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International Human Rights Law
LAWS 96101
- 01
(3)
c/l, r, w
This course is an introduction to international human rights law, covering the major instruments and institutions that operate on the international plane. It includes discussion of the conceptual underpinnings of human rights, the structure of the United Nations System, the major international treaties, regional human rights machinery, and the interplay of national and international systems in enforcing human rights. It will also provide an introduction to international relations theories: When and why do states commit to international human rights standards? And when does international human rights law actually make a difference on the ground? To illustrate these themes, the course will draw when possible on current international events covered in the media.
Autumn 2013
Mila Versteeg
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Islamic Law and Finance
LAWS 80222
- 01
(3)
c/l, m, w, x
This seminar will provide students with an overview of the modern Islamic finance industry. We will review the basic sources of Islamic law and jurisprudence and consider the prohibitions on unjustified increase (riba) and excessive risk (gharar). We will explore the classical rules of Islamic contract and commercial law and their application in the modern context. The growth of the modern Islamic finance industry from the 1970’s to the present will be examined. The main Islamic financial products will be reviewed. We will consider legal questions in structuring transaction documentation. We will explore the ethical underpinnings of Islamic finance and the social justice questions highlighted by the intersection of religion and finance. Regulatory issues will be discussed. We will also consider the political environment in which Islamic finance currently operates. The seminar is intended to familiarize students with the essential legal framework of the rapidly emerging market for highly technical and sophisticated Islamic financial products.
Autumn 2013
Cynthia Shawamreh
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Labor History and the Law
LAWS 92103
- 01
(3)
c/l, m, r, w, x
This seminar examines the historical relationship between American workers and the law. It focuses on legal contests over workers’ rights in the courts, legislatures, and administrative agencies during the late-nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Readings explore the ways in which law has shaped labor solidarity, class formation, and strategies for organization and resistance. They also consider the influence of organized labor and of labor law on mobilization for social change, including the movements for civil liberties and civil rights. The seminar concludes by exploring current trends in American labor relations, including recent efforts to curtail the collective bargaining rights of public employees.
Autumn 2013
Laura Weinrib
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Law and Advances in Medicine
LAWS 93302
- 01
(3)
c/l, m, w, x
This seminar will address the intersection of medicine, science, and law, focusing on issues related to human research, informed consent, the "new genetics," and other advances in biotechnology.
Enrollment is limited to 10 students.
Students will write a significant research paper, submitted in three stages, which can be used to satisfy the Writing Project requirement and which will count for 50 percent of the grade.
A Writing Project paper can be submitted on the first day of the following quarter.
The other 50 percent of the grade will be based on class participation.
Spring 2014
Julie Gage Palmer
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Law and the Mental Health System
LAWS 47001
- 01
(3)
r, w
The course examines the interrelationship between legal doctrine; procedural rules; medical, cultural, and social scientific understandings of mental disability; and institutional arrangements affecting the provision of services to the mentally disabled. Consideration is given to admission to and discharge from mental health facilities, to competency to consent to or to refuse treatment, to surrogate decision-making for those found incompetent, to the rights of those confined in mental health facilities; to discrimination against the mentally disabled, and to the rights of the mentally disabled in the criminal justice system.
Grades are based on a final paper or a final take-home exam, and class participation.
Autumn 2013
Mark J. Heyrman
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Leadership
LAWS 75102
- 01
(2 to 3)
+, m, r, s, w
The divide between law and business is becoming increasingly blurred as clients look to their lawyers not merely for legal advice but also for leadership and results-focused solutions to complex business problems. Increasing competition, early specialization, and client cost constraints provide junior attorneys with few opportunities to develop the skills necessary to meet these increasing expectations. Through this highly intensive seminar, students will develop the judgment and practical skills necessary to become effective leaders and problem solvers, as well as an understanding of the theoretical foundations of effective leadership. Topics will include project management, strategic vision, forms of influence, and business leadership. Materials will include cutting-edge research, case histories, videos, and literature. Class sessions occasionally will include speakers who have played important leadership roles.
