Previous Selected Topics Courses (Courses from past 3 years)

5297 _Mediation Externship - WILLIS (offered in Spring  2010)

5397 _Mediation Externship - WILLIS (offered in Spring  2010)

5197 _Mediation Process - WILLIS (offered in Spring  2010)

5297 A Century of Health Care Reform - ORENTLICHER (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will provide historical and contemporary perspectives on the effort to enact universal access to health care in the United States. Beginning with proposals nearly a century ago, the course will trace the path to the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid in 1965 and then consider more recent legislative approaches. Readings will include comparisons of the US health care systems with universal health care systems in other countries, the different legislative proposals before Congress in 2009 (and possibly the final version of legislation enacted), and strategies to reduce health care spending so that universal access is affordable. The course also will consider the similarities with and differences between a public program for health care and public programs for food, housing and income supplementation in the United States. This will allow us to understand better the kind of legislation that could ensure universal access to health care. The course grade will be based primarily on an in-class, final exam.

5297 Advanced Appellate Advocacy - ROACH/DAVIS (offered in Spring  2010)
This course goes beyond the normal brief writing and oral argument currently taught in the Appellate Advocacy class and truly qualifies as advanced appellate advocacy in the real world. The class would focus on the not infrequently encountered situation where the briefing has already been done by non-appellate specialists before the appellate specialist is ever hired. In other words, the appellate specialist is hired to handle the case after the briefing is completed but before the oral argument is presented, so the appellate specialist could only present the oral argument and then maybe, if the opportunity arises, file a post-submission brief. The challenge is that in this situation the briefs drafted by the non-appellate specialist frequently do not present the best arguments or offer the best chance for the client to win on appeal.

5297 Advanced Legal Research - TABOR (offered in Summer I  2010)
ALR is an upper level class intended to help students become more proficient, efficient, and effective at researching, analyzing legal issues, and composing and organizing written documents. It will build on concepts learned in both LRW I and LRW II and will help students to refine and further develop problem solving, factual investigation and drafting skills. Assignments will include (1) writing a brief involving a complex legal issue; (2) drafting an opinion letters, attorney-client agreements and other reflective documents, and court documents, such as pleadings and motions; and, (3) communicating orally in motion hearings and client meetings.

5297 Advanced Topics in Software Protection - FRANCO (offered in Spring  2012)
The course grade will be based on a single final examination; its format will include short answer questions and one longer essay question.

5397 Advocacy Survey - LAWRENCE (offered in Spring  2012)
This unique course is designed to provide students the opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of legal advocacy. Course segments include Pre-Trial Litigation, Trial Advocacy, Appellate Advocacy, Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration. Each course segment contains a brief overview of 1) the legal underpinnings for each topic area and, 2) the skills necessary to be an effective advocate in that topic area.

5397 Advocacy Survey - LAWRENCE (offered in Spring  2011)
This unique course is designed to provide students the opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of legal advocacy. Course segments include Pre-Trial Litigation, Trial Advocacy, Appellate Advocacy, Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration. Each course segment contains a brief overview of 1) the legal underpinnings for each topic area and, 2) the skills necessary to be an effective advocate in that topic area.

5397 Advocacy Survey - LAWRENCE (offered in Spring  2010)
This unique course is designed to provide students the opportunity to experience a wide spectrum of legal advocacy. Course segments include Pre-Trial Litigation, Trial Advocacy, Appellate Advocacy, Negotiation, Mediation, and Arbitration. Each course segment contains a brief overview of 1) the legal underpinnings for each topic area and, 2) the skills necessary to be an effective advocate in that topic area.

5197 Advocates-Newhouse Mediation - LAWRENCE (offered in Spring  2012)

5297 Apprenticeship/Externship Clinic - KNIGHT (offered in Summer III  2010)

5397 Assisted Reproduction Law - MARIETTA (offered in Fall  2011)
This course examines the legal, ethical, and policy issues that arise from the evolving practice of assisted reproductive technologies (ART), including issues concerning informed consent, legal and moral status of embryos, ownership of embryos, pre-implantation genetic diagnostic testing of embryos, human cloning, and the various options for disposition of frozen embryos, such as donations to others for reproductive purposes or to research for human embryonic stem cell research. The course provides an initial introduction to infertility and the history of ART; describes the scientific, medical, and clinical components of ART practices and procedures; discusses and analyzes case law and the current federal and state regulatory legal frameworks governing ART, and finally explores and analyzes the inherent ethical and public policy arguments and implications that help shape and form existing ART laws.

5297 Bankruptcy Tax - ASOFSKY (offered in Fall  2011)
Bankruptcy Tax explores the resolution of the conflicting policies underlying the bankruptcy laws and the tax laws. When should generally applicable procedures for the determination and collection of taxes by modified to accommodate the orderly administration of a debtor's bankruptcy estate? When should rules requiring taxation of debt relief be overriden in the interests of affording a fresh start? How should rules limiting carryover of corporate losses be adjusted to recognize the investment of creditors in those losses? We will carefully explore bankruptcy rules circumscribing the audit and tax determination procedures, the place of interest and penalties under the Bankruptcy Code, The tax implications of modifying debt, the exclusion of a debtor's discharge of indebtedness from gross income and the consequent reduction of his tax attributes, and the conditions for mitigation in bankruptcy of rules cutting off losses and credits when ownership changes occur.

5297 Bankruptcy Tax - ASOFSKY (offered in Fall  2010)
Bankruptcy Tax explores the resolution of the conflicting policies underlying the bankruptcy laws and the tax laws. When should generally applicable procedures for the determination and collection of taxes by modified to accommodate the orderly administration of a debtor's bankruptcy estate? When should rules requiring taxation of debt relief be overriden in the interests of affording a fresh start? How should rules limiting carryover of corporate losses be adjusted to recognize the investment of creditors in those losses? We will carefully explore bankruptcy rules circumscribing the audit and tax determination procedures, the place of interest and penalties under the Bankruptcy Code, The tax implications of modifying debt, the exclusion of a debtor's discharge of indebtedness from gross income and the consequent reduction of his tax attributes, and the conditions for mitigation in bankruptcy of rules cutting off losses and credits when ownership changes occur.

5397 Basic Construction Law - RYMAN/ANDREWS (offered in Spring  2011)
An overview of the construction process and the body of law that has developed over the years with respect to the relationships of the parties involved in the construction process. This will include an examination of the parties’ duties and obligations arising out of their agreements, governing documents, statutory law and common law. Particular attention will be paid to project delivery systems, the key vertical and horizontal relationships among the participants in the major project delivery systems, the key and controlling documents and agreements among the participants, including construction and design agreements, project specific issues, the design undertaking, subcontracting and vendor issues, common problems during the construction process giving rise to disputes and claims, mechanics’ liens and payment issues and dispute resolution, including mediation and arbitration.

5297 Business Law and Diplomacy in the Middle East - TAHERI (offered in Fall  2010)
An examination of the jurisprudence of countries of the Middle East including Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates. A comparative study of the Middle Eastern jurisprudence to the American jurisprudence. Emphasis on corporate laws, commercial transactions, trade and commerce, investments, banking systems, arbitration, treaties, and litigation between U.S. corporations and businesses in the Middle East. Included in the subject matter is an introduction to the business practices and cultures of the Middle East.

5397 Business Tax - MOLINA (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will survey the federal tax laws as they apply to corporations (so-called "C" and "S" corporations) and their shareholders and to partnerships and partners. The course is designed for J.D. students interested in tax and who don't plan to take additional tax courses while in the J.D. program or for future corporate/ business transaction lawyers who want a well-grounded introduction to business entity taxation.

5297 Children's Health & the Law - WINSLADE (offered in Fall  2010)
This course will examine children’s health and the law from before birth through adolescence. Topics include prenatal and pre-implantation genetic screening, abortion, extremely premature and severely handicapped newborns, Baby Doe rules and child abuse, assent and descent to treatment and research access to and release of medical information, access to treatment, organ transplantation for children and mental health issues. Each topic will also involve the roles of parents and health professionals in making decisions regarding treatment and research.

5297 Children's Health & the Law - WINSLADE (offered in Fall  2011)
This course will examine children’s health and the law from before birth through adolescence. Topics include prenatal and pre-implantation genetic screening, abortion, extremely premature and severely handicapped newborns, Baby Doe rules and child abuse, assent and descent to treatment and research access to and release of medical information, access to treatment, organ transplantation for children and mental health issues. Each topic will also involve the roles of parents and health professionals in making decisions regarding treatment and research.

5197 Civil Practice Clinic II - HEPPARD/STALDER (offered in Spring  2010)

5397 Clean Water Act - BENTHUL (offered in Spring  2011)

5397 Client Interviewing & Counseling - WILLIS/WELCH (offered in Spring  2011)
Analytical and practical examination of the attorney-client relationship, including establishing the relationship in the initial interview; billing arrangements; the importance of continuing communications; case analysis; decision-making; counseling with the client as to case development and strategy; preparation of the client for settlement negotiations as well as trial; termination of the relationship, including the collection of fees. Students will conduct several mock interviews throughout the course.

5397 Client Interviewing & Counseling - WILLIS (offered in Spring  2012)
Analytical and practical examination of the attorney-client relationship, including establishing the relationship in the initial interview; billing arrangements; the importance of continuing communications; case analysis; decision-making; counseling with the client as to case development and strategy; preparation of the client for settlement negotiations as well as trial; termination of the relationship, including the collection of fees. Students will conduct several mock interviews throughout the course.

5397 Climate Change Law - HESTER (offered in Spring  2012)
The enormous challenges posed by global climate change have triggered equally fundamental legal changes. Climate change law has grown into one of the most active fields of environmental law which affects major industries, civil and criminal enforcement, transactions and international relations. Climate change lawsuits will also play their own central role in disputes over the right course of action and in efforts to help injured parties adapt to a rapidly changing world. This course will focus on the foundations, options and challenges to the use of environmental law to address climate change and to determine the obligations or liability of parties allegedly contributing it. We will review the current state of knowledge about the science underlying climate change findings and predictions, examine how environmental and tort laws have adapted to address earlier novel environmental threats and risks, explore the fast-growing network of international agreements, federal regulations and state laws that govern emissions of greenhouse gases or attempt to prepare for climate change effects, and assess how courts have responded to climate lawsuits and their specific legal challenges and evidentiary. Our examination will center on a practical examination on how this new field of law will affect real-world legal policies, permitting, lawsuits and transactions. This class will use a combination of lectures, discussions, in-class exercises, sample problems and case studies. Of course, all students should come to class prepared and able to join in class discussions.

5397 Comparative Competition Law - BUSH (offered in Fall  2010)
International trade does not exist in a vacuum. The course of international commerce is intertwined with a tapestry of competition laws designed to tackle coordinated behavior or structural market conditions which potentially serve to undermine competition within an industry. Increasingly, countries are turning to the European Union and the United States for advice in the development of their own competition policies. As countries increasingly adopt antitrust laws, tension can arise between jurisdictions and their interpretations of how such competition policy should function. This course examines that tension, focusing primarily on the laws of competition in the United States and the European Union. Topics include competitor collaborations and restraints, unilateral conduct and the abuse of dominance, and mergers and other integrations. Issues involving extraterritorial application of competition laws are considered.

