IP BIOMEDICAL RESEARCH LAW & POLICY SEMINAR (RSD)

  Dresser

Enrollment limit: 16.  The twentieth century biomedical research revolution has generated numerous conflicts demanding legislative, judicial, and regulatory action. This seminar will address some of the most pressing issues raised by modern research activities. Course readings and discussion will review issues relevant to research involving human participants, including general ethical and regulatory principles governing human subjects research, and special issues raised by studies involving seriously and critically ill individuals, randomized clinical trials, and research involving vulnerable populations, such as children, persons with cognitive impairment, and prisoners.  The course also will address research involving human embryos and fetal tissue, scientific misconduct, research conflicts of interest, and issues related to commercialization of research using human tissue. Students interested in exploring the intersection of law and biomedical science are encouraged to enroll. Students will choose their seminar paper topics from a list of general areas relevant to research law and policy. They will be required to write a rough and final draft of the paper.  They also will be required to present and discuss their ideas with the rest of the class.  Papers will ordinarily be between 25 and 30 pages of text.  Students will meet with the instructor on an individual basis to discuss their presentations and paper ideas. Grades will be based primarily on the quality of students' papers; oral presentations and class participation also will be taken into account. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

 Foster 

Enrollment limit: 16.  This seminar will offer an introduction to the legal system of the People's Republic of China.  Topics will include the historical and ideological foundations of modern Chinese socialist law; legal institutions and personnel; constitutional law and definitions of human rights; criminal law; dispute resolution; evolving approaches to contract, market, and ownership; and women's rights.  The class will meet as a group on a weekly basis for most of the semester to discuss course readings, late-breaking developments in Chinese law, and seminar paper topics.  Students will be expected to read assigned materials, participate actively in class discussion, and serve on "panels of experts" for three seminar sessions.  In addition, students will be required to complete a significant scholarly research paper.  They must submit a topic statement, a first draft, and a final, revised version of the paper.  The instructor will provide extensive feedback on drafts both in writing and in individual conferences with students. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.) 3 units.

IP CONTRACTS & INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY SEMINAR (FSK)      

Kieff 

Enrollment limit: 16. This course will be designed for students interested in practicing in the areas of business, finance, transactions, or litigation.  Today, each of these practice areas requires a basic understanding of the interactions between contracts and intellectual property.  Contracts have always provided an attractive method for structuring business transactions.  Today, many business transactions have an increasingly large intellectual property component, raising numerous problems unique to these intangible assets.  Today's business lawyer routinely wrestles with contracts concerning everything from initial ownership of intellectual property all the way through commercial sales of goods and services based on intellectual property.  Standard business relationships, such as employment, licenses, assignments, joint-ventures, franchises, sales, shrink wrap clauses, security interests, escrows, and bankruptcy, are each becoming increasingly driven by their intellectual property components.  Examples range from David Letterman's move to CBS and David Bowie's $50 million bond offering to internet transfers of software or music and simple refilling of patented or trademarked ink-jet printer cartridges.  With an eye towards common law, legislative, and uniform law initiatives in this area, the course will focus on practical implications and skills while at the same time asking normative questions.  As an upper-class seminar, a central goal of the course will be to improve the students' skills as effective writers.  Towards this end, a writing assignment or series of writing assignments will be a substantial element of the coursework.  Students will have the opportunity to receive significant feedback directly from the faculty on early drafts of their written work.  Because even transactional lawyers - not just litigators - must have strong oral communications skills, students will also be given the opportunity to receive oral feedback on their work through in-class oral presentations before the faculty and their colleagues.  It is expected that the written work product of the students will be either normative or strategic, at the election of each particular student and with the advice of the faculty member.  The course grade will be based on the totality of the student's performance during the course, with a heavy emphasis on class participation.  A course-pack of reading materials will be made available to the students as an initial resource, but some outside research will be expected.  (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

ENVIRONMENTAL & LAND USE LITIGATION SEMINAR (DRM) 

Mandelker

Enrollment limit:16. Litigation issues and strategies play a critical role in shaping land use and environmental law. The seminar will be based on a hypothetical environmental or land use case. During the first part of the seminar each student will prepare either an amicus or party brief in support of one of the parties in the case. In the second part of the seminar these roles will be reversed. A student who prepared a party brief will prepare an amicus brief for the other side. A student who prepared an amicus brief will prepare a party brief for the other side. Each brief will also be revised once. Oral arguments before a panel of judges will be scheduled for students who want to argue the case. All briefs will be eight pages in length. The class will meet periodically during the semester to discuss the writing assignments. The emphasis in the seminar is on writing and presentation. Research sources will be made accessible.  (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

IMMIGRANTS' RIGHTS SEMINAR (SHL)

Legomsky

Enrollment limit: 16.  In this writing seminar, each student will explore in depth, in a scholarly paper comparable in scope and quality to a law review note, a legal problem related to the course title. The general subject matter encompasses all of immigration law (see course description for that subject) plus all other areas of the law that implicate the rights and obligations of noncitizens, as well as issues concerning the citizenship laws of the United States or other nations.  Examples of paper topics include noncitizens' eligibility for welfare benefits, entry into selected professions, government employment, voting and other political activity, land ownership, access to the courts, to public schools, and to other public services, and noncitizens' susceptibility to tax liability, conscription, detention, etc. The instructor will provide a list of specific suggestions for papers, but students will be free to write on other suitable topics within the subject matter of the course after receiving approval from the instructor. Each paper will progress from topic selection to a detailed written outline, to at least two drafts. We shall meet formally as a group at the start of the semester and later on as the need arises. Individual conferences also will be mandatory.  Apart from the required meetings, students will consult with the instructor throughout the semester.  There are no formal prerequisites or corequisites, but students who have not taken immigration law might need to do some extra work at the beginning to familiarize themselves with basic concepts. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