The student's grade will be based on active and insightful class participation, reflection papers on assigned readings, and a final paper on an instructor-approved topic of the student's choosing (examples of potential topics include leadership in alliance formation, variations in governing board structures, performance consequences of executive succession, and leadership in outsourcing relationships). The seminar will require substantial out of class work and class participation will count toward the grade. Students will be developing leadership presentations and completing major projects outside of class. Enrollment is very limited given the unique nature of this seminar, and instructor approval is required. If there is sufficient student interest, there may be a follow-on leadership seminar offered in the Spring.
A 2-credit option is available with permission of instructor.
Winter 2014
David Zarfes
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Legal Profession: Ethics
LAWS 41002
- 02
(3)
m, p, w, x
This seminar addresses ethical considerations raised during the practice of law, including strategic, practical, and moral considerations with which attorneys should be familiar. Using materials from a leading casebook, the rules, and cases or articles of particular interest, we will discuss both the rules and the ethical situations that lawyers face in a variety of situations. There will be a particular focus on the ambiguities of how to handle particularly difficult issues encountered in the practice of law and the rules and framework to which attorneys can turn in determining how to handle those issues.
This seminar will be taught as a participatory class.
Students will be evaluated both on the quality of their participation, and on the basis of a paper of 20 pages in length on a topic relating to professional responsibility chosen by and of particular interest to the student.
Attendance is mandatory.
Autumn 2013
Adam Hoeflich
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Legalistic Wrongdoing in Hitler's Europe and Postwar Restitution in American Federal Courts
LAWS 96104
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
This seminar studies the discourse and doctrine of two major legal systems that functioned in Hitler's Europe to provide sustenance to an ongoing genocide. With a focus on courts and lawyers in Nazi Germany and in Vichy France, the readings involve primary documents, books, and articles about the way entire legal communities, with few protesters, used recognizable legal language and judicial institutions to accommodate grotesque variations upon what had been sound structures of reasoning and decision-making. We look not only at "what happened" but at "why" intelligent lawyers, trained in pre-War traditions including those of due process and egalitarianism, folded their tents and helped create a structure that totally violated those traditions. A connection will be made to contemporary American law, both in flagging analogous challenges in the 21st century and also in tracking in some detail litigation on behalf of Holocaust survivors or their heirs in American federal courts over the past 20 years, litigation that is ongoing in Chicago district court as the seminar proceeds.
Spring 2014
Richard Weisberg
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Life in the Law
LAWS 99403
- 01
(2)
m, w, x
This seminar will explore the various definitions and valuations of life across diverse areas of the law. Readings will include seminal cases in reproductive rights, assisted suicide, right-to-die, and capital punishment. Background readings in related areas, i.e., scientific journals, papers, etc. will also be required. The seminar will discuss policy decision-making including actuarial analysis and social, medical and religious values inherent, implicit or ignored in the legal analysis.
Students will be required to write three short papers, co-draft a statute in one area of law, and participate in jury deliberations.
Grade will also be based on class participation.
Spring 2014
Herschella G. Conyers
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Managing Risk in a Global Economy
LAWS 73913
- 01
(3)
m, s, w
In today's global economy, companies, investors and other economic actors are operating on a cross-border basis more than ever before. As a result, they are faced with the daunting prospect of managing legal, regulatory and other business risks in a multitude of countries across the globe. This seminar will introduce students to the intriguing challenges of managing cross-border legal, regulatory and other risks in today's global and increasingly complex and interconnected economy. The seminar will cover an array of substantive issues including, among other things, anti-corruption, regulation, economic sanctions, managing cross-border liability risks, tools for the effective resolution of cross-border litigation, including the use of bilateral investment treaties, and the management of political and country risks. The Seminar also will explore the various dimensions of the General Counsel role in today's multinational enterprises, as well as the important relationship between counsel (in-house and external) and company management in effectively managing risk on a global basis.
The seminar will be taught on the basis of readings as well as case studies.
The format of the seminar will depend heavily upon active student participation.
Law students and business students are both encouraged to participate in the seminar.
Students will be graded based upon the quality of their preparation for and active participation in the seminar, as well as the quality of a final project, which involves substantial research requiring students to analyze and address a specific fact pattern drawing on the various concepts and issues that will be discussed during the seminar.
This seminar may satisfy the WP graduation requirement, if sufficient research and written work is completed as part of the final project.