5297 Comparative Consumer Law (with emphasis on European Union) - RIEFA (offered in Spring  2010)
The course will start with a study of Constitutional European Consumer Law to enable students to fully understand the legal framework within which consumer protection operates in Europe. The classes will then focus on substantive European Consumer Law and some key areas of study including trade practices, unfair contractual terms and access to justice. Where appropriate students will be invited to compare and contrast American protection to that of the EU. Outline

5297 Comparative Health Law - BOBINSKI (offered in Spring  2011)

5397 Complex Litigation - GIDI (offered in Spring  2012)
Class actions are the most controversial of all procedural devices. After studying the technical issues (prerequisites, certification, notice, opt out, settlement, res judicata) and its specific applications (consumer, antitrust, security, discrimination, mass tort) in concrete cases (tobacco, asbestos, Wal-Mart), we will be able to better understand the political and social implications behind class actions. Although class actions may bring social change and right injustices, it may arguably also be improperly used to harass and blackmail defendants into settling non meritorious claims. The course also deals with non-class aggregation, like joinder, impleader, interpleader, intervention, consolidation, transfers, and bankruptcy. It is also an excellent opportunity to review Civil Procedure concepts.

5397 Computational Law - CHANDLER (offered in Spring  2012)
This course examines ways in which computation can be used to aid the study of legal issues. Topics studied include statistics, finance, actuarial finance, decision theory, game theory, computational linguistics, network theory, data mining, optimization, and complexity theory. Students will be responsible for creating a project illustrating the use of one or more of these techniques in analyzing a problem relevant to law. Use of the Mathematica programming language and creation of "Demonstrations" or CDF format documents will be strongly encouraged. Prerequisite: Analytic Methods for Lawyers or instructor's permission.

5297 Computational Law - CHANDLER (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will meet periodically but not necessarily on Friday. The course will likely meet in my office. This course will give students the opportunity to develop interactive models of legal issues or systems. Topics addressed are likely to include decision theory, game theory, finance, statistics, network analysis and computational linguistics. Students will be graded based on their projects. There will be no final exam.

5297 Contract Drafting - TOEDT (offered in Spring  2010)
The goal of this course is to help students prepare for a type of assignment they will likely see throughout their careers: that of drafting, reviewing, analyzing, explaining, and negotiating contracts. Students will: • explore various legal- and business issues that might need to be addressed in various types of contract (see the list below); • study principles of plain-English drafting for contracts and other legal documents; • review the etiquette and ethics of contract negotiations; • survey some legal pitfalls that could lead to jail time for both clients and lawyers, such as backdating contracts, violating antitrust laws, failing to comply with Sarbanes-Oxley Act obligations, paying off foreign officials, etc. • discuss how to tactfully advise clients (and supervising lawyers) about their options, so as to earn a reputation as a deal-maker, not a deal-breaker; • compare and contrast the roles of outside- versus in-house counsel in contract negotiations; • consider ways of positioning the client for future litigation, just in case. Depending in part on student input, the types of contract to be studied could include, for example, employment agreements, lease agreements, distribution agreements, services agreements, license agreements, stock-option agreements, change-of-control agreements, arbitration agreements, settlement agreements, etc. Professor Toedt plans to invite experienced local lawyers to serve as guest lecturers about specific types of contract. A business background is helpful but not required; all necessary business information will be covered in class and/or in reading materials. Grades will be based on the following, not necessarily in any particular order of importance: (i) a take-home, open-book final, focusing in part on one or more practical exercises; (ii) occasional open-book practical exercises for homework; and (iii) class participation.

5297 Contract Drafting - TWOMEY (offered in Spring  2010)
This course focuses on the fundamental writing skills necessary for drafting norm-setting legal documents such as contracts and private and public legislation. In particular, this course will help students develop skills in communicating with clients regarding the client’s objectives and in incorporating the client’s objectives into contract terms. During the first ten weeks of the course we will discuss finding and using form contracts, explaining contract provisions to your client, drafting contracts in plain unambiguous terms, reviewing and analyzing existing contract provisions, and contract organization. During the last four weeks of the course we will discuss drafting techniques unique to private and public legislative drafting. The class will not focus on any one particular type of contract. Instead, the course will cover, in detail, drafting techniques specific to contracts in general. There is no final for this course. Grades for this course are based on two projects, including: (1) drafting a contract, and (2) drafting a piece of legislation.

5297 Contract Drafting - TWOMEY (offered in Spring  2011)
This course focuses on the fundamental writing skills necessary for drafting norm-setting legal documents such as contracts and private and public legislation. In particular, this course will help students develop skills in communicating with clients regarding the client’s objectives and in incorporating the client’s objectives into contract terms. During the first ten weeks of the course we will discuss finding and using form contracts, explaining contract provisions to your client, drafting contracts in plain unambiguous terms, reviewing and analyzing existing contract provisions, and contract organization. During the last four weeks of the course we will discuss drafting techniques unique to private and public legislative drafting. The class will not focus on any one particular type of contract. Instead, the course will cover, in detail, drafting techniques specific to contracts in general. There is no final for this course. Grades for this course are based on two projects, including: (1) drafting a contract, and (2) drafting a piece of legislation.

5397 Corporate Finance - WELLS (offered in Fall  2010)
Businesses require capital, which can be provided by stockholders, bondholders, banks or other sources. In this course, we will study the legal doctrines governing the rights of those who provide the capital, the obligations of those who receive the capital, and the relationships among various classes of capital providers.

5397 Corporate Finance - WELLS (offered in Summer I  2011)
Businesses require capital, which can be provided by stockholders, bondholders, banks or other sources. In this course, we will study the legal doctrines governing the rights of those who provide the capital, the obligations of those who receive the capital, and the relationships among various classes of capital providers.

5497 Death Penalty Clinic - JEU/DOW (offered in Summer III  2011)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor.

5297 Death Penalty Clinic - DOW/JEU (offered in Fall  2011)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) and non-capital cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor. No book required.

5297 Death Penalty Clinic - DOW/JEU/BOURLIOT (offered in Spring  2011)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) and non-capital cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor. NO BOOK FOR THIS COURSE.

5297 Death Penalty Clinic - JEU/BOURLIOT (offered in Spring  2010)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor.

5497 Death Penalty Clinic - JEU/BOURLIOT (offered in Summer III  2010)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor.

5297 Death Penalty Clinic - DOW/JEU/BOURLIOT (offered in Fall  2010)
Death Penalty Clinic explores the substantive law, investigative techniques, and post-conviction appellate remedies applicable in capital (death penalty) and non-capital cases. Lectures will cover topics such as: Texas criminal statutes, state/federal habeas law, clemency proceedings, investigative techniques, and capital trial strategy. In addition to attending lectures, students work on actual cases. Students investigate claims related to the guilt-innocence and punishment phases of capital murder trials and assist attorneys in investigating and researching legal claims. Although the same substantive material is covered in both Innocence Investigations and Death Penalty Clinic, the classes differ in terms of the type of case work performed by students. Death Penalty Clinic students work solely on cases where a criminal defendant has been convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. In many of these cases, the defendant has a pending execution date. Consequently, it is important that Death Penalty Students be able to adhere to deadlines set by the course instructor.

5397 Discovery Workshop - HOFFMANP (offered in Summer I  2011)
In the context of litigating a contract dispute, students will draft and respond to different forms of written discovery, including mandatory disclosures, interrogatories, document requests, requests for admission and electronic discovery. Students will also learn how to take and defend depositions. The course will meet at the regularly scheduled class time for approximately two weeks and then break for several weeks until the last week of scheduled classes when we will meet for four full days of deposition training. The deposition training will be on a Thursday through Sunday.

5297 Doing Business Down Under--Australia & New Zealand - ALDERMAN & (WALKER) (offered in Spring  2011)

5297 Doing Business Down Under--Australia & New Zealand - WALKER (offered in Spring  2010)
Preliminary Announcement This class will be taught by Professor Gordon R Walker of La Trobe University School of Law, Melbourne, Australia. No prior knowledge of the subject area is required. Seven days of class are scheduled. The mode of assessment is a take home exam. A detailed synopsis of the lectures plus materials will be posted prior to class. COURSE DESCRIPTION: This class focuses on the company and securities laws of Australia and New Zealand. Each of these jurisdictions copied United Kingdom company law and later modified that law. There will be a brief discussion of the company laws of the former British enclaves in the Southern Hemisphere. The purpose of that discussion is to highlight the similarities between these jurisdictions which all share the same legal heritage: once you understand the company law of one of these jurisdictions, it is relatively easy to pick up the company law of a cognate jurisdiction. So the first learning from this class is that there are five major Southern Hemisphere jurisdictions that have similar company and securities laws (Australia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Singapore and Hong Kong). Note also that most South Pacific jurisdictions have similar company laws (because they follow British, Australian or New Zealand models). While this class has academic and theoretical interest, the main focus of the class is on the types of transaction planning issues that confront a practising lawyer. The take home exam puts these issues squarely before the student. The take home exam assumes that the student is an associate in a U.S. law firm advising a U.S. company on business transactions leading to public listing in Australian and New Zealand. So the second learning from this class is the understanding of legal transaction planning issues in Australia and New Zealand from the point of view of a U.S. commercial actor. The introductory lectures in this class conceptualise company and securities law in the former British enclaves in the Southern hemisphere in three ways. We first look at the initial reception of UK law in the Southern hemisphere up until the adoption of the Company Act 1948 (UK). This part of the story is variously called, “transplanting”, “path dependence” or “diffusion”. Second, we look at the attempts to carve new pathways in the region that depart from UK law; here, Australia provides a striking example. Third, we look at the ways in which these jurisdictions have borrowed from and influenced each other. This process of “rediffusion” is particularly evident in Malaysia (influenced by modern Australian law) and those small South Pacific jurisdictions that have adopted versions of New Zealand law. The general scope of the class is as follows: • The UK background; reception of the relevant UK law (especially the Limited Liability Act 1855 (UK) and the Company Act 1948 (UK) in the British enclaves in the Southern hemisphere (Hong Kong, Singapore; Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand; abandonment of the 1948 Act and subsequent cross-jurisdictional influences; • The substantive law in Australia and New Zealand including: short history; operating environment; state and federal powers in Australia; contextual issues (tax rates etc.); choice of entity (companies versus sole traders, trusts and partnerships); formation/incorporation; company management and governance including directors’ duties, and, corporate finance with special focus on securities regulation. • Transaction planning from the point of view of a U.S. domiciled company undertaking real estate acquisitions in Australian and New Zealand with various exit strategies including stock exchange listing. This is a theme that runs throughout the class and is the subject of the take home exam.

5297 Doing Deals - MOLL/MAIERSON (offered in Spring  2010)
This two-hour class will take students through the life cycle of private and public company mergers and acquisitions from the perspective of a practicing lawyer. Using actual deal documents, we will analyze how the business agreement between the parties gets translated into contract terms, as well as the role of the M&A lawyer in advising, negotiating and documenting the transaction. The course will be co-taught by Professor Douglas Moll and Ryan Maierson, a partner at Baker Botts L.L.P. Completion of a Business Organizations or Corporations course is a prerequisite to enrollment.

5297 Doing Deals - MOLL/MAIERSON (offered in Spring  2011)
This two-hour class will take students through the life cycle of private and public company mergers and acquisitions from the perspective of a practicing lawyer. Using actual deal documents, we will analyze how the business agreement between the parties gets translated into contract terms, as well as the role of the M&A lawyer in advising, negotiating and documenting the transaction. The course will be co-taught by Professor Douglas Moll and Ryan Maierson, a partner at Baker Botts L.L.P. Completion of a Business Organizations or Corporations course is a prerequisite to enrollment.

