711 courses with the subject JUDO, 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.
A study of the process of lawmaking and law application by the executive departments and agencies of government and their control by the legislature and the courts. The primary emphasis is on the frequently competing goals of effective government, administrative discretion and fairness to affected parties. A part of the course is designed to give students insights into the allocation of law and policy making among executive, legislative and judicial branches. Another part focuses on administrative procedure and the various constitutional, statutory and common law underpinnings of such procedures.
A basic overview of the judicial system and the mechanics of litigation. This course famililarizes students with the anatomy of a lawsuit and the basic procedural concepts that frame many of the cases used in the first year curriculum.
This course offers an overview of the federal law governing the process of civil litigation in the United States. The course will cover jurisdiction, the allocation of authority between federal and state courts, principles of due process and an introduction to choice of law analysis. The course introduces students to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, federal procedural statutes, and procedural doctrine. Students may also study topics including pleading, motions, joinder, discovery, trial, and appeals.
This course examines the powers of the three branches of the federal government. Key topics include separation of powers principles, the balance of power between the states and the federal government (Federalism), and the rights of individuals in relation to government authority (Bill of Rights).
Students will analyze formal requirements for the recognition and enforcement of contracts under both common law and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC), including doctrines involving contract formation, consideration, the Statute of Frauds and the parol evidence rule, as well as equitable exceptions to such requirements.
This course covers the many facets of criminal law - foundational principles of criminal liability, statutory construction, theories and forms of punishment, the elements of major criminal offenses, defenses, and issues of when and how individuals are liable for the conduct of others. These are all taught with reference to their history and social contexts and consequences. The course also emphasizes the importance of factual analysis in applying statutes and defenses to particular circumstances.
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of legal research, analysis, and writing in a small-section format to promote individualized feedback and skill development. Students will learn how to effectively research and analyze legal issues and communicate predictive analysis in a variety of formats common to law practice. The course emphasizes practical skills, including understanding legal authority, structuring written analysis, and refining editing techniques. Throughout the semester, students will engage in hands-on exercises designed to prepare them for real-world legal writing. NOTE: Legal Research and Writing must be successfully completed [a] in order to graduate and [b] prior to taking any writing course.
The purpose of this course is to explore what it means to be an ethical lawyer by discussing a range of issues facing legal professionals while acquainting students with some of the specific guidelines for ethical professional conduct. Emphasis is on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ethics opinions from bar associations, common law and statutory materials. Successful completion (grade of C or better) of Professional Responsibility, either as an exam course, a writing seminar, or a part of ITP, is required in order to graduate.
This course focuses on sophisticated commercial problems and cases, usually based on Article 2 (the Sales article) of the Uniform Commercial Code and occasionally on the Convention on the International Sales of Goods. A primary emphasis is on methods for interpreting contract provisions and the underlying statutory provisions, usually during the performance phase of contracts. The problems confronted in the course are somewhat broader than those arising in the Sales course. In addition, they often arise in transactional and counseling settings and the material lends itself to considering the role of lawyers in these situations, as distinguished from their roles as litigators. Both this and the Sales course are the easiest transition from the Contracts course in first year. Article 2 of the UCC is a subject covered by the bar exam.
This course explores the relationship between law and property, focusing on issues of ownership, possession, and use of both personal and real property. It examines how property rights and interests are transferred and how conflicts are resolved, both in the presence and absence of agreements. The course covers key doctrines such as trespass, real estate transactions, adverse possession, nuisance, covenants, present and future interests, co-ownership, zoning, takings, and landlord-tenant relations.
This course explores the legal protections available in civil proceedings for interference with a person's physical, property, and intangible interests (for example, through an action for negligence). Students will examine the historical and theoretical foundations of tort liability to understand modern tort law and recognize evolving trends in tort responsibility as society changes.
The purpose of this course is to give the Spanish speaking lawyer or law student a brief introduction to, and the ability to increase their familiarity with, legal terms in Spanish. It is also meant to introduce the student to important basic legal concepts found in the civil law found in Spain and Latin America. Students will thus be exposed to these terms in the context of the substantive civil law in which they are utilized. NOTE: Students must be able to speak and read Spanish as class meetings will be conducted exclusively in Spanish.
This course will provide students with a firm foundation in the procedures followed in the litigation of civil disputes in Pennsylvania state courts. The significant differences between the Pennsylvania and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure will be examined. The final grade will be based on a series of written exercises and a final exam.
This course will explore the relationship between the ways in which American law has responded to a variety of issues related to sexual orientation. The course will begin by examining the multiple meanings and dimensions of sexual orientation, then look at the relationships between issues of orientation and other legally protected statutes. The remainder of the course will focus on a variety of substantive areas of law in which issues of sexual orientation arise. As each substantive area is covered, students will be encouraged to reflect back on the first classes and think about whether existing legal protections for other minority groups are appropriate for sexual minorities, or whether other legal structures would be more effective in achieving the goals of equality and liberation.
This course examines collective bargaining: the duty to bargain in good faith and enter into and enforce collective bargaining agreements through the courts.
The goal of this course is to introduce students, by means of a series of specific case studies chosen to illustrate the clash between existing legal regimes and new technologies, to a reasonably comprehensive subset of the legal problems that are being addressed as part of the developing "online law." Topics to be covered include the law of copyright as applied to electronic information, trademark law as applied to Internet "domain names," application of the First Amendment to the regulation of Internet communications, privacy concerns on the Internet, the law of anonymous communication and the regulation of encryption technology, and the difficult international jurisdictional questions presented by Internet activity.
This course exposes students to transactional lawyering through a mix of substantive lectures and small-class skill workshops organized around founding a small business. Topics include: choosing a business form; client interviewing; negotiation; drafting letters, contracts, leases, and other agreements.
Businesses of any complexity require that someone exercise responsibility on behalf of another person or on behalf of the entity itself. Ensuring the responsible exercise of that authority will be a primary focus of this course. Through a study of non-corporate forms of doing business, including sole proprietorships, partnerships and limited liability companies (LLCs), the course will focus on concepts of agency and fiduciary duty which are the foundation for understanding when and how a person or entity acts on behalf of another. Throughout the course, students will consult the statutory provisions governing various business entities and consider how to contract around the those statutes when the organizers of a business desire to alter the basic statutory scheme.
Most business organizations in the United States are no longer corporations, but unincorporated business associations such as sole proprietorships, partnerships, or limited liability companies (LLCs). These business forms are used by entities ranging from "mom and pop" stores to high-tech start-ups to sophisticated investment funds. This class examines these business entities, which every attorney engaged in a business practice needs to understand. After a review of agency law, the course will examine partnerships, limited partnerships (LPs), LLCs, and if time permits some less common unincorporated business forms.
This course will study national security threats - those posed to the United States by state and non-state actors who target US civilians, personnel and interests with the aim of achieving political change - and examine the legal controversies raised in responding to these threats domestically and abroad. The course will be divided into two parts. Part One will examine legal controversies in constitutional law. This includes the scope of presidential powers in times of heightened national security threats and the separation of powers more broadly. We will also explore the tension between national security and individual liberties during times of crisis. Part Two will examine the legal controversies raised by irregular combat between the US and non-state actors internationally. We will study some of the most important and controversial legal issues triggered by the so-called 'war on terror.'
This course examines the law of intellectual property licensing, explores the rationale for licensing, and analyzes IP license agreements and common provisions for licensing. IP License Agreements are unique in many legal and business ways and are important to all aspects of the business world today. The course will involve drafting licenses for different intellectual property rights.
The course will prepare students seeking employment as business lawyers by exploring fundamental legal issues arising in mergers and acquisitions. It will include a review of basic state code provisions relating to mergers and acquisitions using provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law ("DGCL"). The course will examine provisions of the DGCL authorizing mergers and acquisitions, evaluate instances when stockholder approval is required and assess issues arising in different deal structures and the various consequences of each, including tax issues relating to asset and stock deals and successor liability issues. Once students have a solid understanding of how deals are consummated under state law and the structural issues associated with various deal forms, the class will scrutinize certain drafting and negotiating issues arising in preliminary and final acquisition agreements and will analyze basic closing documents and study the role of business lawyers in acquisition transactions. The course also will cover fiduciary duties of board members relating to acquisitions including a board's power to thwart unwanted takeover attempts as well as a response to competing bidders.
This course provides an introduction to the law and institutions of the European Union. Topics to be considered include, inter alia, the major treaties and institutions of the Union, the concept of the Common Market and the Four Freedoms, the sphere of Union law and policy, judicial review of Union acts, the reception of Union law in the member states and the relationship between the Union and its members.
This course focuses on the law and practice of international commercial arbitration, including the creation and operation of international arbitration tribunals as well as the role of nations in compelling, facilitating, and enforcing arbitral awards. Special attention will be given to issues involving jurisdiction, choice of law, arbitration clauses in international transactions, presentation of cases before arbitral tribunals, cases on arbitrations and the relationship between international arbitration and court systems.
Trial Advocacy I is part of the Integrated Trial Advocacy Program (ITAP), a two semester, ten credit course package. ITAP combines Evidence, Civil Procedure II and trial advocacy skills. Taken in the fall along with Evidence and coupled with the spring courses of Civil Procedure II and Trial Advocacy II, Trial Ad I introduces the student to the basic skills of analyzing a trial file, examining witnesses, making and meeting objections and offers of proof, introducing exhibits, and delivering opening statements and closing arguments through a "learning by doing" or student performance format. Trial Ad I has a decidedly criminal trial advocacy orientation. The course culminates with students trying a mock criminal jury trial. Particular attention is given to the interplay between the law of evidence and the art of trial advocacy.
Trial Advocacy II is part of the Integrated Trial Advocacy Program (ITP), a two semester, ten credit course package. See the description for Trial Advocacy I (Law 460) for further information. Taken in the spring along with Civil Procedure II, this course builds on the skills developed in Trial Advocacy I with particular attention paid to witness impeachment, the examination of expert witnesses, and the integration of a case theory into each aspect of trial performance. Trial Ad II has a decidedly civil trial advocacy orientation. Students will conduct depositions, argue motions and try a minimum of two mock civil lawsuits.
This course is part of an innovative course package entitled "Integrated Transactional Practice" which combines Trusts and Estates, Professional Responsibility and transactional skills, such as interviewing, negotiation, counseling and drafting into a two-semester, ten-credit sequence. The course centers around six realistic client files which involve one family (except for a single pro bono matter). The simulation course work with these clients occurs in the two skills sections, of which Transactional Practice I is part. This includes counseling the mother regarding the disposition of shares of a family business under her will, negotiating and selling a piece of property from an estate, and selling the entire family business. Along the way, one of the children gets married and the mother seeks to persuade him to negotiate a prenuptial agreement, and later the son organizes a charitable business and has to face an IRS agent in an examination of organizational activities.
Transactional Practice II is part of the Integrated Transactional Program (ITP), a two semester, ten credit course package. See the description for Transactional Practice I (Law 462) for further information.
Class Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Second Year Law Prof, Third Year Law Prof, Fourth Year Law Prof, Law LLM.Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Law Graduate, Law.Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Once thought of as a "niche" course taught in a few law schools, international intellectual property is rapidly becoming a staple of law school's intellectual property curriculum. International Intellectual Property is in many ways similar to, and in many ways different than, the United States' intellectual property law, which students study in an Introduction course. International intellectual property is similar because of the same intellectual property regimes, namely, copyrights, trademarks, patents, and trade secrets. Students will therefore see many of the same underlying principles and theories seen in the U.S. intellectual property course. This is not unexpected as other countries' intellectual property laws are similar to if not based on the U.S. laws. On the other hand, international intellectual property law is different because many more countries' intellectual property laws are not based on U.S. intellectual property law and are, indeed, vastly different than U.S. law. This is, in many ways, the fascinating part of international intellectual property law. This aspect involves not only understanding, but truly appreciating why each country has different laws. Each country has different histories, traditions, levels of economic and technological development, and has very different goals and abilities. We will explore these differences and what they mean for attempting to harmonize global intellectual property. Even more so than as with domestic intellectual property, international intellectual property law raises difficult questions about the relationship between citizens and government in a democracy; how we go about promoting progress and encouraging economic and technological progress; and the role of the courts and legislatures in determining who decides these issues.
This course will focus on the legal issues that arise during the process of drafting patent applications and negotiating with patent examiners over patent validity. We will look at the prosecution history of a single successful patent application, and examine the kinds of decisions that the prosecuting attorneys were called upon to make and the ways in which questions about patent law, patent licensing, and the enforceability of patents and possible litigation concerns, help to shape the prosecution process.
This course will address the manner in which patent cases are litigated, with special emphasis on a number of special issues that frequently arise in that context. Topics to be covered include preparation and content of the complaint and answer, discovery, the role of expert witnesses, preliminary injunctions, claim construction "and the "Markman hearing," proof of infringement and" damages, jury instructions, and appeals. There will be a number of hands-on exercises and a final examination.
The objective of this course is to address various intellectual property issues businesses may face when developing and selling products. Intellectual property is one of the most expensive capital outlays for many organizations today and this course will focus on business-to-business transactions and how IP issues affect different organizations.
This course offers advocacy techniques for those who anticipate practice in a non-litigation setting. Students work with the basic principles of advocacy that apply in various situations likely to be encountered in transactional and hybrid practice settings. Elements include theory and psychology of persuasion; rhetoric and argument devices, and communication skills. The course offers some exposure to the basics of questioning techniques and short arguments on the premise that non-litigators will need to appear in administrative settings (hearings and group presentations). The negotiation process is analyzed, with emphasis on advocacy techniques that can be employed along the way. There are readings, lectures, learning-by doing exercises, and review of videotapes. Grading is based on an accumulation of performance results and written submissions. The lawyering situations to be addressed in this course include: advising the client, and persuading why a particular course of action is in the client's best interests; negotiation - planning and use of techniques in the stages of the process; supporting a work product - making the oral presentation of an assignment; building cooperation in work groups - using brainstorming and other leadership techniques; marketing - basic theory/psychology of "selling", using practice anecdotes to understand storytelling technique; essentials of advocacy at administrative hearings; crossover - common characteristics of effective written and oral advocacy.
Information law deals with the flow of information - when do you restrict information and when do you let it flow? During this course, students will examine information privacy legal principles related to electronic surveillance, the media, anonymity, databases, genetic testing and neuroimaging, terrorism and national security, public and private sector information and home, school and work.
The purpose of this course is to provide guidance to students concerning how to handle an appeal in the federal and state courts on a practical level. Toward that end, the class will attend two or three sessions of oral arguments at the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, the Superior Court of Pennsylvania and/or the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. We will meet with judges of those courts who will hopefully attend our classes and provide illumination as to what we have observed in court. Experienced appellate advocates will appear as guest lecturers to provide us with the benefit of their experience and to share their knowledge and skills with the class. The instructor will provide the latest updates in appellate law and practice on a weekly basis. The class will use Judge Ruggiero Aldisert's leading text in this field, "Winning on Appeal," and there will be supplemental readings pertinent to this topic. There will be no written examination; however, the class will be provided with a transcript of a real trial and will be required to submit an appellate brief and thereafter to argue the case as if they were before an appellate court. Students will be judged on classroom participation, the written brief and those oral arguments.
This course surveys a broad range of materials concerning theoretical and practical aspects of complex federal securities litigation and enforcement. It addresses actions and issues as they are likely to arise in actual securities litigation, such as class action securities fraud lawsuits, insider trading litigation, Securities Exchange Commission administrative proceedings and Department of Justice criminal prosecutions. This course is designed to be accessible without any prior familiarity of securities regulations, however, it does analyze conceptual subtleties, doctrinal nuances and practical issues that students are unlikely to have previously encountered in their securities regulations course. Finally, this course also provides all of the necessary financial economics background for securities litigation and enforcement in terms of an overview of capital markets efficiency and behavioral finance, which applies insights of empirical and experimental research in psychology and neuroscience to understand actual financial economic behavior.
Bankruptcy is an important component of commercial and business law that blends transactional and litigation practice, and requires lawyers with strong drafting, negotiating, and oral advocacy skills. This course is a general introduction to bankruptcy practice and procedures with principal emphasis on commercial reorganizations and liquidations under Chapters 11 and 7 of the Bankruptcy Code. The course will consists of lectures and discussions of problems and contemporary case studies designed to examine the law and policy of commercial bankruptcy, the powers and authority of bankruptcy courts and various practical and ethical issues.
This course develops an understanding the interrelationship between drug products liability, professional malpractice, and hospital negligence. This course will explore the evolution of therapeutic drugs and devices from the manufacturer's submission of the Application to the FDA through the approval of the Application to the marketing and prescription. The course will then explore the role of the FDA, pharmacists, physicians, and hospitals in the delivery of therapeutic drugs and devices to the consumer, and their respective obligations to the consumer. In that regard, this course will examine the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, as well as many other complex legal and ethical theories applicable to drug and medical devices manufacturers, pharmacists, physicians, and hospitals in their therapeutic drug and devices interactions with the consumer. Currently publicized incidents such as problems with the Jesse Gelsinger gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, and others will be dissected within the context of both products liability and professional malpractice law.
This course's aim is to introduce students to the basic analytical construct of the economic analysis of law. Attention will also be given to the fundamental criticisms of this construct derived from recent scholarly exchange, including those flowing from new behavioral research.
This course will examine the phenomenon of public corruption. We will use recent and current corruption prosecutions -- from federal officials and lobbyists in Washington to local public officials and employees in the region -- as the focal point for discussion of the nature of public corruption, its costs, and efforts to combat or curtail it. Much of our focus will be on enforcement tools, including both relevant federal criminal statutes and investigatory techniques. The reading materials for this course will be reported decisions, law review articles, newspaper reports, indictments, briefs, and other court records from relevant cases.
This course will focus on key issues confronting businesses as they migrate to an electronic environment. The course will examine the problems confronting the application of existing law to on-line commerce and then explore possible solutions to those problems. Authentication and integrity issues in cyberspace, electronic contracting, click wrap contracting, warranty liability in cyberspace, controlling the use of information in cyberspace, electronic payment models, marketing on the Internet, data security and privacy issues, data mining - using customer information/lists, social networking and e-commerce, protection of intellectual property rights, raising capital in high-tech businesses, taxation of electronic commerce and negotiability in electronic commerce are examples of topics that (time permitting) will be covered. The course will be "reality based": students will get hands-on experience with actual contracts and other materials in this field.
This course will explore the constitutional and statutory basis for gaming; the regulatory structure to license and control gaming; legal issues involving Indian, shipboard, charitable and internet gaming; and the rights of patrons and licensees who frequent and work in casinos.
This interactive and participatory course is intended to provide a survey of the types of issues confronting lawyers, and particularly in-house lawyers, who advise multinational corporations on a worldwide basis. The areas to be discussed include topics that will cross corporate law, tax law, labor and employment law, employee benefits, litigation and corporate compliance. Real life examples will be used to illustrate the complicated nature yet importance of this type of practice. Further, in addition to the more substantive legal topics to be covered, the course will also be interspersed with practice tips, jurisdictional practice highlights and ethical considerations for the multinational practitioner. The success of the course depends highly on each class member coming to class prepared, and more important, on each class member participating in our discussions. Because of this, class participation will account for 30% of the final grade. The remaining 70% of a student's grade will be based on a final paper and presentation (weighted equally). Note: This course does not satisfy the graduation writing requirement.
This course focuses on the economics, ethics and practice management aspect of the law. It will introduce students to "life in a law firm" through the following concepts: Economics of Law Practice, Time Management, Client Development, Ethics of Practice. Each of these four general areas will receive roughly equal treatment during the course. In addition, the ethics component will overlay the other three areas in order to describe how the Rules of Professional Conduct govern the provision of legal services. Class sessions will include guest presenters who will discuss issues within their areas of expertise and work with students on real-world problems. Students will work in "law firms" of several students and will develop their own structure and organization, two-year financial projections, staffing patterns, administrative and management plans, practice systems, and marketing and business development strategies and tactics. Students will complete projects based on challenges that today's law firms and law departments face and present their projects to the entire class for discussion and critique. Class size will be limited.
This course examines the many treaties, institutions and customs that govern how health is protected and promoted in the international system. Specific topics will include communicable disease control (e.g., SARS), chronic disease control (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), international human rights and health, access to medicines (e.g., the TRIPS Agreement), the institutional structure of global health governance (World Health Organization, Global AIDS Fund), and health-related business regulation.
