current public health issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the obesity epidemic, tobacco control, healthcare access, natural disasters & climate change, and socio-political determinants of health to challenge students think beyond the traditional paradigms of legal reasoning.
This course will examine the ways in which race, gender, and sexuality intertwine to shape the public discourse, law, and, ultimately, society. We will also explore issues related to the experiences of LGBT people of color and their relationship to the dominant LGBT community and movement, as well as racial justice movements. The latter issues relate to broader questions of intragroup and intramural discrimination, and the capacity of any one social movement to represent all people who share a trait, as exemplified by Black feminist critiques of white female control over feminist spaces and male dominance in the Black civil rights movement. We will approach these provocative issues from a comparative perspective. For instance, we will compare the stereotyping of Black male sexuality and queer Latinx sexuality. Pedagogical methods will include reading cases and legal scholarship, analyzing other literary texts, and viewing and critiquing film and television. Questions we will explore together include, but are not limited to, the following: • How do the media represent the sexualities and identities of people of color, BlaQueer people and of LGBT people of color? • How do these representations influence law? To what extent do interracial couplings reduce or reflect racial stereotypes? • Do legal analysis and public discourse regarding "gay rights" issues tend to assume and center white male subject and thus exclude other LGBT experiences? • Are BlaQueer and LGBT people of color best served by working within the dominant LGBT rights movement or Black and people of color movements, or should they develop their own identities, rubrics and movements? • How can heterosexuals and racial-sexual minorities find common ground and build coalitions?
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6111.This seminar will focus on contemporary issues involving reproductive rights. Topics will vary from semester to semester, but will concern aspects of the right to procreate, the right to avoid procreation, legal issues involving pregnancy and childbirth, the role of the state in facilitating or hindering relevant rights and practices, and policy issues concerning the same. In the process, we will study relevant federal and state constitutional law, statutory and case law, proposed bills, and regulatory provisions. Students may use this seminar to fulfil their long paper requirement if they enroll in SEM 6111.Blended courses open to all J.D. students.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6110 to register for this course.This seminar will focus on contemporary issues involving reproductive rights. Topics will vary from semester to semester, but will concern aspects of the right to procreate, the right to avoid procreation, legal issues involving pregnancy and childbirth, the role of the state in facilitating or hindering relevant rights and practices, and policy issues concerning the same. In the process, we will study relevant federal and state constitutional law, statutory and case law, proposed bills, and regulatory provisions. Students may use this seminar to fulfil their long paper requirement if they enroll in SEM 6111.Blended courses open to all J.D. students.
SEM 6115Theories in Leadership and Dispute Resolution2
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6116.Leadership is understood as a process of one or more people motivating other people to act in a certain way or believe a certain thing. Leadership can be studied as behavioral skills (such as competencies), cognitive beliefs (such as leader identity), and emotional abilities (such as emotional intelligence). It is the balance between ways of doing and ways of being. This course explores different frameworks of leadership included adaptive, servant, and embodied theories of leadership and applies those leadership frameworks to the work that lawyers do in resolving conflict and dispute on behalf of clients and with others as part of the client representation.
Long Paper only. Students must be registered for SEM 6115 to register for this course.Leadership is understood as a process of one or more people motivating other people to act in a certain way or believe a certain thing. Leadership can be studied as behavioral skills (such as competencies), cognitive beliefs (such as leader identity), and emotional abilities (such as emotional intelligence). It is the balance between ways of doing and ways of being.This course explores different frameworks of leadership included adaptive, servant, and embodied theories of leadership and applies those leadership frameworks to the work that lawyers do in resolving conflict and dispute on behalf of clients and with others as part of the client representation.
SEM 6125Cash Bail and the American Criminal Legal System: From Reform2
Students planning to satisfy the long paper requirement in this course, must register for SEM 6126.This class intends to use the bail system in the United States and the current reform and bail fund movements as a prism for students to think about movement lawyering. A practical on-ramp for students to consider how to engage in systems reform, as well as an opportunity to interrogate how the US engages with pre-trial detention compared to other systems. By using comparison to three other modern criminal law systems this class seeks to encourage students to think expansively about the other options available to US legislators.
Must also register for SEM-6125. This class intends to use the bail system in the United States and the current reform and bail fund movements as a prism for students to think about movement lawyering. A practical on-ramp for students to consider how to engage in systems reform, as well as an opportunity to interrogate how the US engages with pre-trial detention compared to other systems. By using comparison to three other modern criminal law systems this class seeks to encourage students to think expansively about the other options available to US legislators.
SEM 6130Approaches to Statutory and Constitutional Interpretation2
This seminar will introduce students to a range of approaches to statutory and constitutional interpretation, enabling them to consider the strengths and weaknesses of a variety of interpretive methodologies. The course will use Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to explore the interplay between administrative agency and judicial interpretations of statutes. It will explore the textualist, purposive and intentionalist approaches to statutory interpretation more generally, and also survey a variety of linguistic and substantive rules related to statutory interpretation, as well as the relevance of legislative history. These approaches will then be compared with the textualist, originalist and “living constitutional” approaches to constitutional interpretation, taking into consideration the strengths and weaknesses of each. Students will be challenged to consider differences in interpretating a constitution as opposed to a statute and to explore the ways that different interpretive approaches can put a “thumb on the scale” in terms of different substantive outcomes. This seminar is intended to serve as a capstone experience for students, bringing together a range of concepts and theories from first year to more advanced classes. PreReq: LAW- 2006
All students enrolled in this course must complete the long paper requirement. This is a survey of the current regime of international legal protections for human rights. Primary focus will be on the sources of international human rights rules, the substantive content of those rules, and the different ways in which enforcement of them is sought. Attention will be given to the United Nations organs involved in human rights Law, the Council of Europe framework for advancing human rights law, and other regional arrangements designed to protect human rights internationally. We will also consider how foreign and international regimes compare with mechanisms for human rights protections in the United States.
This course offers the opportunity to learn more about artificial intelligence (AI). Many consider the development of AI equivalent to the Industrial Revolution. We will demystify AI, machine learning (ML), and generative AI (GenAI). This course provides a comprehensive examination of the legal, ethical, and policy challenges presented by AI. AI is transforming legal practice and requires us to reevaluate traditional doctrines in subject areas ranging from torts to ethics to intellectual property to dispute resolution. We will address questions such as: when a large language model trains on billions of copyrighted works, is that infringement or a transformative fair use? What happens when an AI system causes harm, and do traditional tort law doctrines like negligence and strict liability apply? We will review and analyze the emerging regulatory landscape, contrasting the United States and the European Union, for example. We will critically assess how AI can be used within the justice system and what impact it is having on the legal profession in general.The course will be very interactive. We will explore how students use AI in their jobs and in their own lives. The course will provide students with the critical and informed perspective required to advise future clients, participate in policymaking, and use AI ethically and responsibly. Lawyers must understand limitations of AI tools to use those tools ethically and effectively.