5297 Drafting & Negotiating Int'l Oil & Gas Agreements - Norman Nadorff (offered in Spring  2012)
The course refreshes the students´ knowledge of certain major types of international oil and gas agreements and provides practical, hands-on experience in their drafting and negotiation. Students are provided a detailed and realistic fact pattern mimicking a real-life oil and gas transaction showing how oil and gas deals are conceived of, proposed and eventually formalized. The remainder of the class is built around this fact pattern which is applied to the various types of oil and gas agreements. The course contains the following major components: · A discussion of the role of the contract drafters and negotiators in the oil and gas industry · Practical tips on how to write contracts more clearly and effectively as well as pointing out pitfalls to be avoided. · Strategies and "do´s and dont´s" in contract negotiations. · A thorough discussion of pre-contractual documents (letters of intent, memoranda of association, etc), including in-class review of a homework assignment. · An introduction to the Association of International Petroleum Negotiators (AIPN) and the AIPN Model Form Contracts. · In class, on-screen editing by the students of key AIPN Model Form Agreements (most likely: Confidentiality, Joint Study and Bidding, Farmout, Joint Operating Agreement, Unitization, Lifting, International Consultant and Oil Service). · In-class negotiations of various AIPN Model Form Agreements based on the supplied fact pattern, and eventually involving all of the It is anticipated that for all or a majority of the classes, the lecturer will invite a prominent Houston-based lawyer or negotiator, specialized in the particular agreement being drafted/negotiated that day, in order to provide additional perspective and help facilitate the in-class exercises.

5297 E-Discovery - Chaumette (offered in Summer III  2010)
The increased presence of technology in the workplace has also required significant changes in the way litigation, and specifically discovery, is handled. Adapting to these changes, litigants face an ever-changing arena referred to as electronic discovery, which can be a veritable treasure trove or minefield depending on the level of preparation taken by the client and the client’s counsel prior to the arrival of any legal dispute. This course will outline the major issues and considerations for lawyers involved in the electronic discovery process and prepare the students to face these challenges in their practice.

5297 Elder Law - LOOTENS (offered in Spring  2011)
This course is an introduction to the myriad of legal issues that are often grouped under various titles such as Elder Law, Aging and the Law, or Elderly and the Law. The course will highlight the social and legal issues associated with an aging society, a critical understanding of the distinct legal problems of the elderly and a familiarity with governmental programs aimed at older people.

5297 Elder Law - LOOTENS (offered in Spring  2012)
This course is an introduction to the myriad of legal issues that are often grouped under various titles such as Elder Law, Aging and the Law, or Elderly and the Law. The course will highlight the social and legal issues associated with an aging society, a critical understanding of the distinct legal problems of the elderly and a familiarity with governmental programs aimed at older people.

5297 Endangered Species and Biodiversity Law - IRVINE (offered in Spring  2011)

5297 Energy and the Environment - LANDERS (offered in Spring  2011)
An environmental law course that will explore pivotal issues involving the synergistic relationship between energy law and environmental law. The course will examine several critical topics of global importance associated with various sources of energy and the impact on natural resources and the environment.

5397 Energy Law: Emerging Markets - SKELTON (offered in Spring  2010)
This course explores the legal and regulatory structures affecting foreign investors seeking to participate in the development of the so-called emerging markets, with particular emphasis on energy related transactions. It gives an insight into the types of problems that are encountered when working in countries that provide business opportunities but have weak legal institutions and murky business cultures, such as corruption, human rights abuses, regulatory expropriation, uncertain property rights and government authorizations, and poor dispute resolution and law enforcement mechanisms. The casebook includes introductory text material with a series of problems derived from practice, as well as cases and an analysis of legislative and regulatory materials. The course will also provide practical applications of practice techniques and negotiating skills that may be used in resolving the problems encountered in emerging markets.

5397 Entrepreneurship & Medical Malpractice - Brown/McIver (offered in Spring  2012)
For students considering starting their own law practice, this course will cover, through the case study of a new medical malpractice law firm, the decisions and practical steps that a law firm founder must make to launch his / her own law practice. Grades based on class participation, two quizzes, and a written final exam.

5397 Env'l Law for New Technologies - HESTER (offered in Spring  2011)
Environmental law is usually one of the first and most important tools used to control or challenge the use of new and disruptive technologies. For example, environmental disputes have strongly influenced the development of: •nanotechnology, •genetically modified or synthetic biological organisms, •geoengineering and climate control, •advanced renewable energy technologies (including biofuels and offshore wind), and •unconventional fossil fuel production. In return, emerging technologies can affect the growth and scope of environmental regulations, including toxicogenomics, advanced laboratory detection techniques and remote laser sensing of air pollutants. This course will explore the interplay between environmental law and emerging technologies, including how environmental law creates the demand and market for some new techniques (such as carbon capture and sequestration). We will invite guest speakers from each of these emerging technological fields to discuss their research and whether they pose environmental legal concerns.

5297 Environmental Law in Oil & Gas Production and Refining - BORTKA (offered in Fall  2010)

5297 Environmental Law in Oil & Gas Production and Refining - BORTKA (offered in Fall  2011)
This class focuses on statutory, common law, and regulatory environmental issues that confront the oil and gas industry. Roles, “agendas”, and interaction of judges, regulators, non-governmental organizations, and private litigants (the “stakeholders”) that impact the industry are evaluated. The course is split between covering settled principles of oilfield environmental law versus exploring those issues where stakeholders continue to debate what the law really is….and what it should be. The oil and gas industry exists to make a profit. The cost of environmental compliance degrades corporate profits. Environmental compliance is not always the same as environmental protection. The importance of the cost of compliance/protection and the impact of these costs on industry and the stakeholders is analyzed throughout the course.

5297 Environmental Law in Oil & Gas Production and Refining - BORTKA (offered in Fall  2012)
This class focuses on statutory, common law, and regulatory environmental issues that confront the oil and gas industry. Roles, “agendas”, and interaction of judges, regulators, non-governmental organizations, and private litigants (the “stakeholders”) that impact the industry are evaluated. The course is split between covering settled principles of oilfield environmental law versus exploring those issues where stakeholders continue to debate what the law really is….and what it should be. The oil and gas industry exists to make a profit. The cost of environmental compliance degrades corporate profits. Environmental compliance is not always the same as environmental protection. The importance of the cost of compliance/protection and the impact of these costs on industry and the stakeholders is analyzed throughout the course.

5297 Environmental Law, Bankruptcy & Strategies for Distressed Companies - COOK (offered in Spring  2011)

5297 ERISA - SMITH,S (offered in Summer I  2011)
This course introduces students to the law governing employer-provided pension and benefit plans. It will begin with a look at the history of pension and benefit programs in the American workplace. The course will closely examine the landmark Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and its subsequent amendments. Covered topics will include defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, and a survey of the funding, vesting, accrual, fiduciary, spousal rights and other substantive rules governing such plans. (Tax aspects of qualified plans will be touched upon, but not stressed.) Health insurance and other benefit plans will be examined, with special attention to plan administration, benefit claims procedure, and litigation. Special emphasis will be given to ERISA preemption and its impact on diverse areas of law.

5297 ERISA - SMITH,S (offered in Summer I  2010)
This course introduces students to the law governing employer-provided pension and benefit plans. It will begin with a look at the history of pension and benefit programs in the American workplace. The course will closely examine the landmark Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and its subsequent amendments. Covered topics will include defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, and a survey of the funding, vesting, accrual, fiduciary, spousal rights and other substantive rules governing such plans. (Tax aspects of qualified plans will be touched upon, but not stressed.) Health insurance and other benefit plans will be examined, with special attention to plan administration, benefit claims procedure, and litigation. Special emphasis will be given to ERISA preemption and its impact on diverse areas of law, both transaction- and litigation-based.

5297 ERISA - SMITH,S (offered in Summer III  2012)
This course introduces students to the law governing employer-provided pension and benefit plans. It will begin with a look at the history of pension and benefit programs in the American workplace. The course will closely examine the landmark Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) and its subsequent amendments. Covered topics will include defined benefit and defined contribution retirement plans, and a survey of the funding, vesting, accrual, fiduciary, spousal rights and other substantive rules governing such plans. (Tax aspects of qualified plans will be touched upon, but not stressed.) Health insurance and other benefit plans will be examined, with special attention to plan administration, benefit claims procedure, and litigation. Special emphasis will be given to ERISA preemption and its impact on diverse areas of law.

5297 European Union Energy Law - TALUS (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will focus on the regulation of EU natural gas and electricity markets. In addition to the sector specific regulation, the course will examine how EU competition laws have been used to shape the energy sector. Issues that will be tackled during the course include: competition in EU energy markets (access to markets, natural monopoly segments of the energy sector and so-on), the green energy and efforts to cut carbon emissions (including energy savings), the role of various players (private companies, EU institutions and Member States) in the EU energy market liberalisation and the relationship between the EU energy policy objectives: security of supply, sustainability and competition. In addition to the internal aspects of EU energy law and policy, also the external issues such as the Energy Charter Treaty and the external legal relations with the main energy supplying countries will be examined. In addition to the core EU energy law issues, the more general EU legal order will be described where necessary. It is therefore not required that the students have prior studies in EU law. The course material will include some of the most recently enacted laws, recent case law, policy papers and other recently published material on various topics. In addition to the final exam, the class will do a number of case studies during the course. The course material: 1.        Selected chapters from the 2010 edition (forthcoming in January 2010) of the ELRF collection ?EU Energy Law and Policy?. 2.        Selected chapters from the recent book ?EU-Russia energy relations?. 3.        Main legislative instruments that regulate EU energy markets (Energy Market Directives and Regulations, Renewable Directives) 4.        Main case law from the European Court of Justice and the European Commission (together with case commentaries). 5.        The Energy Charter Treaty related material. 6.        Selected policy documents from late 2009 and early 2010. Much of the material will be available in an electronic format.

5397 Externship/Apprenticeship - KNIGHT (offered in Summer III  2010)
Class meets for 1.5 hours a week to discuss the practice of law. The real world.

5397 Externship/Apprenticeship (2L Law Firm Apprenticeship Program) - KNIGHT (offered in Summer I  2011)
In this 6-week program, students receive 3 hours of non-substantive academic credit while working 25 hours/week for small local law firms. Must be taken in conjunction with Small Firm Practice Skills.

5297 Federal Courts - ROSENTHAL (offered in Spring  2010)
Welcome to Federal Courts. This is above all a course about power. This course deals with the if and when a federal court will decide a question, not how it will decide. The if and the when are frequently as important as the how. This course will cover a number of topics concerning federal jurisdiction and the relationship between federal and state courts. The course material is organized around three main themes: (1) the federal courts’ proper role in the national government (separation of powers); (2) the proper relationship between the federal courts and state courts and the federal courts and state governments (federalism); and (3) methods for enforcing federal rights against government officials. Specific topics include: congressional control over the jurisdiction of the federal courts; justiciability doctrines such as standing,ripeness, mootness, and political questions; federal question and diversity jurisdiction, including supplemental jurisdiction; Section 1983 suits; the 11th Amendment and state sovereign immunity; abstention doctrines; habeas corpus; and federal appellate jurisdiction, including United States Supreme Court review of state court judgments.

5397 Federalism & Environmental Law - BENTHUL (offered in Fall  2010)

7397 Finance & Ethics - ARBOGAST (offered in Spring  2010)

7397 Finance & Ethics - ARBOGAST (offered in Spring  2011)
Examines the line between creativity and deception in finance. Students will analyze seventeen Enron-related case studies, covering that firm's ethical decomposition and the efforts of certain resisters to halt the slide. Guests include several of the Enron resisters. The course concludes with several non-Enron cases involving "gray-zone" activities drawn from the professor's own experience. This class is case study-only and students should expect to analyze and present 2-3 cases.

5297 Financing the Business Transaction - DOLE/KEYES/DOLE (offered in Spring  2012)
SPRING 2012 “FINANCING THE BUSINESS” COURSE Richard Dole, David Keyes, Esq. & Linda Dole, Esq. Course Description and Prerequisite Whether it is a mom-and-pop start-up or a billion dollar conglomerate, every business needs funds to operate and to grow. These funds are obtained through both infusions of equity and taking on debt. This course explores various types of debt financing that either utilize Article 9 collateral or are unsecured, and when each is appropriate. Customary loan documentation will be evaluated. Drafting and role-playing exercises will emphasize preparing and negotiating business loan agreements. A two-hour course limited to twelve students. Secured Financing is a prerequisite. Course Materials (1) West, Selected Commercial Statutes (2011 Unabridged Ed.); and (2) materials supplied by the Instructors.

