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Private Equity in Asia
LAWS 71407
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
Private equity is expanding rapidly into new regions of the world. Asia, where profound economic change is taking place in countries such as China, India, Indonesia, and Viet Nam, offers attractive opportunities for Western firms seeking to export proven investment models. Firms like Carlyle, KKR, and Bain Capital, among others, expect their operations in Asia to excel in both growth and rate of return and eventually rival operations in the United States and Europe in scale.
Asian nations present unique challenges to private equity investors. These challenges include partnering with governments in state-sponsored transactions, participating as minority investors in contrast to the more typical majority or controlling position, dealing with new or opaque laws, overcoming fraud and corruption, and mitigating the risk of weak corporate governance. Additionally, domestic funds are sprouting up in large numbers and becoming more formidable in the competition for the best deals.
This seminar will address the current developments in private equity across major countries in Asia. We will review the nature and rise of the industry in the region, the role of private equity as a new tool in the economic development of Asian nations, and the success and failure of recent Asian private equity deals.
Grading will be determined by class participation in the discussion of cases and readings – and by performance across three short papers. The first paper will examine private equity in the macro-context of economic transformation; the second will focus on issues in a recent case study; and the third will address terms in a prospective deal negotiation.
Winter 2014
Tom Manning
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Private Ownership of Cultural Property
LAWS 94703
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
This seminar examines the emerging law of cultural property and how it has recently been used to limit the exercise of many of the classic attributes of private ownership: title, use, exclusion, and alienability. The class will begin with the historical and philosophical bases for making property private (Hobbes, Locke, Montesquieu, Blackstone, Demsetz, Rawls, and Nozick), will examine examples of how both cultural property is protected in the United States and abroad, and will analyze how the traditional bundle of private property rights can or should be limited by notions of the community interest and a shared cultural heritage.
Spring 2014
Michael Thompson, Michael Thompson
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Private Regulation
LAWS 95103
- 01
(3)
m, r, w, x
This seminar examines the role of private non-governmental entities in regulating standard of behavior in society. It explores prominent cases in which private entities set standards, regulate entry, monitor compliance, and impose sanctions in activities related to risk, health, safety, finances, living standards, and privacy. Private regulators can act as complements—but also as substitutes—to government regulation. For example, retailers regulate safety, environmental, and labor practices of their suppliers; hospitals regulate professional practices of physicians; insurers regulate the safety practices of their policyholders; universities regulate innovation and the development of knowledge; trade associations regulate conduct in their industries; and Google regulates a host of issues, from privacy and decency to branding and even geo-political mapping.
Students will be required to write (SRP-level) papers on case studies, examining particular examples of private “outsourced” regulations and evaluating their advantages and shortcomings relative to public regulation.
Autumn 2013
Omri Ben-Shahar
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Project and Infrastructure Development and Finance
LAWS 42512
- 01
(2 to 3)
+, m, w, x
This seminar will be of most interest to students interested in financial transactions as the core of a corporate law practice. There are no pre-requisites. The emphasis in this seminar will be on financings of identified operating assets, principally industrial and infrastructure projects and transportation equipment. These financings will be distinguished from financings of ongoing corporate enterprises, and representative transactions will be studied in depth in order to develop and then focus on selected legal structuring and legal practice issues, including, for example, legal opinions normally delivered at financial closings. Because these financings in practice employ nearly the full range of financial products, from commercial bank loans to capital market instruments, credit supports and derivatives, collateral security, and equity investments, the issues discussed have relevance to a broad range of financial transactions.
The class will be discussion oriented; there will be no exam and grades will be based on short papers and class participation.
The readings will include selected cases, portions of treatises and academic journals, and rating agency and official publications.
One or more guest speakers from the financial community are expected.
Corporation Law is not a prerequisite, but is recommended.
Students wishing to take the class for three credits must complete a substantial research paper. This option is available in limited circumstances only. Permission will be contingent on the student’s past experience, goals for the course, and topic suitability. Interested students should email the professor a brief statement of interest.
Students wishing to meet the WP requirement must write a research paper.
Enrollment is limited to twenty-five students.