Spring 2014
Javier Rubinstein
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Marriage
LAWS 68001
- 01
(3)
+, c/l, r, w
With the aim of making predictions and recommendations for the future, this course examines marriage as a state-sponsored institution, considering its history, its variants (e.g., common law marriage) and close substitutes (e.g., domestic partnership), conceptual frameworks for analyzing it (e.g., analogies between marriage and the business corporation or partnership or relational contract), past and future variants on the joining of one man and one woman (e.g., polygamy and same-sex marriage), and the use of marriage as an ordering principle in various areas of law.
Constitutional Law III is a recommended prerequisite.
The grade is based on a substantial paper, series of short reaction papers, or final examination, with class participation taken into account.
Paper writers require permission of the instructor.
Undergraduates require permission of the instructor.
Spring 2014
Mary Anne Case
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Mental Health Advocacy Clinic
LAWS 67013
- 01
(1 to 2)
+, a, s, w
Mental Health Advocacy teaches a variety of advocacy skills. With the permission of the clinical teacher, students may choose to focus on litigation, legislation, or both. Students engaged in litigation may interview clients and witnesses; research and draft pleadings and legal memoranda, including briefs to reviewing courts; conduct formal and informal discovery; negotiate with opposing counsel and others; conduct evidentiary hearings and trials; and present oral argument in trial and appellate courts. Students who have completed sixty percent of the credits needed for graduation may be licensed to appear, under the supervision of the clinical teacher, in state and federal trial and appellate courts pursuant to court rules and practices. Students engaged in legislative advocacy may research and draft legislation and supporting materials, devise and implement strategies to obtain the enactment or defeat of legislation, negotiate with representatives of various interest groups, and testify in legislative hearings. In addition to discrete advocacy skills such as cross-examination, discovery planning, and legislative drafting, the clinic aims to provide students with an understanding of the relationships between individual advocacy tasks and the ultimate goals of clients, between litigation and legislative advocacy, and between advocacy on behalf of individual clients and advocacy for systemic change.
Prior or contemporaneous enrollment in Law and the Mental Health System is encouraged, but not required, for all students.
See the general rules for all clinical courses for further details concerning enrollment, including the rules governing the award of credit.
Mental Health Advocacy satisfies part of the writing requirement if substantial written work is completed.
Student may enroll in this clinical course for between one and six quarters.
Winter 2014
Mark J. Heyrman
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Mental Health Advocacy Clinic
LAWS 67013
- 01
(1 to 2)
+, a, s, w
Mental Health Advocacy teaches a variety of advocacy skills. With the permission of the clinical teacher, students may choose to focus on litigation, legislation, or both. Students engaged in litigation may interview clients and witnesses; research and draft pleadings and legal memoranda, including briefs to reviewing courts; conduct formal and informal discovery; negotiate with opposing counsel and others; conduct evidentiary hearings and trials; and present oral argument in trial and appellate courts. Students who have completed sixty percent of the credits needed for graduation may be licensed to appear, under the supervision of the clinical teacher, in state and federal trial and appellate courts pursuant to court rules and practices. Students engaged in legislative advocacy may research and draft legislation and supporting materials, devise and implement strategies to obtain the enactment or defeat of legislation, negotiate with representatives of various interest groups, and testify in legislative hearings. In addition to discrete advocacy skills such as cross-examination, discovery planning, and legislative drafting, the clinic aims to provide students with an understanding of the relationships between individual advocacy tasks and the ultimate goals of clients, between litigation and legislative advocacy, and between advocacy on behalf of individual clients and advocacy for systemic change.
Prior or contemporaneous enrollment in Law and the Mental Health System is encouraged, but not required, for all students.
See the general rules for all clinical courses for further details concerning enrollment, including the rules governing the award of credit.
Mental Health Advocacy satisfies part of the writing requirement if substantial written work is completed.
Student may enroll in this clinical course for between one and six quarters.