5297 Financing the Business Transaction - DOLE (offered in Spring  2013)

5397 First Amendment Rights: Freedom of Speech - BUCKLES, E. (offered in Spring  2011)
This is a survey course on First Amendment jurisprudence. The course will include discussion on the history and development of the Supreme Court's current First Amendment jurisprudence and will discuss the current day challenges in bringing a successful First Amendment claim. Grades will be determined based upon a final exam and class participation.

5397 First Amendment Rights: Freedom of Speech - BUCKLES, E. (offered in Spring  2010)
This is a survey course on the First Amendment’s Free Speech jurisprudence. The course will include discussion on the history of Free Speech jurisprudence, and will discuss the current day challenges in bringing a successful Free Speech claim. Grades will be determined based upon a final exam and class participation.

5397 FLLM Practice Skills and Strategies - (offered in Fall  2012)

5297 Fraud & Abuse - CLARK, DONNA (offered in Fall  2011)
This course examines the federal and state laws imposing criminal and civil penalties on health care providers for a variety of fraudulent activities. The course explores the implications of the federal and state Anti-Kickback Laws, the federal anti-referral (Stark) law, the federal civil monetary penalty and exclusion laws, the federal and state false claims laws, as well as traditional federal white collar criminal laws as applied to health care.

5397 Genetics & the Law - ROBERTS (offered in Fall  2011)
This three credit course surveys the role of genetic information in diverse areas of the law. Topics will include an introduction to foundational concepts in genetic science, the commercialization of genetic material through biopatents, the role of genetic information in family law, the admissibility and reliability of DNA evidence in criminal cases, privacy concerns related to genetic testing, and discrimination on the basis of genetic information. Students enrolled in the class will produce three brief response papers of one to two pages in length and one more in-depth paper between ten and fifteen pages. There is no exam for this course.

5397 Hazardous Waste Law - BENTHUL (offered in Fall  2011)

5397 Health & Human Rights - LUNSTROTH (offered in Spring  2011)
Health is a scientific norm, a moral norm, a legal norm and a political norm. H&HR examines health in the human rights context. After an introduction to international institutions and laws regarding health, topics will include torture, human experimentation, the role of the military in realizing the right to health, humanitarian NGOs, access to drugs, access to health workers, the role of poverty, development and globalization (social determinants of health), and the role and intentions of the World Health Organization. The idea of health as a political norm, e.g. dignity, justice and the norm of democratic inclusion, will be used as an overarching moral/legal framework to critique the various real-time scenarios considered in the class.

5397 Health & Human Rights - LUNSTROTH (offered in Spring  2010)
Health is a scientific norm, a moral norm, a legal norm and a political norm. H&HR examines health in the human rights context. After an introduction to international institutions and laws regarding health, topics will include torture, human experimentation, the role of the military in realizing the right to health, humanitarian NGOs, access to drugs, access to health workers, the role of poverty, development and globalization (social determinants of health), and the role and intentions of the World Health Organization. The idea of health as a political norm, e.g. dignity, justice and the norm of democratic inclusion, will be used as an overarching moral/legal framework to critique the various real-time scenarios considered in the class.

5397 Health & Human Rights - LUNSTROTH (offered in Spring  2012)
This is an interdisciplinary course. It begins with readings in political/moral/legal theory about human nature, the idea of dignity, and the bases of ethical life. We then move to international law, human rights (as international legal things), the UN System, the relationship between human and US constitutional (civil) rights, and the existence and function of IGOs and NGOs/civil society [in other words, considered together, the international legal/moral order]. Then, switching gears, the course turns to the theory and practice of medicine and public health. Here readings will center on the nature of science through readings in the philosophy, history and sociology of science; and then principles and theories of public health. We will frame the understanding of the things we study in this section on the way knowledge is organized in the academy. We study science in this detail because it is incredibly influential in the political and regulatory spheres, especially in the way globalization is understood and promoted. We cannot understand the rather strange power of medicine and public health without getting a handle on the ideology of science. We then turn to specific health & human rights legal/moral problems: torture; animal rights; intellectual property interests in drugs, devices and medical methods; migration; the “social determinants of health;” etc. We will do a class exercise in which students become familiar with a related topic, humanitarianism, and its relationship to the military and the use of armed force. We will consider in these contexts whether health is best thought of in terms of scientific medicine, in terms of self-determination, in terms of public health, or as something to do with flourishing. In which of those ideas of health is dignity and the possibility of an ethical, or virtuous, life most pronounced? If the core meaning of health is found in the way the state is constituted, then what is the best kind of state (i.e., constitution or system of laws to promote health)? Since political health is frequently thought of as justice, we will end with some readings about justice. The grade is 30% from class participation (which include the occasional 1-pager and the class exercise); and 70% from a 5,000 word paper. There are no prerequisites. The course complements courses in human rights, bioethics, jurisprudence, science and the law, public health and the law, health law/policy courses, and international law.

5397 Health Law Issues of Special Populations - GRAY (offered in Fall  2010)
This course will focus on legal issues in the interaction of special populations, such as prisoners, Native Americans, minors, immigrants, and certain religious groups, with the health care system.

5397 Health Law Transactions - ISHEE (offered in Spring  2012)
Explores the application of federal and state regulatory principles to health care transactions. Students gain exposure to the document drafting and review aspects of typical health care transactions. This course assumes general familiarity with issues discussed in Health Law Survey: Access, Regulation, and Enterprise, such as the corporate practice of medicine doctrine, antitrust, and fraud and abuse.

5397 Health Regulatory Process - MANTEL (offered in Fall  2010)
This course explores how legal and policy considerations, intra-governmental relationships, and political dynamics influence health care agencies’ regulatory policies.

5397 Health Regulatory Process - MANTEL (offered in Spring  2012)
This course explores how legal and policy considerations, intra-governmental relationships, and political dynamics influence health regulatory policies. Guest speakers will include current and former Department of Health and Human Services officials and health care advocates.

5297 Higher Education Law - OLIVAS (offered in Spring  2013)
This course will cover legal and governance issues that affect higher education institutions: legal governance, academic freedom, faculty, students, and equity topics. The class will include law students and graduate students from other UH colleges. Each student will prepare and submit a seminar paper on an approved college law topic of your choice, which, with class participation, will result in the course grade.

5397 Hospital Law & Ethics - EWER/LEWIS (offered in Fall  2011)
We will explore a series of topics that will touch on what a hospital based attorney may encounter. Among these will be discussions related to the legal aspects of: 1. Access to care, the hospital-patient relationship, and informed consent as it relate to the hospitalized or institutionalized individual 2. The physician and other professionals as employees of a provider 3. Legal aspects of medical research and clinical trials and compliance; sponsored research 4. Conflicts of Interest, conflicts of commitment, and the relationship of the institution and its professional staff to outside pressure or inducement 5. The confidentiality of patient information and preliminary research findings 6. Legal aspects of responsibility with regard to publication; the peer-review process and the legal implications of “ghost-writing” 7. Ethics, especially beyond the end-of-life questions; the formation and constitution of ethics committees, and the various legal and professional perspectives involved 8. A legal overview of the present health-care legislation; what new role hospital attorneys are likely to play 9. Institutional (in contrast to individual provider) malpractice and defense and risk 10. Biological waste as property, and ownership thereof 11. The credentialing process The course will look at case law and readings, and it will involve class discussion and opinion. Adequate preparation of the assigned material will be required, as the course cannot succeed otherwise. The reading assignments will range from moderate to extensive. Some formal lectures will be offered by both the instructor and guest lecturers. The course will be sufficiently flexible so that room for significant discussion of timely events will be allotted. The class will vote during the first session as to if they wish to have a take-home open-book exam to be completed over a designated number of hours, or a standard formal three-hour “blue-book” (or computer) exam, to be graded and curved according to the policies of the Law Center. All participants will be required to comply with the selected examination form. As per school requirements, the eighty percent attendance rule holds. See me for problems; remember, computers are great, but don’t play games or surf the web while in class; computer use for finals as per school regulations; keep cell phones and pager on vibrate or turn them off.

5397 Hospital Law & Ethics - EWER (offered in Fall  2010)
We will explore a series of topics that will touch on what a hospital based attorney may encounter. Among these will be discussions related to the legal aspects of: 1. Access to care, the hospital-patient relationship, and informed consent as it relate to the hospitalized or institutionalized individual 2. The physician and other professionals as employees of a provider 3. Legal aspects of medical research and clinical trials and compliance; sponsored research 4. Conflicts of Interest, conflicts of commitment, and the relationship of the institution and its professional staff to outside pressure or inducement 5. The confidentiality of patient information and preliminary research findings 6. Legal aspects of responsibility with regard to publication; the peer-review process and the legal implications of “ghost-writing” 7. Ethics, especially beyond the end-of-life questions; the formation and constitution of ethics committees, and the various legal and professional perspectives involved 8. A legal overview of the present health-care legislation; what new role hospital attorneys are likely to play 9. Institutional (in contrast to individual provider) malpractice and defense and risk 10. Biological waste as property, and ownership thereof 11. The credentialing process The course will look at case law and readings, and it will involve class discussion and opinion. Adequate preparation of the assigned material will be required, as the course cannot succeed otherwise. The reading assignments will range from moderate to extensive. Some formal lectures will be offered by both the instructor and guest lecturers. The course will be sufficiently flexible so that room for significant discussion of timely events will be allotted. The class will vote during the first session as to if they wish to have a take-home open-book exam to be completed over a designated number of hours, or a standard formal three-hour “blue-book” (or computer) exam, to be graded and curved according to the policies of the Law Center. All participants will be required to comply with the selected examination form. As per school requirements, the eighty percent attendance rule holds. See me for problems; remember, computers are great, but don’t play games or surf the web while in class; computer use for finals as per school regulations; keep cell phones and pager on vibrate or turn them off.

5397 Hot Topics in Children and the Law - MARRUS (offered in Spring  2012)
Students will delve into various topics involving children and the law. The subject matter may involve juvenile justice, child welfare system, the educational system, or health care. Students will be responsible for writing a series of short papers on the topic, presenting information to the class, and critiquing each other’s work.

5397 How to Reason - CRUMP (offered in Spring  2012)
Description (pdf)

5297 Immigration & the Family - FELDMAN (offered in Spring  2012)
This course explores the process involved in sponsoring family members for permanent resident status and examines the obstacles commonly encountered throughout the application process. This course further addresses the consequences of divorce and death on a family member’s immigration status.

5297 Immigration & the Family - FELDMAN (offered in Spring  2011)
This course explores the process involved in sponsoring family members for permanent resident status and examines the obstacles commonly encountered throughout the application process. This course further addresses the consequences of divorce and death on a family member's immigration status.

5197 Immigration Clinic II - HoffmanG/Velardo (offered in Spring  2010)

5397 Intellectual Property Strategy & Management - CLARKSON (offered in Fall  2010)
Course Description This 3-credit course examines the legal and managerial issues facing an IP or information-based organization from its startup phase through either an initial public offering (IPO) or an acquisition by another firm. The course will cover a range of topics including forming the initial venture and structuring its ownership, obtaining financing, operating the venture, maintaining corporate records and databases, and developing and pursuing an exit strategy such as IPO or acquisition. These topics will be explored in the context of organizations whose primary assets are intangible, and thus the course will comparatively examine the various forms intellectual property protection available for the informational assets of an organization. The course will emphasize heavily a variety of transactions in intellectual property, such as licensing and technology transfer, using a series of case studies.