Autumn 2013
Martin Jacobson
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Public Corruption and the Law
LAWS 68314
- 01
(2 to 3)
+, m, w, x
This seminar will focus on how governments use the law to prevent and catch public corruption, how the law is sometimes used to protect public corruption, and how one should determine the optimal response to corruption and its consequences. We will examine the substantive criminal laws and sentencing schemes used in the best public corruption prosecutions, ranging from RICO and "honest services" fraud to bribery and extortion laws. We will also examine the laws that create, authorize, or prevent the most effective investigative tools used by law enforcement against public corruption, including wiretap laws and related privacy issues. We will study several key topics within public corruption law, including patronage, its effect on democratic institutions, and its status under the First Amendment; campaign finance reform and whether money in campaigns is protected speech or a corrupting influence (or both); and the relationship between transparency, online access to information, and corruption. We will also consider an economic analysis of public corruption, including questions about whether the level of democracy, and the pervasiveness of corruption in the culture, affect the cost-benefit analysis.
Constitutional Law I and II are recommended pre-requisites.
Students taking the class for 3 credits write one short reaction paper (or short research paper if appropriate), and one major paper.
Those taking it for 2 credits write several short reaction papers.
Spring 2014
David Hoffman
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Public International Law
LAWS 72901
- 01
(3)
c/l, r, w
This course is an introduction to public international law, which is the body of law that nation states have jointly created for the purpose of governing their relations. The course focuses on the sources of international law, international institutions such as the United Nations, international adjudication, and various substantive fields of international law, such as the use of force, human rights, the treatment of aliens, and international environmental law.
Grades will be based on class participation and an examination.
A paper option is allowed for students who wish to write an SRP.
Winter 2014
Tom Ginsburg
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Public Opinion, Public Policy, and the Law
LAWS 69002
- 01
(3)
m, r, w, x
This seminar will explore the intersection of public opinion, public policy, and the law. To date, questions about whether and how public opinion influences public policy have been addressed primarily by political scientists. But these questions are also vital to several legal domains, in particular constitutional law and election law. In the constitutional law context, the mistranslation of public opinion into public policy may be evidence of a political malfunction that requires judicial intervention. In the election law context, one of the most important functions of elections is to align the preferences of the electorate with the policies enacted by their representatives. The seminar will tackle these complex and interesting issues through readings drawn from legal scholarship, political theory, and empirical political science. An effort will also be made to have outside speakers present papers once or twice during the quarter.
Winter 2014
Nicholas Stephanopoulos
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Public-Entity Bankruptcy
LAWS 73705
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
Detroit’s recent petition for Chapter 9 bankruptcy relief can be read as the coda to a dramatic yet idiosyncratic tale of economic decline. In many respects, though, the financial problems Detroit faces are similar to, if more pronounced than, the difficulties confronting many other towns, cities, and states. In this seminar we will explore the political and economic roots of public-entity financial distress, as well as the ways law seeks to prevent and mitigate its effects. Topics covered will include: the political and legal status of public entities vis a vis their citizens and creditors; the effects of mobility, voting rules, and interest-group politics on public spending and financing decisions; and the history and substance of Chapter 9.
There is no prerequisite, but some working knowledge of corporate bankruptcy will be helpful. Grading will be based on a term paper, an in-class presentation, and regular participation.
Spring 2014
Vincent Buccola
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Racism, Law, and Social Sciences
LAWS 54303
- 01
(3)
c/l, m, r, w, x
This seminar will provide an in-depth study of theories and methods for analysis of racialization in past and present societies. Analyses of the social construction of racial and ethnic identities have facilitated studies of the ways in which social differences are created, maintained, and masked. Subjects to be addressed in this seminar include the interrelation of racializing ideologies with other cultural and social dimensions, such as class, ethnicity, gender, political and legal structures, and economic influences. We will also consider the related histories of biological and genetic concepts of different races within the human species as part of the context of our study of racism operating within social processes.
The seminar includes a major writing project in the form of a seminar paper.
Winter 2014
Christopher Fennell
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Regulation of Sexuality
LAWS 72201
- 01
(3)
+, c/l, r, w
This course explores the many ways in which the legal system regulates sexuality, sexual identity, and gender and considers such regulation in a number of substantive areas as well as the limits on placed on such regulation by constitutional guarantees including free speech, equal protection, and due process. Readings include cases and articles from the legal literature together with work by scholars in other fields.
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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Regulatory Interpretation
LAWS 51604
- 01
(3)
+, m, r, w, x
This seminar will explore whether regulatory texts warrant interpretive theories distinct from those applicable to statutes, and what those approaches should entail. Relevant topics will include the institutional differences between agencies and Congress; judicial doctrines regarding an agency’s interpretation of its own rules; and the extent to which agencies should interpret regulations differently than courts.
