JD Courses

An analysis of the sources of and limitations on the federal judicial power.  Particular emphasis is placed upon the relationship between the state and federal judicial system. 

Taught by a French law professor (in English), this course addresses the substantive law and underlying policies of the law of French business corporations and the ways in which the law differs from U.S. corporate law.  

Taught by a French law professor (in English), this course provides an introduction the French law and legal system, and French legal methodology. 

Focuses on the core of today's health care litigation and regulation in the United States, and health care organization and finance. Covers public health care programs like Medicaid and Medicare; private health care finance and insurance system; liability of health care providers and institution; information privacy and physician-patient confidentiality; tax status and business forms; and the international context for the United States health care system.

Covers the basics of immigration law; family and employment-based immigration categories; citizenship issues, grounds of inadmissibility/deportability; detention; removal and relief from removal. Special emphasisis placed on the immigration consequences of criminal convictions and humanitarian relief under asylum law and under the Violence Against Women Act

An introduction to federal income taxation.  Topics include:  the concept of income; exclusions from income; deductions and credits available to individual non-business taxpayers and business taxpayers; sales and other dispositions of property; capital gains and losses.

Working under the supervision of  working faculty sponsor, the IRP provides an individual student with  an opportunity to research and write about an area of law in which the student has a particular interest.

Examines the unique body of law governing "Indian country," the geographic areas recognized by the federal government as the homelands of sovereign American Indian tribes. Major topics include the history of federal-tribal relations, tribal property rights, tribal court systems, and the balance of governmental power between tribes, states, and the federal government.

Download the 2013 Course Syllabus

A basic introduction to the law of patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets. 

Using a problem-solving method, this course provides a practice-based introduction to private cross-border transactions, such as purchase/sale of goods; licensing of intellectual properties; and investment of capital in foreign countries in a service business.  

Provides an overview of the structure and basic principles of international environmental law and policy. The course considers the challenge of addressing global environmental problems; the regulatory limitations of U.S. law; and the basic structure and principles of international environmental law. The course examines in detail the structure of the Montreal Protocol regime  and covers other areas, including treaties related to climate change, biodiversity and wildlife protection, and the intersection of international trade and the environment. 

Provides an introduction to international human rights law and procedures. It examines what are "human rights" and explores the law of treaty interpretation, how human rights law is incorporated into domestic legal systems, and the role of international governmental organizations, international and regional courts, and non-governmental organizations in protecting human rights.

This course provides an introduction to international law and the international legal system.  Using real-world examples, it examines the processes through which international law is made, interpreted and applied, exploring the role of states as well as that of international bodies, non-governmental organizations, and corporations. The application of international law in domestic legal systems is examined, as is the reach of domestic law in the international arena.

Examines the intersection between trade liberalization and environmental protection. The course addresses protection of natural resources through unilateral trade-based measures, the legality of multilateral environmental agreements employing trade measures, utilization of science-based trade tests, and environmental impacts of foreign investment liberalization.

Download 2013 Course Syllabus

This simulation-based course introduces knowledge and behaviors needed to accomplish interviewing and counseling and negotiation tasks successfully.  Topics include working relationships with clients, gathering information from clients effectively, and helping clients make decisions in both dispute resolving and transactional contexts.

An introduction to contemporary Chinese legal system and institutions in historical and comparative perspective.  Studies diverse aspects in the legal development of the PRC, including the legislature, sources of law, the legal profession and the judiciary, administrative law, the criminal justice system, dispute resolution, and the efforts and challenges of addressing China's environmental degradation and energy problems through law.

Provides an opportunity to obtain field based experience on a part-time basis.  Students must work three hours per week for 15 weeks for each credit earned, and may earn from two to six credits depending on the time committed.  Students meet regularly with their faculty sponsors for evaluation and reflection of their experience.

Places students in judges' chambers, where students learn about the process of judicial decision making by observing the function of a court. Students work with the supervising judge to develop legal skills such as writing, research, and analytical skills. All judicial externship students complete an Academic Component which concentrates on judicial and legal ethics, judicial philosophy and history; decision-making and judicial discretion; and judicial opinion writing.

Explores the opinion-writing process from several theoretical and practical perspectives.  Students draft law clerk memos and judicial opinions based on the briefs and records in actual state and federal cases.

Modeled after the Oxford-Cambridge tutorial system in which the student and faculty member follow a course of reading and meet to discuss, this tutorial provides an opportunity for students to master a field of law and/or philosophy, or explore a particular author's writings in depth, or resolve a particular problem. The preferred subjects are philosophy, jurisprudence, social and political philosophy, ethics, land use, population, environmental, and tort law.