5397 International Banking - ZAMORA (offered in Fall  2012)

5297 International Courts & Tribunals - SAYANI (offered in Fall  2010)
This course focuses upon the practice and procedure before international courts and tribunals that emphasize international civil dispute resolution. The primary focus will be on the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"). Students will examine the ICJ's history, organization, competence and role as a permanent international institution and mechanism for the pacific settlement of disputes between States. With respect to the practice component of the course, students will be exposed to the rules of procedure and style of practice before the ICJ through the use of a hypothetical contentious case between two States. Students will learn how a case is brought before the ICJ and how various procedural and preliminary matters such as jurisdiction, standing and admissibility are addressed before the Court. Particular attention will be paid to the jurisprudence of the ICJ with respect to such issues. In doing so, students will gain exposure to substantive international law in the form of international human rights law represented by various human rights instruments and customary international law. Students will gain experience in researching and using the various international legal materials and sources necessary for making oral and written submissions before the ICI Students will also gain practical experience in drafting written memorials and pleadings for submission to the ICJ, as well as making oral arguments based on such written submissions. During the course of the semester, students will draft one short writing assignment (3-5 pages) in the form of preliminary objections and/or responses to the ICJ each arguing discrete jurisdictional issues arising out of the hypothetical contentious case. Students will also prepare a brief oral argument (approximately 10 minutes) regarding the same. At the end of the semester, each student will prepare a final substantive writing assignment (approximately 8-10 pages in length) consisting of a memorial to the ICJ on the merits of the case. Students will also deliver a final oral argument (approximately 15 minutes in length) regarding the same. Students will work individually and be assigned roles as applicant and respondent for their written and oral assignments.

5297 International Courts & Tribunals - SAYANI (offered in Fall  2011)
This course focuses upon the practice and procedure before international courts and tribunals that emphasize international civil dispute resolution. The primary focus will be on the International Court of Justice ("ICJ"). Students will examine the ICJ's history, organization, competence and role as a permanent international institution and mechanism for the pacific settlement of disputes between States. With respect to the practice component of the course, students will be exposed to the rules of procedure and style of practice before the ICJ through the use of a hypothetical contentious case between two States. Students will learn how a case is brought before the ICJ and how various procedural and preliminary matters such as jurisdiction, standing and admissibility are addressed before the Court. Particular attention will be paid to the jurisprudence of the ICJ with respect to such issues. In doing so, students will gain exposure to substantive international law in the form of international human rights law represented by various human rights instruments and customary international law. Students will gain experience in researching and using the various international legal materials and sources necessary for making oral and written submissions before the ICI Students will also gain practical experience in drafting written memorials and pleadings for submission to the ICJ, as well as making oral arguments based on such written submissions. During the course of the semester, students will draft one short writing assignment (3-5 pages) in the form of preliminary objections and/or responses to the ICJ each arguing discrete jurisdictional issues arising out of the hypothetical contentious case. Students will also prepare a brief oral argument (approximately 10 minutes) regarding the same. At the end of the semester, each student will prepare a final substantive writing assignment (approximately 8-10 pages in length) consisting of a memorial to the ICJ on the merits of the case. Students will also deliver a final oral argument (approximately 15 minutes in length) regarding the same. Students will work individually and be assigned roles as applicant and respondent for their written and oral assignments.

5297 International Intellectual Property - COLMENTER (offered in Fall  2011)
This course examines, analyzes and studies the remarkable subject of International Intellectual Property Law and how to enforce trademarks, patents and copyrights beyond national boundaries. Special emphasis will be placed on international standards for intellectual property and its implementation, application and practices in national jurisdictions. In addition the course covers the differences and similarities between the diverse national intellectual property systems. The course will be divided into six major blocks: a. Overview and Introductory Themes. b. International Copyright and Neighboring Rights. c. International Patent Law. d. International Trademarks and Geographical Indications. e. Unfair Competition and Trade Secrets. f. International Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.

5397 International Organizations - LEWIS (offered in Spring  2010)
International organizations, organizations created by a treaty or convention and whose members are states or governments, play an increasingly important role in today’s inter-connected world. Such organizations impact upon the well-being and security of individuals, the activities of corporations, and the relationships between nations. The course will examine the law related to the nature, responsibilities and activities of these institutions.

5297 International Risk Management - DIMITROFF/RIVERO (offered in Spring  2011)
This course will look at the legal framework for international oilfield service contracts, including both substantive law and practical counseling. The issues and solutions discussed in this course will be similar to those that arise in many other international agreements for the sale of services, which commonly form the substance of much international legal work in Houston. The course would be divided into three basic segments: 1. The first part of the course will set forth the background of international oilfield services contracts, including a review of the underlying treaties, statutes and regulations applicable to these contracts. These would include treaties and laws regulating the creation of oilfield projects, including international trade agreements, such as the WTO and NAFTA. This part will also include a series of discussions and reading assignments relating to enforcement, through litigation or arbitration, of international energy projects, including the New York Convention for Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, extraterritorial aspects of U.S. law, and conflict of laws and comparative law issues (e.g., differences between the law of the United States and England, as well as the general principals of law in common law and civil law countries). 2. The second part of the course will involve analysis of a specific hypothetical drilling agreement. We will use a format that involves the client having negotiated the basic terms of the agreement, which must then be dealt with by the attorneys for the client. The class will assist in the initial evaluation of the deal to advise the client concerning the risks that the company has undertaken. 3. The third part of the course will involve an analysis of problems that arise under the hypothetical drilling agreement, including: counseling of the client as the drilling commences and problems begin to arise; counseling the client and assisting the client them in protecting the company’s interests as the contract begins to slide towards dispute resolution; the conduct of the arbitration, with an emphasis on the strategic elements thereof. This will include multi-national mechanisms for the protection of assets. In each of the above stages, the General Counsel for the client will provide feedback to the class concerning the pragmatic, practical steps that should be taken to protect the client’s interest. The senior partners of your firm will serve as your mentor as to the substantive legal issues before you. The students will be given a project in which they will draft relevant contract provisions based on the materials taught in the first part of the course. The work will be discussed in class, citing specific “client issues and goals.” The students will participate in teams and will then be asked to redraft the provisions to provide solutions. A “model redraft” of the contract will then be given to the class. The students will be graded in two parts. First, they will be asked to analyze the “model redraft” provisions based on the legal issues and rules matters studied during the the course. This portion of the course will count for 40% of the final grade. Second, 60 percent of the grade will be based on a final exam that will be comprehensive and will cover the entire course material.

5297 Internet Law (formerly known as Network Law) - PINSKY (offered in Fall  2010)
This course covers a survey of legal issues arising from the rapid growth of the internet and other on-line communications.

5297 Internet Law (formerly known as Network Law) - PINSKY (offered in Spring  2010)

5297 Introduction to the Law of Mexico - PINTO-LEON (offered in Spring  2012)
This course will provide a general introduction to the Mexican legal system. Topics to be covered will include an overview of Mexican legal history; Mexican constitutional law; the Mexican judicial system; introduction to civil and commercial law; real estate law; civil procedure; and criminal law. The course will also include an introduction to conducting basic research on Mexican law. We will also cover transborder litigation and enforcement of foreign judgments in Mexico The grade for this course will be determined by students' performance on 2-hour open book final exam.

5297 Law & Psychiatry - WINSLADE (offered in Summer IV  2010)
Law & Psychiatry is a study of current topics in law and psychiatry, including civil commitment, right to treatment, right to refuse treatment, competency to stand trial, the insanity defense, adn the psychiatrist's role in the sentencing process.

5297 Legal Negotiations - LAWRENCE (offered in Summer I  2010)
The skill of negotiating is required in all areas and all phases of legal practice. The purpose of the negotiation course can be described in terms of providing participants with a theoretical framework and practical tools for resolving issues on favorable terms while maintaining or enhancing relationships. The objectives for the course are to help participants better understand the significance of process in negotiation, the importance of preparation in achieving objectives, and the value of adherence to fundamental principles; to provide participants with practical tools to prepare more effectively, to organize thinking to help make critical decisions, to adopt and implement effective negotiation strategies, and to learn from future negotiations; and to help participants improve negotiation skills.

5297 Legal Negotiations - LAWRENCE (offered in Summer I  2011)
The skill of negotiating is required in all areas and all phases of legal practice. The purpose of the negotiation course can be described in terms of providing participants with a theoretical framework and practical tools for resolving issues on favorable terms while maintaining or enhancing relationships. The objectives for the course are to help participants better understand the significance of process in negotiation, the importance of preparation in achieving objectives, and the value of adherence to fundamental principles; to provide participants with practical tools to prepare more effectively, to organize thinking to help make critical decisions, to adopt and implement effective negotiation strategies, and to learn from future negotiations; and to help participants improve negotiation skills.

5397 Legislation & Administrative Law - BRUHL (offered in Spring  2013)

5397 Legislation & Administrative Law - BUSH (offered in Spring  2013)

5397 Legislation & Administrative Law - HESTER (offered in Spring  2013)

5297 Litigating Contract Dispute - BUZBEE/ZAMORA (offered in Spring  2012)
This course will introduce students to the practical, strategic and analytical issues that confront lawyers when representing clients involved in contract disputes. Students will confront hypothetical, but realistic contract cases. A good portion of the class will involve division of the students into teams. Each student team will represent a client in the dispute and will analyze the dispute in terms of the client’s contractual rights (and defenses to the opposing party’s claims), along with procedural and other issues that will arise in prosecuting or defending a contract dispute.

5297 Mediation Externship - WILLIS (offered in Summer III  2010)

5197 Mediation Process - WILLIS (offered in Summer III  2010)

5297 Medical Liability - BURRUS (offered in Fall  2011)
This course focuses on medical malpractice litigation. Through a practical approach, the students will examine each step in managing a medical malpractice lawsuit. In addition to exploring the fundamental issues of physician-patient relationship, standard of care, informed consent, institutional and agency liability, and peer review, students will learn about the substantive and procedural aspects of each stage of a malpractice action. The stages will incorporate such issues as determining whether to bring a malpractice action, qualifying or challenging expert and scientific evidence, proving causation and damages, defending malpractice claims, and allocating liability among different providers. Because malpractice is governed by state common and statutory law, most of the cases will be drawn from Texas law. The course will also highlight Texas’ reform statute that many see as a model throughout the nation.

5297 Medical Malpractice Litigation - KAPACINSKAS/BROWN (offered in Fall  2010)
Medical Malpractice Litigation is a broad-based study of malpractice law and policy, including the effect of malpractice on health care access, quality, and cost; malpractice legal doctrine; and legislative reforms. A practical view of medical malpractice litigation in Texas from the beginning of a case to the end.

5297 National Security Law - McCONNELL/GALLAGHER (offered in Spring  2011)
This course will cover presidential and congressional national security powers under the Constitution and case law with a focus on surveillance and other counterterrorism measures including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the USA Patriot Act. The course will focus on applying those principles to national security prosecutions and investigations. The grade will be based on paper written by students on a subject covered by the course.

5297 National Security Law - McCONNELL (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will cover presidential and congressional national security powers under the Constitution and case law with a focus on surveillance and other counterterrorism measures including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the USA Patriot Act. The course will focus on applying those principles to national security prosecutions and investigations. The grade will be based on paper written by students on a subject covered by the course.

5397 Natural Gas & Electric Industries - MAY (offered in Spring  2010)
The course will begin with a consideration of the legal and economic factors that have produced the modern natural gas and electric industries. Similarities and differences in the two industries will be analyzed. The benefits and limits of deregulation will be considered. The importance of and problems with network effects will be discussed. The course will conclude with a consideration of current issues, such as LNG importation and the development of a "smart grid" for the electric industry.

5297 Natural Gas Regulation - LAKE (offered in Spring  2011)
This course will provide an overview of economic regulation of the natural gas industry. The course will cover the principal substantive laws and rules applicable to federal economic regulation of natural gas pipeline gathering, transportation and distribution, as well as natural gas production and selected Texas state regulation. In addition, the course will focus on the economic and regulatory policies that are the drivers of economic regulation of the natural gas industry.

