Konig       

A survey of the development of law and legal institutions in American History, examining continuity and change in the English common law tradition under the impact of social, economic, and political forces.  Coverage will be comprehensive (from Bracton to Brandeis), but will emphasize the way that the law has responded to those factors by redefining the status and rights of individuals and has conferred protections or limits on the institutions they created.  Among the topics covered will be: property rights (in objects and in persons, including slavery), women and the family, crime and punishment (including the regulation of  religion, sexuality, and reproduction), and the competition between judges, juries, and extralegal popular efforts to control the course of change.  We will also examine how and why "law on the books" has differed from "law in action" in the American experience. Same as L98 AMCS 698, L22 History 5909. 3 units.

Ellis   

The antitrust course deals with the body of law, primarily federal, that is intended to make the market system function fairly and efficiently. The course will focus on monopoly and competition, the role that competition plays in society and the ways in which courts and agencies have applied the antitrust laws to further competitive goals. The substantive law considered in the course will cover horizontal restraints among competitors, vertical restraints between manufacturers and dealers, monopolization, mergers, and the interplay between antitrust law and the law protecting intellectual property. Economic principles will be discussed under the assumption that the students have not studied economics prior to taking the course. Attendance and preparation are required. There will be a three hour examination.  3 units.

Schermer                                         

[Due to Judge Schermer's schedule, what appears to be extra meeting time (three 1 hr & 20 minute classes per week) is to make up for the one week per month that he will not hold class.  Thus, classes will meet three days. The exact weeks when the class will not meet are TBA.]  After a brief overview of state debtor-creditor law, this course will cover federal bankruptcy law. The majority of class time will be spent working through casebook problems that require an application of Bankruptcy Code provisions to particular fact situations. The course will begin with coverage of individual bankruptcies and then move on to the special issues associated with business bankruptcies. Attendance, participation and preparation will all be required. Classes will be held on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday from 7:40 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.  The class will not meet one week per month. There will be a three hour examination.  3 units.

 Keating

This course is designed to familiarize students with some aspects of the law relating to payments and secured transactions.  The majority of class time will be spent working through casebook problems that require an application of Uniform Commercial Code provisions to particular fact situations.  Articles 3, 4, and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code will be the principal focus of the course, with the three hours allocated approximately half to Articles 3 and 4, which govern payments, and approximately half to Article 9, which governs secured transactions.  Attendance, participation and preparation will all be required.  There will be a three-hour examination.  3 units.

 Staudt

This course involves an intensive study of the statutory, regulatory and case material governing corporate taxation.  Topics covered include the tax consequences of corporate organization and capitalization, distributions to shareholders, redemptions of stock, corporate liquidations and taxable dispositions of a corporate business (both stock and asset sales).  The course will be taught from a casebook and statutory pamphlet, by a combination of the case and problem methods.  Students who have not taken the basic tax course (Federal Income Tax) will be at a marked disadvantage to those students who have.  Students with prior experience or background in tax may be an exception.  Attendance and preparation are required and sanctions will be imposed on serious offenders.  3 units.

 Seligman

This course covers the structure and characteristics of modern business associations including publicly held and closely held business corporations; the organization of business associations; the distribution of corporate power between management and shareholders with emphasis on the fiduciary duties of directors and officers; and the effects of federal securities law on business associations, particularly the securities fraud rules such as Rule 10b-5 and the proxy (or voting) rules.  There will be a final exam.  3 units.

 Flagg

(Formerly called Nontraditional Perspectives.) This course is an introduction to three significant, emerging strands of non-mainstream legal analysis. The class will examine selected common law and constitutional doctrines and policies as analyzed, criticized, and/or reconstructed by legal scholars for whom issues of class, gender, and race are central. Covered topics will include, for example, a critical deconstruction of contract doctrines such as duress and unconscionability; a feminist analysis of the law of rape; and a black scholar's critique of anti-discrimination law. The emphasis will be on normative, rather than descriptive, analyses of existing law. The course will address nontraditional approaches to legal theory, primarily in the context of specific legal rules or policies.  The assigned readings will be selected law review articles; assignments will be substantial. Attendance and participation are required.  Grades will be based on three 5 page written assignments, each corresponding to one of the three segments of the course and due 1-2 weeks after completion of that segment. In addition, high quality class participation may enhance one's final grade. There will be no final examination.  3 units.