Elections in the United States are largely governed by state law and, in a few instances, local law. However, there is a body of federal law, deriving from the Constitution and a number of federal statutes, that establishes rule rules for the conduct of elections. It is not possible, nor is it likely to be helpful, to review the vast array of state and local laws that govern most of the American electoral system. This course is therefore largely devoted to the federal law aspects that create the sometimes dense, sometimes porous framework for the conduct of American elections. Special attention is given to the constitutional aspects of federal election law as defined by the Supreme Court and, occasionally, by lower courts; but in several sections of the course there is attention to federal statutes and regulations. At a conceptual level, the course also inquires about the nature of representation and what inferences for election law might be drawn from different concepts of representation.
This course examines several aspects of substantive criminal law not covered extensively in Criminal Law I. Some of these subjects involve the interplay of substantive criminal law with constitutional issues, with evidentiary issues, and with procedural concerns -- all of which can better be brought to bear in an advanced course. Possible topics includes: limitations on what conduct should be criminalized; proportionality and legality limits; group criminality (advanced concepts involving corporate liability and conspiracy); exculpatory defenses based on mental illness and more recently developed defenses; entrapment; and an extensive examination of selected crimes such as rape and the theft related offenses.
The major focus of this course is on the procedures and rights involved in the appeal of a criminal case. (Many of these procedures are similar to those in civil cases.) Attention is given to understanding the implication of appellate rules for the trial of a case. The role of the appellate courts, as well as of appellate attorneys, is also examined. That portion of the course dealing with prosecutor appeals affords an opportunity for an extensive examination of important aspects of double jeopardy. Some brief attention also may be given to various forms of "collateral attack" litigation and post-verdict trial" court motions.
The relevant federal statutes which regulate the competitive process and their interpretation by the courts are considered. Classroom discussion also covers the policy rationale for such regulation and economic conditions are examined.
This class will provide students with corporate, regulatory, or litigation backgrounds with a rich understanding of the increasingly complex interaction between state and federal regulations (designed to promote efficiency, growth and fairness) and our nation's complex web of money moving institutions (banks, credit card companies, investment banks, S&L's, credit unions, brokerage houses, pay-day loan shops, etc.).
This course is an introduction to the law and policy governing corporations. Corporations are legally created entities designed to facilitate accumulation of large amounts of capital (that is money and other things of value). They do so primarily by offering investors the opportunity of a financial return on their investment, without the requirement to undertake financial risk (above the amount invested) or responsibility for managing the enterprise. Thus, corporations permit passive investment and the separation of ownership and control. Most of the law governing corporations are designed to regulate the relationships between owners (equity investors) and managers and to provide rules to govern managers in the exercise of power over actions of the company.
This course provides an overview of the taxation of corporations and their shareholders. It examines the concept of a corporation for tax purposes, corporate formations, debt versus equity, dividends and distributions, penalty taxes on undistributed income, redemptions and partial liquidations, Section 306 stock, liquidations, collapsibility, reorganizations, corporate divisions, affiliated corporations and corporate tax attributes.
This course will examine the regulation of electronic communications in the United States. The course will focus on the media, telephone, cable, broadcast, satellite, and Internet industries - industries that are rapidly changing, highly competitive, and significant drivers of economic growth. We will examine traditional regulatory frameworks, the manner in which technology is challenging these frameworks, and the regulatory response to these changes in technology. Some of the issues that will be considered are questions of market entry, access, pricing, and content.
The litigation process from the pleading stage through appellate review is thoroughly studied. Areas covered in detail include: pleading, complex multi-party litigation (class actions, necessary parties, inter-pleader, intervention, multi-district litigation); discovery practice; pre-trial conference; trial and post-trial procedures; fundamentals of appellate review, securing and enforcing judgments; and problems of judicial administration.
A study of the origins, structure and distinctive features of the two main legal traditions of Western Civilization - the Civil Law and Common Law traditions - and their influences on selected national legal systems around the globe.
This course studies problems of jurisdiction and choice of law arising from our federalist system of government. The course emphasizes conflicts among state laws governing daily transactions as well as principles governing enforcement of state judgments. The course may also investigate issues implicating the Erie doctrine and federal common law.
The purpose of the course is to provide students with a basic understanding of the taxation of business entities under Subchapters K of the Internal Revenue Code. The focus of the course is on the relationship between a "pass-through" business entity and its owners. Consequently, in looking at the tax implications of business operations, this course will focus on the partnership and, in particular, its partners. In doing so, it will survey issues pertaining to the formation, operations, distributions, and liquidation of partnerships.
Through lecture, class discussion and case problems, this course will examine federal and state statutes, regulations and judicial decisions governing consumer financial transactions. The primary focus will be on the litigation of disputes in this area. Significant attention will be paid to the emerging problem of theft of credit identity. The course will be permeated with actual consumer problems and contracts, with emphasis throughout upon case strategy and the impact of federal procedure on gaining advantage in litigation. Time will be devoted to trial issues that arise in a consumer case, especially with regard to voir dire and opening statements.
This course emphasizes the following topics: the role of state constitutions in the federal system; state constitutional protections of individual liberties; interpretation of state constitutions; separation of powers; the judicial, legislative and executive branches of state government; finance and taxation; and amendment and revision of state constitutions. Up to one half of the final grade in this course will be based on a ten to twelve page paper selected by the student from the topics covered in the course.
This course examines selected matters under Chapter 11 of the Bankruptcy Code. It will address both process and substantive law, as well as practical considerations, most recent decisional law developments and proposed Bankruptcy Code reforms.
Our basic Bankruptcy course is designed to give you a good grounding in the Bankruptcy Code and the associated law governing the enforcement of civil judgments. The course focuses on personal (rather than business) bankruptcy. It deals with the structure of the Bankruptcy Code and the costs and benefits the process represents to those who become involved with it either as debtors or as creditors. This simpler context of personal bankruptcy will allow you to absorb complex policy issues more readily than would an earlier foray into the bankruptcy of businesses. Business bankruptcy, by itself, is sufficiently complex to support its own course (Chapter 11 Reorganization) for students already versed in basic bankruptcy and corporate law.
This is a basic criminal procedure course, dealing mainly with the various constitutional rules governing police conduct prior to the institution of formal court proceedings. The major focus is on the federal constitutional rights and restrictions imposed by the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments. Searches and seizures, police interrogation, identification procedures and the exclusion of evidence obtained in violation of these provisions account for a substantial portion of the course. Some additional matters are covered, including some aspects of the formal court-connected proceedings and the basic principles of habeas corpus.
This course surveys a range of legal issues affecting children in our nation's elementary and secondary schools, with considerable emphasis on policy and on problems of equal educational opportunity. Topics include the differing legal frameworks applicable to public, private and religious schools; the right, if there is one, to a quality education; issues of racial and class disparity; the education of students with disabilities, English language learners, and others with special needs; freedom of expression in schools; school discipline; and school finance equity.
This course deals with selected legal issues which affect persons active in various aspects of the entertainment industry. These include pertinent contract, copyright, business association, securities regulation, communications and tax law issues. Special emphasis is given to the theater and to the recording and television industries.
Private law remedies, administrative and legislative regulatory schemes to control use and abuse of environmental resources are examined. Principal emphasis is placed on air and water allocation in a federal setting and national environmental policy is reviewed.
The course covers race, sex, age and handicap discrimination in employment. The historical antecedents to modern discriminatory practices and early 19th and 20th century legislative and judicial efforts to curb discriminatory practices are studied, as well as the various federal statutes and Executive Orders establishing non-discrimination and affirmative action obligations and the source of congressional and executive authority to prescribe these rules. Also covered are the non-discrimination obligations imposed by and the affirmative action activity permitted by the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution and other relevant constitutional issues, including those arising under the Tenth and Eleventh Amendments.
An examination of the rules governing the use of evidence, including problems of relevancy, hearsay, impeachment, burden of proof, presumptions and the function of judge and jury.
This course analyzes the constitutional and statutory contours of procedure and jurisdiction in the United States courts. Course materials address the role of federal courts in protecting federal rights and supervising state governments. Topics may include justiciability (including doctrines of standing, mootness, ripeness and political questions); congressional control of jurisdiction; legislative or Article I courts; federal questions; federal common law; diversity jurisdiction; supplemental jurisdiction; state sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment; habeas corpus; civil rights suits under 42 U.S.C. 1983; and abstention.
The federal estate and gift tax principles which apply to inter vivos and testamentary transfers of property are examined in this course. Tax consequences of various dispositive devices will be considered together with the marital deduction, the charitable deduction and valuation problems. The generation-skipping tax will be introduced.
The governance of interstate and intrastate commerce in foods, drugs, cosmetics, medical devices is studied. Emphasis is placed upon the effect of the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act upon the research, manufacture, marketing and distribution of drugs through the regulatory activities of the federal agencies. Through illustration, case study and comparison, other articles and pertinent state laws and agencies are also considered.
This course will cover the broad outlines of the four major branches of intellectual property law: patent, copyright, trademark, and trade secret law. Time permitting; the course also will look at the emerging doctrine of "misappropriation" as applied to intellectual property. The course will look generally at why (and how) intellectual property law differs from the law governing real property or tangible personal property, as well as at the special features of each of these sub-fields of intellectual property law. The course should provide a helpful overview of this area of the law for students who do not plan to specialize in intellectual property, as well as providing those who plan to go on to more detailed study of, and practice in, this area with an introductory exposure to the kinds of problems that are common to all intellectual property disciplines.
Like many cities across the country, Philadelphia faces an eviction crisis. Court filings underestimate the problem, as illegal evictions occur outside of the judicial system. Low-income households headed by Black women with children are disproportionately impacted. This course will explore how we got here and efforts by Philadelphia government and legal non-profits to reduce evictions and maintain stable households and neighborhoods.
Insurance contracts, types of coverage, insurable interests, beneficiary rights, creditor and assignee rights, powers and duties of insurer and insured are examined.
The course provides a detailed overview of the laws which enable individuals to enter, reside in and ultimately become citizens of the United States. Among the topics discussed are: U.S. immigration policy and the limits of legislative and executive regulation of individuals, racial and geographic quotas, types of visas, arrest, detention, grounds of excludability of individuals and of waiver of excludability, political asylum and refugee admission, processing of relative and employer petitions, change of status within the U.S., administrative procedures and appeals, nationality by birth and by naturalization, revocation and expatriation.
This course explores the legal principles governing trademarks and related doctrines of unfair competition. Topics include the acquisition and enforcement of trademark rights, infringement, confusion, dilution, sponsorship and brands, defenses, and remedies. The course also examines related causes of action, such as false advertising, and the interface among trademark law, free speech, and consumer protection.
This course provides an extended introduction to United States patent law. Topics covered include the patenting process, patent-eligible subject matter, patent validity requirements, patent infringement, and the nature of rights secured by a patent. The course also briefly examines trade secret law, and discusses the relationship between, and the relative advantages and disadvantages of, patent and trade secret law for protecting intellectual property rights in inventions and discoveries. This course will provide a broad overview of the law and policy of the U.S. patent system. Topics to be covered include the nature of patentable subject matter, the standards for assessing patent validity (novelty, utility, and non-obviousness), Patent Office procedures, infringement and the doctrine of equivalents, and remedies for patent infringement.
The goal of this course is to introduce students to the basics of United States copyright law. Without detracting from this goal of covering the (domestic) copyright basics, we will also look at issues in the specific context of new technologies and the growing internationalization of copyright law, in order to introduce you to some of the problems that are likely to arise in the future. Topics to be covered include the subject matter of copyrights, copyright ownership, the scope of copyright protection, the nature of the copyright infringement inquiry, the "fair use" and other defenses, and selected issues concerning the international enforcement of copyrights.
The role of authority in the decision-making processes of the world community is studied. The process by which international law is made and applied and the public order established is examined. The interrelationships (legal, power, economic, human) of groups organized on a territorial-state basis are examined in context. Traditional topics in private and public international law are included.
An in-depth study of three pre-litigation lawyering skills is provided. Readings include legal and non-legal materials on interpersonal relationships. Students engage in video and audio-tape simulation exercises.
Armed with the prerequisite, Evidence, this course introduces the student to the law of trial advocacy. "In a "learning by doing" or student performance format," students are taught the basic trial advocacy skills of making and meeting objections, direct and cross examination, introducing and opposing exhibits, impeachment of witnesses, examination of experts, and delivering opening statements and closing arguments. Students are placed in performance sections which are capped at 12 and attend a weekly lecture or demonstration geared to the weekly assignment. Students must sign up for both a two-hour performance section and the one-hour lecture section. Successful completion of ITA meets the advocacy requirement for clinicals.
This course will explore the Natural Law and Natural Rights traditions in Western Thought.
Students will examine how the law, and particularly Supreme Court jurisprudence, treats juvenile offenders in both the juvenile justice and adult criminal justice systems. Students will begin by learning about the history of the juvenile justice system. They will then consider the case law governing the stages in delinquency proceedings, from interrogation through sentencing. Students will consider and analyze how juvenile offenders are treated differently from adult offenders and the implications for legal advocacy. Particular attention will be given to emerging research on adolescent development and its influence on juvenile law.
The employment relationship in a unionized context is examined. Strikes, picketing, secondary boycotts, injunctions and employer and union unfair labor practices are studied. The National Labor Relations Board's function as an administrative agency is emphasized.
Class Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Classes: Second Year Law Prof, Third Year Law Prof, Fourth Year Law Prof, Law LLM.Level Registration Restrictions: Must be enrolled in one of the following Levels: Law Graduate, Law.Repeatability: This course may not be repeated for additional credits.
Land use law focusing on zoning, including the traditional elements such as spot zoning, variances, special exceptions, planned unit developments, as well as the emerging law of exclusionary zoning, zoning to control perceived undesirable uses of land such as adult book stores played off against First Amendment rights, damage actions under Sec. 1983 for land use decisions by local government, subdivision process and substance, eminent domain and some emphasis on historic preservation, private land use controls such as covenants and easements and nuisance principles.
This course is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the criminal trial process from initiation of charge through verdict. Intensive examination of case theory as it relates to all phases of the trial will be stressed. In addition to trying two complete jury trials, students will perform at preliminary hearings and motions to suppress. Special emphasis will be placed on the examination and cross examination of experts.
The role of the family and its connection with the legal system is considered, including the law pertaining to marriage, annulment, divorce, support and maintenance of the wife, children and other relatives, separation agreements, child custody, guardianship, status of wife, business transactions, property rights of husband and wife and intervention of the legal system in family affairs.
This course provides an intensive examination of the theory and practice concerning the examination of witnesses and the boundaries of "Relevant Evidence" with the primary focus on selected topics of impeachment and rehabilitation. The course is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the trial process system from the perspective of the courtroom lawyer, an ability to perform certain trial skills within the ambit of witness examination and an analysis of trial tactics and techniques as well as trial rules and procedures. Articles VI and IV of the Federal Rules of Evidence are studied in-depth and explored in their application to the courtroom experience.
The course is designed to simplify the accounting process and instill confidence in students that they can handle situations where accounting and finances come into play. The course will explain the accounting process from original entry to the production of financial statements; it will critically examine evolving accounting standards and procedures; students will learn to analyze financial statements; the importance of the time value of money, and the various liabilities that will be of importance to them; and accounting problems. Finally, students will learn about accounting systems and the importance of internal control. The course is designed for students who have no previous study of accounting but who plan to engage in commercial, corporate, tax, or any legal practice where finances are an issue.
This course on the fundamental concepts in the taxation of transnational transactions covers basic issues involved in both the taxation of the foreign operations of United States taxpayers (outbound transactions) and the United States taxation of income received by foreign individuals or entities (inbound transactions). Thus, the course will address questions of jurisdiction to tax, source of income, the foreign tax credit, tax treaties, the effect of currency fluctuations and, of course, the operations of the controlled subsidiaries of United States corporations.
This class, like most Local Government Law classes, will focus on the relationships between (1) cities (and other local government units, such as counties and towns) and (2) superior governmental units (the federal and state government) and citizens; the law governing these relationships; and the law governing the internal workings of local government units.
Aspects of the legislative process most significant for the practicing lawyer are considered. The course begins with introductory materials on the structure and function of the legislative process as compared and contrasted with the judicial process. The bulk of the course is devoted to a thorough examination of the main approaches to statutory interpretation: statutory text; legislative intent; purpose and contexts as revealed in legislative history; and the canons of statutory construction. The topics of judicial deference to administrative interpretation and clear statement rules will also be thoroughly canvassed.
Civil rights and individual freedoms under the First and Fourteenth Amendments are examined.
Problems arising from the research, manufacture, marketing and advertising of a wide variety of products available to the consumer are used to provide basic understanding of the determinants in prosecution and defense of products liability claims sounding in contract or in tort, breach of warranty, fraud, misrepresentation. Pertinent statutory and case materials are examined as a basis for both counseling and conduct of litigation.
The course provides an introduction to the idea, history, and theory of human rights. It introduces the major principles, instruments, and institutions of international human rights law, and gives an overview of current issues and critical debates in human rights law. Students will begin by examining its historical origins, philosophical underpinnings, and legal grounding in public international law. Students will then explore the various methods of implementing and enforcing human rights, be it through state or individual accountability. The course will also give a basic overview of complimentary legal regimes, such as international criminal law, transitional justice, and international humanitarian law. Throughout the course, students will engage in critical thinking and discussion about contemporary debates related to the topics covered.
This course looks at the law and economics involved in commercial real estate projects from start to finish, including an examination of some of the practical considerations inherent in the development and financing of commercial real estate.
The essentials of land transfer with emphasis on agreement of sale, deed, title examination, rights and remedies of all parties are studied. Financing and relevant tax considerations are given limited attention.
Creation, perfection and enforcement of security interests in personal property under Article Nine of the Uniform Commercial Code. A major component of this offering concerns the interaction of Article Nine with the Federal Bankruptcy Law and the effect of the bankruptcy law upon a lender's decisions and expectations.
Federal and state regulation of the sale, distribution and trading of securities, including an inquiry into the liabilities of officers, directors, attorneys and accountants, is studied.
This course will introduce you to the principles, policies and structure of the federal income tax system. Basic concepts relating to income taxation including gross income, exemptions, deductions, capital gains and losses, and the splitting of income are studied. You will learn who is taxed, what they are taxed on, how much they are taxed, and when they are taxed by studying both the Internal Revenue Code and the judicial and administrative pronouncements that interpret it. You will have the opportunity for detailed examination of the interaction between the three branches of government because the legislature (Congress) writes the statute, the executive (Treasury and IRS) interprets and administers it and the judiciary (the Tax Court and the Federal courts) settles disputes.
This course explores issues at the intersection of law and sport in both the amateur and professional contexts. Among other issues, the course will engage questions of liability arising from players' injuries and questions of professional responsibility faced by the lawyer-agent.
This course provides a survey of the principal devices utilized in the transmission of accumulated family wealth, concentrating primarily on the requirements for creating, modifying and terminating wills and trusts. Intestate succession and will substitutes are also considered as are selected issues concerning future interests, powers of appointment and fiduciary administration. The course explores the often clashing policies of effectuating donative intent and restraining dead-hand control.
This course presents a historical panorama of the special status accorded women in the Anglo-American legal system from its earliest time through the present. Any study of a complex historical process encourages observation of the interaction between socio-cultural and legal values. Thus, students enrolled in this course will be able to examine the cybernetics of law and social policy in the particular context of women's issues. Finally, a focus on recent changes in the law respecting women provides students with the opportunity to explore the possibilities of a positive role for lawyers and the legal system in the lives of American women.
The objective of this course is to impart fundamental knowledge requirements for developing the necessary analytical skills enabling recognition of workers' compensation issues and defenses; applying applicable compensation law; and procedurally navigating the litigation claims process and adjudicatory system. Students will analyze factual scenarios using the Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation Act, administrative rules, and relevant case law. Some classes will incorporate guest speakers, including attorneys currently practicing in this area, state regulators, and judicial officers.
This course explores the relationships of selected principles of constitutional law and adjudication with the conduct of U.S. foreign policy; especially from World War II to the present.
This course examines bioethics as it applies to health care problems. Representative topics are: definitions of life and death; organ and tissue transplants; procreation problems; genetic counseling; abortion; sterilization; in vitro fertilization; surrogate parenting; wrongful birth and wrongful life; life and death decisions; and medical experiments with human subjects.
This course examines the professional responsibility of physicians and other health care providers. Representative topics are: the professional patient relationship; quality control and risk management; standards of care; defense to malpractice actions; hospital patient responsibility; manufacturer patient responsibility; tort reform; medical evidence and damages.
This course surveys fundamental concepts affecting U.S. health law and policy, including healthcare financing and delivery through Medicare, Medicaid, managed care organizations and private health insurance; expanding access to health care services; regulatory mechanisms for ensuring the quality of health care and controlling cost; legal relationships between professionals, patients, and institutions; and the impact of national health reform (i.e., the Affordable Care Act).