Spring 2014
Mark J. Heyrman
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Mental Health Advocacy Clinic
LAWS 67013
- 01
(1 to 2)
+, a, s, w
Mental Health Advocacy teaches a variety of advocacy skills. With the permission of the clinical teacher, students may choose to focus on litigation, legislation, or both. Students engaged in litigation may interview clients and witnesses; research and draft pleadings and legal memoranda, including briefs to reviewing courts; conduct formal and informal discovery; negotiate with opposing counsel and others; conduct evidentiary hearings and trials; and present oral argument in trial and appellate courts. Students who have completed sixty percent of the credits needed for graduation may be licensed to appear, under the supervision of the clinical teacher, in state and federal trial and appellate courts pursuant to court rules and practices. Students engaged in legislative advocacy may research and draft legislation and supporting materials, devise and implement strategies to obtain the enactment or defeat of legislation, negotiate with representatives of various interest groups, and testify in legislative hearings. In addition to discrete advocacy skills such as cross-examination, discovery planning, and legislative drafting, the clinic aims to provide students with an understanding of the relationships between individual advocacy tasks and the ultimate goals of clients, between litigation and legislative advocacy, and between advocacy on behalf of individual clients and advocacy for systemic change.
Prior or contemporaneous enrollment in Law and the Mental Health System is encouraged, but not required, for all students.
See the general rules for all clinical courses for further details concerning enrollment, including the rules governing the award of credit.
There is a mandatory one-credit seminar component for this course which meets once a week during the Autumn Quarter.
Mental Health Advocacy satisfies part of the writing requirement if substantial written work is completed.
Student may enroll in this clinical course for between one and six quarters.
Autumn 2013
Mark J. Heyrman
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Obscenity Law and Pop Culture
LAWS 53013
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
This seminar will examine a culturally relevant issue: the intersection of obscenity laws and pop culture. It will provide an in-depth look at the obscenity laws in the United States, with a particular focus on the laws that prohibit obscene materials of minors. The seminar will explore the "community standards" requirement of obscenity, as it relates to the definition of obscenity and how it interacts with the law's treatment of a teenager's ability to consent to being featured in obscene material.
Students enrolled will write a seminar paper.
Spring 2014
Rachael Pontikes
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Patent Claim Construction: A Hands-On Introduction to Patent Litigation
LAWS 78002
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
The interpretation of patent claims, or claim construction, is the single most important event in patent litigation and is often case-dispositive. This seminar will expose students to this complex, fascinating, and crucial aspect of patent litigation by having students undertake the claim construction process used by many courts. Students will develop proposed interpretations, write claim construction briefs, and conduct a claim construction hearing. At the same time, readings and class discussions will provide students a deep understanding of the extensive case law and scholarship surrounding claim construction. While some experience with patents--from prior classes, summer jobs, etc.--may be helpful, this seminar is intended to be accessible even for patent novices. Patent litigation is an increasingly important practice for large law firms, and many young associates will find themselves working on patent cases even if they have no technical background or strong interest in patent law. This seminar is intended to expose these future associates to the key issue that resolves most patent cases. Thus, no technical background or knowledge of patent law is required, and the patent used for the seminar's claim construction process will involve simple technology that is easy for anyone to understand.
Spring 2014
Greg Reilly
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Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic
LAWS 67243
- 01
(1)
a, s, w
The Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic (PIRC) will assist individuals returning to society after detention and imprisonment. Approximately 600,000 people are annually released from state and federal prisons in the United States; in Illinois, about 40,000 prisoners return to their communities each year and a substantial percentage of Illinois prisoners return to a small number of Chicago neighborhoods (several on the Southside) where they encounter restricted housing, employment, and educational opportunities, inadequate social, medical, and mental health services, real obstacles to care and provide for their families, and other policies and practices that make it difficult to become productive members of the community. Students will be engaged in individual representation, policy reform, and public education. In terms of direct representation, students may interview and counsel clients, prepare and present witnesses at hearings before the Circuit Court of Cook County or the Prisoner Review Board, provide advice and assistance on reviewing criminal records, prepare petitions for expungement and sealing of records, apply for certificates of good conduct and relief from disabilities, provide counsel in parole and probation revocation proceedings, and consider petitions for executive clemency and other post-conviction relief. With regard to policy and public education, we will, inter alia, collaborate with other community organizations and providers in advocating for alternatives to incarceration, legislative reform, and the elimination of barriers to employment, housing, public benefits, and education for those with criminal records. PIRC will engage in effective interdisciplinary collaboration with the Clinic social worker and social work students as well as related law school clinics, interested academics, and other university departments and disciplines.