Administrative Law or Legislation and Statutory Interpretation are recommended as background; students who have not taken either course will require instructor permission.
Grades will be based on class participation, including weekly short questions or comments posted to Chalk, and a research paper.
Spring 2014
Jennifer Nou
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Religion, Law, and Politics
LAWS 97521
- 01
(3)
c/l, m, w, x
This seminar examines the conceptualization and realization of religious liberty and the separation of church and state. We explore philosophical precepts and historical contexts, review the state of the law, and address current controversial issues.
There are no prerequisites.
Grades are based on a paper and class participation.
Autumn 2013
Sylvia Neil
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The Commerce Clause, Policymaking, and Financial Regulation in a Digital World
LAWS 43601
- 01
(2 to 3)
m, w
U.S. insurance regulation presents a unique opportunity to consider fundamental questions regarding the regulation of financial services in the modern marketplace. Insurance is unique among financial services, and all other major regulated industries, in that it has no primary federal regulator. Instead, because of a quirk in history and a controversial interplay between the Supreme Court and Congress, it continues to be regulated by the states in a unique "reverse preemption" regime established by the McCarran-Ferguson Act and subsequently reaffirmed in concept by Congress in Gramm-Leach-Bliley and Dodd-Frank. The system is cumbersome and inefficient and would seem particularly unsuited toward the modern market, particularly given the growing importance of international bodies and standards. Yet the insurance market survived the financial crisis relatively well. This paradox will be examined. Other topics will include basics on insurance regulation, including interesting debates regarding government control over financial products, such as price fixing and restrictions on efficient risk classification; and the national and international void left by the lack of a federal regulator, and the growing role of a non-governmental entity, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, in regulation of interstate commerce, and attendant Constitutional and policy issues. Throughout the seminar, we will view this market through the prism of larger questions: the origins, meaning, and purpose of the Commerce Clause; the proper role of the Supreme Court and Congress in policymaking and Constitutional interpretation; Congress's ability to regulate interstate commerce in an evolving financial services marketplace; and the effectiveness of hybrid federal-state approaches to setting and enforcing regulatory policy.
Grades will be based on short weekly papers (2 credits), with the option of doing a long research paper or adding a short research paper to the weekly papers (for three credits).
Meets the WP graduation requirement.
Attendance is required and particularly helpful participation may be a factor in the final grade.
Winter 2014
Nathaniel Shapo
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The Federal Budget
LAWS 52801
- 01
(3)
m, r, w, x
The budget sets the size and scope of government. It affects everything the federal government does. The United States is currently facing a budgetary crisis that will involve hard choices about government spending and taxation. This seminar will examine the federal budget process. It will start by examining the basic facts about the U.S. fiscal situation and budget, how the budget is calculated, and the process by which it is set. The seminar will then turn to central topics within the budget, such as taxation, health care, social security, and discretionary spending. Finally, it will consider budget reform proposals.
Students will be expected to write a paper on a topic related to the federal budget.
Autumn 2013
Anup Malani, David A. Weisbach
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The Roberts Court
LAWS 50312
- 01
(2)
m, w
Co-taught by Professor Lee Epstein and Mr. Adam Liptak (Supreme Court correspondent of the New York Times) with Judge Richard A. Posner and Professor William M. Landes also participating, this seminar will examine the contemporary Supreme Court. Topics include the Court's membership; its procedures for selecting cases for review; the role of lawyers, law clerks, and journalists; and doctrinal developments in several areas of the law.
This seminar that will meet January 10-12, as follows:
Friday, January 10, 2014: 9:00 a.m. noon; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 11, 2014: 9:00 a.m. noon; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 12, 2014: 9:00 a.m. noon
We'll schedule two additional class sessions in the Spring quarter for paper presentations (April or May).
Spring 2014
Lee Epstein, Adam Liptak
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The Roberts Court
LAWS 50312
- 01
(1)
m, w, x
Co-taught by Professor Lee Epstein and Mr. Adam Liptak (Supreme Court correspondent of the New York Times) with Judge Richard A. Posner and Professor William M. Landes also participating, this seminar will examine the contemporary Supreme Court. Topics include the Court's membership; its procedures for selecting cases for review; the role of lawyers, law clerks, and journalists; and doctrinal developments in several areas of the law.
This seminar that will meet January 10-12, as follows:
Friday, January 10, 2014: 9:00 a.m. - noon; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Saturday, January 11, 2014: 9:00 a.m. - noon; 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Sunday, January 12, 2014: 9:00 a.m. - noon
We'll schedule two additional class sessions in the Spring quarter for paper presentations (April or May).