This course looks at formation, performance and enforcement of contracts involving the sales of goods. Most of the course focuses on Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code but the course also touches Articles 2A, 5, and 7 of the UCC, the Convention on the International Sale of Goods (CISG), and other sources of law.
Over the last few decades, we have seen a sharp decline in the number of trials, a phenomenon described as "the vanishing trial." And yet most of our legal education still focuses on litigation, which represents merely one (relatively uncommon) option of a host of ways to resolve legal disputes. These additional options are often referred to as "alternative dispute resolution," but they should really be thought of simply as methods of dispute resolution. Of this menu of options, data show that most legal disputes - both criminal and civil - are resolved through negotiation and settlement, which will be the main focus of this course, along with units on mediation and arbitration.
This course will explore various laws in the workplace including the federal anti-discrimination statutes (Title VII, ADA, ADEA), the Fair Labor Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, and Occupational Safety and Health Act, as well other contract and common law claims that arise in the employment context. Students will examine these laws in the context of real life application. For example, students may study how the anti-discrimination statutes apply to hiring processes, or how to examine whether wages and job descriptions are in compliance with the FLSA.
This course surveys the broad terrain of law and the public's health. We will cover both the "laws on the books" and the problems of actually implementing these laws in the often highly politicized and culturally sensitive context of health and behavior. Topics include the basic powers, duties and limitations of state health authorities in the United States; the epidemiological influence of law on health and health behavior; the global system of health governance; and the application of a human rights framework to health issues. Health topic areas covered include communicable diseases (HIV, SARS, emerging infections), tobacco, substance abuse, chronic diseases and infections. We will also devote considerable time to reading about and discussing how health is "socially constructed" and how stigma, economic self-interest and other cultural responses to disease complicate efforts to promote public health.
This course offers an in-depth examination of the protections afforded by the First Amendment.
This course is designed to provide an introduction to transactional work undertaken by international commercial attorneys. The course focuses on international and national regulation of international economic transactions, particularly sales of goods across international borders. Particular attention is given to the export sale and its financing; the international transfer of technology; and the regulation of foreign direct investment.
This course focuses on learning negotiating skills.
This course builds upon the foundation laid by the basic course in Taxation which covers principally income and deductions. Taxation II will cover additional broad-based tax principles which are of concern to all classes of taxpayers and their advisors. As to capital transactions, the course will cover the distinguishing of capital gain from ordinary income, the determination of basis, the realization of gain or loss in non-cash dispositions, the amount of gain realized, the requirement of a sale or exchange for capital treatment, the nonrecognition of deferral of gain or loss in specified situations, and the treatment of certain amounts realized in otherwise capital transactions [including original issue discount] as ordinary income. As to timing and recognition, Taxation II will cover tax accounting periods and methods, the proper year of inclusion of income items and of taking of deduction items, the requirement of inventories for those engaged in the production or purchase and sale of goods, the effects of changes in the method of accounting, and the mitigation of the annual tax accounting period requirement through the carry back and carryover of certain losses and unused credits, where the taxpayer or the Internal Revenue Service treats related items inconsistently, or where amounts received under a claim of right are restored.
This course explores issues of international law, authority, and legitimacy regarding international organizations and their operations in the world community, including the United Nations, the World Trade Organizations, the International Monetary Fund, an the African Union. Exploration of the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court raise particular questions in this regard about the international rule of law.
This course is designed to examine the allocation of power between children, parents, and the government both within and outside of the family unit and to explore how law can be used to both oppress and empower children and their families. Rather than providing a survey of family law, this course focuses primarily on the intersection of poverty law issues and interventions into the family by public institutions designed to promote social welfare and to protect and nurture young people. The course asks the students to use doctrinal analysis, policy review, and simulation exercises to explore the appropriate boundaries of state intervention into the family, the distinct substantive rights of minors and the role of counsel for families and children. Students should enter the course with a basic understanding of Constitutional law, along with a desire to explore social welfare through a variety of mediums.
This course will examine the structure of federal law enforcement, the scope of federal criminal law and techniques for limiting federal criminal authority. It will address the problems of fraud and political corruption and specifically examine the crime of mail fraud, violation[s] of the Hobbs Act and examine official bribery. The course will include an examination of drug trafficking and money laundering. Group and organizational crime will be addressed through examination of conspiracy and the racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations statute. As time permits, students may also examine federal sentencing guidelines and forfeiture provisions.
The course will address a number of major, recurring issues that confront attorneys in international commercial practice. In particular, the course will cover the choice and formation of corporate entities (including the allocating of control among participants and planning the capital structure), legal and economic issues to consider when choosing a foreign partner, various financing issues (including the role of senior debt, mezzanine debt, common stock, ADR's letters of credit, etc), issues arising out of the purchase and sale of a business, and the major international tax implications arising out of choice of entity and formation of entity issues. In addition, it will address ethical issues that arise in international business representation. Much of the course will involve the close examination of redacted documents from international transactions.
This course is a practical and concrete course applying Cyberlaw to pseudo-clients in legal practice. Legal and policy principles are studied that should be included in an acceptable use of electronic communications and technology policy. Included are the legal aspects of Internet, computer and information technology such as cyberprivacy, cybersecurity, commercial disparagement and defamation, cybercrimes, computer forensics, e-business, electronic issues. Students will be expected to prepare an acceptable use policy that is usable for a private corporation or public entity.
There is little or no doubt that much of the US economy is (and always has been) powered by foreign workers. Although the demand for certain types of workers may vary, we as a nation will need foreign nationals to fill important gaps in our economy. This course will examine the different ways US employers can hire workers from outside of the United States, as well as the options for foreign employers investing in or trading with the United States. It will also cover some of the ways in which particularly well-qualified foreign citizens can enter the United States without a sponsoring employer. We will also review some of the obligations the hiring of non-citizen workers places on employers, and the unique legal considerations in recruiting, hiring, and promoting foreign nationals. This course will provide a brief introduction to some of these issues, providing students with the information necessary to spot them before they become problems.
This course provides an introduction to the theoretical and practical aspects of mediation as an alternative to litigation. Students will engage in a number of simulations and will receive verbal and written feedback from the instructor.
This course will consider the consequences of globalization for law, with a particular focus on globalization at the intersection of U.S. constitutional law. The course will address the analytical challenges posed by the increasing density of communications, porosity of borders, and intensity of economic interdependence. The course will situate such issues as the war and treaty powers in both their historical and contemporary context, and explore the rising profile of international law in the U.S. constitutional regime. Particular focus will be directed at new actors in international decision-making, including U.S. states, individuals, corporations, and non-governmental organizations, and how their participation is affecting the legal structure of foreign relations.
This course will examine the moral, ethical and public policy considerations involved in balancing the interests of animals and humans. Topics include the treatment of animals as property, including animal custody in divorce; state anti-cruelty laws; the federal Animal Welfare Act; the use of animals in research; veterinary malpractice; tort liability for animal-inflicted injury; consumer fraud litigation against animal-related industries; and animal rights advocacy in the age of ecoterrorism legislation.
This course, taught by two experienced practitioners, will study the skills necessary to effectively negotiate real estate transactions and to draft the related documents. Working in small groups, students will have the opportunity to develop those skills by negotiating a commercial real estate lease and by drafting the key elements of the lease and the ancillary documents.
This course will examine the foundation of special education in the United States; specific federal statutes that govern education of exceptional children; practical application of those statutes, specifically the importance of individualization of programming, how the procedures are designed to ensure that individualization occurs and what an appropriate IEP looks like;
This course will consider how the law impacts those who combine paid work with being the primary caregiver for their children. We will examine some of the various areas of law that impact such working parents, including Labor and Employment Law, Social Security Law, Tax Law, and Family Law. We will consider how our laws protect working parents as well as whether our laws encourage or discourage women, in particular, to combine paid work with motherhood. Additionally, this course will look at laws in other countries for contrast and comparison.
Recent years have seen a rapid expansion in the international law dealing with atrocity crimes such as genocide and crimes against humanity as well as crimes committed in armed conflict. This course will study the evolution of international criminal law from Nuremberg to the present. The goals of the course are (1) to provide an overview of the main doctrines of international criminal law and procedure, including the definitions of crimes, modes of responsibility, and principles of procedure and punishment; and (2) to explore the advantages and disadvantages of prosecuting crimes of mass violence in national, international, and "hybrid" courts.
With computers and e-mail dominating business and personal life, the nature of civil discovery has changed. Lawyers need to know how to request, identify, preserve, collect, process, review and produce digital information, in all its myriad of forms (from e-mail and Excel to social media and the "Cloud"). While this does not require a technical degree, there are significant pitfalls that lawyers can learn to avoid and better represent their clients. This class is designed to teach law students about the nuances of the quickly evolving world of e-discovery and provide practical help so that students can be immediately valuable to their employers and clients.
The course includes case studies of categories of litigation and the types of relief that plaintiffs seek, including damages, injunctive relief, declaratory judgments, and class actions. Experienced litigators will be guest speakers. Students will be expected to read cases assigned and participate in class discussions. Generally, each class will have two separate segments. One segment will be discussion of the cases from the assigned reading, generally led by one of the students, subject to advance assignment. The discussion will focus on the contentions by counsel and the court's decision, with an emphasis on strategic objectives and alternatives. The second segment will discuss a general litigation topic, usually with a guest speaker. There is no exam. The grade will be based on class participation (20%), one short paper (20%), and one long paper (60%).
Businesses and other brand owners are constantly taking steps to market and advertise their products and services in ways that reach the targeted consumers and/or end users. Whether the platforms are television, radio, social media, apps, blogs, search engine advertising or highway billboards, many of the legal issues are the same. This course explores some of the major issues that businesses and other entities must consider when advertising and marketing products and services to the public. The course includes topics on false and deceptive advertising, defamation and other business torts, negative and gripe content, trademarks and copyrights, right of publicity, privacy, transmission tools (e.g., email, text messaging), promotions, and other relevant topics. The course takes a practical approach to these and other topics, and class discussions focus on current events and examples, to the extent feasible, to better apply the legal issues.
This performance based course will explore the art of speechmaking by focusing on the elements of what constitutes clear and persuasive speech in a legal context. It will consider the use of speechmaking in a variety of contexts that arise in legal practice (e.g., with individual clients and client boards, in negotiations and settlements, before judges, arbitrators, and mediators). Particular attention will be paid to the use of speeches in litigation. Principles of persuasion will be identified and analyzed in how they advance the three purposes of a speech: to entertain; to inform; and to persuade. Students will focus on preparing, organizing, drafting, using exhibits, quoting witnesses, explaining burdens of proof, incorporating judicial instructions, calling opponents on mistakes and misstatements, avoiding impermissible arguments and actual speech delivery.
This course is open only to students who have had at least one course in Taxation and who have secured the consent of a member of the Tax Faculty. The specifics of the course will be tailored to the student's interests and proposed project but will in all cases involve some aspect of the practice of tax, regular discussion with the Professor, and written work product that requires the merging of tax theory with practice. Examples include but are not limited to, the establishment of a non-profit corporation, including the drafting of appropriate tax exemption documents, unpaid (internship) work at the Office of District Counsel of the Internal Revenue Service or Philadelphia City Solicitor, including drafting of legal memoranda or briefs and regular conferences with the Professor regarding the subject of such memoranda or brief, and including, at the discretion of the Professor, a paper reflecting on the experience or further analyzing a substantive issue arising from the experience. The Professor will be responsible for monitoring the quantity and quality of the work and ensuring that it is commensurate with the credits being awarded. Students may receive either 2 or 3 credits for the course. The course will not satisfy the Law School's Writing Requirement. Grading will be either a letter grade or pass/fail, at the discretion of the Professor and will be determined at the time of registration for the course.
This course enables students to see first hand the effect tax policies have on low income taxpayers and then to process that experience through the lens of existing tax policy scholarship and commentary. Students will become certified as a volunteer preparers for VITA, the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance project, and will volunteer at a VITA center for a minimum of 4 hours per week during the last week of January, all 4 weeks of February, and two weeks in April. Class will meet once per week for 3 weeks in January, at least 2 weeks in February, 2 weeks in March, and 3 weeks in April. Students will be required to keep a journal in which they will describe the salient aspects of the returns they help to prepare. In addition, students will prepare a paper, not to exceed 6,000 words, in which they analyze their experience, taking into account the policy literature examined in class, and make recommendations for change. Students will present the ideas for their papers to the class and will lead a discussion thereof. The paper will not satisfy any portion of the law school's writing requirement. With prior approval, two or more students may choose to collaborate on the final paper, which has the potential to generate deeper, more meaningful papers. The grade for the course will reflect a combination of the quality of the journal postings, participation in class meetings, and the final paper.
This course provides an overview of the taxation of S Corporations and their shareholders. Over the past decade, S Corporations have been one of the fastest growing forms of business organization, even outpacing limited liability companies in terms of new entity formations. The taxation of S Corporations reflects a hybrid approach, blending corporate and partnership tax principles. Thus, this course will examine issues unique to S Corporations. Topics will include eligibility requirements, making and terminating the S Corporation election, operations and allocations, distributions, special issues involving historic C Corporations, and Qualified Subchapter S Subsidiaries.
This course will thrust students into the role of new attorneys in a family law practice, with "hands-on" responsibility for every aspect of client representation. Several fictitious clients, with varying degrees of factual and legal complexities, will provide the setting for students to learn and practice interviewing, counseling, case management, negotiation and oral and written advocacy.
The theme of this course will be the changing role of the prosecutor, from managing cases initiated through police activity to proactive problem solving, and attempting to reduce crime and recidivism through a more holistic approach. The course will start with a comparative evaluation of prosecution roles in other legal systems and the evolution of the American prosecutor, with particular emphasis on the wide latitude and discretion afforded American prosecutors.
This law school course will be structured as a simulation in which the students and instructor serve as a General Counsel's Office for EMC examining the legal issues that arise in helping businesses do strategic planning.
Presidents are especially well placed to make constitutional law within their sphere of action, as well as to influence the development of rights in others' spheres of influence. In exposing students to writings from political science, history, law, and sociology, this interdisciplinary course has several objectives. First, students will examine the opportunities available to modern presidents to advance or erode constitutional, statutory, and human rights. Second, students will explore the social conditions - within bureaucracies and society as a whole - that must prevail for an administration to make the transformation of existing rights a priority. Third, taking on the perspective of an executive branch actor, students will assess the tactics available when a president is interested in taking action on a matter implicating individual rights: when is each strategy most tempting, what are the historical or legal precedents for each tactic, how effective is it, and so on.
In this 4-day intensive course, students will work intensively in teams to design and build an effective public advocacy campaign with multi-faceted deliverables. Among other things, students will identify a social problem, convince others to care about it in both written and oral form and develop a set of solutions to it. Students will identify stakeholders, targets, messages, and counter-arguments; testing ways to reach key audiences and measuring your success. Students will learn how to recognize effective marketing strategies; select a name for a campaign and build a brand that creates an emotional connection with target audience. Students will learn the craft of storytelling and how it can be leveraged to build a campaign in a fun and compelling way.
This course examines the law and policy related to the governance and management of natural resources in the face of competing demands for their preservation and use. The course will introduce the debate over resource valuation and will survey the statutory and common law regimes governing a variety of resources including public lands, water, wetlands, wildlife, forests, fisheries, and minerals.
Development of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale formation has brought renewed interest in oil and gas development to Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and New York. This course will cover issues in conveying the mineral estate, relations between surface and mineral owners, relations among neighboring uses, environmental regulation at the state and federal level, local regulation and state preemption, moratoriums, considerations of cumulative impacts, and litigation.
This Course will detail the entire process of Real Estate Development from a legal perspective while reviewing the role of an attorney in the real estate development process and detailing numerous legal documents, governmental regulations, and major case law.
This course takes students behind the scenes of two real trial lawyers' practices to look at real files of real cases that present real legal and ethical issues. It will demonstrate the practical application of abstract ethical and legal principles to real clients, causes, judges and counsel.
This course focuses on the role of in-house counsel in today's technology and business driven world. Emphasis will be on: an interdisciplinary, broad-based approach, the ability to multi-task and to perform various types of legal work, and the many critical professional and legal issues uniquely faced by in-house staff.
This course will address the legal and business considerations of franchising; the role of franchising in the economy and the community; franchisor and franchisee relationships; federal and state regulation of franchise law; the disclosure and registration process; essential skill and knowledge sets in representing franchisors and franchisees; basic terms and issues in franchise agreements; intellectual property issues; antitrust issues; counseling prospective franchisors and franchisees.
The course will focus on the economic regulation of electricity and fossil fuel markets. Emphasis will be placed on how the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) regulates price, service and competition in interstate markets under the Federal Power Act, the Interstate Commerce Act and the Natural Gas Act, and how state utility commissions, like the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission regulate retail rates and services of electric and gas utilities, competitive commodity suppliers, and local gathering and pipeline transportation under analogous state laws. Constitutional principles governing the allocation of authority and the interplay between federal and state jurisdictions (dormant commerce clause, supremacy clause/preemption) will also be addressed. Grading will be based on one or more practice exercises, and a final examination.
This course will focus primarily on the legal aspects of international capital markets but will also include an introduction to the basics of project finance. No prior knowledge of finance is required. It will begin with a general overview of the architecture of the international finance system and some basic concepts in legal finance. We will then review three types of international business transactions; (i) loans; (ii) bond issues; and (iii) derivatives. As part of that review, we will examine the legal relationships and legal documentation necessary to effect such transactions and the kinds of legal issues (such as accountability for disclosure of accurate information, the risk of insolvency, the risk of asset freezes and related conflicts of laws) that commonly arise. Towards the end of the course, we will take a brief look at the legal aspects of project finance and evolving legal issues regarding carbon finance. Final class grades will be based on an exam, a mid-term team presentation and class participation. Class attendance is mandatory.
The criminal appeals process provides prisoners the right to challenge their convictions in both state collateral and federal habeas corpus proceedings. This course introduces students to this important and rapidly changing post-conviction practice. We will examine what state-sentenced inmates must do in state court to preserve their right to pursue federal habeas relief before the federal district courts and courts of appeals under 28 U.S.C. § 2254 as well as address the habeas procedures set forth at 28 U.S.C. § 2255 available to federally-sentenced inmates. Students should have the opportunity to attend a state post-conviction evidentiary hearing and/or a federal habeas hearing and to meet with United States Magistrate Judges, who submit recommendations to United States District Court judges on how habeas corpus matters should be resolved. Students will learn about the types of claims that are successful in post-conviction, the complex interplay between state and federal proceedings, and how to overcome the many roadblocks the law has erected to bar federal court consideration of federal constitutional violations.
This course will examine the fundamentals of informational privacy law across the United States and the globe. The course will also cover the design, implementation and operation of global privacy programs. The course will examine and evaluate the risks and benefits of global approaches to privacy as well as country or industry specific approaches to privacy. Finally, the course will examine corporate privacy policies, internal and external enforcement and reporting requirements, vendor management and data security breach management.
The course will cover solar and wind generation technologies and the issues involved in developing, siting, and integrating them into the U.S. electricity grid. The course will review the major renewable energy laws and regulations designed to promote renewable generation resources, including federal tax subsidies, state renewable portfolio standards, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 and net metering. The class will consider the intermittent character of wind and solar resources, and the policy and legal aspects of possible ways to overcome this phenomenon. In light of the location constraints of wind resources, key regulatory issues affecting transmission access will also be addressed. Turning to the transportation sector, the course will consider vehicle electrification (widespread market integration of electric vehicles) as a strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Technology used in the legal field is rapidly changing. Being competent in the use of technology is no longer an optional skill. Many states, including Pennsylvania, now require some form of technological competence as part of the Rules of Professional Conduct. This course will give students the foundation needed to use the common technology encountered in legal practice including time keeping, privacy and security, creating and managing secure documents, presentation technology, media literacy, legal analytics, and artificial intelligence. In addition to learning how to understand and evaluate these technologies, students will also get hands-on experience using many of these technologies. Students will also learn how to identify and evaluate any ethical implications related to the use of legal technology.
This course will introduce students to stakeholder capitalism concepts in U.S. Law and Policy and how they are implemented. Furthermore, this course will equip future attorneys with the knowledge and practical skills to advise directors, officers, and business owners on how to meet their duties to shareholders and stakeholders.
Urban areas are key engines of regional and national growth. At the same time, they have emerged as disproportionate centers of poverty and inequality. This class will explore the history and context of community and economic development, with an emphasis on the economic revitalization of declining urban cores. This course is geared toward students interested in domestic economic development law, policy, and practice. The course will focus on Philadelphia and will touch on other cities. We will review case studies to understand the complex politics of urban economic development and students will critically reflect on the objectives and outcomes of local economic and community development efforts. Through reviewing landmark cases, statutes, and regulatory policies, the class will highlight the impact that national, regional, and state economic forces have on cities.