5297 Natural Resources Law - DREW (offered in Spring  2010)
Natural Resources Law This course examines the legal regimes relating to natural resources law and policy in the particular framework of federal public lands management. Particular attention will be paid to overlapping statutory schemes, doctrines involving resources that traditionally have been treated separately and are now coalescing, and a wide variety of concerns reflecting the public interest that have been infused into the legal process. In short, the course will provide an overview of the interrelationships and legal regimes created when commonlaw doctrines and more contemporary statutory schemes meet "on the ground" in areas relating to, e.g., coal, oil, water, land, wildlife. It is recommended that students have previously taken or are also currently taking either Administrative Law or Environmental Law.

5397 Nuclear Energy - BALLENTINE (offered in Spring  2010)
Students in “Nuclear Energy Law” will survey the case law and the statutory and regulatory authorities governing commercial nuclear power generation in the United States, including the Atomic Energy Act, the regulations administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and applicable state law, particularly that of the state of Texas. Students will become conversant with the history of atomic power and the pros and cons of nuclear energy as a potential solution to, or cause of, assorted environmental, economic, and security issues, and gain critical insight into this complex subject by reviewing noteworthy reports and other materials that have been published recently by various domestic and international academic and governmental institutions, industry participants, trade organizations, and public interest groups.

5297 Offshore Leasing - MOORE (offered in Fall  2012)

5297 Oil & Gas Pipeline Regulation - LAKE (offered in Spring  2012)
Oily shale gas development plays have focused renewed attention on oil and gas pipeline infrastructure.This course will provide an overview of federal economic regulation of oil pipelines and gas pipelines. This course will cover the principal statutory provisions, rules and cases that address jurisdictional status, construction, rates and other material economic regulation of these pipelines, with a focus on comparing and contrasting the different applicable regulatory regimes and historical antecedents. In addition, this course will consider the differing economic and regulatory policies that are drivers of federal economic regulation of oil pipelines and gas pipelines.

5297 Origins of the Federal Constitution - ESKRIDGE (offered in Spring  2010)
Origins of the Federal Constitution will explore the historical sources of the Constitution. The class will consider the common law and other influences on early American government and justice (including Locke, Montesquieu, and Blackstone); the American experience prior to and immediately following Revolution; founding papers directly relevant to formation of individual constitutional provisions and early amendments; and commentary on the initial experience and understanding of the Constitution, through to Story's Commentaries. Classroom discussions will consider the historical context in relation to the Constitution's modern interpretation.

5397 Patent Remedies & Defenses - JANICKE (offered in Spring  2011)

5397 Patent Remedies & Defenses - JANICKE (offered in Spring  2012)

5297 Personal & Professional Ethics - SCHUWERK (offered in Spring  2012)
Personal and Professional Ethics This offering is comprised of two separate courses, both of which must be taken in order for a student to be enrolled. The overall goal of the course is to explore the causes of and possible cures for law student and lawyer distress. This is done through a series of readings and speakers that focus on such matters, including an expert on personality types, one or more psychologists who work extensively with law students and lawyers, and numerous practicing lawyers and judges. The overall methodology and philosophy of the course are set out at length in an article authored by the instructor. See 45 S.Tex. L. Rev. 753, 795-804, 809-813 (2004). The one-hour portion of the course will require preparation of a ten-page paper, exclusive of footnotes, on a topic germane to the course. The two-hour portion of the course will be graded pass-fail. It will require preparation of short reflective papers (1-2 typewritten pages) on topics growing out of class presentations and discussions, and the completion of evaluative instruments designed specifically for the course.

5197 Personal & Professional Ethics - SCHUWERK (offered in Spring  2012)
Personal and Professional Ethics This offering is comprised of two separate courses, both of which must be taken in order for a student to be enrolled. The overall goal of the course is to explore the causes of and possible cures for law student and lawyer distress. This is done through a series of readings and speakers that focus on such matters, including an expert on personality types, one or more psychologists who work extensively with law students and lawyers, and numerous practicing lawyers and judges. The overall methodology and philosophy of the course are set out at length in an article authored by the instructor. See 45 S.Tex. L. Rev. 753, 795-804, 809-813 (2004). The one-hour portion of the course will require preparation of a ten-page paper, exclusive of footnotes, on a topic germane to the course. The two-hour portion of the course will be graded pass-fail. It will require preparation of short reflective papers (1-2 typewritten pages) on topics growing out of class presentations and discussions, and the completion of evaluative instruments designed specifically for the course.

5297 Personal & Professional Ethics - SCHUWERK (offered in Spring  2011)
Personal and Professional Ethics This offering is comprised of two separate courses, both of which must be taken in order for a student to be enrolled. The overall goal of the course is to explore the causes of and possible cures for law student and lawyer distress. This is done through a series of readings and speakers that focus on such matters, including an expert on personality types, one or more psychologists who work extensively with law students and lawyers, and numerous practicing lawyers and judges. The overall methodology and philosophy of the course are set out at length in an article authored by the instructor. See 45 S.Tex. L. Rev. 753, 795-804, 809-813 (2004). The one-hour portion of the course will require preparation of a ten-page paper, exclusive of footnotes, on a topic germane to the course. The two-hour portion of the course will be graded pass-fail. It will require preparation of short reflective papers (1-2 typewritten pages) on topics growing out of class presentations and discussions, and the completion of evaluative instruments designed specifically for the course.

5197 Personal & Professional Ethics - SCHUWERK (offered in Spring  2011)
Personal and Professional Ethics This offering is comprised of two separate courses, both of which must be taken in order for a student to be enrolled. The overall goal of the course is to explore the causes of and possible cures for law student and lawyer distress. This is done through a series of readings and speakers that focus on such matters, including an expert on personality types, one or more psychologists who work extensively with law students and lawyers, and numerous practicing lawyers and judges. The overall methodology and philosophy of the course are set out at length in an article authored by the instructor. See 45 S.Tex. L. Rev. 753, 795-804, 809-813 (2004). The one-hour portion of the course will require preparation of a ten-page paper, exclusive of footnotes, on a topic germane to the course. The two-hour portion of the course will be graded pass-fail. It will require preparation of short reflective papers (1-2 typewritten pages) on topics growing out of class presentations and discussions, and the completion of evaluative instruments designed specifically for the course.

5397 Poverty Law Practice - MCELVANEY (offered in Spring  2011)
This course presents practical aspects of practicing law in a variety of poverty law areas. After completing this course, students will have basic legal and practical knowledge in civil litigation, contract issues, real estate practices, landlord and tenant law, bankruptcy, consumer law, family law and divorce, wills and probate, criminal law, and law office management.

5397 Poverty Law Practice - 1L Elective - MCELVANEY (offered in Summer IV  2011)
This course presents practical aspects of practicing law in a variety of poverty law areas. After completing this course, students will have basic legal and practical knowledge in civil litigation, contract issues, real estate practices, landlord and tenant law, bankruptcy, consumer law, family law and divorce, wills and probate, criminal law, and law office management.

5397 Practice of Law in the Oil & Gas Industry - BORTKA (offered in Spring  2012)
Description (pdf)

5297 Privacy & Data Protection - Bender (offered in Spring  2011)
This introductory course will cover the basic principles of privacy and data protection law, and will examine the policies underlying this still-nascent and growing form of protection. It will deal with areas where privacy law conflicts with the media, and with law enforcement, as well as with the privacy accorded government records. It will encompass privacy of financial data, and the relationship between privacy and place. It will also cover some state privacy statutes, some privacy-related activities of the Federal Trade Commission, and the structure and substance of privacy law of some jurisdictions outside the United States, including the European Union. There are no prerequisites for this course.

5297 Privacy & Data Protection - Bender (offered in Spring  2010)
This introductory course will cover the basic principles of privacy and data protection law, and will examine the policies underlying this still-nascent and growing form of protection. It will deal with areas where privacy law conflicts with the media, and with law enforcement, as well as with the privacy accorded government records. It will encompass privacy of financial data, and the relationship between privacy and place. It will also cover some state privacy statutes, some privacy-related activities of the Federal Trade Commission, and the structure and substance of privacy law of some jurisdictions outside the United States, including the European Union. There are no prerequisites for this course. Outline

5297 Procedure of Patent Litigation - DHANANI (offered in Spring  2011)
The Course will focus on how to litigate a patent infringement case in Federal District Court and the relationship of the district courts and the Federal Circuit in patent litigation. In particular, the course will examine a hypothetical patent case from the pleadings, through the Markman hearing, and to trial. The course focuses on the hands-on issues that patent litigators face in their day to day trial preparation. The goal is to provide the students with an overall process for how a patent case is conducted all the way through trial.

5297 Procedure of Patent Litigation - DHANANI (offered in Fall  2012)
The Course will focus on how to litigate a patent infringement case in Federal District Court and the relationship of the district courts and the Federal Circuit in patent litigation. In particular, the course will examine a hypothetical patent case from the pleadings, through the Markman hearing, and to trial. The course focuses on the hands-on issues that patent litigators face in their day to day trial preparation. The goal is to provide the students with an overall process for how a patent case is conducted all the way through trial.

5397 Property & Casualty Insurance - DISIERE/COOPER (offered in Spring  2011)
This class will be one of the most personally and professionally useful courses of your legal education. Property and casualty insurance is purchased, in some form or fashion, by virtually every individual and every business entity in America. In addition to your own personal insurance, almost any practice area will bring you into contact with issues arising out of property and casualty insurance. This course will analyze the fundamental concepts of property and casualty insurance through various policy forms including: General Liability, Professional Liability, Auto, Homeowners, Commercial Property, and Workers' Compensation/Employers Liability. It will also examine common law and statutory bad faith claims, insurance-industry regulation, and ethical issues that arise specifically within the insurance context.

5397 Property & Casualty Insurance - DISIERE/COOPER (offered in Spring  2010)
This class will be one of the most personally and professionally useful courses of your legal education. Property and casualty insurance is purchased, in some form or fashion, by virtually every individual and every business entity in America. In addition to your own personal insurance, almost any practice area will bring you into contact with issues arising out of property and casualty insurance. This course will analyze the fundamental concepts of property and casualty insurance through various policy forms including: General Liability, Professional Liability, Auto, Homeowners, Commercial Property, and Workers' Compensation/Employers Liability. It will also examine common law and statutory bad faith claims, insurance-industry regulation, and ethical issues that arise specifically within the insurance context.

5297 Proving & Establishing Damages - COTELLESSE (offered in Fall  2010)
Producing evidence of sufficient quality to permit a jury to make a reasonable estimate of damages is one of the keys to business litigation. This course focuses on the practical aspects of establishing and proving economic damages. During the course will look at the development of damages throughout the life of a case, from the client interview through arguing damages to the jury. The objectives of this course include helping students understand the basic forms of economic damage models and the keys to producing sufficient evidence to prove them. As the course progresses, the students will have the opportunity to look at the pretrial and trial phases of a case from the point of view of proving damages. Students will interview clients, selecting damage theories; prepare damage discovery; work with expert witnesses; use non-expert discovery in support of damages; plan and take expert depositions; challenge and defend expert testimony; and conduct direct and cross-examination of expert witnesses; and argue damages. By the end of the course, students should have a good understanding of the practical challenges of establishing and proving damages in a business case.