Winter 2014
Lee Epstein, Adam Liptak
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The US-China Treaty Project
LAWS 80806
- 01
(3)
m, w, x
The United States and China are engaged in the most important bilateral relationship of our era, yet the relationship remains random, fragile, and mistrustful. China’s rising influence threatens to change the global status quo, and the United States is understandably concerned. If these two giants learn how to collaborate, they could conceivably solve the world’s greatest problems. Alternatively, if they elect to contest each other at every turn, the result will be global instability and crisis. Unfortunately, the Shanghai Communiqué, which helped to open China forty years ago, is no longer sufficient as a guide; a new framework is needed. The world has grown less structured and more volatile, and the two nations are more competitive than ever. The risk of conflict is growing along with the volume of sensitive interactions. It is time for both nations to negotiate a new bargain that will guide and support the steady maturation of their high-potential, high-risk relationship. This seminar will advocate that the two nations develop a new, fifty-year treaty in the form of a strategic cooperation agreement. We will define the rationale and the case for action, draft major components of the proposed treaty, outline the pathway required for adoption, and transmit our end-product to foreign policy authorities in Washington and Beijing.
Grading will be determined by class participation and by performance across three short papers. The first paper will examine best practices in bilateral treaty development; the second will focus on critical factors in the future United States – China relationship; and, the third will require drafting of key components for the proposed treaty.
Spring 2014
Tom Manning
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Workshop: Constitutional Law
LAWS 63612
- 01
(1)
a, m, r, w
This workshop, conducted over three sequential quarters, exposes students to current academic work in constitutional law and theory and other areas of public law. Workshop sessions are devoted to the presentation and discussion of papers from outside speakers, at six to eight sessions to be conducted regularly throughout the academic year.
Enrollment may be limited.
This workshop may be taken for fulfillment of the Substantial Research Paper graduation requirement.
Grading is based on a substantial paper (or two shorter papers) plus brief reaction papers on each of the workshop papers.
As an alternative to writing a long paper, you may write two or more extended reaction papers (i.e., 10-12 pages) to the papers presented in the workshop. You have to get our approval in advance for this option. We encourage it if you find that you have a lot to say about some of the workshop papers. If you wish to receive Writing Project (WP) credit for this option, you must submit a draft of each of the two long response papers to us and satisfactorily incorporate our suggestions.
Spring 2014
Aziz Huq, David A. Strauss
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Workshop: Constitutional Law
LAWS 63612
- 01
(1)
a, m, r, w, x
This workshop, conducted over three sequential quarters, exposes students to current academic work in constitutional law and theory and other areas of public law. Workshop sessions are devoted to the presentation and discussion of papers from outside speakers, at six to eight sessions to be conducted regularly throughout the academic year.
Enrollment may be limited.
This workshop may be taken for fulfillment of the Substantial Research Paper graduation requirement.
Grading is based on a substantial paper (or two shorter papers) plus brief reaction papers on each of the workshop papers.
As an alternative to writing a long paper, you may write two or more extended reaction papers (i.e., 10-12 pages) to the papers presented in the workshop. You have to get our approval in advance for this option. We encourage it if you find that you have a lot to say about some of the workshop papers. If you wish to receive Writing Project (WP) credit for this option, you must submit a draft of each of the two long response papers to us and satisfactorily incorporate our suggestions.
Autumn 2013
Aziz Huq, David A. Strauss
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Workshop: Constitutional Law
LAWS 63612
- 01
(1)
a, m, r, w
This workshop, conducted over three sequential quarters, exposes students to current academic work in constitutional law and theory and other areas of public law. Workshop sessions are devoted to the presentation and discussion of papers from outside speakers, at six to eight sessions to be conducted regularly throughout the academic year.
Enrollment may be limited.
This workshop may be taken for fulfillment of the Substantial Research Paper graduation requirement.
Grading is based on a substantial paper (or two shorter papers) plus brief reaction papers on each of the workshop papers.
As an alternative to writing a long paper, you may write two or more extended reaction papers (i.e., 10-12 pages) to the papers presented in the workshop. You have to get our approval in advance for this option. We encourage it if you find that you have a lot to say about some of the workshop papers. If you wish to receive Writing Project (WP) credit for this option, you must submit a draft of each of the two long response papers to us and satisfactorily incorporate our suggestions.
Winter 2014
Aziz Huq, David A. Strauss