The Family Law Litigation Clinic in the Temple Legal Aid Office provides direct legal representation to low-income litigants in child custody, child and spousal support, paternity and adoption cases. Student attorneys in the Clinic have the opportunity to handle all aspects of client's cases, including intake interviews, case selection based on merit, development of a case plan, drafting of pleadings, counseling of clients, negotiation with opposing counsel or parties, development of trial strategy, trial preparation and court appearances.
Participants, after an intensive training period, will appear in various units throughout the Montgomery County District Attorney's Office as Certified Legal Interns on behalf of the Commonwealth. Students will be assigned to the pre-trials unit, where they will handle probation/parole violation hearings, summary appeals, and other miscellaneous pretrial hearings; the juvenile unit, where they will have the opportunity to work on misdemeanor and felony bench trials; the Family Protection Unit, where they will work closely with assistant district attorneys handling domestic violence and sex assault cases; and, the Narcotics/Firearm Units, where students will work closely with assistant district attorneys handling drug and firearm related cases.
While traditional clerkship opportunities are available only to select law school graduates from the top of their class, Temple Law is proud to offer a unique federal judicial clerkship clinical for current law students. Students in Temple's prestigious Federal Judicial Clerkship Clinical Honors Program work for federal judges over the course of a full academic year and participate in the practical aspects of jurisprudence. Working alongside judges and their full-time clerks, students draft orders, research issues, prepare bench memoranda, and observe judicial proceedings. The program consists of eight to ten hours a week in chambers and a classroom component focused on the current issues impacting the federal courts. The classroom component of the course is taught by Judge Lawrence F. Stengel, United States District Court Judge.
This external clinic will provide students with the hands on opportunity to work in the Philadelphia District Attorney's Office Charging Unit. In doing so, students will gain experience applying Pennsylvania law to real cases.
Students will learn about disaster law and spend the semester gaining real world experience at the American Red Cross of Southeastern Pennsylvania.
This clinical program provides an opportunity to work alongside lawyers who work in the healthcare setting as part of the clinical team. Focus is on delivery of legal services to low-income clients in an effort to address factors that impede good health (social determinants of health).
After having completed the Temple Law Asylum Project, students will have the opportunity to become part of the leadership team for the course, learning a new set of skills relating to course design and teaching. Advanced students will participate in initial course planning sessions before the start of classes, identifying relevant projects for the upcoming semester and redesigning aspects of the course with the course instructor(s). Advanced students will also participate in weekly leadership team meetings to plan upcoming classes and discuss and resolve challenges faced by students in the Asylum Project course. They may teach one or more classes, including designing and implementing relevant role plays, and may communicate directly with partners, including community groups and country conditions experts. They will provide guidance to students in the Temple Law Asylum Project around research challenges and effective approaches to drafting an annotated table of contents (ATOC). Advanced students may be assigned to create a new ATOC along with a partner and may work with one or more of the instructors to complete and update ATOCs drafted in prior semesters. They may also work on policy advocacy and community advocacy projects.
The course is intended to first teach students the basic federal constitutional and statutory doctrines necessary to litigate common current constitutional cases, specifically those arising under the Fourth, Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments, by briefly examining the initial discussions of Reconstruction and the enactment of the Civil War Amendments and, via simulation, revisiting Virginia's debate over whether to ratify the Constitution with or without an express provision protecting States' sovereign immunity. The course will then focus on the federal constitutional and statutory doctrines necessary to litigate Section 1983 actions through a series of in-class simulations which will cover Fourth Amendment claims arising out of police misconduct and other improper activities, Eighth Amendment prisoner claims, Fourteenth Amendment due process claims focusing on challenges to executive actions, and Fourteenth Amendment claims focusing on the fairness of procedures used when government deprives citizens of a protected interest. The course will also cover the doctrines necessary to understand and bring those claims against state and local governmental actors.
Students will engage in advocacy grounded in community lawyering and movement lawyering principles, with a focus on advocating in solidarity with families whose family stability or integrity has been impacted by state intervention. Students will provide individual legal advice and representation, and work on related advocacy projects that address systemic issues led by community partners. This course will focus on multiple family justice issues each semester, with priorities guided by families most impacted by state intervention.
After having completed the Appellate Litigation Clinic and Seminar, students will have the opportunity to continue their work on a client's appeal during the spring semester, including completing a legal brief and presenting oral argument before the relevant appellate court. In the advanced clinic, students will complete an initial briefing, including finalizing and filing the principal brief, drafting a reply brief in opposition to appellee's/respondent's brief, negotiating settlements, and preparing and presenting oral argument before the relevant appellate court. In addition, each student will participate in multiple moots as they prepare for argument; and draft reflection papers, addressing the role of pro bono counsel in providing meaningful access to justice, effective appellate advocacy, and/or emerging issues in areas of the law, including immigration and civil rights law.
In the Advanced Clinic, a small number of students who have completed the Low Income Taxpayer Clinic will have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth clinical experience. In the Advanced Clinic, students will work more in detail on cases, sometimes with volunteer pro bono attorneys, and on outreach and education, sometimes with other nonprofit organizations or elected officials' offices. Students will make use of the skills and knowledge they have acquired during the preceding semester. Advanced students might work with students in the regular clinic or separately.
This course will focus on issues of professionalism and ethics in practice. Students will learn about attorney obligations to the client, court, profession, and society, and develop an understanding of their own professional values and philosophy as practicing lawyers. In addition to examining global issues of ethics and professionalism, the course will utilize students' experiences to identify and explore issues particular to different areas of practice.
This experiential program offers students the unique opportunity to exercise their lawyering skills by reviewing and investigating claims of innocence on behalf of Pennsylvania prisoners. Each student will be assigned cases under the supervision of project attorneys. In the course of investigating factual claims and researching legal issues, students may review criminal files, interact with investigators, contact other attorneys, interview the client and witnesses, gather documentation, and prepare legal documents and memoranda. Students may have the opportunity to observe court appearances and visit Pennsylvania prisons. This course will also include the study of the key contributing factors to wrongful convictions, the state and federal legal framework for litigating innocence cases, investigative techniques and skills, the nature and uses of DNA and other scientific evidence, and re-entry challenges for exonerated individuals.
This clinical course will first immerse students in how the legal system handles abusive situations. Students will: 1) study state and federal law concerning who, what and how actions can be brought and prosecuted, 2) have opportunity to observe proceedings in Family Court, and 3) have discussions with domestic violence advocates. Throughout the balance of the course, students will handle several cases referred by the main domestic violence programs in Philadelphia.
This clinical will provide a select group of students the opportunity to practice the tasks associated with judicial law clerks and observe and reflect on practitioners who appear in court. Students are matched with a judge in the First Judicial District. Students will apply their research and writing skills as they act as student law clerks, and will observe court proceedings and participate in a weekly seminar.
Experiential learning is designed to enhance traditional classroom instruction by engaging students in real life lawyering situations. This course will focus on developing professional skills, applying doctrine/theory to practice, and addressing ethical issues. Through their work, students will critically examine their learning strategies, goals and progress, and develop self-directed learning habits. Students will gain substantial legal experience including, advising, representing, and engaging in other legal issues on behalf of actual LITC clients.
This course offers intensive training in the applicable law, strategy, skills, and techniques of online advocacy in hearings, as well as training in the use of courtroom presentation software. The course combines traditional lectures and demonstrations with learning-by-doing exercises. Students will have opportunities to conduct witness preparation, create visual demonstrations, conduct direct and cross-examinations virtually, and participate in an entire trial online. All of these exercises will allow the professors to provide substantial feedback and critique.
Under the supervision of a professor, third-year law students will handle appeals currently pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit as well as the Pennsylvania Superior Court. Students will provide court-appointed, pro bono representation to appellants/petitioners in immigration appeals, habeas corpus proceedings, prisoner civil rights litigation, mortgage foreclosures, landlord/tenant disputes, and termination of parental rights cases. The clinic will handle all aspects of representation for at least two existing appeals during each academic year.
The course will focus on the substantive, procedural and practice issues which arise in representing families impacted by state intervention in an array of legal matters. This course will combine the theoretical and practical aspects of lawyering by covering topics such as basic lawyering skills, legal theory, and the role of lawyers in promoting justice for families.
This experiential live-client course provides students with the analytical thinking, case preparation, and litigation skills to successfully try a criminal case from Pre-Trial to Sentencing at the Montgomery County Public Defender's Office. After an intensive seminar during which students will be taught the following skills: litigation skills, effective client interviewing, brainstorming, discovery review, theory crafting, motion practice, plea-bargaining, cross-examination, and direct examination, students will observe court proceedings and then be assigned to a trial room in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Students will then conduct preliminary hearings and misdemeanor trials; interviews of clients, investigators and/or social workers; and appear in court. Students will also have the opportunity to work on a criminal justice related policy issue, most likely related to cash bail and probation and parole issues.
The course is designed to foster the acquisition of substantive legal knowledge and develop practical legal skills in the context of learning about core legal issues implicated by corporate engagements into social issues. In terms of substantive legal knowledge, the course will focus on legal issues relating to corporate governance, corporate social responsibility, corporate social activism, and shareholder activism. In terms of practical legal skills, the course will focus on skills related to legal communications and problem-solving in the context of various meetings, strategy sessions, presentations, and teamwork.
In the Access to Justice Clinic (JUDO 0790), students learn about the civil justice gap - i.e., the desperate shortage of legal help for most people of low and moderate incomes. Students who have completed Temple's Access to Justice Clinic can enroll in this course designed to provide an opportunity to complete advanced work on an access-to-justice project in a subsequent semester. In the Advanced Clinic, a small number of students will further develop an access to justice project, making use of the skills and knowledge they have acquired during the preceding semester.
Taken along with or after having completed Law 0765, students have a more comprehensive clinical experience by doing an additional project or more in-depth client work. Doing so, students can focus intensively on one or several aspects of skills training. Potential projects include developing a writing portfolio based on clinical cases, developing and/or staffing an interview site, handling extra client matters, and student developed initiatives.
Students who have completed the Family Law Litigation Seminar and the Family Law Litigation Clinic may enroll in the Advanced Family Law Litigation Clinic to continue to hone their family law practice skills. The expectation is that students enrolled in the Advanced Family Law Litigation Clinic will be asked to handle more complex matters in court and/or a higher volume of cases over the course of the semester. Students in the Advanced Family Law Litigation Clinic will continue to work in the Temple Legal Aid Office to provide direct legal representation to low-income litigants in child custody, child and spousal support, paternity and adoption cases.
"Tech justice" is a broad label for an emerging critical legal agenda at the intersection of data-fueled innovation, societies that rapidly integrate new data-driven tools without guardrails, and social justice movements. It is broader than other similar framings for a body of work on accountability and redress for harms experienced in connection with data and technology. Tech justice emphasizes accountability by direct reference to human-built tools and the economic, social, and political structures surrounding them. This course combines seminar and clinic components. The seminar provides a comprehensive exploration of current research, advocacy, litigation, and organizing efforts to reshape the information society. Topics include the ethical, philosophical, and practical implications of technologies such as artificial intelligence, biometrics, and digital finance. Students participate in collaborative projects with external organizations, addressing systemic issues related to tech justice. These projects involve a wide range of activities, from legal research and drafting litigation materials to engaging directly with victims and survivors of tech-related harms, to working with advocates and developing innovative legal claims in active litigation in foreign and domestic jurisdictions. Through project work and seminar sessions, students will learn to apply critical perspectives on datafication and marginalization, understand the limitations of existing ethical frameworks, and analyze regulatory proposals using critical theory.
After having completed the Family Justice Clinic and Seminar, students will have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth clinical experience. Students enrolled in the Advanced Clinical Intensive will be the lead student lawyer on a systems advocacy project identified by one of the Clinic's community partners. Students will: (1) provide leadership for a team of students working on the project; and (2) take primary responsibility for all communication, goal-setting, strategy and work on the project. Students will also continue to provide individual legal advice and representation to families impacted by state intervention. This course will focus on multiple family justice issues each semester, with priorities guided by families most impacted by state intervention.
Students will participate in a learning program through which they can explore a course of study designed to examine the role a lawyer has in society; obligations to clients, supervisors, public and self; definitions of success; moral judgment; and the formation of professional identity.
Students will engage in the multifaceted practice of social justice advocacy through hands-on experience. Using a hybrid advocacy model, students provide direct individual client representation and work on related advocacy projects that address systemic issues. This work will be team-based and collaborative, and often involve nonprofit legal providers and community-based organizations. Students are expected to participate in a weekly team meeting with their faculty supervisor as well as learn about the substantive and procedural law that is applicable to their cases and projects. This course will focus on one or more particular social justice issues each semester.
After having completed the Social Justice Lawyering Clinic and Seminar, students will have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth clinical experience. They will work on a project that addresses systemic issues in team-based collaboration with community-based organizations. In addition, each student will: (1) provide leadership for a team of students; (2) produce a written portfolio with at least three different forms of non-traditional legal writing; and (3) write a paper that critically examines their role working as a student lawyer within a social justice movement.
In this year-long program, students assist STAR (Supervision to Aid Reentry) program participants, representing them in court under the guidance of supervising attorneys. Some of the legal issues that students have assisted participants with include: challenging arrears accrued on child support orders while incarcerated, adjusting child support payments, assisting participants to overcome barriers to employment such as help obtaining occupational licenses, challenging traffic violations, and screening and registering participants for benefits. The discrete issues on which the students work will be placed into a broader social justice context that explores such topics as mass incarceration, collateral consequences of incarceration, and restorative justice.
Through community lawyering projects, this internal clinic at Temple's Legal Aid Office allows you to develop the legal skills you will need to represent clients in many areas of practice. As a legal intern, you will be placed in the primary lawyer role under the direct supervision of the professor who will supervise each aspect of the work you do. It is designed to be diagnostic--you will practice skills you need to lawyer and reflect with the professor at every step on how to practice well. Some skills you will develop include interviewing and counselling, goal defining with clients, legal analysis, legal research and writing, and oral advocacy. You will handle some litigation type matters, like administrative hearings before Administrative Law Judges to help people get disability benefits, and transactional ones, like drafting powers of attorney and wills. The present client base has a health law focus and includes people with physical disabilities and those with severe illnesses, like HIV and cancer. Many of the community sites focus on delivering medical and social services to people with these disabilities and illnesses.
This course will cover fundamental legal and practical issues concerning large technology companies, including issues relating to corporate governance, privacy, competition, and social impact. The course is designed to foster the acquisition of substantive legal knowledge and develop practical legal skills in the context of learning about core legal issues implicated by large technology companies.
Mass tort and products liability litigation is expanding in the Philadelphia region and nationwide, with law firms (both plaintiff and defense) opening offices specializing in these practice areas. Pennsylvania state courts, and specifically the Mass Tort Program in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, has become the epicenter of mass tort and products liability litigation for civil litigators in Pennsylvania and across the nation. This advanced course would be offered to students interested in learning and developing skills in the growing world of mass tort and products liability.
Students will work in conjunction with the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), a preeminent research and advocacy nonprofit that works to advance human rights in the Americas, to draft annotated tables of contents tailored to specific asylum claims. This course will begin with a short overview of the asylum process in the United States and a breakdown of the legal elements of an asylum claim. Students will then learn various methodologies of country conditions research, and how to evaluate the accuracy and reliability of such research as well as the weight that immigration adjudicators will accord different sources. Working in teams, students will conduct in-depth country conditions research, some in Spanish, and compile that information into annotated tables of contents. Each annotated table of contents will be organized in accordance with a legal argument developed by its respective team. By using the annotated tables of contents as an organizational tool, students will learn how to tailor their facts through substantial, thoughtful, and careful editing to most effectively support their legal arguments. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the sociological, psychological, and ethical issues implicated in their work.
In this clinical course, students would engage in legal analysis and policy advocacy while representing client organizations seeking to achieve systemic improvements in access to civil justice - in the mechanisms, that is, by which currently unrepresented people can get access to legal help. Students would develop skills in working collaboratively with client organizations, project planning; interviewing; research and information-gathering; analyzing substantive law, procedure, and the actual working of administrative agencies and courts; identifying systemic barriers and developing solutions and strategies by which to achieve them; and written and oral advocacy.
A civil rights/social justice clinic focused on the collateral consequences of the criminal legal system will provide students an opportunity to address one of the most pressing concerns in civil rights today, that almost any interaction with the mechanisms of the criminal legal system results in a deprivation of a person's rights, and that these interactions and resultant deprivations fall disproportionately upon racial minorities and the poor. Michelle Alexander's "The New Jim Crow" draws an undeniable line from traditional conceptions of the struggle for civil rights to the modern carceral state and the treatment of incarcerated individuals. Complementing this understanding, James Jacobs has written convincing on the concept of the "eternal criminal record", which can deprive people - even those with merely an arrest record - in the areas of housing, employment, and education for the rest of their lives. This clinic will give students a chance to work in an area of public interest law that is deeply textured, widely relevant, and profoundly rewarding.
After taking the core Justice Lab clinic and seminar courses, some small number of students may wish to enroll in Advanced Justice Lab to continue their client advocacy and gain more in depth or complementary lawyering skills. In this advanced clinic option, students will continue their advocacy work for the same client as in the previous semester by pursuing further advocacy on the same or related issues.
Taken along with or after having completed JUDO 0785, students have a more comprehensive clinical experience by doing an additional project or more in-depth client work to supplement the clinical work of JUDO 0785. Projects are picked before the end of the first week of the semester.
This intensive clinic will provide students with basic instruction in law practice that will put together the substantive law and legal skills they have learned in law school in an intensive practice setting while they provide direct legal services to indigent clients. It is a capstone course which will allow students who have completed all of the rest of their coursework needed to graduate to spend their last 12 weeks of law school doing public interest legal work under the supervision of a fulltime clinical professor. It will meet the requirements of an alternate admission program established for the New York Bar, and may be modified as appropriate to accommodate students outside of that setting.
This course is designed to equip students with the skills to counsel global corporate clients on data privacy risks. Students will explore the lawyer's role in identifying data risks and avoiding data privacy violations that trigger legal penalties. The course will start with an overview of foundational data privacy regulations in the U.S. and abroad by reviewing the complex regulatory matrix of privacy laws from 160 countries, including the 30 plus U.S. federal privacy laws, 10 U.S. state privacy laws and case law. Using the Socratic Method, students will collaboratively build a working definition of "Data Privacy Violations" by exploring the intersections between dynamic and rapidly evolving categories of privacy risks that stem from regulations, frameworks, industry standards, ethics, and consumer expectations. Students will analyze case studies where each of these categorical privacy risks have triggered legal penalties (fines, sanctions, and consent orders) for corporations. In reviewing these cases, this course will highlight the ways in which privacy violations can exacerbate inequality by disproportionately impacting women, people of color and LGBTQ+ individuals.
This writing seminar will cover a range of legal and policy issues affecting elementary, secondary, and higher education. Specific topics will include rights of students, teachers, and parents; freedom of expression; privacy; academic freedom; school discipline; and equal opportunity.
The purpose of this writing seminar is to explore what it means to be an ethical lawyer by discussing a range of issues facing legal professionals while acquainting students with some of the specific guidelines for ethical professional conduct. Emphasis is on the Model Rules of Professional Conduct, ethics opinions from bar associations, common law and statutory materials.
This writing seminar examines bioethics as it applies to health care problems. Representative topics are: definitions of life and death; organ and tissue transplants; procreation problems; genetic counseling; abortion; sterilization; in vitro fertilization; surrogate parenting; wrongful birth and wrongful life; life and death decisions and medical experiments with human subjects.
The major focus of this writing seminar is on the procedures and rights involved in the appeal of a criminal case. (Many of these procedures are similar to those in civil cases.) Attention is given to understanding the implication of appellate rules for the trial of a case. The role of the appellate courts, as well as of appellate attorneys, is also examined. That portion of the course dealing with prosecutor appeals affords an opportunity for an extensive examination of important aspects of double jeopardy. Some brief attention also may be given to various forms of "collateral attack" litigation and post-verdict trial" court motions. In lieu of an examination, students taking this course as a writing seminar will research and write a series of papers. Study of the course materials and participation in classes is also part of the process.
We will explore the interrelationship between law, science and technology and the role of science and technology in law by examining a series of specific problems. Examples include the legal ramifications of recent technological developments such as polygraph testing, clinical testing of new treatments on human subjects, cable television and the newest vehicle for mass communications, Internet, and fiber optics. Another issue that will be explored is the influence of new statistical and mathematical methods on the law. Students write and make a presentation to the class on a topic of their choosing.