Lipeles

This course surveys environmental law, focusing on the five principal federal environmental laws -- the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (popularly referred to as "Superfund"), and National Environmental Policy Act. Different approaches to environmental regulation will be considered and evaluated. Regular attendance and preparation are expected. Grade is based on a written examination.  3 units.

 Aiken 

Study of the principles and rules that regulate the process of proving facts at trial, including both the Federal Rules of Evidence (the primary focus of the course) and their common law counterparts. Topics covered include relevancy and its limits, various policy- and efficiency-based limitations on the receipt of evidence, the rule against hearsay and the more important hearsay exceptions, rules governing the impeachment of witnesses, and expert testimony. Class participation and consistent attendance are required.  3 units.

Kuhns

Kuhns

Analytical study of the principles and rules governing the proof of facts in civil and criminal trials. In addition to examining the Federal Rules of Evidence and their common law counterparts, the course will address broad issues such as what it means to "prove" or to "know" something, the allocation of decision making between judge and jury, the objectives of adjudication, and the relationship between those objectives and rules of evidence.  3 units.

Appleton  

This course examines the laws governing family relationships, with primary emphasis on the formation, protection, and dissolution of adult relationships. Specific topics include the law of reproductive rights, marriage, marital property regimes, nontraditional families, divorce, and divorce's consequences (including financial consequences and child custody), as well as broad theoretical issues such as family privacy, constitutional protection of the family, alternative concepts of "family," and feminist legal perspectives. The assignments include multi-disciplinary materials as well as non-legal readings illustrating the ways in which Family Law affects real families and their members.  Regular class attendance and participation are required. Taking Individual Rights and the Constitution (formerly Constitutional Law II) before or concurrently with Family Law is recommended, but not required.  (Other aspects of Family Law are covered in Children & the Law (tentatively scheduled to be offered in Fall 2005) and the Seminar in Reproductive & Parental Rights (scheduled to be offered in Spring 2005 and tentatively scheduled to be offered again in Spring 2006.)  3 units.

Wiedenbeck    

This four unit course is a survey of the federal income taxation of individuals, with consideration of the nature of income, when and to whom income is taxable, exclusions from the tax base, deductions, credits and the tax consequences of property ownership and disposition. The instructor emphasizes tax policy and statutory interpretation. The course will be taught from a casebook and a statutory pamphlet, by a combination of the case and problem methods.  Students will work extensively with the Internal Revenue Code.  Attendance and preparation are required and sanctions will be imposed on serious offenders.  The course grade will be based predominately on a timed final examination.  Additional course information is posted on the web at http://law.wustl.edu/Academics/Faculty/Wiedenbeck.  4 units.

Drobak

Federal Jurisdiction is one of the capstone courses in a law school's curriculum.  It is not merely a course about the use of the federal courts.  Rather, it is a course that deals with fundamental issues of governance in a federal system where power is limited by co-equal branches of the government.  These fundamental issues will be examined in the context of the relationship between the federal courts and both Congress and the President and the relationship between federal and state courts.  We will study a variety of specific legal doctrines relating to the federal courts, such as Congress' control over federal court jurisdiction; the federal courts' control over their own dockets through such doctrines as standing, ripeness, mootness and political question; sovereign immunity and the eleventh amendment; and limitations on district court jurisdiction for federalism purposes, such as the Anti-Injunction Act and the abstention doctrine.  For more information about the focus of the course, please read the Preface and the Table of Contents to the textbook, Hart and Wechsler's The Federal Courts and the Federal System, which is on reserve in the law library under my name. The reading assignments will average about 25 pages per class.  Attendance and preparation are required.  The grade will be based on a three-hour essay exam.  3 units.

Bracey 

This course addresses judicial interpretation and enforcement of the Civil War Amendments. Topics include substantive and procedural due process, equal protection, "state action," and Congress' power to enforce, interpret and expand the protection of these amendments. There will be a take-home final exam.  (This course was formerly called Constitutional Law II; therefore, students who have taken Constitutional Law II are not eligible to take this course.)  3 units.

Sadat

Can war be restrained by law?  Should "war criminals" be prosecuted?  Should Milosevic, Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein be tried, and by whom in what fora? The answers, in part, are provided by the study of international criminal law, a growing field at the intersection of international law and domestic criminal law.  As a matter of substantive law, this year we will concentrate on war crimes, terrorism and serious violations of international humanitarian law.  Procedural coverage will focus on the practical and legal problems in apprehending alleged war criminals and getting them to trial through methods that range from formal extradition to kidnaping.  There will be a mix of statutory, constitutional, treaty, customary international law, case law, and policy-oriented and philosophical materials.  The final will be a 24-hour take-home exam.  3 units.