5297 Public Health Law - LUNSTROTH (offered in Fall  2010)
This class will survey the laws and legal institutions that play key roles in the public’s health in the US. Since we live in a globalized world heavily influenced by national security concerns, the class will also cover the normative function of relevant international institutions, such as the World Health Organization and the Pan-American Health Organization, and the normative interface between the national security apparatus and the public health community. We will explore the legal and moral ramifications of the core public health rights issue: the tension between the desire of experts to tell groups and individuals what is best for them, the right of political groups to pass laws governing everyone, and the individual right to liberty; i.e., the interplay in the law between science, the right to equal protection, and the right to liberty. The class will look at laws targeting infectious and chronic diseases; the social determinants of health; the health professions; bioterrorism; and issues said to involve individual moral responsibility, such as obesity, smoking, drug and alcohol use, needle exchange programs, etc. Students will be required to participate in class exercises that include very short papers, and write a longer research paper.

5397 Public Health Law - LUNSTROTH (offered in Fall  2011)
The subject matter of public health law is very much in flux. There are so many health oriented laws and legal regimes in existence now that it might be one of the most “lawyered up” areas of human existence; yet at the same time there is a tremendous push by the public health community, acting through its experts, to expand and reform health oriented regulations. Part of the problem the “reformers” are seeking to address is that many health legal regimes date to the early 20th century and do not address the different kinds of health influences that now exist. Yet that does not explain the reform movement in its entirety. The public health movement is historically and politically quite complex. It has its origins in two 19th century “discoveries.” First, reformers such as Friedrich Engels (of Marx & Engels fame), and Rudolph Virchow, among others, realized that there is an intimate link between poverty and working conditions and health. This insight became central to socialist ideology; fell out of favor among public health experts in the latter part of the 19th century with the advent of scientific medicine, and came back into national consciousness in the US in the 1960s and 70s. It is now revitalized, but as you can imagine is controversial especially in the US because it sees disease as a result of economic structures. Poverty creates disease. By the way, this is the best scientific explanation for disease at the population level that we have. It is very well documented. Second, beginning with Snow’s discovery of the link between fecally contaminated water and cholera (1850-1855), and taking off with Koch’s discovery of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (1872), was the bacterial and scientific revolution. Laboratory science became the darling of progressive era medicine and ideas about the public’s health. As the medical profession became more and more powerful, it co-opted ideas about public health that involved political or community based solutions to health problems. The two origins of public health are at odds with one another, and this conflict is at the root of attempts to reform the regulation of the public’s health today. On the various hands of this multi-armed creature are: scientific and medical experts, with their lawyers, demanding more detailed regulation of our behavior; public health socialists and their lawyers demanding income redistribution; the private capitalist sector, demanding more powerful market protections for their health and medical products; and the American public with its historical aversion to regulation. This structure is reflected into the international legal sphere (e.g., in regulations passed by the World Health Assembly) through the powerful influence of neo-liberal economic pressures, and the claims to universality of the American medical/scientific model. The course will survey the various laws in existence, and explore the various pressures that seek to influence legal reform of the public health sector. Grade will be from class participation, including two or three 1 page papers, and a 5,000 word paper due end of final exam period.

5397 Race & the Law - CHASE (offered in Spring  2012)
This course will examine the application of constitutional and statutory antidiscrimination law to race related controversies across a variety of settings. The course will begin with an exploration of the historical developments that led to antidiscrimination law, and with an introduction to the competing frameworks that define current antidiscrimination law: the discriminatory purpose and anti-classification approaches that feature prominently in equal protection doctrine, and the disparate impact framework that is incorporated into some statutory law. The settings that will be examined include criminal justice, college admissions, political participation, primary/secondary education, employment, housing, hate speech, and the formation of family relationships. In each of these settings, we will devote close attention to the role of antidiscrimination law in specific controversies. Throughout, our intellectual goals will be twofold: to understand the special challenges that race poses, and to appreciate more generally some of the dilemmas of legal regulation.

5297 Renewable Energy Law - DUVIVIER (offered in Spring  2011)
Although renewable energy sources currently account for less than 10 % of total energy consumption in the United States, the development of many of these energy sources has grown exponentially both nationally and worldwide. The increased appetite for renewable energy sources has driven a need for more information about those sources and the significant legal implications arising from the development of those sources. This course will focus primarily on critical legal issues in tort, property, and contract areas raised by the expansion of key renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydropower, biomass, and geothermal. The course also will address the role of energy efficiency and some of the broader legal hurdles facing renewable energy use from a nationwide perspective.

7397 SEM: Immigration Law & Business - OLIVAS (offered in Fall  2010)
This course, which will be open to 2L, 3L, 4L, and LLM students, as well as graduate students in UH departments outside the Law Center, will assume some familiarity with basic U.S. immigration law. It will concentrate upon the employment-based provisions of immigration law (EB), particularly those non-immigrant and permanent resident provisions that authorize employment. This course will provide an overview of immigration issues in employment, including an explanation of U.S. immigration policy and its impact on U.S. employers; visa categories available to employers and their foreign employees who wish to work in the U.S.; the anti-discrimination provisions of the Immigration Reform and Control Act (which cover employers not covered by Title VII); and Form I-9 issues. More specifically, discussion will include differences between permanent resident/immigrant visas (more commonly known as "green card") and nonimmigrant visa status and the subcategories within each, as well as the different criteria that must be met in order to qualify for specific visas. The several employment-based visas will be emphasized, including L-1 "intracompany transfer" visas, H-1B "specialty occupation" visas, E treaty/trader/investor visas, O, P, and TN visas under NAFTA.

7397 SEM: Advanced Tort - DUNCAN (offered in Spring  2010)
This seminar provides an opportunity for further exploration of tort law, beyond that of the typical first year torts course.

7397 SEM: Advanced Tort - DUNCAN (offered in Spring  2011)
This seminar provides an opportunity for further exploration of tort law, beyond that of the typical first year torts course.

7397 SEM: Advanced Tort - DUNCAN (offered in Spring  2013)
This seminar provides an opportunity for further exploration of tort law, beyond that of the typical first year torts course.

7397 SEM: Biodiversity & Ecosystem Conservation - ARNOLD (offered in Spring  2010)
This seminar focuses on the legal, policy, and management regimes protecting biodiversity and ecosystems in the United States. This seminar has 3 particular characteristics. First, it focuses on a broad array of domestic U.S. laws, including the federal Endangered Species Act, federal statutes and regulations governing public lands and natural resources, the Clean Water Act, state environmental laws, local land use planning and regulation, private property interests such as conservation easements, informal multi-stakeholder planning processes, and others. (Unfortunately, time does not permit more attention to international laws, which are often covered in other courses). Second, it integrates a broad array of disciplinary perspectives and insights from biology, conservation ecology, natural resources management, political science and political theory, economics, psychology, geography, urban planning, sociology, and ethics. Third, it uses case studies to explore the complex, dynamic, and interdependent relationships among numerous, diverse principles and features of biodiversity and ecosystem conservation systems. Students will write an in-depth academic research paper on a case study of a particular conflict, problem, decision, initiative, or innovation regarding the conservation of biodiversity and/or ecosystems. Case studies allow for the exploration of rich, nuanced details, and the students’ contributions to new understandings of law and the environment, based on analysis of real-world examples. A list of suggested topics will be provided early in the semester. Students may select from the list or propose their own topics, but any selection is subject to approval by Professor Arnold.

7397 SEM: Children & the Law - MARRUS (offered in Spring  2013)

7397 SEM: Complex Litigation - GIDI (offered in Spring  2011)
Class action is the most controversial of all procedural devices. After studying the technical issues (prerequisites, certification, notice, opt out, settlement, res judicata) and its specific applications (antitrust, security, discrimination, mass tort), we will be able to better understand the political and social implications behind class actions. The course also deals with non-class aggregation, like joinder, impleader, interpleader, intervention, consolidation, transfers, and bankruptcy. It is also an excellent opportunity to review Civil Procedure concepts.

7397 SEM: Employment Law - MOOHR (offered in Spring  2011)
I usually require students to have taken one of our employment courses (labor law, employment law, or employment discrimination) to qualify for the employment law seminar. I also grant permission on a case-by-case basis if the student has some employment experience or other reason.

7397 SEM: Employment Law - MOOHR (offered in Fall  2012)
I usually require students to have taken one of our employment courses (labor law, employment law, or employment discrimination) to qualify for the employment law seminar. I also grant permission on a case-by-case basis if the student has some employment experience or other reason.

7397 SEM: Hot Topics in Criminal Law & Procedure - THOMPSON (offered in Spring  2010)
Students will read the articles of leading national scholars who will visit the Law Center and present their papers. These scholars will address the following topics: the Supreme Court’s jurisprudential leanings in criminal procedure cases, how “outmoded” views about mental states result in unjust outcomes, the use of registration laws and community notification to deal with sexual predators, and the roles of morality and efficiency in an assembly-line model of criminal justice. In addition, other guest speakers from the community will visit to discuss current hot topics. The topics will include the use of drug courts to treat drug addicts, immigration crimes, and eyewitness identification testimony as a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The course will also include a field trip to a prison.

7397 SEM: Issues in Legal Education - SCHUWERK (offered in Spring  2010)

7397 SEM: Issues in Legal Education - SCHUWERK (offered in Fall  2010)
This seminar will explore a wide range of critiques of legal education as it is offered in American law schools today. A number of law review articles and two book-length critiques of the topic will be reviewed. Students will be required to develop a paper topic discussing some aspect of legal education and how it might be improved, and present that paper to the class. The course is likely to be particularly appealing to students who are not entirely satisfied with the legal education that they have received.

7397 SEM: Issues in Legal Education - SCHUWERK (offered in Fall  2012)
This seminar will explore a wide range of critiques of legal education as it is offered in American law schools today. A number of law review articles and two book-length critiques of the topic will be reviewed. Students will be required to develop a paper topic discussing some aspect of legal education and how it might be improved, and present that paper to the class. The course is likely to be particularly appealing to students who are not entirely satisfied with the legal education that they have received.

7397 SEM: Law & Religion - GRIFFIN (offered in Spring  2012)
This course examines the law's treatment of religion. In addition to analysis of the Free Exercise and Establishment Clauses of the First Amendment, the course examines conscientious objection, tort liability for churches, employment discrimination, and religion and politics, as well as some comparative materials on the international protection of religious freedom.

7397 SEM: Law & Theology - BUCKLES (offered in Fall  2011)
This course (i) introduces students to selected topics in the study of theology that conceptually parallel specific subjects in law and legal philosophy; (ii) attempts to expand students' understanding of how theological thought can inform legal inquiry, and how legal thought can inform theological inquiry; and (iii) attempts to increase students' awareness and enhance students' comprehension of the variety of historical and contemporary approaches to resolving problems that have arisen in theological and legal thought.

7297 SEM: Race & American Law Post Obama - CHASE (offered in Spring  2011)

7397 SEM: Written Advocacy - HOFFMANL (offered in Spring  2010)
This three-hour credit seminar, which satisfies the UHLC writing requirement, is an advanced course of study in written advocacy for litigators. It is intended for students who wish to improve their skills in persuasive writing as it is used in civil litigation practice. The class will run as follows: Each student will be assigned a specific civil litigation issue, modeled on the kinds of assignment given to law firm associates or judicial clerks. All members of the class will review and comment on initial draft memoranda that are prepared, and further revisions will then follow. The goal is to focus on the process of receiving input and improving the written work, with the ultimate ambition of generating a higher quality product at the end. Students will be evaluated primarily on a graded paper and on their in-class participation. Enrollment limited to no more than fifteen students. We will probably talk in our first classes about basic strategies for approaching a problem that calls for a written answer/analysis. Thereafter, students will then have a few weeks to work up a first draft. These first drafts will then be exchanged in advance of the next class where students and the instructor provide feedback on the initial work. The immediate goals of this exercise with the first draft are (i) dissection of good/less good approaches to answering and analyzing the problem; (ii) comparative study; and (iii) developing suggestions and a strategy plan for further refinement. Second drafts will then follow, with further feedback, along similar lines, at an even more advanced stage of development. The longer range ambition of this course is to be support the development of improved written advocacy strengths, minimize weaknesses, and to further refine excellent analytical habits. There is no casebook for the course. The instructor will distribute some reading material. There is no final examination. Grades are based on the work completed during the semester. Additionally, Class participation may be taken into account. In the past I have increased the final grade of some students by one-third of a letter grade and, in much rarer instances, by a greater amount. It is possible, though not likely, that a student’s grade can be reduced for failure to participate. Finally, a word about attendance. Regular class attendance is required by the school’s academic rules and, in any case, is essential to a coherent understanding of the course. I reserve the right to lower a final grade and/or take any other appropriate disciplinary action necessary, if it is determined that a student is absent from more than 20% of the scheduled classes.