This seminar will be a small but ambitious step toward initiating a transactional' family law program. The course will combine several basic substantive family law issues with several basic professional responsibility issues with several basic skill-based exercises. There will be two or three basic "problems". Each problem requires integrating" substantive law with the rules of professional responsibility. Each problem requires exercising other basic lawyering skills, for example, client interviewing, intake processing, opponent attorney contact, negotiation, and client relations. The skill-based exercises for example, letters to clients, formalized agreements. As the course is currently planned, there may be a final' paper requesting students to tie the other experiences together. As currently imagined, the course is very hands-on', relying on simulations to stimulate discussions and development.
This seminar explores interconnections among legal concepts, history and political theory. Students interested in enrolling are encouraged to contact the instructor both for information about the reading list and to discuss potential paper topics.
This writing seminar will provide an intensive study of the appellate process, brief writing, and oral argument. Topics will include theories of persuasion, argument development, and strategic considerations in brief writing and oral argument. Students will research, brief, and argue a case on appeal.
This writing seminar is designed as an introduction to issues of law, policy and institutional machinery for the promotion of human rights in the world community. The course will focus first on 20th century genocide against the Armenians and Jews and then study the following problems: (1) Are nations bound by human rights laws (such as treaties, customary international law, U.N. Charter, European Convention, etc.). (2) Are the courts of a nation so bound. (3) Where there is violation of human rights law, when and under what circumstances may diplomatic intervention, economic sanctions and/or military force be used to redress the wrongs or to cause compliance with human rights guarantees.
This course develops an understanding the interrelationship between drug products liability, professional malpractice, and hospital negligence. This course will explore the evolution of therapeutic drugs and devices from the manufacturer's submission of the Application to the FDA through the approval of the Application to the marketing and prescription. The course will then explore the role of the FDA, pharmacists, physicians, and hospitals in the delivery of therapeutic drugs and devices to the consumer, and their respective obligations to the consumer. In that regard, this course will examine the federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetics Act, as well as many other complex legal and ethical theories applicable to drug and medical devices manufacturers, pharmacists, physicians, and hospitals in their therapeutic drug and devices interactions with the consumer. Currently publicized incidents such as problems with the Jesse Gelsinger gene therapy at the University of Pennsylvania, and others will be dissected within the context of both products liability and professional malpractice law.
The goal of this course is to introduce students, by means of a series of specific case studies chosen to illustrate the clash between existing legal regimes and new technologies, to a reasonably comprehensive subset of the legal problems that are being addressed as part of the developing "online law." Topics to be covered include the law of copyright as applied to electronic information, trademark law as applied to Internet "domain names," application of the First Amendment to the regulation of Internet communications, privacy concerns on the Internet, the law of anonymous communication and the regulation of encryption technology, and the difficult international jurisdictional questions presented by Internet activity. Although it is not a prerequisite, it is strongly recommended that students have had a course on intellectual property prior to enrolling in this course.
This writing seminar will explore the question - What is law? - with special emphasis on the question of law's authority and on the relationship between law and morality. In the course of the semester, we will survey a variety of perspectives on the nature of law, including natural law, legal positivism, legal realism, law and economics, critical legal studies, feminist jurisprudence, and critical race theory.
This writing seminar is designed to explore major lawyering issues confronting public interest lawyers in a variety of practice areas. The course is intended to integrate academic theory with study of actual practice experiences in public interest advocacy. Students will discuss the assigned readings, interact with guest speakers, complete a research paper on an approved public interest topic, and present the paper to the class while it is still in draft.
This seminar examines selected aspects of federal income tax policy and enables students to explore the social and economic choices that underlie the tax system.
The goal of this writing seminar is to introduce students to the basics of US copyright law. Without detracting from this goal of covering the (domestic) copyright basics, we will also look at these issues in the specific context of these new technologies and the growing internationalization of copyright law, in order to introduce students to some of the problems that are likely to arise as copyright law evolves in the coming decades. Topics to be covered include the subject matter of copyrights, copyright ownership, the scope of copyright protection, the nature of the copyright infringement inquiry, the "fair use" and other defenses, and selected issues concerning the international enforcement of copyrights.
This writing seminar provides an intensive examination of the theory and practice concerning the examination of witnesses and the boundaries of "Relevant Evidence" with the primary focus on selected topics of impeachment and rehabilitation. The seminar is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the trial process system from the perspective of the courtroom lawyer, an ability to perform certain trial skills within the ambit of witness examination and an analysis of both trial tactics and techniques as well as trial rules and procedures. Articles VI and IV of the Federal Rules of Evidence are studied in-depth and explored in their application to the courtroom experience.
This course explores the relationships of selected principles of constitutional law and adjudication with the conduct of U.S. foreign policy; especially from World War II to the present.
This writing seminar examines the professional responsibility of physicians and other health care providers. Representative topics are: the professional patient relationship; quality control and risk management; standards of care; defense to malpractice actions; hospital patient responsibility; manufacturer patient responsibility; tort reform; medical evidence and damages.
This independent research offers students an opportunity to (1) satisfy the mandated writing requirement, (2) develop research, writing and analytical abilities through producing a single substantive research paper and (3) work with a faculty member in an area of the teacher's interest or expertise.
This independent research offers students an opportunity to (1) satisfy the mandated writing requirement, (2) develop research, writing and analytical abilities through producing a series of short papers and (3) work with a faculty member in an area of the teacher's interest or expertise.
Guided Research offers students an opportunity to develop research, writing, and analytical abilities. The student works with a faculty member in an area of the student's interest and the faculty member's expertise.
Jessup Moot Court is a co-curricular course offering. Students compete in teams and must produce written briefs and participate in oral arguments in mock appellate proceedings. Team members organize their own research, writing, and oral preparations with guidance from members of Temple's international law faculty, who serve as advisors. Temple Law competes against other U.S. law schools in regional rounds. In the international round, the winners of the U.S. regional competitions compete against teams from foreign countries who have won their own national competitions.
This course will examine select advanced topics in contemporary international law practice and scholarship. Approximately every other week, the course will feature scholarly presentations of papers or works-in-progress by leading international law scholars. Students will submit written critiques of the scholars' papers. This course satisfies the serial writing requirement.
The aim of this course is twofold. First, it will seek to acquaint students with the international law rules regarding the formation, interpretation and application of treaties, with particular attention to the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Second, the course will introduce students to the treaty law and practice of the United States, with particular attention to the distribution of authorities under the Treaty Power, Congress' role(s) in U.S. treaty-making, and judicial enforcement of treaties in federal and state courts.
This writing seminar will explore the intersections between American law and issues of sexual orientation and gender identity. The course will begin by encouraging students to think about what is meant by the terms "sexual orientation" and "gender identity," and how those identities relate to other legally-protected statuses. The remainder of the course will survey a range of substantive areas of American law in which issues of sexual orientation and gender identity arise. Students will be encouraged to reflect upon the theoretical underpinnings of sexual orientation and gender identity law, and also to creatively imagine how real-life clients presenting these issues might be served in different areas of practice.
Derivative Securities & Their Regulation: This seminar provides an overview of what derivative securities are; how they are designed, risk-managed, and traded; how banks, corporations, insurance companies, pension plans, and other institutional investors can utilize derivative securities to enhance their profits or control risks; and how derivative securities are and can be regulated. This seminar analyzes legal aspects of an estimated $600 trillion notional OTC (Over-The-Counter), or privately negotiated, derivative securities market. Some blame derivative securities for causing or at least contributing to recent economic crises. Topics covered include CDOs (Collateralized Debt Obligations), complexity, credit derivative securities, hedging, knowledgeable traders, noise traders, speculation, swaps, systemic risk, unsophisticated traders, and various regulatory proposals to reform our financial services industry. No prior familiarity with or knowledge of derivative securities is assumed or necessary.
This writing seminar will introduce students to the practice of business transactions law. Business transactions can, of course, take many forms, but most commonly involve either acquisitions or financings. "These are fancy words for "purchases" and" ""investments," respectively. Other transactions" include joint ventures, product development agreements, franchise agreements, licenses, and so on. This course is organized around two transactions: (i) the formation (financing) of an imaginary high-tech venture, and (ii) an asset purchase by that venture of another business. In addition to the skills component, students will be "expected to draft documents, maintain a "strategy" "journal," and complete several written assignments."
This writing seminar will explore the constitutional and statutory basis for gaming; the regulatory structure to license and control gaming; legal issues involving Indian, shipboard, charitable and internet gaming; and the rights of patrons and licensees who frequent and work in casinos.
Criminal Procedure II covers the main pretrial stages of criminal proceedings in felony cases, from pre-arrest to trial: prosecution decision whether to prosecute; bail and other forms of pretrial release; preliminary hearings; indicting and investigating grand jury proceedings; joinder and severance of defendants and offenses for trial; speedy trial, prompt commencement of proceedings, prompt trial statutes and rules; pretrial discovery; prosecution disclosure and preservation of exculpatory evidence; defense obligations not to conceal inculpatory evidence; and guilty pleas proceedings, including plea bargaining. The course deals with more "practical" procedure than Criminal Procedure I; the constitutional provisions and appellate decisions. The class is conducted predominately through role-play simulations, but also uses more traditional case analysis (mainly U.S. Supreme Court cases) and problem solving. In the simulations, students are assigned to conduct hearings, argue motions, etc., serving as judges, attorneys and witnesses. Some of the students not assigned to perform the simulation are assigned to write on the problem.
This course will focus on woman abuse, previously labeled battered woman syndrome. It will cover the causes of woman abuse and both formal and informal societal responses. Major emphasis will be on police involvement, evidentiary rules, substantive criminal and civil law doctrine, criminal and civil procedures, and avoidance and remedial measures. Some time will be spent on historical, sociological and international materials.
This course will focus on advanced strategies for persuasion in legal writing. The reading in the course will focus on materials about the theory and practice of persuasion in law and other disciplines. The course will touch on such topics as storytelling and narrative, rhetorical devices, scientific advances in persuasion, and framing. Students will evaluate the use of the studied techniques in legal briefs and will practice using the techniques in their own writing.
This writing seminar surveys the broad terrain of law and the public's health. We will cover both the "laws on the books" and the problems of actually implementing these laws in the often highly politicized and culturally sensitive context of health and behavior. Topics include the basic powers, duties and limitations of state health authorities in the United States; the epidemiological influence of law on health and health behavior; the global system of health governance; and the application of a human rights framework to health issues. Health topic areas covered include communicable diseases (HIV, SARS, emerging infections), tobacco, substance abuse, chronic diseases and infections. We will also devote considerable time to reading about and discussing how health is "socially constructed" and how stigma, economic self-interest and other cultural responses to disease complicate efforts to promote public health.
This course challenges the view that a lawyer is merely an instrument for achieving his or her client's ends and then examines the relationship between professional roles and ordinary morality. We ask whether the lawyer must take personal moral responsibility for (a) the quality of his or her relationship with the client, (b) the outcome of the cases s/he handles, and (c) the tactics and the strategies used to achieve the outcome. This is a serial paper writing seminar. Also, this course is not a substitute for Professional Responsibility and may be taken before or after that required course.
This writing seminar offers an in-depth examination of the protections afforded by the First Amendment.
Through actual case studies, this serial writing seminar explores how legislatures translate controversial public policies (such as nondiscrimination laws) into specific legislation.
This course will examine the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment, with particular attention to the various approaches to their interpretation that the supreme court has pursued.
The goal of this course is to provide students interested in health law with a unique opportunity to conduct research on current problems being faced in the field of health law. The student will gain practical experience through exposure to health care law practitioners working on problems confronting Temple University Hospital. Using this experience to select a topic and generate ideas, the student will then conduct guided research and write a paper under the supervision of the course instructors.
The litigation process from the pleading stage through trial is thoroughly studied in this writing seminar. Areas covered in detail include: pleading, preliminary injunctions, motion practice, multi-party litigation, class actions, discovery practice and post-trial motions.
This writing seminar will explore the law administering the death penalty in the United States. Four papers [one a month] of 7-10 pages will explore students' personal reactions to legalization of the death penalty, issues of racism, over inclusion, resources, effective assistance, retardation, youthful offenders and post conviction limitations on seeking relief.
This seminar will focus on a specific set of national security threats - those posed to the United States by non-state actors who target US civilians, personnel, and interests with the aim of achieving political change - and examine the legal controversies raised in responding to these threats domestically and abroad.
This writing seminar will focus on both the comparative and international role of law in several Asian societies, including China, Japan, Taiwan and the Korean peninsula. We will compare the ways in which the different societies handle similar problems, and we will also consider the extent to which they are developing a kind of regional international law. Additionally, we will consider the degree to which convergence of cultures, economies and politics in East Asia is helping to promote convergence of law.
This seminar examines high priority areas in international development aid and the legal issues that arise in connection with them. We begin with a discussion of the meaning of development and the role of governments, international organizations, civil society and the private sector in development. We then examine the legal and policy aspects of development in the context of specific needs, such as HIV AIDS, education, the environment and microfinance. We focus, particularly, on the legal questions that arise in building collaborations between donors of international development aid to address these needs and the different legal instruments used to provide such aid. No prior knowledge of development or development law is required.
This writing seminar is designed to investigate the available theories for facilitating "family transition" through the process of separation or divorce and evaluate the extent to which the current practice by lawyers, courts, and related professionals facilitates or undermines successful transitions. There will be a particular focus on families with children and low income or moderate income families, and will include judicial as well as alternative dispute resolution techniques. Students will consider both economic issues following separation and divorce as well as child custody issues. Students will be required to work in teams to develop a research plan and produce individual scholarly written work that encompasses the following areas of research: 1) Identifying legal, psychological, and sociological theories concerning family transition that focus on reducing risks for all family members associated with separation and divorce, 2) "Real world" research that maps and evaluates the resources available to separating and divorcing families, including legal, mental health, court, and alternative dispute resolution procedures in the five county Southeastern Pennsylvania area, 3) Identification of key policymakers that would be in a position to implement policy proposals. Students will be encouraged to share their research findings with key policymakers.
This seminar will explore the legal, moral, social, and political questions that face societies emerging from periods of large-scale human rights abuses. We will study the various strategies that societies have adopted in recent history to recover from war, ethnic conflict, apartheid, and authoritarian rule. Such strategies include prosecutions, truth commissions, reparation programs, institutional reforms, and reconciliation programs. Each student will engage in a substantial research project that describes and analyzes a specific case or problem in transitional justice and explores how that case or problem fits into the larger themes examined in the course. Students will present their research to the class and will be responsible for reading and reacting to the work of their classmates.
This writing seminar examines the many treaties, institutions and customs that govern how health is protected and promoted in the international system. Specific topics will include communicable disease control (e.g., SARS), chronic disease control (Framework Convention on Tobacco Control), international human rights and health, access to medicines (e.g., the TRIPS Agreement), the institutional structure of global health governance (World Health Organization, Global AIDS Fund), and health-related business regulation.
This writing seminar covers the federal regime for protection of civil rights, with a particular focus on (1) emerging or unresolved issues in civil rights law and (2) the broader historical and sociological background underlying federal civil rights statutes and doctrines. Reading assignments (subject to change) will cover Critical Race Theory; the debate over affirmative action; Titles VI and IX (prohibiting discrimination based on race/ethnic origin and gender in programs receiving federal funds, respectively); sexual orientation; and racial profiling.
This course explores the medical/legal issues related to personal injury claims. In addition to discussing human anatomy from a litigator's perspective, the course will examine issues related to theories of liability and defense, expert testimony, diagnostic tests, medical records, and HIPAA.
This writing seminar will provide an introduction to international and domestic refugee law and policy. Beginning with an overview of the origins of modern international refugee law and policy, the course will then move into a basic background of the asylum process in the United States. We will next engage in an in-depth discussion of the doctrine of American asylum law, walking through the relevant elements laid out in asylum law and focusing particularly on areas of doctrinal growth. The course will also introduce students to the standard for claims to protection under the Convention Against Torture. We will then focus on detention of asylum seekers, reading both case law and policy papers. After this grounding in the American asylum system, the course will step back to examine international issues in refugee protection, including temporary and subsidiary protection, internally displaced persons, and durable solutions. We will wrap up with a discussion of challenges facing the American and international refugee law regimes in the future.
This colloquium course will bring in leading scholars to present papers on legal, policy and regulatory implications of different conceptions of human behavior. With the recent explosion of research about how people behave in various contexts, environments, settings and situations, the goal of this seminar is to expose students to this recent research, with an eye toward its application in legal regulation and doctrinal development. There will be outside speakers every other week presenting their current research and its applications. Students are to read these papers before their authors present them, and write a brief two to three page reflection/response paper for each speaker before that speaker's presentation. These assignments will provide students with opportunities to critically evaluate, reflect upon and think carefully about what they have read. In the "off weeks" students will be provided material that provides background on the coming week's topic and instructors will lead discussion to enrich students' responses.
Civil rights and individual freedoms under the First and Fourteenth Amendments are examined in this writing seminar. Topics include Congressional enforcement of the Civil War Amendments, racial discrimination in schools, housing and employment, sex discrimination, national security, libel, obscenity, access to the media, government surveillance and the right of privacy.
Global climate change is threatening to cause severe, widespread and possibly catastrophic changes to our planet. This seminar will consider the implications of climate change for domestic and international law and policy. International negotiations are scheduled to take place in Copenhagen in December 2009, climate change legislation is pending in Congress, and the EPA is poised to begin regulation of greenhouse gases under existing law. How should such legislation be designed in order to accomplish the radical restructuring of the U.S. economy that will be necessary in order shift energy production away from our current heavy reliance on fossil fuels? Should it employ a carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system, or some other regulatory mechanism? How should the costs of transitioning to the new "green economy" be allocated? Should the poor receive subsidies to offset rising energy costs? How might an international agreement to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions be structured to be both politically feasible and fair? Should such an agreement impose costly emissions reduction obligations on developing nations that are already struggling economically, when the problem has been primarily caused by those in the developed world? Who should pay the costs of adapting to those adverse effects of climate change that have already become inevitable - effects that are likely to fall most heavily on the developing world? In the absence of a unified regulatory approach at either the federal (U.S.) or international level, how have advocates already begun to use existing legal structures to try to force action on climate change? We will address these and other questions in the seminar with the help of readings drawn primarily from books and scholarly articles. Students will write a series of short papers over the course of the semester based on the readings and will take an active role in facilitating class discussions.
The seminar will cover the following topics: 1) Childhood as a Legal Status . This segment of the course, joined with the next, act as foundation for identifying the basic legal problem in developing the constitutional rights of children; 2) Children as Family Members. This is focused on fleshing out the legal relationship between parents and children; 3) Children as Victims and Witnesses. This segment of investigates one of the dominant tensions in our system: children victimized by the very people assigned to protect them; 4) Children as Students and Agents. Here again, children are assigned to 'protective' environments that are sometimes hostile or unsupportive; 5) Children as Patients, Consumers, Litigants. This is a catch all, following from the highlighted 'agency' element of the school focused material; 6) Children as Offenders. This segment will be structured to consider the ways in which we hold children responsible for their choices even as otherwise characterizing them as incompetent deciders; and 7) Children as Citizens. This is designed to contain material on regulations directed at children like curfews, underage drinking, and gambling prohibitions.
This writing seminar provides a survey of practical and theoretical aspects of how emotions and neuroscience affect legal rules and institutions. It addresses roles that emotions and neuroscience can, do, and should play in theories and practice of law. Emotions and neuroscience raise profound and interesting questions central to jurisprudence such as these: How do emotions like anger, anxiety, compassion, fear, disgust, guilt, happiness, love, mercy, remorse, resentment, and shame influence the decision-making and judgment processes of judges, juries, lawyers, legislators, litigants, and voters? How and should law take into account evidence based upon brain imaging and scanning technology? How do emotions and reason interact and influence decision making? How are different emotions processed by human brains? Which brain systems regulate which emotions? This course focuses on legal and public policy implications of recent neuroscience research about how emotions influence financial decision making over time and under conditions of risk, strategic interaction, and employment discrimination. Finally, this course addresses how emotions and neuroscience are related to addiction, creating and developing social and institutional structures, criminal and personal responsibility, ethical issues, meaning in our lives, and moral development. This course does not presume any prior formal study of emotions or knowledge about neuroscience, yet it should also be challenging to students with substantial backgrounds in the study of emotions or neuroscience.
This writing seminar will focus on the growing intersections between criminal law and immigration law, with a primary focus on immigration consequences of criminal convictions. The course will begin with an introduction to deportation and removal, and the specific criminal grounds for removal. The remainder of the course will focus on related topics such as immigration detention, applicability of criminal procedural rights in immigration proceedings, right to counsel, retroactivity, terrorist bars, victims of crime, and potential relief from removal despite convictions. This course is intended for students with an interest in either criminal or immigration practice, or both.