IP INTERNATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW SEMINAR (CRM)  

McManis

Enrollment limit: 16. [7/9/04 Update:  Inasmuch as an International IP Law course is now being offered in the 2004 fall semester, the course description for the International IP Law Seminar is revised as follows.]  This seminar will basically explore the international impact of the TRIPS (i.e. Trade-related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) Agreement, which was adopted in 1994 as a part of the Uruguay Round of GATT negotiations (the same round of multilateral trade negotiations that produced the World Trade Organization, which oversees implementation of the TRIPS Agreement).  As a part of that overall study, the seminar will also examine the two “Great Conventions” of the 19^th Century (i.e. the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, and the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works), and various subsidiary and complementary multilateral agreements, such as the International Convention for the Protection of New Varieties of Plants (UPOV), the WIPO Copyright Treaty, and the FAO International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.  The seminar will also examine various regional harmonization agreements, such as NAFTA and various EU Directives.  Course materials for the seminar will consist of a packet of photocopied materials, and the seminar will be taught by means of a series of weekly written assignments that will focus on such topics as biotechnology and traditional knowledge protection, plant variety and database protection, open-source software, and “common-pool” management of genetic resources for food and agriculture.  The weekly written assignments will constitute the entire work requirement for the course. Regular class attendance and preparation are, of course, required.  Rising second-year J.D. students and others who have not taken any basic IP courses are strongly encouraged to enroll in the International IP Law course, rather than this seminar.  (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

INTERNATIONAL LEGAL PROCESS SEMINAR: THE TWO AD HOC TRIBUNALS (LNS)

Sadat

Enrollment limit: 16. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda have each generated hundreds of legal decisions relating to international criminal law.  Each student will examine a particular decision of one of the tribunals, and write a relatively lengthy case commentary on the decision.  The student will present his or her research to the class, and the seminar will meet regularly, except for a two-week break in the middle when students will be writing first drafts. Final grades will depend upon the quality of both the presentation and the paper.  (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

LAW AND POLITICS SEMINAR (NS/LE/AM)

Epstein/Martin/Staudt

Enrollment limit:  24 (approx. 12 law students and 12 graduate social sciences students). This seminar will focus on the interplay between law and politics; we will organize the seminar as workshop and will focus on contemporary problems and issues.  For purposes of discussion, we will divide the semester into 7 two-week blocks.  In the first week of each block, we will discuss a paper authored by a nationally well-known scholar and in second week we will invite the scholar to campus to present his/her work to the class for further discussion.  As far as substance, we will focus on quantitative and not qualitative studies in the context of law and politics.  Students will write 7 short papers addressing the issues we discuss in class; to assure its interdisciplinary nature, the seminar will be open to both law students and graduate students in the social sciences. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

LITIGATION SEMINAR: POLICY, RULES, STRATEGIES, & RELATED ISSUES (KJN)                                   

Norwood                                      

Enrollment limit: 16. (This seminar will not meet as a group on a regular basis.  When the group does meet it will be on Mondays between the hours of 3-5.)  The primary concentration of this seminar this semester will be on stereotypes and biases.  What are the stereotypes and biases in society?  How were they created?  Why do they exist?  Are you conscious of them?  Do they affect how you currently see the world and issues?  What about as lawyer?  Will/do they affect how you interact with other lawyers, judges, your clients, jurors?  Do stereotypes and biases affect how judges deal with lawyers, other judges?  the jury?  Are we worried about what stereotypes and biases each juror is bringing to the jury box?  How do we discover/uncover them?  Should we attempt to neutralize them or use them to our advantage?  What do you think of jury consultants?  Are they good sources of neutralizing/discovering/uncovering or, rather, do they help the lawyer walk an ethical tightrope?  The work in this seminar may require some interdisciplinary referencing from the sociological and psychological fields of study.  A suggested reading list will be sent to all course registrants and wait-list students during the summer.  Students will be expected to read the materials on the reading list, turn in an outline, a preliminary draft, and a final draft of the seminar paper.  Students will be expected to meet with the Professor on an individual basis to discuss things like topic selection, progress on the outline, and critique of the rough draft.  Topics will need to be selected during the first two weeks of the semester.  There will several occasions when the group will come together as a whole to listen to short presentations on the topics chosen by classmates.  Non-presenting students are expected to attend and to provide feedback to the presenter. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.

PRISONS AND PRISON REFORM (MS)

Enrollment limit: 16. On any given day, two million people in the United States are incarcerated in jails, state prisons, and federal prisons. This seminar will examine the legal system's regulation of the conditions of their confinement, looking at both lawsuits and other methods of controlling what goes on inside prisons. Topics will include internal discipline, the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment, the Prison Litigation Reform Act, and trends in prison litigation (including both damage actions and injunctive cases). We will also consider some less court-centered approaches to regulation of prison life and administration.   The class will meet as a group on a weekly basis for most of the semester to discuss course readings, seminar paper topics, and issues in the papers as they arise.  Students will be expected to read assigned materials and participate actively in class discussion.  In addition, students will be required to complete a scholarly research paper, and will need to select its topic during the first two weeks of the semester. They must submit a topic statement, a research plan, a first draft, and a final, revised version of the paper.  The instructor will provide assistance with topic selection and feedback on drafts. (Seminars are not graded anonymously because the professor works with students on their writing project(s) throughout the semester.)  3 units.