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The array of elective courses varies from year to year.
Advanced Mediation
Designed for students
interested in incorporating mediation into their practices, this course operates
on three tracks. In the classroom, students move beyond the basics to the
intricacies of mediation law, procedures, and ethical rules across the many
contexts in which mediators are used. Focus on mediation theory allows students
to approach their work from a critical perspective. Simultaneously, students
continue their Clinic work (under supervision) as mediators. Finally, students
are teaching assistants for the Mediation Lawyering Seminar, helping to design
simulations and provide feedback to novice mediators.
Advanced Torts: The Law of Medical
Malpractice
Addressing the full range of the law of medical
malpractice, this course describes the process from jurisdiction to judgment and
covers physician liability, informed consent, causation and vicarious liability
of hospitals, medical groups, and HMOs. In addition to examining substantive
legal issues, students develop a "road map" for prosecuting or defending a
medical malpractice case, from drafting complaints and answers to discovery,
motion practice, and trial
Bankruptcy
Historically, bankruptcy was a "moral
taboo" to both individuals and corporations. The economic downturn in the late
1970s and early 1980s, coupled with the enactment of a major revision of the
Bankruptcy Code, has virtually removed this stigma. This course provides
students with a basic understanding of bankruptcy, encompassing both statutory
and case law. The course examines the interplay among creditors, debtors, and
trustees and explores their rights, obligations, and powers. The use of problems
and case studies builds understanding and foregrounds the choices and issues
that confront the bankruptcy lawyer.
Business Associations
Corporations, both large
and small, are the major structures through which business is carried out in the
United States today. The influence of business corporations on politics, the
environment, and the health of communities is immeasurable. This course is
designed to give students a basic understanding of the structure, and rights and
responsibilities of the American corporation. While focusing on small business,
attention is also paid to large corporations, and to charitable, religious, and
other uses of the corporate form. Students learn about shareholder rights and
duties, the duties and responsibilities of corporate directors and officers, the
capital structures of corporations, and are introduced to sole proprietorships,
partnerships, and other non-corporate forms of doing business.
Constitution And Foreign Affairs
A research and
discussion seminar examining constitutional issues of the foreign relations of
the United States. Topics include the powers of the President and Congress,
separation of powers, war powers, covert action, treaties, executive agreements,
participation in international organizations, the courts and justiciability of
foreign affairs controversies, state and local government actions affecting
federal conduct of foreign relations, and individual rights (including freedom
of expression, right to travel, rights of foreign nationals, extraterritorial
constitutional issues). The period since the attack on the World Trade Center
has seen rapid legal developments in the balance between national security and
civil liberties. Emerging issues will be examined, including indefinite
detention, torture, military tribunals, extraordinary rendition, detention of
immigrants, use of closed proceedings and secret evidence.
Criminal Procedure
What are the various
investigatory techniques utilized by law enforcement agencies in the
accumulation of evidence? How do we assess their effectiveness and propriety in
a democratic society? Students engage with these questions through study,
analysis, and critique of the major Supreme Court cases applying the Fourth,
Fifth, and Sixth Amendments. They learn constraints on police investigation and
the admissibility of evidence through comprehensive coverage of the exclusionary
rule (with its extension limiting the use of "the fruit of the poisonous tree,"
as well as the ways it has been limited through use of the concepts of standing,
collateral use, and harmless error); the rules surrounding the use (or lack of
use) of search warrants; the doctrine permitting (and limiting) the use of
wiretaps, undercover investigation and informants; the development of the
doctrine of entrapment; and the rules constraining police interrogation and
identification procedures. Particular attention is paid to the application of
these constitutional doctrines in New York.
Death Penalty
Students engage with the legal,
historical, international, and policy issues surrounding the use of capital
punishment, primarily focusing on the Eighth Amendment and U.S. Supreme Court
decisions. Various death penalty statutes, such as the federal Anti-Terrorism
and Effective Death Penalty Act, are examined, as are the role of counsel and
all phases of capital litigation, including trials, appeals, state
post-conviction proceedings, and federal habeas corpus proceedings. Additional
topics include consideration of age, mental retardation, insanity, race, and
gender in capital cases and a comparative analysis of the status of the death
penalty in other countries.
Environmental
Law
An exploration of the roots of environmental values and an
examination of alternative views on how the law can address environmental
degradation and its impact on human health, the course studies major federal
environmental statutes as well as the role of state and local government in
environmental protection.