McManis

This course will equip law students with the basic knowledge and skills they need to to engage in international intellectual property practice involving transactional work or litigation.  It will also explore the social, economic and cultural considerations that underpin intellectual property law around the world.  The first part of the course will introduce the private and public law topics--territoriality, national treatment, choice of law, treaties and trade--that frame the substantive rules of intellectual property law.  The second part of the course will consider the substantive rules of intellectual property (copyright, patent, trademark, unfair competition, trade secrets, and design law) themselves from a comparative and international perspective.  This part of the course will primarily explore the requirements of the WTO TRIPS (i.e.Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement, the two "Great Conventions" of the 19th Century (i.e. the Paris and Berne Conventions), as well as various subsequent and subsidiary multilateral agreements.  The second part of the course will also touch on selected regional agreements and transnational law (i.e. NAFTA and various EU Directives).  The course will be taught by means of a casebook containing series of practical problems, for some of which a written response may be required.  Regular class attendance and preparation is required.  The final grade in the course will be based on a final exam, part of which may be objective, and part of which will be an essay question, and any written problem assignments made during the course of the semester.  3 units.

Mutharika

An introduction to rules that govern relations among states as well as relations between states and other entities. A critical examination of the theories that underlie these rules and the institutions within which such rules have evolved will be made. Particular attention will be given to the relevance of such rules and institutions to contemporary international problems.  Attendance and preparation are required. There will be a regular open book examination at the end of the course. 3 units.

Mutharika                             

This course examines the role of international organizations in the management of global issues. While a large part of the course will deal with the United Nation's role in peace management and conflict resolution, the role of other organizations (both intergovernmental and nongovernmental) will also be examined. Specific case studies such as Iraq, Bosnia, Cambodia, Angola, Somalia and Western Sahara will be used to examine the efficacy of these organizations in managing global issues. Attendance and class participation are required. The final grade will be based on a take-home examination.  3 units.

Clark  / Dorothy

[Formerly “Legal Ethics in Film”.  This course is part of the ethics curriculum; it is considered a "survey" course. Students may not take more than one "survey" course for credit toward their degree.  Other survey courses offered in 2003-2004 and/or this academic year are:  Lawyers & Justice, Legal Profession, Practical Ethics for Civil Litigation, and Litigation Ethics.]  Film is a potent force in shaping public perceptions of the legal profession, and clients' perceptions of lawyers.   In this course, students will study legal ethics through  the portrayal of lawyers in film as well as through traditional materials. Students will read case law and scholarly commentaries, will do problems and simulations, and will become familiar with the professional rules.  In addition to regular class meetings (TUE THU 4:30-6:00), each week students must attend a screening of a film that deals with lawyers (MON 7-10).  During class discussions and in written assignments, these films will form a stimulus for reflection about the law and ethics of legal practice.  This course will help students develop the knowledge and skills necessary to reflect on the rules, values, and ethical dilemmas that they will face in legal practice.  Through the films and more traditional texts, students will examine a range of legal ethics issues, including trust and autonomy in the lawyer-client relationship, the tension between advocacy and truth-seeking, the changing demography of the legal profession, and conflicts of interest.  The films will include some of the following:  Anatomy of a Murder, . . . And Justice for All, The Blum Affair, The Insider, Judgment at Nuremberg, The Music Box, The Paradine Case, Philadelphia, Rashomon, the Sweet Hereafter, The Thin Blue Line, To Kill a Mockingbird, Twelve Angry Men, and The Verdict.  Students are expected to participate in class discussions, and either write an analytical paper on a topic related to the themes of this course or complete a take-home exam.  3 units.