Students will examine the provisions of particular Federal statutes including the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), the Hobbs Act, the Mail and Wire Fraud statutes, anti-money laundering provisions, the Official Bribery and Gratuities acts and Conspiracy laws. This course will explore the rationale and appropriateness of the choices made by Federal authorities to investigate and prosecute certain offenses--particularly when there is clear, State statutory authority to proceed. Policy issues to be examined will include the viability of the existing emphasis upon an anti-supply strategy in the Federal effort to contend with the abuse of drugs and narcotics in the United States. The current form of the Federal anti-terrorism program and the impact of the elevation of Intelligence activities by the Federal Bureau of Investigation with its effects upon traditional Criminal law enforcement will be reviewed. Each student is expected to produce a major research paper of publishable quality as a basic requirement of the Seminar. 50% of each student's final grade for the course will be based upon the quality of the written product and the remaining half of the course grade (50%) will be based upon the instructor's assessment of the student's contribution to the quality of the discussion during the weekly meetings of the Seminar.
This seminar will examine recent developments in labor law, most of which are occurring in the shadow of the classic NLRA regime. Among other topics, we will likely study workers' efforts to organize via privately-negotiated recognition agreements; state and local governments' efforts to promote or deter collective bargaining; and the particular challenges faced by immigrant and other non-traditional workers. Throughout, we will also consider the broader constitutional and economic issues raised by such developments, and will ask how labor law should adapt to modern workplaces more generally.
This writing seminar is designed to provide an in-depth understanding of the primary pre-trial motions used during the course of civil litigation, including: 1) motions to dismiss/preliminary objections, 2) discovery motions, 3) motions in limine, and 4) Frye/Daubert motions challenging expert testimony. Both the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure and local procedural rules governing motions practice will be examined. Emphasis will be placed on the purpose behind the various motions as well as how to effectively draft those motions for use in civil litigation.
An examination of the legal, practical and skills dimensions of modern depositions. Topics to be covered: case theory for deposition practice; taking and defending depositions for fact gathering, for preservation of testimony, and for obtaining admissions; taking and defending entity representative, expert witness, and theory testing depositions; use of video recorded depositions; and party and non-party witness preparation.
The purpose of this writing seminar is to explore employer and employee expectations regarding privacy in the workplace and the role of emerging technology. Topics of discussion will include pre-employment inquiries and screening, workplace investigations, monitoring of off-duty behavior, computer usage and data privacy protection.
This writing seminar will examine the laws governing employment relationships and the exclusion of certain classes of workers from worker protection statutes. In particular, we will explore the employment realities of low wage workers, and examine the growth of contingent employment arrangements and their implications for workers' rights and efforts to strengthen them.
This seminar examines how political communities accept, reject, and expel individual members as citizens, and how citizenship law defines and reflects national identity. The course considers how citizenship is acquired at birth, and what requirements are imposed on naturalization applicants. It also considers in what circumstances the government can deprive an individual of citizenship; the special problems of dual nationality; historical racial and gender aspects of citizenship; the special context of terrorism; and the status of non-citizens and the extent to which they can be legally disadvantaged, as for instance with respect to public benefits and political participation. The course also considers the meaning of citizenship beyond the nation-state, including local, indigenous, regional, and global citizenship. The course will pursue critical perspectives on citizenship, drawing from constitutional, statutory, comparative, and international law sources.
This course provides students with an in-depth analysis of U.S. health policy and the impact on access, safety, quality, and efficacy of health delivery. Students will also be asked to review pertinent cases affecting health care practices as well as legislation affecting the profession. Included is a study of appropriate health care practices and their connection to the law. A major emphasis will be placed on safety in the delivery of health care.
In this course students will read and comment on contemporary scholarship in tax policy either while the scholarship is still a work in progress or shortly after its initial publication and be able to discuss their comments with the author, who will present the work to the class. Scholarship will include work to be published in law reviews as well as other forms of contemporary scholarship.
This is not a basic course in international criminal law (ICL), which typically examines the crimes that constitute ICL, modes of liability, characteristic defenses, the tribunals involved, and the bases for assertions of jurisdiction by those tribunals. Rather, this writing seminar previews that more systematic analysis of ICL by addressing a number of constitutive issues, which are grouped into four broad topics regarding issues of: Definition, Universalism, Criminal Responsibility, and Transitional Justice.
This seminar introduces students to the central role of legislatures and administrative agencies in the current legal and social landscape, addressing how statutes and regulations are generated, changed, and interpreted by the legislative, administrative, and judicial arms of government within U.S. federalism.
This seminar provides students with an understanding of the Chinese legal system.
Law & Public Policy II is an upper level seminar with an individualized writing component, focusing on legislative and regulatory reform. Students receive individualized one-on-one instruction while participating in collaborative work that encourages information sharing. Students must complete a scholarly article that is suitable for submission to law reviews. All students are also required to present their papers at a professional conference or comparable setting with an accompanying PowerPoint presentation.
This seminar will explore the extent to which the American legal system provides access to civil justice for people of low and moderate means.
This seminar provides students with an overview of the issues and case law related to wrongful convictions.
Using a hypothetical medical malpractice action venued in the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, students will learn about, and produce, work product in four broad categories of communications: (1) drafting to the client; (2) drafting to opposing counsel; (3) drafting to a demanding supervising partner; and (4) drafting to the Court.
This seminar examines the legal and practical considerations surrounding selected corporate scandals and crises. Additionally, it aims to develop and foster substantive legal knowledge and practical legal skills among its participants.
Through a Murder Mystery that unfolds during the semester, this course will explore how cases are pieced together through the collection of evidence, crime scene assessments, and forensic analysis as students create and analyze a murder book to help solve the homicide. Through real life experiences and lectures by experts in the field, this course will discuss the legal issues involved in forensics from eyewitness identification to polygraphs.
This course introduces modern scientific knowledge about how people make judgments of fact and values, and trains the student to apply this knowledge to the lawyer's core task of persuasion.
This course examines various countries' family laws in light of key comparative law debates, including the legacies of colonialism and the role of globalization; changing definitions of "family" and borrowing across legal systems; migration for marriage and adoption; the role of culture and religion in defining family law codes; and the influence of human rights law. The course will also address, to a lesser extent, the treatment of family law in international law and by multinational courts.
This writing seminar is designed to provide the opportunity to learn to be an effective advocate to improve public policy on behalf of children and families. Students will engage in interdisciplinary research regarding legal issues directly affecting children and families in areas such as divorce and separation, child custody and support, adoption and child welfare. The course will look at theories for how law and policy may undermine or support families and the many different approaches to reform. It will consider issues related to socio-economic status, race, religion and ethnicity in the law’s relationship to families. It will also consider practices of lawyers and courts in relationship to families and children. We will focus on gaining the skills to (1) identify areas needing reform; (2) conduct research into the problem requiring reform; (3) analyze research to propose solutions to the problem; and (4) effectively represent clients. The course will require both oral and written communication individually and in groups.
In this writing seminar, students will explore laws designed to protect and assist people with disabilities. The course will look at laws to provide income and health insurance support including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; laws designed to help people with disabilities to enter the workforce and the community, including the ADA and other civil rights laws; and laws designed to protect people with disabilities in the community, including guardianship, criminal justice, and civil commitment laws. The course will focus on how each area of law is shaped by a different conception policy makers have about who people with disabilities are and how the law can help. Students will compare these and struggle with the ways people must fit into each definition to get help under the law, and will come to understand disability laws and what must be done to access them effectively.
This seminar covers the entire field of custody, including the following: History of custody in America; Constitutional implications; Definitions and general principles including joint custody; Psychological issues from the parent's point of view, from the children's point of view and from the lawyer's point of view; Child custody evaluations; Best interest standard and the factors affecting that standard; Paternity related presumptions and rights of third parties, including the state, grandparents, stepparents and relevance of in loco parentis and different burdens of proof; Abuse; Interstate and International Child Custody Disputes; Relocation; Termination of parental rights; Dependency; Adoption; Methods of resolving custody disputes, including negotiation, mediation and litigation; Post-decision proceedings including modification of orders and appeal and contempt; and Special topics including surrogacy, biological or psychological parents and biotechnology issues.
This course enables students to see first-hand the effect tax policies have on low income taxpayers and then to process that experience through the lens of existing tax policy scholarship and commentary. Students will become certified as volunteer preparers for VITA, the IRS's Volunteer Income Tax Assistance project, and will volunteer at a VITA center of their choice for a minimum of 35 hours during the semester. Class will consist of two parts. During the first part, students will share their experiences preparing low income taxpayer returns, specifically linking what they are seeing in the returns to the scholarship they have read for the class. During the second part they will discuss the specific reading assigned for that class. Students will also produce a series of at least four short papers in which they will offer their reflections on their tax preparation experience and the ways in which it does, or does not, connect with the policies reflected in the scholarship they have read. At the end of the course, students will develop a project, present the project to the class, and write a final paper describing the project. The course will be graded, reflecting a combination of the quality of the periodic reflection papers, participation in class meetings, and the final presentation and paper.
This writing seminar will provide an in-depth exploration of the theory and proof structures of federal employment discrimination law, with an emphasis on exploring how the law should develop in the future.
This seminar will involve in-depth analysis of several major problems in the governance of large corporations, and the ways that power relations operate among the major constituencies of the modern corporation (shareholders, directors, officers, and other stakeholders). To give students a grounding in corporate governance, the course will initially focus on issues raised in the context of U.S. publicly-traded corporations, but as the semester progresses it will introduce particular governance problems and solutions presented in other legal systems.
The seminar goal is to understand the role of the law in creating and perpetuating systems of racial privilege and discrimination in the U.S. from the colonial period to the present. It will also critically examine the effectiveness of race-conscious remedies. The course will cover issues related to African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos/as, and American Indians.
Students will study what poverty looks like in the U.S. and how law addresses the needs of the poor and otherwise affects them. They will look at both laws specifically designed to alleviate poverty and its impact, like welfare, housing, and health care laws, and laws that have a disproportionate impact on the poor, like criminalization and some discrimination law. A particular emphasis will be placed on whether specific laws are in sync with policy goals. Second, students will consider what policy and litigation strategies are being tried presently to alter how things currently are and think about others that could be used. Students will be asked to design their own strategies and through several serial writing papers, will create a short white paper on the topic.
This writing seminar is designed to train upper level students in how to effectively use experts at trial and to prepare the various documents and other filings that accompany expert testimony. Topics will include: how to retain and investigate experts, qualifications and the admissibility of expert testimony, the scientific or technical reliability of the proposed testimony, methods for effective presentation of expert testimony, cross-examination techniques, and ethical issues surrounding the use of experts.
Learning at the intersection of law, politics, and policy, students will explore - through writing and presentations - how legislatures translate controversial public policies into specific legislation. Students will also explore the avenues of how policy can be manifested beyond the immediate passage of legislation, intersecting with the role of the executive branch and the courts.
This seminar is designed to strengthen student research and legal analysis skills through a detailed and comprehensive examination of key legal research resources, with a particular focus on advanced legal research methods and strategies. It teaches students to better evaluate and select sources, develop and implement appropriate research strategies, and conduct effective and efficient research on a range of complex legal topics.
This seminar will explore how the law shapes reproductive decision-making through a variety of mechanisms designed to regulate and control sexuality, bodies, and family relationships. Course materials pose challenging questions about the role of government institutions, economic systems, and social structures in influencing or impeding the realization of reproductive rights.
This course will examine critical legal and policy issues facing the investment treaty regime in a time of sustained economic globalization and populist backlash. The basic principles and policies underlying international investment law will be introduced, including the allure of investor-state arbitration as a means for investment protection. Students will examine and critically assess arguments that investment law undermines human rights protections, discourages legitimate health and safety regulation, and protects polluters while hindering effective responses to climate change. Students will discuss the connections between international investment protection, economic development, and national security. Finally, students will assess proposals to reform or revolutionize the investment treaty system. Students will connect these discussions to broader and timely themes concerning globalization, the rise of populist nationalism, and the future of the global economy.
The goal of this course is to introduce students, by means of a series of specific case studies chosen to illustrate the clash between existing legal regimes and new technologies, to a reasonably comprehensive subset of the legal problems that are being addressed as part of the developing "Internet law."
This course is about different visions of moral responsibility in law. We will examine a variety of concepts, including "neutral partisanship," accountability, fault, causation, and justice. In addition to conventional legal materials, we will use literary works to probe these ideas.
Debates about how food is produced and distributed are often debates about the structure of economic exchange - and thus also debates about the legal rules that govern markets. This seminar uses the production and distribution of food to study the role of law in economic development. We will begin this seminar with history - specifically a history of law and development that traces shifts in dominant ideas of law and development over the twentieth century. We will then study three global shifts in the structure of agricultural production, distribution and trade that roughly parallel this historical periodization. Throughout this investigation, we will ask how law and legal theory shapes food systems and facilitates their transformation and, in turn, how food law and food systems have contributed to development and, sometimes, baffled or misdirected it, producing a great deal of inequality and suffering in their wake. We will look at specific areas of food law and policy including trade liberalization, food aid, land (land reform and land grabs), and biotechnology. We will end the seminar with hopeful contemporary case studies on topics including fair trade, food sovereignty, and food cooperatives. Here, we will pay particular attention to how different actors use law to challenge economic concentration and inequality in global and local food systems and thus how these actors promote particular ideas of social and economic justice and market reform.
This seminar will introduce students to the environmental law framework in the United States, key federal environmental statutes, various enforcement models built within those statutes, and the theories behind compliance. The course will also briefly touch upon federalism and the relationship between federal and state agencies.
This course will survey key compliance challenges facing corporations operating in a global environment. A case study method will be used to explore regulatory regimes in the United States and key foreign jurisdictions that impact international corporate operations, including (i) antitrust/cartel questions, (ii) corruption, (iii) market manipulation, (iv) trading with certain countries, and (v) data privacy. In doing so, compliance issues at all stages of corporate operations will be considered including both ex ante issues (i.e., structuring effective policies, procedures and programs to avoid compliance issues in the United States and abroad) as well as those that arise ex post (i.e. dealing with allegations of non-compliance and remediating any violations found). Also considered will be the liability risks of not only the corporation itself, but also corporate managers and directors (in both their professional and, occasionally, their personal capacities) alongside the risks for third parties who fail to implement and oversee reasonable compliance programs.
This course is deigned to accomplish two primary goals. First, to teach students mindfulness practices and to explore how those practices can enhance their effectiveness in various lawyering skill areas. These include the ability to: (1) listen to, counsel, and work effectively with, clients; (2) identify and deploy negotiating strategies that maximize value for all parties; (3) mediate conflicts; (4) advocate for desired legal and social outcomes; (5) develop leadership skills; and (6) maintain balance and focus in high stress professional environments. The second major course goal will be to teach students effective legal researching and writing techniques.
Individuals, criminal organizations, and nation states now all have the capacity to harm modern societies through cyber attacks, ransomware, data breaches, cyber espionage, and disinformation campaigns. These threats put human rights, economies and national security at risk. And the threat is growing in scale and intensity that will only be amplified by the introduction of Artificial Intelligence tools. This course will explore how law, including domestic and international law, regulate cybercrimes as well as State and State-sponsored behavior online. It will also analyze current debates over the appropriate vehicles and models for governance of cyberspace and governance in cyberspace to ensure it can be more safe, secure, and rights-respecting.
Treaties have long served as one of the several sources of international law. Increasingly, they have come to serve as the dominant source, regulating almost every aspect of international affairs, from bilateral, one-time deals between States to multilateral agreements that aspire to law-like status. This course aims to consider the treaty from three perspectives. First, it examines the treaty concept, using historical, theoretical and functional materials to assess this instrument's role in international relations. Second, broadly following the structure of the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties – 'the treaty on treaties' – it examines the life-cycle of treaties from their inception to their termination. Third, it examines how domestic legal systems regulate treaty-making using the U.S. system as a case study. Taken together, this course considers what treaties are alongside the modern law and practice on their formation, application, interpretation, and termination. Students will write a paper examining a topic related to treaties and will participate in an in-class exercise involving the negotiation and adoption of the text of a treaty.
This course has two primary goals. First, students will learn a process for drafting judicial opinions, including the development of legal reasoning and authority to support their conclusions. They will read materials on how to write judicial opinions and will study judicial opinions to deconstruct their components. Second, students will learn how to view law and judicial opinions from a variety of diverse perspectives and learn to integrate critical legal theory into their legal reasoning and opinion drafting. They will read legal theories that critique law and read judicial opinions that incorporate those legal theories into the law. By focusing on gender, race, class, sexuality, economic class and masculinity, the course requires a desire to learn a new style of writing, a willingness to be deliberate and conscious about how to write law, and an open mind.
This seminar will introduce students to some of the most important broad policy issues raised by the regulation of toxic chemicals, first investigating how these issues have been confronted in the past by regulatory schemes in Europe, the states, and under the old federal law, and then exploring the new regulatory scheme that the EPA is currently constructing under the new statute (the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act). Writing assignments would be practice-oriented and may include, for example, comments on currently pending regulations that could actually be filed with the EPA.
This writing seminar will introduce students to the practice of business transactions law. Business transactions can, of course, take many forms, but most commonly involve either acquisitions or financings. These are fancy words for "purchases" and "investments," respectively. Other transactions include joint ventures, product development agreements, franchise agreements, licenses, and so on. This course is organized around two transactions: (i) the formation (financing) of an imaginary high-tech venture, and (ii) an asset purchase by that venture of another business. In addition to the skills component, students will be expected to draft documents, maintain a strategy journal, and complete several written assignments.
This course is a practical course in which students will apply cyberlaw to pseudo clients. Legal cyberlaw principles involved in electronic transactions, defamation, data breaches, identity theft, hacking, cryptography and encryption, cyberprivacy, cybersecurity, cybercrimes, national security, electronic surveillance, virtual currencies, the deep and dark web, among other current cyberlaw issues will be studied.
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the common name for the emerging world of everyday objects such as wearable technology, personal devices, medical electronics, appliances, homes and cars being linked to each other through the Internet. They collect large amounts of data that is stored in cloud platforms and communicated to other devices and to other parties. They provide revenue for businesses that sell data collected from IoT devices. Additionally, they provide developers, governments, researchers, investigators, hackers and others access to analyze information in different ways. This course examines the legal, policy, and technology issues of these and other expanding aspects of IoT, focusing on how lawyers can be integral to the course of IoT development.
This course focuses on modern consumer payment systems, and the rules, laws, and regulations that govern them. We will look at payment instruments commonly used by consumers - credit cards, debit cards, prepaid cards, and checks - and will discuss the ways in which payments are authorized, cleared, and settled. We will also examine the ways in which consumers who use electronic payment systems are protected. In addition, we will discuss emerging payment instruments, privacy concerns, and policy considerations.
This 3-credit semester long writing seminar will help students learn and practice the elements that would make for a successful candidate in a run for office or a valuable addition to any campaign team. Students will learn about the intricacies of an election, campaign finance law, learn how to build a campaign plan and team, learn how to analyze your constituency, and develop a clear and convincing campaign message. Come to this course and articulate your beliefs about the role of government, make a ten-minute stump speech outlining your plan for your team, and develop a detailed legislative strategy for your first day in office. Learn the history of democratic politics in the United State and how to successfully join the many lawyers who have run for office.
This course will explore the ways in which scientific and statistical evidence is used and evaluated in civil and criminal legal proceedings today. We will introduce the principles and regimes governing the admissibility of evidence of a scientific or technical nature and discuss the underlying policy choices. We will discuss cultural and social contexts in which forensic disciplines have been developed and used in court; interactions between legal and scientific cultures that arise in this context; the roles played by experts, juries, and judges; and scientific, judicial, and lay perceptions of scientific material presented in court. Examining in more detail a number of forensic techniques that have come under scrutiny in recent years will allow us to delve deeper into some of the central questions in scientific evidence today - What makes scientific evidence reliable or unreliable? What is the line between "junk science" and admissible evidence? How might experts and data be biased, and how might courts and litigants detect and correct for those biases? - and engage in a broader debate about the role of science in adjudication. Finally, we will assess proposals to reform or radically overhaul the manner in which scientific and statistical evidence is used in courts today, drawing on both domestic proposals and foreign approaches.
This course will examine federal policies that limit the right to seek asylum at the US-Mexico border and impact litigation challenging these policies. Students will examine the role of the federal court in protecting the rights of asylum seekers at the border and will also explore the role that practices such as accompaniment, human rights monitoring, and popular rights education play in resisting these policies at the border. This course will also examine federal and state responses to resistance, including the criminalization of migrants and human rights defenders. This course will examine case studies and emphasize practice skills in movement lawyering, human rights monitoring, and impact litigation.