Federal
Courts
The course examines both the historical and current role of the
federal judicial system - and the Supreme Court, in particular - in resolving
political, social, and economic conflicts. Issues scrutinized include the
original and appellate jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, the control that
Congress exercises over the lower federal courts through the creation of Article
I "legislative courts" and jurisdiction-stripping legislation, and conflicts
between state and federal courts as manifested by civil rights removal, federal
injunctions against state court proceedings, and federal habeas corpus. Federal
suits against governmental abuses of rights and the restraints imposed upon the
litigants in such suits by the Constitution, by legislation and by self-imposed
judicial doctrine, are also examined.
Federal Income Tax
The U.S. Federal Income Tax
system is examined from the basics (including, for instance, the definition of
"income," the opportunities and limits of various deductions, and the timing of
events for tax purposes) to an introduction of and implications of various
taxing programs (income, sales, property, etc.).
First Amendment
This course considers the
historical, theoretical, doctrinal, and practical contours of the First
Amendment's free speech clause, free association clause, free press clause, and
religion clauses. A directed writing opportunity is available to students taking
the course.
Human Rights Law
Since
the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, human rights law has become an
increasingly important element of international law. Students examine the
origins and evolution of this body of law, with special emphasis on conventions,
treaties, and United Nations declarations, and are oriented to the complex
structure of international bodies that share jurisdiction over various human
rights issues. This course is a pre-requisite for students who choose to take
the International Women's Human Rights Clinic in their third year, but is open
to all students who wish to acquire a more specialized exposure to this subject.
Independent Study
Students are
offered the opportunity to work one-on-one with a faculty mentor doing directed
research and writing. This course enables students to gain insight and
understanding into specialty topics not covered in depth in other courses, to
pursue projects connecting their undergraduate academic experience or work
experience to their developing legal understanding, or to produce writing
connected to their anticipated areas of practice. Examples of the final projects
from some recent independent study projects that demonstrate the potential of
this flexible, individualized offering include: the production of a manual
designed for (and distributed to) the homeless advising them of their rights and
educating them about how to gain access to shelter, food and benefits programs;
a paper (subsequently published in a law review), as the result of a
cross-disciplinary curriculum designed to facilitate understanding among the
various law enforcement, legal, medical, and mental health professionals dealing
with child abuse and neglect cases. With a topic or project in mind, a student
identifies a professor with expertise or interest in the area, and the two work
together to determine the appropriate credit allocation and to develop the
contours of the topic, a research plan, the shape of the final project, and a
production plan and timetable. Student and professor meet several times over the
course of a semester to review progress and to discuss and define issues.
Research and writing comprise the core of this course, with at least 10 pages of
polished, professional writing - the result of several drafts and faculty
feedback - required for each credit allocated.
Intellectual Property
An overview of patents,
copyrights, trademarks, trade secrets, and other intellectual property, this
course investigates the effect of intellectual property law on investors,
artists, writers, small businesses, and Fortune 500 companies. Special attention
is given to the use of intellectual property law to protect individual
inventions and other creative works. Other topics include: new developments in
the law to meet the impact of emerging technologies and the Internet;
high-profile intellectual property battles; the growing importance of
intellectual property in the future of the United States; the interplay between
U.S. IP law and the law of other countries; and the role attorneys play in
securing and guaranteeing intellectual property rights.
International Law
The policies and practices of
international law are squarely situated in the context of the evolving
international relations that have shaped, and continue to shape, it. The course
weaves in and out of legal text and political context, analyzing such areas as
origins and sources of international law, subjects of international law,
inter-state relations, international organizations and non-governmental
organizations (NGOs), dispute settlement, social and economic rights, human
rights, economic/environmental rights, the relationship between local and
international law, and women’s rights.
International Trade: Trade, Treaties and Commercial
Transactions
International commercial transactions operate within an
intricate web of national and international laws and treaties in social,
economic, and political contexts. An analysis of cases in United States and
international courts - including the Court of International Trade, the World
Trade Organization, and the European Court of Justice - and an examination of
trade treaties, regional trading blocs, and free trade agreements, such as the
Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation group, and the North American Free Trade
Agreement, form the foundation for exploration of this complex and dynamic
field. Case studies enable in-depth understanding of the interaction of the
legal and non-legal forces that shape the international marketplace. The
historical development and the emerging trends of United States trade policy are
explored as discussion focuses on globalization and cases concerning
international monetary and financial policies, transfers of technology,
licensing, theft, and intellectual property.