5297 Shale Gas Development - YEATES (offered in Spring  2011)
A survey of relevant law and regulation governing exploration and production activities in all jurisdictions in the United States from New York in a sweeping arc to Alaska through Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Texas and the Dakotas and Wyoming that will feature distinguished lecturers for each of the fourteen class sessions who will complement the constituent legal and regulatory aspects of each segment by illustrating operational and business components involved in each shale play. Deal structure, environmental matters, shale development’s attraction to foreign and domestic capital investments, landowner relations and socioeconomic considerations involved in drilling operations, as well as, responses to such operations by state and local governmental authorities will be among the topics covered in this course along with applicable law and regulatory matters. One segment will be dedicated to the application of technology to developing real-time analysis of land, geological and geophysical information by means of state-of-the-art software currently employed by producers to map and view all spatial arrangements reflective of operational activities through the application of the latest technology in the field. No prerequisites are required in law or undergraduate or graduate level courses for students to successfully complete this course. Instead of a final examination, from a list of topics to be provided during the first session of the course, a scholarly paper will be individually prepared (without group participation) by each of the students enrolled in the course. The paper shall be a minimum of 20-25 single spaced pages but will not be in satisfaction of the senior writing requirement. The papers will be due on the final day of class and will not be presented as part of class discussions.

5197 Small Firm Practice Skills - KNIGHT (offered in Summer I  2011)
The classroom component of the Apprenticeship Program, worth one hour of graded substantive credit. Students will hear from a variety of legal practitioners in no-holds-barred discussions about “The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly” sides to the practice of law.

5197 Small Firm Practice Skills - KNIGHT (offered in Summer III  2010)

5397 Statutory Interpretation & Reasoning - BRUHL (offered in Spring  2010)
Much of the law school curriculum, especially in the first year, focuses on common law rules extracted from court opinions. But, for most lawyers today, reading and interpreting statutes and administrative materials is more important. This course will provide you with an overview of the legislative and regulatory process that generates those documents. More importantly, it will teach you the theories and doctrines of statutory interpretation used in federal and state courts.

5297 Structuring the Real Estate Transaction - KATZ (offered in Spring  2010)
This two hour course is intended to familiarize the students with the practical aspects of purchasing and selling commercial real estate. Actual form documents, including financing documents and a commercial lease, will be reviewed and analyzed. While there is no textbook, certain published articles and the forms to be reviewed will be made available to the students.

5297 Tax Accounting - LEIGHTMAN/WELLS (offered in Spring  2011)
Study of methods of accounting in the context of Federal tax laws including cash, accrual, installment methods, inventory taxation and time value of money concepts. The course will focus on the appropriate taxable year for including items of income, gain, loss and expense. The course will cover cash, accrual, installment and inventory methods as well as time value of money rules. The course will cover various judicial doctrines of taxation including the tax benefit rule, claim of right doctrine, economic benefit doctrine and constructive receipt concepts. Through the case method, students will learn the application of the principles of taxation in the context of tax planning. The reasoning and methodology utilized in the course will provide a sound basis for the study and analysis advanced tax topics in subsequent courses.

5297 Tax Accounting - LEIGHTMAN (offered in Spring  2013)
Study of methods of accounting in the context of Federal tax laws including cash, accrual, installment methods, inventory taxation and time value of money concepts. The course will focus on the appropriate taxable year for including items of income, gain, loss and expense. The course will cover cash, accrual, installment and inventory methods as well as time value of money rules. The course will cover various judicial doctrines of taxation including the tax benefit rule, claim of right doctrine, economic benefit doctrine and constructive receipt concepts. Through the case method, students will learn the application of the principles of taxation in the context of tax planning. The reasoning and methodology utilized in the course will provide a sound basis for the study and analysis advanced tax topics in subsequent courses.

7397 Techniques & Tactics - Project Financing - ARBOGAST (offered in Spring  2011)
Examines the execution of project financing transactions, including various techniques and tactics which Sponsors can employ to get better terms. The course advocates a particular approach, that of "Frontend-designed Sponsor Finance Plans" and shows how this technique can be used to shape the complete Project Financing process. Students will also learn something of lender economics and negotiating tactics. Students will analyze and present case studies drawn from project finance transactions with which the professor is personally familiar. A Cap-stone LBO case involving the principals who closed the transaction will end the course.

7397 Techniques & Tactics - Project Financing - ARBOGAST (offered in Spring  2010)

5297 The Law of Hydrogen Energy & Production - Yeates (offered in Fall  2012)

5397 The Wire: Crime, Law, and Social Policy - GERSHOWITZ (offered in Fall  2012)
This course explores legal and policy issues raised by David Simon's critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire. Among the topics explored will be confessions, police manipulation of crime statistics, race and the criminal justice system, prosecutors' incentives for charging and dismissing cases, honesty and accountability of law enforcement, government power and success in the war on drugs, and the distribution of resources in the criminal justice system. In addition to class participation, grades will be determined based on a series of short reaction papers that students will be responsible for drafting throughout the semester. Before enrolling in this course, please be advised that (1) The Wire contains a considerable amount of violence and offensive language, and (2) this course will require you to invest a significant amount of time before the semester begins because all students must watch the first two seasons of the show in advance of the first class. If either of the aforementioned presents a problem, you should not enroll in this course.

5397 The Wire: Crime, Law, and Social Policy - GERSHOWITZ (offered in Fall  2011)
This course explores legal and policy issues raised by David Simon's critically acclaimed HBO series The Wire. Among the topics explored will be confessions, police manipulation of crime statistics, race and the criminal justice system, prosecutors' incentives for charging and dismissing cases, honesty and accountability of law enforcement, government power and success in the war on drugs, and the distribution of resources in the criminal justice system. In addition to class participation, grades will be determined based on a series of short reaction papers that students will be responsible for drafting throughout the semester. Before enrolling in this course, please be advised that (1) The Wire contains a considerable amount of violence and offensive language, and (2) this course will require you to invest a significant amount of time before the semester begins because all students must watch the first two seasons of the show in advance of the first class. If either of the aforementioned presents a problem, you should not enroll in this course.

5397 Topics in Food & Drug Law - PATSNER (offered in Spring  2010)
This course will focus on the core questions of how best to regulate a cluster of industries which comprise more than 25% of the United States economy. There is no prerequisite for this class. The class will review the history of FDA, basic concepts and current, cutting edge litigation on regulation of prescription drugs, medical devices, vaccines, food, cosmetics, and carcinogens. The relationship between FDA and NIH, the medical profession, the pharmaceutical industry, and CMS will be examined. Separate classes will focus on first amendment issues/advertising and promotion, FDA enforcement, as well as FDA reform. Current Federal Appellate and Supreme Court cases will be discussed in detail. Enthusiastic class participation will be encouraged, and most classes will feature a mini-debate where controversial issues will be selected and argued.

5397 Toxic Torts - SANDERS (offered in Spring  2011)
This course strives to give students an overview of the law of environmental and toxic torts. It includes cases in which there is a personal injury or property damage due to exposure to toxic substances, including drugs. It combines a historic overview of the field with coverage of the current issues confronting the courts and Congress. The legal system’s response to these substances is both proactive and retroactive. Statutes such as the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FDCA) and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) seek to prevent injury by assessing a drug’s safety before permitting it to be marketed and by regulating the handling of hazardous waste. Common law torts suits sounding in negligence, products liability, nuisance, trespass, and strict liability for abnormally dangerous activities – provide potential redress for injuries caused by toxic substances and drugs and as do statutes such as the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which seeks to ensure that sites that have been contaminated are cleaned up to safe standards. This course explores both responses within the context of private tort law and statutes.

5297 Virtual Worlds - BOLIN (offered in Fall  2011)
This course analyzes the intersection of real and virtual world property, interaction, crimes, gaming, rights, and speech. This course will cover topics from intellectual property in virtual spaces to Internet gambling and contract and speech concerns in virtual fora as well as the legal constructs that create and govern virtual spaces. Grading will be based on class participation and an original paper inspired by topics related to class reading.

5297 Virtual Worlds - BOLIN (offered in Fall  2010)
This course analyzes the intersection of real and virtual world property, interaction, crimes, gaming, rights, and speech. This course will cover topics from intellectual property in virtual spaces to Internet gambling and contract and speech concerns in virtual fora as well as the legal constructs that create and govern virtual spaces. Grading will be based on class participation and an original paper inspired by topics related to class reading.

5297 Whistleblower Litigation - ANDROPHY/GRIER/FRAZIER (offered in Spring  2012)
Whistleblower lawsuits under the False Claims Act, Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, Tax Relief Act of 2006, and related state laws. These acts cover health care fraud, government contracting fraud, financial fraud, and tax fraud. We will discuss the procedural steps for bringing a lawsuit or claim, the process of investigation, jurisdictional issues, pitfalls and bars to recovery, potential damages and penalties, and the ultimate bounty to the whistleblower. We will also discuss issues of retaliation for being a whistleblower and the potential for compensation.

5397 Written Advocacy - HoffmanL (offered in Spring  2012)
Course Outline: This three credit hour course, which does not satisfy the UHLC writing requirement, is an advanced course of study in written advocacy for litigators. It is intended for students who wish to improve their persuasive writing skills, especially for civil litigation practice. Enrollment is limited to fourteen students. Here is how the class works. In our first class meeting, the instructor will lead a discussion about basic strategies for approaching a problem that calls for a written answer/analysis. Students then have a few weeks to work up a first draft. At least once during these first few weeks, students will meet with the instructor about their first drafts. Once the drafts are completed, they will be exchanged in advance of the next class. In the next class, students and the instructor provide feedback on the initial work. The immediate goals of this first exercise are (i) dissection of good approaches to answering and analyzing the problem; (ii) comparative study of student work; and (iii) developing suggestions and a strategy plan for further refinement. Second drafts will then be due, following this same format with further feedback, along similar lines, at a more advanced stage of development. There is no casebook for the course. The instructor will distribute a packet of reading material. There is no final examination. Students will be evaluated primarily on their written work; in-class participation may also be taken into account. At most, class participation could increase a student’s final grade by one-third of a letter grade. It is possible (though rare) for a student’s grade to be reduced for failure to participate. Attendance is required both for regular class meetings and the separate meetings that will be scheduled with the instructor to discuss drafts of the student’s work. The instructor may lower a final grade and/or take any other appropriate disciplinary action necessary if the student is absent from more than 20% of the scheduled classes and instructor meetings.

5397 Wrongful Convictions Causes and Remedies - THOMPSON (offered in Spring  2012)
This course will examine the leading causes of wrongful convictions—eyewitness identification, jailhouse informants, false confessions, prosecutorial misconduct, and false or misleading forensic testimony. It will also address other institutional weaknesses in the advocacy system such as ineffective assistance of counsel and “tunnel vision” by the actors in the advocacy system. The goal of the course is to learn more about these leading causes and the suggested reforms put forth by experts. The course will include guest lectures from representatives of the defense and prosecution, as well as an exonerated man. Students will view a full-length documentary and news segments. Students will also have the opportunity to tour a prison. Grades will be based on a three-hour exam consisting of essay questions.