Autumn 2013
Herschella G. Conyers, Randolph N. Stone
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Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic
LAWS 67243
- 01
(1)
a, s, w
The Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic (PIRC) will assist individuals returning to society after detention and imprisonment. Approximately 600,000 people are annually released from state and federal prisons in the United States; in Illinois, about 40,000 prisoners return to their communities each year and a substantial percentage of Illinois prisoners return to a small number of Chicago neighborhoods (several on the Southside) where they encounter restricted housing, employment, and educational opportunities, inadequate social, medical, and mental health services, real obstacles to care and provide for their families, and other policies and practices that make it difficult to become productive members of the community. Students will be engaged in individual representation, policy reform, and public education. In terms of direct representation, students may interview and counsel clients, prepare and present witnesses at hearings before the Circuit Court of Cook County or the Prisoner Review Board, provide advice and assistance on reviewing criminal records, prepare petitions for expungement and sealing of records, apply for certificates of good conduct and relief from disabilities, provide counsel in parole and probation revocation proceedings, and consider petitions for executive clemency and other post-conviction relief. With regard to policy and public education, we will, inter alia, collaborate with other community organizations and providers in advocating for alternatives to incarceration, legislative reform, and the elimination of barriers to employment, housing, public benefits, and education for those with criminal records. PIRC will engage in effective interdisciplinary collaboration with the Clinic social worker and social work students as well as related law school clinics, interested academics, and other university departments and disciplines.
Spring 2014
Herschella G. Conyers, Randolph N. Stone
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Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic
LAWS 67243
- 01
(1)
a, s, w
The Post Incarceration Reentry Clinic (PIRC) will assist individuals returning to society after detention and imprisonment. Approximately 600,000 people are annually released from state and federal prisons in the United States; in Illinois, about 40,000 prisoners return to their communities each year and a substantial percentage of Illinois prisoners return to a small number of Chicago neighborhoods (several on the Southside) where they encounter restricted housing, employment, and educational opportunities, inadequate social, medical, and mental health services, real obstacles to care and provide for their families, and other policies and practices that make it difficult to become productive members of the community. Students will be engaged in individual representation, policy reform, and public education. In terms of direct representation, students may interview and counsel clients, prepare and present witnesses at hearings before the Circuit Court of Cook County or the Prisoner Review Board, provide advice and assistance on reviewing criminal records, prepare petitions for expungement and sealing of records, apply for certificates of good conduct and relief from disabilities, provide counsel in parole and probation revocation proceedings, and consider petitions for executive clemency and other post-conviction relief. With regard to policy and public education, we will, inter alia, collaborate with other community organizations and providers in advocating for alternatives to incarceration, legislative reform, and the elimination of barriers to employment, housing, public benefits, and education for those with criminal records. PIRC will engage in effective interdisciplinary collaboration with the Clinic social worker and social work students as well as related law school clinics, interested academics, and other university departments and disciplines.
Winter 2014
Herschella G. Conyers, Randolph N. Stone
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Post-Judgment Proceedings and Asset Recovery
LAWS 47302
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
A plaintiff client's ultimate goal in bringing a lawsuit is to actually recover any money judgment that is awarded to the client. If you as the client's lawyer cannot collect -- that is, if you cannot actually get the money, the judgment is of virtually no use to the client. This seminar will explore the procedural and practical steps that a plaintiff can and should take to collect and execute on a judgment, including review and analysis of among other subjects: (a) pre-judgment discovery regarding assets; (b) pre-judgment approaches to freezing assets; c) finality of judgments for purposes of collection and execution; (d) post-judgment proceedings under federal and state law; (e) collections from third parties that hold assets of the judgment debtor; and (f) overcoming asset protection vehicles such as offshore trusts and companies.
Approximately seventy percent (70%) of the final grade will depend upon a seminar paper grade on a topic related to the issues covered in class.
Approximately thirty percent (30%) of the final grade will depend upon class participation.
Winter 2014
Gabriel Aizenberg