Labor Law
Students receive a basic introduction
to the National Labor Relations Act, which regulates the right of employees to
organize a union, as well as collective bargaining between unions and employers
in the private sector. Specific topics of the course include learning how unions
achieve representational status, what employee conduct is protected by law and
the range of employer responses to an organizing drive, the economic weapons
available to both management and labor, collective bargaining, and recent
National Labor Relations Board and Supreme Court decisions.
Law Review
This course provides structured
assistance to students in producing a 40-page publishable law review note or
comment. While students meet regularly as a group and individually with the
instructor, each student is expected to work independently toward his/her note
or comment. Offering students an opportunity to pursue topics of their own
choosing, this course fosters the development of legal writing and research
skills on a sophisticated and professional level.
Legal Analysis: Commercial Topics
This course is
designed to teach advanced substantive and procedural doctrine derived from
commercial and related law, including contracts and sales, commercial paper,
Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR), and property. The course materials are
arranged to foreground the structure of the hierarchy of rules in each doctrinal
area, emphasize the main policy considerations that shape legal intervention,
and highlight recent, significant cases (particularly Supreme Court and New York
cases). Presented with essay questions in each area, students draw on this
substantive foundation to spot and formulate issues, identify key facts, select
and state legal rules, tests and standards with precision, and develop cogent
analyses. The repetitive use of legal analysis and legal writing skills,
combined with ongoing individual feedback and evaluation, provides a rich and
structured opportunity for the mastery of these core legal skills while
reinforcing comprehension of these key doctrinal areas.
Legislation and Legislative Process
Examining
the legislature as a legal institution, the course explores its law-making
function as both complementary to and independent of the courts and the
executive branch. While focusing on the role of the public interest lawyer,
students investigate the legislative process, including technical requirements
for researching, drafting, and submitting bills. The course text, which follows
the enactment, amendment and judicial interpretation of the Voting Rights Act of
1965, provides a rich opportunity for understanding the dynamics of legislative
drafting, politics, policy, social context, and the implementation of law.
Moot Court
Students enhance their
advocacy skills through participation in a moot court competition. Presented
with a lower court decision in an area of unsettled law, students do legal
research on complex issues, write an appellate brief, and advocate in an oral
argument against students from other law schools before a panel of judges.
Judges score the quality of the appellate briefs, the use of citations to legal
authority, and the oral argument skills of the participants. The course requires
the completion of a brief and oral argument of professional quality prepared for
an external competition or the equivalent thereof with students gaining
experience in oral argument through critiques and feedback from several practice
rounds.
For information about the Moot Court Board (student
organization), click here.
Mortgages
This course examines the law of
conveyances, assignment of mortgages, description of land, recording statutes,
including application and priorities, foreclosure, equity of redemption, and in
rem and in personam interests. The use of problems and cases, as well as
understanding the history and policy underlying the specialized vocabulary and
technical intricacies of this area of real estate law enhances understanding and
prepares students for small firm and other private real estate practice.
Native American Law
The legal
relationship between Native American people and the United States government -
as established historically and as it continues to play out today in defining
the social, political, and economic status of our indigenous peoples - is the
focus of this course. Building on a comprehensive understanding of the
historical context and the foundational cases, students explore the special
implications and applications of the law for Native Americans in a variety of
areas, including natural resources law and criminal law. The law governing
Native American peoples is contextualized within the growing struggle for
indigenous rights issues worldwide.
New York
Domestic Relations Law
Students investigate the full range of issues
affecting the family, focusing on the New York law of marriage, divorce,
custody, abuse and neglect, and family offense proceedings. Examining core
doctrinal concepts encountered by practitioners representing clients with family
law problems, the class includes the study of how these issues are framed and
resolved in the context of the New York State court system and the social and
political context in which these laws operate. Students test and deepen their
understanding through drafting petitions and other court papers. The focus on
emerging doctrine and issues, as well as lawyering skills and ethical
considerations, helps prepare students for practice in this challenging area.
New York Practice
Using the
first-year federal Civil Procedure course as a foundation, this course is a
comprehensive study of the New York State Civil Practice Law and Rules (CPLR).
The course sequence follows the approximate path of a typical civil case and
examines decisions that must be made: which court to sue in (venue and
jurisdictional issues); how to draft and file complaints and answers; when,
whether, and what motions to make; when and how to use pre-trial discovery
devices; and special proceedings. While learning the details of the intricate
rules of timing and form, students focus on the common application of those
rules, as well as the pitfalls and opportunities inherent in them. Learning the
letter of the law, as well as the policy, practical implications, and ethical
considerations inherent in its use, prepares students to litigate in New York
State courts, while simultaneously enhancing their ability to utilize analytical
and reasoning skills in litigation.