Levin

In most law school courses, judge-made law is the center of attention. In real-world settings, however, lawyers frequently find themselves spending more time working with statutes than with case law. In order to equip students to survive in our so-called "age of statutes," this course attempts to shed light on legislation and the processes that give rise to it. The first half of the course will examine legal rules that govern the legislature, including such topics as lobbying regulation, campaign finance regulation, bribery statutes, ethics rules, open meetings laws, the line-item veto, and judicial review of legislative decision making procedure. The second half of the semester will be a more straightforward doctrinal unit, examining the ways in which legislation is implemented in the courts. The primary focus will be on principles of statutory construction. Students will acquire a working knowledge of the uses and abuses of canons of construction, legislative history materials, and other tools that lawyers and judges employ as they try to make sense of legislation. Regular attendance and preparation will be expected, and sanctions may be imposed on egregious offenders. The course grade will be based on a timed exam. The class will meet regularly on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The Friday time slot will be used only in selected weeks. Before this course was added to the fall curriculum, I had arranged for some foreign professional travel during the semester. The Friday hour will be used to facilitate the scheduling of the makeup classes that will become necessary as a result.  3 units.

Clark          

This course will examine separation of powers issues in the areas of  national security and foreign affairs, the federal government's authority to pursue covert and overt wars, the government's regulation of personnel with security clearances, and the public's access to national security information.  Students are expected to participate in class discussions, and either write an analytical paper on a topic related to the themes of this course or complete a take-home exam.  3 units.

Kieff               

This course is designed to make Patent Law accessible to students of all backgrounds, from Liberal arts to hard sciences.  The course will first unpack the major normative theories of intellectual property, generally, and of Patents in particular.  Then it will address the core legal rules of Patent Law - beginning with the broad and accessible notions of patent law's disclosure requirements; continuing with the requirements of novelty, non-obviousness, and utility; and ending with the more technical issues relating to statutory subject matter.  The course will next examine the scope of the patent grant including infringement and remedies.  Finally, the course will explore appellate practice before the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the complex choice of law and preemption problems that are presented by this unified Forum for patent appeals.  At this Juncture the course will analyze the dynamic interaction among the law of patents, trade secrets, unfair competition, antitrust, and other substantive and procedural issues of state and federal law.  Throughout the course there will be a heavy emphasis on normative analysis and it's application to current and potential alternative positive law regimes.  Class participation will be considered in determining the final grade.  There will be a final examination.  3 units.

Tokarz  

Enrollment limit: 16 (approx. 8 second-years / approx. 8 third-years). In 2004-05, the School of Law and the Clinical Education Program will sponsor the seventh annual Public Interest Law Speaker Series. This readings course will run parallel with the fall portion of the series, and provide a way for students to study the work of the visiting speakers and then to discuss the issues with the authors. Students in the course will read selected works of the visiting speakers and then meet with the speakers to discuss their scholarship and practice. The class will be divided up so that each student focuses on the work of at least three speakers. Students also may read works and meet with some of the conference visitors. The goal is for students to read a range of material that will provide an overview of the field of public interest lawyering. It is essential that students do the reading in preparation for their meetings with the visitors. The course will meet regularly once a week, usually at one of the two times indicated above.. Several of the class times may need to be adjusted to fit the schedules of the Public Interest Law Speaker Series speakers (and conference speakers). Thus, students must have some flexibility in their schedules so they can meet with the visitors. In an attempt to keep the meetings with the visiting scholars as informal as possible, the class has been limited to an enrollment of 16, with 8 slots available to second year students. The grade for the course will be based upon a 10-15 page paper that each student will write applying ideas from one or more of the visitors' scholarship and practice to a new topic of the student's choosing. The final grade also will be adjusted for the quality of participation in the discussion sessions with the visitors.  2 units.

Bracey  

This course explores the intersection of race relations and legal institutions in the United States.  It focuses both on the transhistorical continuity of certain understandings of race, and on the evolution of others. In the first half of the course, we consider the theoretical and doctrinal principles that underlie historical issues such as Indian Nation sovereignty, slavery and Reconstruction, and the civil rights era.  In addition, we will consider early "legal" definitions of race in American law, and explore the role of race in citizenship, naturalization, and immigration law and policy.  For the remainder of the course, we explore competing conceptual models of the American racial legal order, and examine current jurisprudence on racial issues that arise within the context of employment, education, housing, intimate association, the distribution of electoral power, and/or the administration of criminal justice.  3 units.

Salsich             

This course is designed to provide an introduction to basic principles of the law governing real estate transfer and finance.  The course will include exposure to both residential and commercial real estate transactions and financing.  Topics will include, among others:  the duties of brokers and lawyers in the real estate transaction; the contract for the sale of realty; deeds; title investigation and assurance; basic financing using mortgages and deeds of trust; possession, use, and transfer of mortgaged property; default, acceleration and foreclosure of mortgages; mortgage substitutes; and relationships between senior and junior mortgagees. The course also will feature an introduction to the land development process.  3 units.