This introductory course will expose students to contemporary children's rights issues. Students will learn the sources of substantive and procedural rights of children under international law. Students will explore the evolution of children's rights by reviewing international declarations and conventions of the rights of the child, culminating with the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child and its optional protocols on children in armed conflict and on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. Students will learn about mechanisms for monitoring children's rights, through the state (country) committees and the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child. Students will also learn about complaint procedures through the third Optional Protocol on a Communications Procedures (which addresses matters such as exhaustion of remedies). Students will read case studies addressing issues such as the death penalty for children, access to education, and the use of child soldiers. Over the course of the semester, students will become familiar with international children's rights standards, as well as opportunities - and limits - for advancing children's rights.
ICC Moot Court members are selected after the first year of law school to participate in an inter-scholastic appellate competition involving law school students from other schools. ICC Moot Court members engage in research, writing, and/or oral advocacy projects designed to learn International Law through a case file.
This course will examine how shifting racial legal categories are a critical factor in constructing citizenship. The course will focus on intersectional rights, justice, and liberation through the prism of historical, contextualized, and modernized immigration law, enforcement, and politics. Course discussions will analyze identity issues such as race, class, gender, immigration status, and sexuality. Specific doctrinal areas of law covered in this course include Constitutional Law and Criminal Law to advance student understanding of how our legal system and governance impact marginalized communities in the United States.
The course will focus on biases (explicit and implicit) against women in the legal profession. The course will examine forms of bias (e.g., Confirmation Bias, Prove-it-Again Bias, Tightrope Bias, Motherhood and Workplace Bias), and the difficulties of combatting implicit bias because it is often subtle and hidden. The course will also cover the impact of implicit biases. This will include unequal representation in various fields of and roles in practice (e.g., the underrepresentation of women as first chairs at trial, lead negotiators, and patent and IP practice, just by way of examples.) It will also examine the impact of these biases in, e.g., performance evaluations, access to mentoring, high-quality assignments, networking opportunities, fair pay, promotions, as well as being mistaken for administrative staff and/or asked to perform "office housework." The course will then focus on an analysis of methods to combat or "interrupt" biases. This portion of the course will focus on solutions, including institutional best practices, the importance of allies and mentors, grit and growth mindsets, and the ways law, regulatory regimes and ethical rules can be utilized to bring about change. The course will conclude with studies in leadership, equipping students to recognize and seize opportunities to manage their own professional journey and to level the playing field for everyone.
Law of Investment Management is an introduction to the primary federal statutes and administrative regulations that govern investment advisers and investment companies (primarily mutual funds but also introducing other types of registered and private investment funds). This course will focus on the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, the Investment Companies Act of 1940, the regulations promulgated by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission thereunder, and selected judicial opinions and SEC guidance interpreting those statutes and regulations.
This course examines the role of race, racism and bias in constitutional, statutory and policy issues related to families and the child protection system, more aptly called the family policing system. Specifically the course will examine the role of the state in protecting and policing families, the rights and responsibilities of parents and children, and the allocation of power between families and the state. Students will develop tools to engage in critical and intersectional analysis in considering the role of race, class, gender, sexual orientation, and disability in the design and application of these laws and legal systems. Students will also investigate the unique role of lawyers within these legal systems, and in advocating for reform and/or abolition of relevant laws and systems.
Intellectual Property Moot Court members are selected after the first year of law school to participate in an inter-scholastic appellate moot court competition involving other law school students. IP Moot Court Competition Team members engage in research and writing assignments and/or oral advocacy projects. Students will learn about intellectual property law though a case file that is developed as part of a moot court competition.
Drafting is an essential experience in your preparation for the practice of law. This course presents a unified approach to developing the drafting skills that span different categories of legal documents. Students will learn how to solve a client's problems and to accomplish a client's goals through legal drafting. The primary emphasis will be on drafting statutes and contracts. However, students will also learn drafting principles that apply to other public rules (constitutional provisions, codes, ordinances, administrative rules/regulations, executive orders, and court rules) and private documents (leases, covenants, bylaws, and settlement agreements).
This course will examine how law and policy affect, and are affected by, innovation and scientific/technological advancement. To understand the relationship between law, policy, and innovation, we will focus on several ways in which innovation, law and policy interact with one another. This course will begin by reviewing certain laws and policies that were developed to promote innovation and technological development. While this course will explore certain concepts revolving around biotechnology, genetics, and neuroscience, students do not need a background in science to take this course.
This course is designed to progress as a case study in which the students will initially review a client intake memorandum and investigative report. Students will next develop and present a strategy to their client for combating the illegal activity; students will also present their strategy to relevant government agencies for approval. Next, the students will implement their strategy through assembling their evidence, identifying the appropriate defendants, statutes and jurisdictions for prosecution of their claims, and preparing and arguing motions seeking the desired relief, as well as organizing execution of the same upon the defendants. Through this course students will consider various ex parte civil litigation tactics and strategies available to intellectual property owners for combating illicit trade and supporting both civil and criminal remedies.
This course is designed to provide an introduction to tort actions involving child abuse and sex trafficking of minors in the United States. During the first half of the semester students will discuss the legal landscape of the child welfare system, including definitions and signs of abuse, the mechanics of state intervention, the role of agencies and mandatory reporters. The second half of the course will focus on the sex-trafficking of minors, highlighting sex trafficking as a subset under the larger human trafficking landscape. Students will discuss state and federal anti-trafficking legislation, profiles of victims and perpetrators and special considerations when taking a minor trafficking case to court. Students will also explore policy and ethical considerations relevant to sex-trafficking civil litigation including the efficacy of third-party liability in preventing the abuse and trafficking of minors.
This seminar explores the use of international human rights strategies to advance social justice advocacy in the United States. On issues ranging from racial disparities in the criminal justice system to access to housing, U.S. lawyers increasingly use the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and Inter-American Human Rights System, draw on international human rights and comparative foreign law in litigation before U.S. courts, and engage in broader advocacy such as documentation, organizing, and education. They find that a human rights framework provides effective cross-cutting strategies, helps mobilize communities, and highlights the interdependence of economic, social, cultural, civil, and political rights.
This course will deal with past and present debates over the role that law and legal institutions play in international development. We will examine various aspects of the relationships among economic ideas, legal ideas, and development policies pursued at national and international levels, with an emphasis on trade, global supply chains, and the roles of international organizations such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The course will introduce students to diverse methodologies, including economics, law, critical studies, and other disciplines to understand the successes and failures of globalization and development initiatives over time and across countries.
This course explores why diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) are core competencies in the practice of law and in the administration of justice. This course will examine the history and current state of the legal profession in terms of representation by people from historically underrepresented groups, including women, racial and ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ individuals, and people with disabilities. The course will also explore the role of individuals, institutions, and systems in perpetuating discrimination and injustice. The course will also examine the moral and business case for DEI and the impact of current and historical events on DEI.
This course examines the intersections of law and sexuality, focusing on how legal systems shape and influence sexual and erotic agency. Students will explore themes such as education, censorship, privacy, bodily autonomy, LGBTQIA+ rights, and the impact of shame and stigma on laws and policies that govern our intimate, relational and sexual lives. Using an interdisciplinary approach, students will examine how legal systems regulate, permit, or deny sexual and erotic agency, thereby shaping personal identities, beliefs, behaviors and societal interactions.
This course explores the role of private fund investors in global financial markets today. This course will focus on hedge funds and two types of private equity investors: venture capital and buyout funds. We will discuss the structure of private funds and investment strategies of private funds. We will also gain an understanding of private fund transactions and will focus on venture capital transactions involving portfolio companies. We will also discuss the regulatory environment for private fund investors, including with respect to the Securities Act of 1933, the Investment Company Act of 1940, the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and other relevant laws and regulations. We will discuss a number of other issues of current interest in the private fund arena, including issues related to diversity and inclusion and the role of pension fund investors in the private fund arena.
This course will focus on the most important patent cases pending before the Supreme Court and the Federal Circuit and may also examine cases pending before the federal district courts, the Patent Office, and the International Trade Commission. Students will learn about various issues, which may include personal jurisdiction in patent cases, venue in patent litigation, design patents, claim construction, post-grant challenges at the Patent Office, patent cases at the International Trade Commission, and infringement damages.
This seminar focuses on the intersection between race and gender issues and commercial/corporate law, business organizations, and product markets. Sections will include: examining the impact of race and gender issues on regulated industries, markets, and public corporations; exploring how commercial law regimes (such as bankruptcy, tax, housing, banking) impact race and gender equality; the use of data analysis to support or reject claims of race and gender bias in organizations and transactional markets.
Future litigators, antitrust specialists, corporate attorneys and bankers stand to benefit from an appreciation of how antitrust affects deal-making, how the regulatory process works, how transactions with substantial competitive overlaps might be approved on the basis of creative advocacy, and what mergers may be possible now and in the future in a dynamic competitive environment. In this experiential learning course, students will analyze the competitive implications of potential transactions, study the Department of Justice Merger Guidelines, conduct industry research, draft memos setting forth antitrust arguments to the agencies, and develop a presentation for the purpose of demonstrating that a proposed transaction will not lessen competition and should be allowed to proceed.
This course will provide students with an opportunity to explore the connections between the social concept and embodiment of race, public health, and law. The course will include extensive readings in legal history of race and the social epidemiology of health inequalities and inequities, but will be structured to rely on the students to make sense of what is important in that history to their own agendas for personal and collective legal action.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) attempts to replicate human intelligence in a machine so the machine can perform tasks that typically require human intelligence. Based on the capacity to mimic human characteristics, the technology used, the real-world applications, and the theory of the mind, AI is focused into goal-oriented abilities designed to perform specific tasks, or AI abilities that are in parity with human abilities, or AI abilities that are more capable than a human. Lawyers are presented with issues related to: autonomous vehicles; medical devices (e.g., microchip implants in humans, ingestible pills), medical diagnosis, and health/medical care; reducing energy use; improving cybersecurity; new methods of climate and environmental protection; a safer society; "deep fakes" used to spread disinformation; bias in AI analysis and its impacts on marginalized groups (e.g., employment, setting bail, and criminal sentencing); AI and Intellectual Property (IP) (AI as inventor or author, and IP protection for AI); AI and social media, especially with respect to data mining and privacy concerns; AI in law practice and law firm management; implications of AI for employment; AI and legal decision-making for claims for benefits such as social security disability or workers compensation; and AI affecting finance, transportation, national security, advertising, and a variety of other fields. The governance of AI is aimed at ensuring AI's numerous potential benefits while minimizing risks to consumers' health, safety, security, and privacy is only beginning. Lawyers, policymakers, and risk management professionals must address governance issues with respect to development, deployment and use of AI applications.
In many areas of law and law-making, attorneys are increasingly called upon to evaluate and present empirical evidence to support their claims. Fortunately, the majority of empirical research today uses only a handful of research methods. In this seminar, you will learn about these methods and the types of legal questions that they can address. The goal of this seminar is not to equip students to become producers of empirical research, but rather, to help students become better consumers of empirical research and in so doing, build an important set of skills for legal practice. There is no special preparation or background in empirical methods necessary for this course.
The United States is composed of not only state governments and federal governments, but also Native governments. Each category of government is recognized under the U.S. Constitution, and each category has claimed constitutional autonomy or semi-autonomy status from one another, to different degrees, in different ways, under different circumstances. This seminar uses legal history to understand the construction and intersection of different constitutional authorities over time: federal, Native, and state. The United States and its Constitution have been centrally concerned with various Native peoples from the beginning. Native populations have also remained dramatically, often tragically, affected by growth and success of the United States and its Constitution. This course presumes that the best ideas about what can and should be done in the future will require some familiarity with what has happened in the past.
What is justice? One important component of justice is a decision made according to a rule, rendered by a neutral, impartial decision-maker. But the rule of law ideal does not exhaust our conceptions of justice. When rigidly applying rules seems unduly harsh, justice may consist of showing mercy. Or an occasion might seem to require an empathetic rather than an impartial decision-maker. And, sometimes, focusing on results rather than on procedure is important. Drawing upon literature--short stories, novels, plays--from several countries, this course will examine competing images of just outcomes and procedures. Through in-class discussions, simulations, and writing exercises, students will bring these differing images to bear on an actual legal case in order to see how alternative ideas of justice might affect how lawyers understand and perform their work.
This course will examine the interaction of Latinxs and the U.S. legal system. As Latinxs represent the majority of the U.S. population growth, they are reshaping this country's economic, political, cultural, and legal landscape. This course will delve into the significant forces shaping Latinx identity, particularly related to historical and contemporary discrimination experienced by different segments of this population. We will explore economic inequality, the complex and varied history of racialization, criminal justice, voting rights, identity, citizenship and immigration, educational policy, and civil rights. Specific doctrinal areas of law covered in this course include Constitutional Law and Criminal Law to advance student understanding of how our legal system and governance impact Latinxs in the United States.
Innovation and new technologies consistently generate regulatory questions - whether and how to govern the production, distribution, operation, or use of the technology - and what consequences may follow from regulation for industry, marginalized groups, and the population in general. Of course, different technologies involve different background conditions and contexts that raise discrete regulatory questions and related issues of law and policy. Thus, there is a robust - and growing - set of sub-disciplines focused on law relating to cybersecurity, big data, artificial intelligence, robotics, nanotechnology, and assisted reproductive technology to name just a few. This course seeks to provide students with the analytic and critical tools necessary to engage current law and technology issues in a sophisticated way both theoretically and doctrinally. Ideally, these tools may eventually be employed by interested students in the future to evaluate the latest innovations and technologies over time.
During our lifetimes, climate change will reshape the societies and ecosystems in which we live. Some of these transformations are already underway, and quite apparent; others remain uncertain and unknown. This course examines the challenges of governing a particular type of socio-ecological system - the city - as the climate continues to change. Student will consider the concepts and methods of law and political economy as a way to analyze the rules that structure urban life. We will then turn to challenges for urban governance. Throughout, as we work to explain the current conjuncture, we will assess legal reforms that could promote equity and justice by adapting - or fundamentally redesigning - the places where we live.
Intellectual property (IP) law is crucial in protecting creations of the mind, such as inventions, literary and artistic works, designs, symbols, and brands. In the 21st century, with the rise of technology and digital innovation, IP law has become increasingly important to safeguard innovation, incentivize creativity, and ensure that creators and businesses can reap the rewards of their work while society at large can enjoy the fruits of others' creativity. IP law aims to balance those conflicting interests in the creation and exploitation of information goods. Understanding IP law is essential for navigating today's economy, where intangible assets often hold more value than physical goods, and both infringement risks and new usage opportunities are widespread. This course will take a deep dive into several cutting-edge topics in IP law discourse.
This course is designed to develop the necessary skills for competent and efficient research in a specified subject or practice area for scholarship; as required for participation in one of the law school's clinics, journals, graduate programs, or moot courts; or as needed for the student's intended career path in an area requiring enhanced research expertise. It will introduce students to appropriate specialized tools, resources, and research strategies to effectively and efficiently conduct research tasks in that subject or practice area. Each topic will identify the desired skill set and design the course's structure to enable students to develop that skill set.
In this advanced property seminar, students will examine the ways that property rules and ideas have shaped - and been shaped by - notions of both race and nature. The course will draw on materials from different fields, including law, history, anthropology, sociology, geography, and literature, to explore how these relationships have unfolded in a variety of historical and cultural contexts. Some course topics may include genetic ownership, colonial natures, wilderness conservation, ownership under regimes of slavery, and collective property.
The National Business Negotiating Competition is a credit bearing activity for eligible law students.
Building on the skills learned in Legal Research and Writing I, this course introduces students to legal analysis in the form of advocacy. Students will further develop research and analysis skills and learn to craft persuasive legal arguments. The course emphasizes legal persuasion skills, including understanding legal authority in an advocacy context, structuring written arguments, and refining editing techniques. Throughout the semester, students will engage in hands-on exercises designed to prepare them for real-world advocacy. NOTE: Legal Research and Writing must be successfully completed [a] in order to graduate and [b] prior to taking any writing course.
Education law in the United States presents a stunning array of bias issues. At the very top of the list, of course, is racial discrimination in the assignment of students to schools and the provision of resources. Even those students who never take an education law course are likely to encounter Brown v. Board of Education and perhaps even Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1. This course is intended to focus on selected issues of bias in the law of elementary, secondary and higher education. The focus on bias will have two major aspects. One is the exploration of ways in which education law has often, in combination with other areas of law, such as discriminatory housing laws, contributed to educational inequity based on race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and other categories. The other aspect involves looking at ways in which education law has been, is being, or could be changed in order to address these inequities.
Current Topics courses are developed to cover timely, topical or specialized areas of the law. The topics will be diverse and can range from Administrative Law, to Criminal Law, to Taxation. Each "Current Topic" course will be unique and will not repeat material presented by regular semester courses.
The Foundations of Legal Pedagogy course is designed to expose students to a field of law connected to their duties as a law school teaching assistant. Through this course, students will gain advanced knowledge about a particular legal topic, learn about professionalism and ethical standards in academic settings, and gain experience researching and writing.
This course looks at the body of law, primarily federal law under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), governing the intersection between courts and the arbitral forum. It covers the issues presented to courts for resolution relating to compelling arbitration, arbitrators' exercise of court subpoena power, and court confirmation and vacatur of arbitration awards. The primary focus of the course will be the FAA and the body of case law governing application of its provisions.
The course goal is to understand the role of the law in creating and perpetuating systems of racial privilege and discrimination in the U.S. from the colonial period to the present. It will also critically examine the effectiveness of race-conscious remedies. The course will cover issues related to African Americans, Asian Americans, Latinos/as, and American Indians.
This course will delve into what is ethical behavior for government officials and politicians. It will analyze the definition of ethics, what constitutes ethical behavior, and will examine moral theories in relationship to real life cases. It will also focus on examining how and where ethics fit into the roles of government officials and politicians. This course does not fulfill the requirement to take Professional Responsibility.
This course will examine many of the critical sentencing issues currently being faced by prosecutors, defense attorneys and judges. We will consider the evolving role of sentencing guidelines and the ways in which mandatory sentences, plea bargaining, cooperation and other important factors impact the sentencing process. We will also explore issues raised by imprisonment, alternatives to incarceration, including the use of probation and fines, and the roles and rights of victims in the sentencing process.
This course will explore the law and practice of international and domestic commercial arbitration in the United States and, to a lesser extent, arbitrations under the laws of other countries that are major arbitration venues. National arbitration statutes, international treaties and the procedural rules that apply in arbitration proceedings will be studied, and we will examine the way arbitrations are conducted in the real world.
This course introduces students to the central role of legislatures and administrative agencies in the current legal and social landscape, addressing how statutes and regulations are generated, changed, and interpreted by the legislative, administrative, and judicial arms of government within U.S. federalism.
Nonprofit organizations, ranging from foundations to private universities to religious organizations to political parties, play a vital and growing role in American society. This course will introduce students to the law governing nonprofit organizations, focusing on charitable entities, examining both tax and non-tax issues raised by the nonprofit sector.
This course provides students with an in-depth analysis of U.S. health policy and the impact on access, safety, quality, and efficacy of health delivery. Students will also be asked to review pertinent cases affecting health care practices as well as legislation affecting the profession. Included is a study of appropriate health care practices and their connection to the law. A major emphasis will be placed on safety in the delivery of health care.
This course examines the laws and programs that affect the elderly. Topics to be considered include public entitlements/benefits programs, income maintenance, health care, guardianship and long term care.
The governance of interstate and intrastate commerce in drugs and medical devices is studied. Emphasis is placed upon the effect of the Federal law upon the research, manufacture, marketing and distribution of drugs and medical devices through the regulatory activities of the federal agencies. Pertinent state laws and agencies are also considered.
This course develops the skills and strategies necessary to negotiate and document various facets of complex, but common, corporate transactions.
Commercial transactions invoke 3 distinct systems: (1) sales systems, (2) financial systems, and (3) secured credit. This course introduces the legal rules and principles that undergird the first and third of these systems, i.e. sales and secured transactions. It is organized with reference to the systems in which commerce operates rather than the sections or categories into which statutes and legal doctrine divide.
This course will teach students to use technology to present their message persuasively; to organize and prepare cases; and to control the message both verbally and visually. It will introduce students to various current and emerging technologies used in courtrooms throughout the country. Students will also develop advanced trial presentation skills and learn more about the basic underpinnings of trial advocacy.
This course is designed to introduce students to some of the laws, rules and regulations that apply to people and organizations in the sports and entertainment industries, and to provide an overview of the key topics and debate involving those industries at both the amateur and professional levels.
This course will focus on one or more particular social justice issues each semester. This course will combine the theoretical and practical aspects of lawyering by covering topics such as basic lawyering skills, legal theory, and the role of lawyers in promoting social justice. The seminar will also include regular case rounds where students can collectively strategize about actual cases and advocacy projects while engaging in critical self-reflection about lawyering and professional responsibility.