Public
Interest/Public Service Practice
Designed to accompany a student's
internship in public interest practice settings or judicial clerkships, the
course covers research, writing, professional responsibility, and other
lawyering issues. The student may work in a not-for-profit organization, in the
court system, or with a private lawyer on pro bono cases (which must be approved
by the professor), and is expected to work a minimum of 20 hours per week for 2
credits and 30 hours per week for 3 credits. No payment can be received for work
attributed to the course.
Race and Law:
Critical Inquiry into Racial Justice
Employing tools of critical
inquiry, the idea and practice of racial justice are studied through U.S. cases,
legal history, and legal theory. Part One examines the legal dimensions of
slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Civil Rights Movement, colonialism and
indigenous peoples, immigration and citizenship, language rights, and
anti-discrimination law. Part Two considers and critiques group justice
grievances and potential methods of healing racial wounds, including reparations
and ways to foster productive racial interactions.
Real Estate Transactions
In this basic course in
conveyancing and transactional analysis of interests in real estate, topics
include real estate brokers and the sales transaction; defects in title;
options, contracts, and deeds; mortgages and other liens on real estate;
mortgage default and foreclosure; the operation of the recording system,
including title assurance and title insurance; warranties involved in the land
sale transaction; and real estate settlement procedures. Students build on
concepts introduced in basic property and civil procedure courses and develop a
specialized knowledge of real estate remedies. Working with statutes, cases, and
model documents, students enhance their understanding of the law, sharpen their
lawyering skills, and are introduced to the special ethical considerations in
this area by participating in a simulated real estate closing.
Rights of Low Wage Workers
Today's U.S.
workforce is comprised of ever-expanding numbers of workers in low-wage jobs,
often non-unionized, and lacking the most basic protections and benefits.
Employers rely increasingly on contingent, immigrant, and workfare workers, but
attempt to circumvent laws on wages and hours, anti-discrimination, unemployment
insurance, workers' compensation, and the right to organize. The course examines
the laws governing employment relationships and details the legal obstacles that
can exclude such workers from many protections, even when they are covered by
employment and labor laws but are victims of weak enforcement. Students
investigate litigation strategies and legislative proposals for extending and
expanding employment protections to this group, including the Fair Labor
Standards Act, the National Labor Relations Act, Title VII, Age Discrimination
in Employment Act, Family Medical Leave Act, and selected unemployment insurance
and workers' compensation statutes.
Sexuality and the Law
Exploring the legal issues
surrounding expressions of human sexuality, students discuss cross-cultural
theoretical perspectives - including feminism and postmodernism and the history
of sexuality among diverse Americans - and consider concepts such as consent,
privacy, power, and normalcy in the context of specific topics such as rape,
reproduction, pornography, prostitution, lesbianism, male homosexuality,
miscegenation, AIDS, and children. A paper of at least 20 pages on an approved
topic is required.
Small Firm
Practice
This course identifies issues that are involved in small firm
practice, particularly legal, business, ethical, and professional
considerations, such as starting a practice, building a client base, identifying
subject matter for the practice, law practice management, malpractice insurance,
and billing and collecting, among others.
UCC: Articles 2, 5, and 7 (Sales)
Covering the
commercial sale of goods, the course examines sales with negotiable instruments
and sales under letters of credit, building upon material covered in LME II, as
well as introductory and more sophisticated concepts.
UCC: Articles 3, 4, and 9
This course covers
Articles 3, 4, and 9 of the Uniform Commercial Code - commercial paper, banks,
and secured transactions and an introduction to the interface of these areas
with consumer bankruptcy. Emphasis is placed on the applicability of the statute
to diverse factual situations to enable an understanding of the financial
context and economic policies that inform this area of the law.
UCC: Survey
This course covers the commercial
sale of goods (including sales with negotiable instruments and sales under
letters of credit), and the law of commercial paper, secured debt, and banking.
Designed as a survey, it provides familiarity with the structure, policy, and
approach of the Uniform Commercial Code to these areas of the law.
Wills and Trusts
Grounded in the New York
Estates, Powers and Trusts Law, this course covers the law regulating property
inheritance, including testamentary succession, will substitutes and intestacy,
and trusts, property, and basic tax law issues relating to inter-generational
transfers. Examples and problems challenge students to use the statute to
develop problem-solving skills, while introducing them to the special ethical
issues involved in this area of practice.
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