Flagg   

This two unit course examines issues relating to sexuality, gender, and the law.  Topics to be covered include the legal regulation of sexuality, speech, and family relationships, and the social construction of sexuality and gender in the military and in educational contexts. Class meetings will be conducted in a reading/discussion format.  The final grade will be based on a paper or final examination, at the student’s option.  2 units.

Epstein   

Enrollment limit: 32.  The purpose of this course is to provide law students with the ability to conduct and evaluate empirical social science research. By "empirical social science research" I mean scholarship that is based on a five-stage model: (1) asking questions, (2) invoking theory and hypothesizing, (3) developing measures, (4) collecting and analyzing data, and (5) reaching conclusions. Underlying this model is the following notion: Empirical research does stop with institutions or theories; it attempts to determine whether observations from the real world coincide with those institutions or theories.  3 units.  Same as L32 Pol Sci 532.

Richards 

This two unit course is intended to provide an overview of the jurisprudence of the free speech and press clauses of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The focus will be (1) on the development of First Amendment law over time from its origins through to modern issues of free speech in cyberspace, as well as (2) on the philosophical and normative justifications for both the general principle of freedom of expression and recognized or proposed exceptions to that principle.  In examining these issues, we will cover a number of topics in the jurisprudence, including subversive advocacy, hate speech and "fighting words," sexually explicit expression, commercial speech, compelled speech, campaign finance regulation, and the tension between tort law (including libel law and privacy rights) and the First Amendment.  Attendance and participation are essential.  There will be a final examination. Students who have taken Con Law III are not eligible to take this course.  2 units.

  Mandelker

The purpose of this course is to provide an understanding of the role and function of state and local governments in a federal system. Lawyers in private practice frequently must consider state and local government law issues as well as lawyers who work for government agencies. For example, it is estimated that one out of every eight tort suits is brought against a local government. Topics covered include annexation and incorporation; government structure and powers; taxation and finance; tort, section 1983 and antitrust liability; special legislation and delegation of legislative power; and the role of the chief executive and the courts in policy making. A final chapter covers suits against local government through use of the extraordinary writs. There is a web site for the course, which is accessed in class, and which contains supplementary materials. Class participation and attendance are required subject to excuse. One unexcused absence is permitted. There is a twenty-four hour, take-home, open book examination. 3 units.

Drobak/North 

Enrollment limit: approx. 25 law students & 25 economics students. This course is cross-listed in the Economics Department. This law and economics course focuses on how the law affects the course of economic growth.  It is jointly taught by Professor John Drobak of the law faculty and Professor Douglass C. North of the economics faculty.  The enrollment is made up of both law and economics students.  The course will begin with two weeks of introduction to economic theory and history.  That will be followed by study of the law and economics of Ronald Coase's pathbreaking article "The Problem of Social Cost."  The course will then examine the historical development of the law merchant and its incorporation into modern commercial law. The course will also examine the law and economics of the limits imposed on government regulation by the takings clause of the fifth amendment, followed by the study of the law and economics of rent control. Other subjects studied in the course will include some or all of the following: slavery and labor contracts, cognition and contract law, airline deregulation, telecommunication regulation and environmental law. There will be an hour and a half mid-term exam, an hour and a half final examination, and an 8-12 page term paper.  Attendance and preparation are expected. Some classes will be taught primarily by lecture, but most classes will entail typical classroom discussion. There is no economic prerequisite for law students, although it would be helpful for law students to have taken one course in price theory or micro-economics. If law students have not, it will require some additional work to understand some of the economic instruction in the course.  3 units.

TRUSTS AND ESTATES (FF)     

Enrollment limit: 70. This course will examine the basic legal doctrines and rules applicable to transfer of decedents' wealth by intestate succession, will, and trust. It will focus on the following topics: State Control of Inheritance; Intestate Succession; Will Execution, Attestation, Revocation, and Construction;  Restrictions on Testation: Family Protection; Trusts: Varieties (emphasizing private express and charitable trusts), Creation, Modification, and Termination; and Fiduciary Administration. The course will not cover future interests, estate planning, or estate and gift taxation since separate, specialized classes and seminars are offered on each of these important topics. Regular attendance and preparation will be required.  Grades will be based on a three-hour open book final examination.  3 units.