This course takes students through the complete civil litigation pre-trial process. It begins with the investigation of a case pre-suit. (Pennsylvania actually provides pre-complaint discovery.) The next topic is pleading, followed by discovery (interrogatories, requests for production, requests for admission, and depositions), followed by motions for summary judgment, pre-trial memoranda, and pre-trial settlement conferences.
This course will focus on key aspects of Pennsylvania family law practice and procedure as well as substantive law. This course will also develop students’ lawyering skills, such as interviewing, negotiating and trial advocacy skills within the context of family law practice. Students will be exposed to critical practice issues which arise in family law, particularly as they relate to serving low-income litigants. The seminar will also include regular case rounds where students can collectively strategize about actual cases while engaging in critical self-reflection about lawyering and professional responsibility.
In this weekly two-hour seminar for the Appellate Litigation Clinic, students will be assigned readings on the procedural aspects of appellate litigation, preparing the appellate brief, and presenting oral arguments. Students will also be assigned noteworthy cases and other readings on topics related to the appeals they are handling, including, immigration law, habeas corpus litigation, constitutional law, mortgage foreclosures, landlord tenant law, parental rights and prisoners' civil rights. Guest speakers, including local appellate practitioners, judges, and law clerks, will be invited to address the seminar class.
International Sports Law will examine sports law in an international and comparative context. Among the topics to be studied are the nature of global sports; professionalism versus amateurism; the business structure of team and individual sports; their regulatory oversight; labor relations and collective bargaining; cheating, including doping, the use of performance enhancing drugs, and match-fixing; international merchandising; and entities for dispute resolution. While students will explore several sports and legal environments, the primary vehicles for study will be the Olympics, FIFA, the Court of Arbitration for Sport and European and Asian professional basketball and baseball leagues.
This limited enrollment course addresses selected legal subjects likely to be encountered upon entering the practice of law and will involve systematic study and assessment of those subjects.
Students will study what poverty looks like in the U.S. and how law addresses the needs of the poor and otherwise affects them. They will look at both laws specifically designed to alleviate poverty and its impact, like welfare, housing, and health care laws, and laws that have a disproportionate impact on the poor, like criminalization and some discrimination law. A particular emphasis will be placed on whether specific laws are in sync with policy goals. Second, students will consider what policy and litigation strategies are being tried presently to alter how things currently are and think about others that could be used.
Over the past few decades, the federal government has increased its focus on fraud and corruption in a variety of industries. Businesses are now required to develop comprehensive compliance and ethics programs to comply with a variety of federal, state, and in some cases foreign laws and regulations, in order to minimize risk and avoid legal repercussions. As a result, legal professionals who can advise companies on the development and implementation of effective compliance programs are in high demand. This course will introduce you to the compliance profession, one of the fastest-growing markets for lawyers. Focusing on health care, life sciences, financial industry, energy, and manufacturing sectors, the course will discuss the importance of corporate compliance and provide an overview of the legal and ethical considerations at play. The course will also explore relevant laws, examine emerging risks and provide an understanding of the design and implementation of compliance and ethics program in health care and multiple industries.
This is a course in the investigation and civil and criminal prosecution of health care fraud and abuse. It will introduce the basic statutory structures of the provision of health care in the United States, the mechanisms by which individuals have abused that structure for personal or corporate gain, and the statutes and regulations under which such individuals are held responsible for that conduct. It will also explore the processes by which such abuse is discovered and investigated.
This course is designed to strengthen student research and legal analysis skills through a detailed and comprehensive examination of key legal research resources, with a particular focus on advanced legal research methods and strategies. It teaches students to better evaluate and select sources, develop and implement appropriate research strategies, and conduct effective and efficient research on a range of complex legal topics.
This is a practical, hands-on course which provides students with advanced training on finding and utilizing materials for legal research in Pennsylvania. The course introduces students to a wide variety of Pennsylvania-specific legal resources, which will be useful in a broad range of legal practice in the state.
Students will explore laws designed to protect and assist people with disabilities. The course will look at laws to provide income and health insurance support including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid; laws designed to help people with disabilities to enter the workforce and the community, including the ADA and other civil rights laws; and laws designed to protect people with disabilities in the community, including guardianship, criminal justice, and civil commitment laws. The course will focus on how each area of law is shaped by a different conception policy makers have about who people with disabilities are and how the law can help. Students will compare these and struggle with the ways people must fit into each definition to get help under the law, and will come to understand disability laws and what must be done to access them effectively.
The goal of this course is to introduce students, by means of a series of specific case studies chosen to illustrate the clash between existing legal regimes and new technologies, to a reasonably comprehensive subset of the legal problems that are being addressed as part of the developing "Internet law."
This course is about different visions of moral responsibility in law. We will examine a variety of concepts, including "neutral partisanship," accountability, fault, causation, and justice. In addition to conventional legal materials, we will use literary works to probe these ideas.
This course surveys the empirical literature on contracts and contracting. It is organized around three questions, which will serially recur in the readings: (1) What terms are in contracts, and why? (2) When do firms or individuals pay attention to terms (if ever)? (3) How do individuals and firms respond to contract terms? That is, rather than approaching the field of contracts from the typical doctrinal or economic perspectives, we will proceed more pragmatically, using sociology and psychology to develop models of how agreements are formed and order relationships.
This course will introduce students to the law of Secured Transactions under Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code and how transactions under it are addressed in bankruptcy, which is often viewed as the "acid test" for their enforceability (or not). Studying these subjects together (sometimes characterized as a "systems approach") makes it possible to better understand how credit transactions succeed or fail. Thus, creditors who have a properly created security interest will typically receive the full value of their interest in that property; unsecured creditors, by contrast, have no interest in a debtor's property at all. They typically recover far less. Moreover, while most credit transactions are negotiated and documented against the possibility of bankruptcy, there are other systems and laws for the collection of unsecured debt about which all practicing lawyers must have some basic knowledge, which this course would provide.
This course will introduce students to the environmental law framework in the United States, key federal environmental statutes, various enforcement models built within those statutes, and the theories behind compliance. The course will also briefly touch upon federalism and the relationship between federal and state agencies.
This course will survey key compliance challenges facing corporations operating in a global environment. A case study method will be used to explore regulatory regimes in the United States and key foreign jurisdictions that impact international corporate operations, including (i) antitrust/cartel questions, (ii) corruption, (iii) market manipulation, (iv) trading with certain countries, and (v) data privacy. In doing so, compliance issues at all stages of corporate operations will be considered including both ex ante issues (i.e., structuring effective policies, procedures and programs to avoid compliance issues in the United States and abroad) as well as those that arise ex post (i.e. dealing with allegations of non-compliance and remediating any violations found). Also considered will be the liability risks of not only the corporation itself, but also corporate managers and directors (in both their professional and, occasionally, their personal capacities) alongside the risks for third parties who fail to implement and oversee reasonable compliance programs.
This course is deigned to accomplish two primary goals. First, to teach students mindfulness practices and to explore how those practices can enhance their effectiveness in various lawyering skill areas. These include the ability to: (1) listen to, counsel, and work effectively with, clients; (2) identify and deploy negotiating strategies that maximize value for all parties; (3) mediate conflicts; (4) advocate for desired legal and social outcomes; (5) develop leadership skills; and (6) maintain balance and focus in high stress professional environments. The second major course goal will be to teach students effective legal researching and writing techniques.
This course will examine how police and prosecutors in three distinct cultures gather evidence and investigate criminal activity. Subject areas to be treated in detail will include arrest, search and seizure, obtaining of statements and confessions, pre-trial release, discovery, identification procedures, wiretapping and sting operations. Comparisons and distinctions will be drawn in an attempt to draw from each system what is useful, effective and desirable for the future.
This course is a practical course in which students will apply cyberlaw to pseudo clients. Legal cyberlaw principles involved in electronic transactions, defamation, data breaches, identity theft, hacking, cryptography and encryption, cyberprivacy, cybersecurity, cybercrimes, national security, electronic surveillance, virtual currencies, the deep and dark web, among other current cyberlaw issues will be studied.
This course aims to provide students with a comprehensive introduction to scientific methods for measuring law and its effects. While the focus will be on the evaluation of the health effects of law, the training will be applicable to other social and economic effects as well.
This course explores the complex legal, public health, and social implications of Schedule I drug classification under the U.S. Controlled Substances Act. The course examines the historical development, current legal framework, and socio-political drivers behind Schedule I drug policy. Emphasis is placed on the impact of these policies on marginalized communities, access to healthcare and treatment, and evolving movements toward reform, decriminalization, and legalization. Topics include the federal scheduling system, the role of the DEA and FDA, the War on Drugs, medical and therapeutic research restrictions, harm reduction strategies, and current state and local initiatives.
This course focuses on the law of international investments and trade policy and covers the nature of the international investment transaction and the various forms of regulation thereof. The course will also consider national governmental policies dealing with trade and the restriction thereof.
This course will examine the fundamentals of health care compliance, examining written compliance policies and procedures; compliance oversight and committees; enforcement and reporting requirements; screening of employees and vendors; and negotiating and implementing corporate integrity agreements. The course will also address key U.S. laws and regulations that inform the development and implementation of health care compliance programs and will emphasize practical skills and case studies.
This course will use case studies, regulations/statutes, and hypothetical fact patterns to facilitate comprehensive discussion of various environmental law topics as well as complicated ethical issues. Students will be divided into groups and asked to role-play as environmental attorneys in, among other things: (1) acquiring, financing, and selling an ongoing business and real property with potential environmental concerns; (2) investigating, disclosing, and negotiating with opposing counsel and regulatory agencies regarding a client's noncompliance with environmental laws; (3) participating in a public hearing involving competing interest groups; and (4) handling the complex ethical issues relating to the above situations.
This course examines how law, regulation and government policy shape the development and success of new technologies. It surveys the major legal and policy issues raised by emergent regulatory regimes for self-driving cars, drones, the Internet of Things, online intermediaries like Google and Facebook and sharing economy businesses like Uber and Airbnb. Using these specific technologies as anchors, students are introduced to modern regulation and regulatory agencies, exploring the design, implementation and enforcement of regulation.
The clinical seminar will address the substantive and procedural laws governing civil rights litigation; provide critical analysis of the legal framework overlaying a civil rights practice; and cover lawyering practice skills, through reading, discussion, and in-class simulations.
Second and Third year students will examine policy considerations and litigation strategies in the context of local civil rights litigation. Half the class will work with and represent Philadelphia police officers and other City employees in civil rights suits, while the other half will represent employees of the School District of Philadelphia. The students will examine a number of recent high profile cases litigated by the City and School District and be asked to consider the interplay of civil procedure, constitutional law, and public policy, and how these elements are used to effectuate successful results. Students will learn from instructors and guest lecturers who litigated these cases and be afforded the opportunity to discuss in an intimate setting how these attorneys approach critical litigation. Students will then apply what they learn when they are given the responsibility (under supervision) for drafting motions, preparing and responding to discovery, attending settlement conferences, and appearing before the Court or arbitration panels. By participating in every phase of litigation and learning how strategy permeates the process of litigation, students will begin to gain the practical experience that takes many attorneys years to acquire.
This seminar will develop students' substantive knowledge of federal civil tax procedure and tax issues related to low-income taxpayers. The first few classes will develop foundational skills for clinic work and later classes to build on that foundation both with lawyering skills and tax knowledge. The seminar will be comprised of three components: (1) case rounds; (2) bi-weekly journal entries; (3) presentations.
This course will study the system and structure in which corporations function including: the board structure, director independence, and board attendance; board composition and board diversity; nominating and governance committees; the framework for effective corporate governance; the duty to disclose and duty to update disclosures; the structure and authority of the relationships between the corporation and a board of directors, management, shareholders, and other stakeholders; and disclosure measures.
The course is designed to familiarize students with the current state of global Anti-Bribery and Corruption law and practice, how the current situation came to be, how rapidly the international legal and business environment has developed in recent years with respect to Global Anti-Bribery and Corruption, and challenges facing both businesses and enforcement authorities. The course will examine the development, introduction and impact of the U.S. FCPA and the major international laws, treaties and regimes that followed it. It will review the emergence of key new anti-bribery laws worldwide. And it will review the impact of major scandals under emerging anti-bribery and corruption laws.
Upper division and graduate students will have the opportunity to enroll, concurrently with any approved course offered in a given semester, in a Practice Skills Lab. Each Practice Skills Lab will be organized around exercises designed to further put into practice the doctrine or material being taught in the anchor course.
This course covers the interconnections between race and law through the lens of critical race theory (CRT). It does so by exploring central CRT themes as a methodology for appreciating how the law is used to maintain or address racial injustice. CRT rejects the idea that racial subordination is an aberration from the liberal legal ideal but rather something embedded into our social, political, and legal institutions. This course introduces foundational CRT concepts such as the social construction of race, colorblindness, interest convergence, intersectionality, and oppositional voice. Further, it investigates other critical legal theories - TribalCrit, LatCrit, APACrit, ClassCrit, DisCrit, and QueerCrit - that have grown out of CRT. Finally, it examines the application of CRT to several current legal issues and considers how CRT can operate as a praxis for dismantling racial hierarchy while informing how lawyers might work with communities towards racial justice goals.
Non-citizens who have contact with the criminal justice system face a range of unique consequences, including arrest by immigration authorities, deportation, and detention without a bond hearing. This course explores multiple points of intersection between criminal law and immigration law. Topics include the immigration consequences of criminal convictions, the constitutional limitations on detention and deportation of non-citizens with convictions, and the federal government's use of state and local criminal justice systems to enforce immigration laws. This course will familiarize students with the substantive law necessary to represent clients facing the immigration consequences of criminal convictions in both the criminal and immigration systems. It will also give students the opportunity to discuss the policy implications of predicating immigration consequences on a criminal justice system that disparately impacts poor people and people of color. The course will also familiarize students with the role constitutional law and the federal courts should play in limiting the political branches' power over non-citizens with convictions.
This innovative interdisciplinary course will advance and promote research of cybersecurity and privacy by bringing together three cohorts of students from the computer science, engineering, and legal disciplines. Together, these students will develop a Security Incident Response plan for a critical infrastructure service and work through related experiential and practical exercises. This course will offer students from each discipline insights into how their own disciplines and others approaches cyber risks, actual incidents and their aftermath.
This course examines the legal issues raised by computer-related crimes (cybercrimes), including those involving your ever-present smart phone. In addition, we will study the challenges posed by rapidly developing technologies for citizens, law enforcement, and the courts. The course is structured around two main topics: (1) substantive criminal laws as they relate to cybercrimes, and (2) criminal procedure, especially with respect to how privacy laws regulate law enforcement investigations of cybercrimes. No technical background is required.
This seminar will explore the history, role and regulation of police officers and police departments in American Law. Topics will include investigative policing, street policing, remedies for legal violations and possible reforms.
Students in this course will learn about the various components of complex sports contracts, negotiate the terms of some widely used agreements, and draft the most commonly used documents in the sports industry. The course will cover the following: the negotiation and drafting of player representation contracts, stadium leasing agreements, naming rights for stadiums and arenas, sponsorships deals for athletes, and food and beverage concession contracts between vendors and stadium operators. Students will learn about and practice different negotiation styles by engaging in, and reflecting on, a series of simulated exercises within each lesson. Although the sports industry is used as a backdrop for these negotiation and drafting exercises, the skills that the students learn will be transferable to other practice areas and contexts.
The course will provide an overview of the legal issues related to the growing international and domestic problem of human trafficking. The course will begin with examining slavery, peonage, and involuntary servitude in the law of nations and the U.S. We will also focus on the international legal framework, especially the Palermo Protocols, and the Council of Europe Convention on Action Against Trafficking in Human Beings, and the role of international agencies, and NGOs, as part of the effort to deal with this increasingly acute global crisis. In this context, we will also discuss displaced persons and international refugees as a major contributing factor to the problem of human trafficking. We will also analyze U.S. federal contractors and corporate accountability, and international crimes. Next, the course will concentrate on U.S. laws and policies aimed at combating human trafficking and provide an in-depth look at how they are implemented. We will focus on the TVPRA and criminal and civil litigation under the statute, and issues that attorneys face including the need for a trauma informed approach to representing clients in this practice area. The course will also introduce U.S. anti-trafficking agencies and advocates working to combat human trafficking and discuss the debates and issues they currently face.
In the Advanced Systemic Justice Clinic, students who have completed the Systemic Justice Clinic will have the opportunity to engage in a more in-depth clinical experience. In the Advanced Clinic, students will further develop a matter, case, or project - in collaboration with a community organization, nonprofit legal provider, or other criminal legal reform stakeholder - making use of the skills and knowledge they have acquired during the preceding semester. Advanced students might work with students in the regular clinic, or separately.
This course provides an introduction to the history, current trends, and modern application of Environmental Justice (EJ) advocacy in the United States. While there is no definition broad enough to encompass the breadth of environmental justice advocacy (in fact, States have incorporated environmental justice definitions in their policies created by consensus rather than a known definition), we do know that environmental justice advocacy requires respect for the "sacredness of Mother Earth," its "right to be free from ecological destruction," and "respect and justice for all peoples, free from bias and discrimination." In this class, we hope to address how this respect has been neglected; why has such disrespect negatively affected vulnerable, disenfranchised, and marginalized populations; how environmental racism has been used as a tool to disenfranchise Indigenous people, people of color, and people of limited income; and, how advocates can use law, policy, and Environmental Justice principles to target these issues. Students will explore creative EJ advocacy through examining the philosophical foundations and history of the environmental justice movement, foundational concepts such as justice, race, and class, and watching how they play out in a series of case studies on domestic environmental injustice at the local, state, and federal level.
Every year, thousands of businesses encounter financial distress, from small local enterprises to the largest corporations. They usually seek to survive (rather than liquidate), through a process known informally to lawyers as "corporate restructuring." The law of corporate restructuring is dominated by Article 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code (secured transactions, a subject relevant to many bar exams) and chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code. Although the course is organized around these statutes, practice in this context puts a premium on strategy and negotiation, and so the course uses problems to illustrate the realistic challenges that all businesses - and thus all lawyers advising or litigating with businesses - must face when their clients or adversaries encounter financial distress.
Over the course of our lifetimes, climate change will affect the societies and ecosystems in which we live through some transformations already underway, and others as yet unimaginable. In this seminar, students will use the study of law and the political economy as an analytical lens on these shifts. We will discuss how this lens might help us explain drivers of the climate crisis; devise new ways of addressing social and ecological problems; and envision possible pathways forward. We will read and reflect on classic and contemporary writing on law and political economy, and examine how law structures our relationship with the economy and ecology at the global, national, and local level. Throughout, we will focus on concepts and methods that could help us understand our current conjuncture, and on law reform strategies that could promote equity as we try to adapt, make resilient, or fundamentally redesign the places we live.
In this class students will learn about mediation as both a site of legal practice and as a hope for a genuinely alternative approach to managing conflict and harm. Activists and lawmakers - motivated by a range of criticisms of the legal system - have brainstormed new processes and institutions to reform the legal system, bypass the current system, and suggest more relational and culturally appropriate ways of resolving disputes. However, the more mediation has become institutionalized the more people have also criticized the ways in which its theoretical principles, ethical implications, and practical consequences contradict (or sometimes instead mimic) legal norms and values. To make sense of mediation's many promises and contradictions, we will examine how mediation became institutionalized in the civil justice system and the regulatory, legal, and ethical rules that now govern its use.
This advanced trial advocacy course was designed to provide students with a practical approach to litigating a civil lawsuit from inception through the end of a jury trial. Throughout the course, students will learn about client interviewing, case investigation, discovery requests, depositions, the preparation of pleadings, motions, case theme and theory, direct and cross-examination of both lay and expert witnesses, opening and closing statements, and utilizing technology in all aspects of litigation.
This Independent Guided Research, which will fulfill the law school requirement that all students take a course that explores bias in the law, is designed to help students understand the ways in which law plays a significant role in both constructing and enabling bias and oppression, and the myriad ways in which the above areas intersect.
After having completed the first-year curriculum and demonstrated an interest in business law, students will have the opportunity to become part of the leadership and editorial team for Temple Law School's business law magazine, the Temple 10-Q. Students will learn a new set of skills relating to the creation of public facing legal communication. Students will identify relevant topics for the upcoming publication and participate in team meetings to plan upcoming issues of the Temple 10-Q.
In this two-credit, year-long course, students will work on the leadership and editorial team for Temple Law School's business law magazine, the Temple 10-Q. In this second semester course, students will gain a deeper understanding of business and ethical issues implicated in the practice of business law.
Source: Temple University's catalog, linked per course · table learning_unit · CourseShelf publish 59
